Michelle Legatt is the founder and principal consultant at Lab in the Woods. Following 15+ years corporate experience in sustainable materials, innovation strategies & product development with leading consumer goods companies like Patagonia, 3M and Hasbro, she founded Lab in the Woods to work with a broader range of organisations to accelerate systemic change at company, cross-company and industry level.

Michelle’s family has farmed the same land in rural Minnesota for 3 generations. Growing up with deep roots there, her love for nature solidified at an early age. Miles from the nearest town, her early childhood played out under open skies making mud pies, playing with dogs & cows, and hours spent roaming and exploring the woods.

Michelle’s curiosity and love of learning led her to a fascination with science. She spent the first 11 years of her career in the world renowned R&D teams at 3M, where she worked in roles from foundational nanotechnology research to formulating renewable and sustainable adhesives, and a solid understanding of the commercial side of the business. Growing concern for the environment and a strong belief in the potential of design for sustainability to transform not just the materials we use but also the related systems and how business is done led her to Patagonia where she joined the pioneering materials innovation team.

In a cross functional team environment, she gained expertise in a huge range of materials and embraced the real-world pragmatism of thinking holistically and making choices with robust analysis and discussion of highly complex and imperfect datasets. Patagonia sets the bar for sustainable business & inspires others to do more. A fire was lit.