Job Function Action Guides from Project Drawdown!
Tangible, high-impact steps you can take to make your job a climate job
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đ˘ Announcement: New Collab w/ Project Drawdown Labs
We have been super fans of Project Drawdownâs work in mapping climate solutions and quantifying their potential carbon emission impact. You may have noticed that we kick off each article with data pulled from them :)
Things are coming full circle because we are now working to amplify their new climate career resources. đ
đTLDR:Â
Project Drawdown has just released climate action guides for 7 common corporate job functions with tangible, high-impact steps you can take to make your job a climate job â head over to bit.ly/jobfunctions to see how you can get started!
đ The Interview Deep Dive:
In this edition, we interviewed Aiyana Bodi, senior associate at Drawdown Labs, the lead focused on engaging employees on climate solutions, so you can get an inside scoop on the Job Function Action Guides and tips on building a career focused on climate change.
Can you share the mission of Project Drawdown Labs and how it fits under Project Drawdown?
Drawdown Labs is the private sector engagement program of Project Drawdown. Our mission is to engage businesses, investors, philanthropies, and employees on how they can go beyond net zero. We want to inspire businesses to move beyond just emission reduction such as advocating for climate policy, divesting from oil/gas, and disclosing transparent emission data.
My role is to focus on employee engagement because every job will need to become a climate job. Employees are critical catalysts for climate action. As the engines that keep businesses running, they represent a range of skills and knowledge that can scale climate solutions in the workplace and beyond.Â
Many people think that in order to work on climate change, they will need to make a dramatic career pivot. What advice would you give on this front?
Many people believe that they need to be an expert in ESG or climate science... This is not true! You just need to be an expert in what you're doing and draw the connections to climate change.Â
While there are many organizations that work directly on climate solutions, I have seen people also work in big organizations and change them from the inside to impact climate change. There are many ways people can start influencing organizations to become more sustainable and gain climate experience in their jobs today.
3. How can people identify ways to impact climate change in their organizations today?
We got this question a lot which is why we created the new Job Function Action Guides. These guides highlight tangible, high-impact climate actions that employees in seven common corporate professions can take â 1. Finance; 2. Government relations and public policy; 3. Human resources and operations; 4. Legal; 5. Marketing; 6. Procurement; and 7. Sales and other client-facing roles.
Each action guide includes:Â
description of how and why the relevant job function is critical to engage in the fight against the climate crisis
actions employees in the relevant role can take to center climate action as a key responsibility of their positionâ making their job a climate job
key considerations and steps for fostering broader awareness of climate change within the organization and building momentum toward sustained action
a description of the âbusiness caseâ for bringing climate into their role
resources to help employees get started and learn more
a simplified one-page, downloadable checklist
4. How have you seen people effectively balance championing climate change and their own workload? Are there any lessons learned?
Often, many companies have employee engagement groups of people who already care about climate change. Finding âyour peopleâ can help start the momentum in incorporating sustainability into your job function. Â
I have also spoken to people who have strategically thought about key stakeholders to engage with in order to catalyze climate action in their organizations (this power mapping exercise is very helpful for understanding where decision-making power sits in your company!)
What makes this extra tough though is if the culture around sustainability and innovation isnât there.
5. Joining an organization that is already mission aligned on climate change and innovation can certainly help a lot. What attributes of the organization can people look for?Â
I would see if the company has a public climate plan and reports on it yearly. I also think itâs a great signal if the company is transparent about how they report. For example, accounting for scope 3 emissions in their supply chain (emissions driven by customers and downstream impacts on products/services) in their report is key. Another key area is if they report on their carbon offsets. Many companies are not transparent about what % of their emissions are reduced by carbon offsets and the type of carbon offsets they are purchasing.
Alongside reporting, I would look into how their products and services are integrating sustainability concerns. While many companies promote their âgreenâ products, itâs important to inquire further (perhaps during the interview process) how exactly is sustainability incorporated.
6. In the Gigaton, we quantify the impact of each climate solution to galvanize action against the most effective ones; similar to the spirit of Project Drawdown. In the context of Project Drawdown Labs, how should someone think about identifying the most effective action they could take in their organization to fight climate change? Is there a handy metric or rule of thumb?
We are working on building these metrics based on our framework for corporate climate action, but there are a lot of nuances that can impact arriving at a specific number.
In the first version of the action guides, while we donât distinguish between them, there are both âhighâ and âlowâ impact/engagement action items. The way we think about this is if the impact is felt on an individual, team, organization, or global level, and the difficulty and level of engagement around implementing an action.Â
7. We ask this of all of our interviewees: What gives you hope on the climate crisis?
Iâve been so inspired when I speak to so many employees who do so much in their companies. Thereâs been so much dialogue and awareness about the climate crisis now than ever before. The level of conversation is to the point that it is part of the discourse.Â
How to stay updated on future releases from Drawdown Labs at Project Drawdown: Check out their website and subscribe to their newsletter near the bottom of the page.Â
Large or mega Hydroelectric ...A Dam Shame For Our Climate
Contrary to present public opinion, large hydroelectric dams and their reservoir impoundments of 100 megawatts or greater can no longer be considered carbon neutral or free of GHG
emissions. The United States EPA, working through numerous organizations and following a NASA Jet propulsion Lab study( https://climate.nasa.gov/ask-nasa-climate/3143/steamy-relationships- how-atmospheric-water-vapor-supercharges-earths-greenhouse-effect/) has determined that large dams could actually contribute substantial amounts to the Earth's carbon budget. Recently the EPA advanced this position to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) requesting nations to measure GHG emissions from massive impoundments and downstream flows once exiting turbine Dams. Now utilizing satellite SENSOR technologies.(https://www.epa.gov/air-research/research-emissions-us-reservoirs)
The U.S. has taken the lead in this effort. Itâs time to get political expediency and the misinformation machines out of the way so real science and research world-wide can get this behemoth GHG emitter to stop and begin employing a team of drone/ satellite researchers.