It’s all connected

Understanding that climate work affects every role, and is not just a department, is an important shift in thinking.

Finance might be a department in your org, likewise HR, creative, marketing, and so on.

If you’ve got a “Sustainability” department, and you’re feeling a disconnect between them and the rest of the team, or pushback to their suggestions, or a general lack of uptake to their guidance, it might be an integration issue.

“It is not that climate is more important than everything else, it’s that it is inextricably connected to everything else.”

Larry Kramer, Hewlett Foundation

While installing solar and recycling are great initiatives, it’s not about only that. Every role and department has specific things they can do to align their work to the climate goals of the org as a whole – it could shift the whole strategy around how they run the department.

And as I’ve mentioned before, if all your sustainability crew are doing is finding the best offset programs to support, you’re definitely leaving a bunch of positive climate opportunity on the table.