Rhett is the founder and CEO of Mongabay, a nonprofit environmental media organization that focuses on issues at the intersection of people and nature worldwide. Today Mongabay has over 100 staff across 30 countries and about 1,000 contributing journalists in more than 70 nations who produce stories across six languages. Beyond Mongabay, Rhett has advised a range of organizations and institutions, from news outlets to philanthropic foundations to development agencies, and his writing and photography have appeared in hundreds of publications. Rhett was the first journalist to win the Field Museum's Parker/Gentry Award from the Field Museum in Chicago. In 2022 he was honored with the Heinz Award.