Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers (Yesh Pavlik Slenk)

For more guidance on making the biggest green job hunting pain points less painful, read on. 

Keep in mind: 

• An hour spent networking is more valuable than an hour spent applying for jobs you find on the internet.
• In your resume, focus on the outcomes of your work
• Learn how broaden your job search by applying specific modifications to your dream job
• For more guidance, visit Net Impact’s Six Steps to Job Search Success.

1. How do I write a resume that results in a job interview?

• Focus on what you’ve accomplished -- big or small -- rather than on your everyday responsibilities. 
• Include specific examples of outcomes, like the number of shares on a social media post or a project getting picked up by the media. Think about numbers, percentages and other metrics.
• Use these examples to demonstrate the benefits you’ll bring to a new organization or hiring manager. 

2. Why can’t I get a job interview?

• You’re not networking well. Don’t apply blind if you can help it. Find a classmate, former employer, or friend of a friend who is connected to the organization you are applying to.  
• An hour spent networking is more valuable than an hour spent applying for jobs you find on the internet. You should be networking at least triple the time you spend searching for jobs online. 
• Build a network of people you trust to offer encouragement, hold you accountable, ask you tough questions and serve as sounding boards for practice interviews. 

3. There are so many kinds of planet-saving jobs. Where do I fit?

• Consider which type of workplace is most appealing: nonprofit, government agency, foundation, B Corp (triple-bottom line company), for-profit business (large or small?) or community organization. 
• Traditional roles like accounting and marketing are vital to every organization focused on sustainability. 
• Many traditional for-profit businesses now hire “impact” roles such as sustainability analysts and reporters and policy advocates.

4. I want to help save the planet but I don’t know where to start. 

• To begin envisioning your dream job, write it out, draw it, or describe it to a friend. What are the day-to-day tasks? What type of organization? Any specific dream organizations? Are you working in front of a screen or out in the field? Do you want to work on a team or solo?
• Which parts of your dream job are you willing to modify? For example, would you still be interested if it were for a different company? What if the organization were much smaller than you’ve imagined, or in a rural area rather than a city? Modify the role in a couple of ways and open up your job hunt.
• Organize a group of friends or classmates to keep you accountable on your job search with Net Impact’s self-guided workshop, Making A Path (MAP). 

Learn more: 

• Find social impact and sustainability job listings on Net Impact’s Job Board
• Transform a traditional resume to a green one with Greenbiz’s Resume Guide
• Once you get that interview, practice! Use Net Impact’s interview toolkit to get ready. 

Visit our Green Jobs Hub for job-hunting resources and listings and more links to information about salary and diversity in green careers. 

Trish Kenlon, founder of Sustainable Career Pathways, lends her expertise on questions like: how do I get that job? What are employers looking for in 2021? What are the trends these days? What can I do today to make progress toward a new job? And: how can it be easier?

Brooklyn-based Lake Street Dive is Yesh’s favorite band ever! She was so excited to talk to them about her most passionate subject, climate change, and to find out that they care about saving the world (especially for future generations) as much as she does.

Most people don’t think about how their favorite bands contribute to healing our planet. According to a study published in the academic journal Popular Music in 2019, five Scottish touring bands collectively created 19,314 kg (approx. 21 tons) of carbon emissions between the months of April and September. The average yearly carbon emissions per person globally, according to The Nature Conservancy, is four tons.

Lake Street Dive strives to make a difference. Drummer Mike Calabrese, a passionate environmentalist, has taken the lead in educating his fellow band members about climate change and inspiring them to take action. At their shows, they’ve created a culture of environmentalism by allowing only reusable water bottles and utensils—and of course by recycling. They have also partnered with Cool Effect, a carbon offsetting non-profit, to support environmental efforts that help underserved communities around the world. One beneficiary is the Los Santos Wind Power Project, which intends to provide clean energy to 50,000 people in the Los Santos region of Costa Rica. Their latest album, Obviously, includes the song “Making Do” about the effects of global warming on the lives of young people. 

Calabrese and lead singer Rachael Price discuss their experiences as an eco-conscious touring band, including their politics in their art, and how people can overcome their fears about our changing world in order to make it better for everyone. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• IPCC: AR6 Climate Change 2021

Additional Resources:

• Cambridge: Do music festivals communities address environmental sustainability and how? A Scottish case study
• The Nature Conservancy: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint
• Cool Effect: Lake Street Dive (Info about Lake Street Dive’s collaboration with carbon offset nonprofit Cool Effect)
• Ladygunn: Lake Street Dive is "Obviously" Making Do (Rachael Price talks with Ladygunn.com about the album Obviously)
• Spotify: Mother Earth Podcast  (Mike Calabrese discusses his environmentalism)
• FDA: Food loss and waste in the U.S.  (In the U.S., food waste is approx. 30-40% of the food supply)

Follow Lake Street Dive:

• Facebook: Official Lake Street Dive Facebook
• Twitter: Lake Street Dive (@lakestreetdive)
• Instagram: @lakestreetdive
• Website: Lake Street Dive Official

Follow EDF:

• Sign up for the new Degrees newsletter!
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

Most people don’t think about running for office when pondering environmental careers. However, California Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia may change your mind.

In a state ravaged by air pollution and wildfires, Garcia has crafted policy that fights climate change. Recently, he introduced  AB 1500, which helped inspire the Climate Resilience Bond. This allocates $3.7 billion of the state’s 2021-22 budget toward shoring up disadvantaged communities against “catastrophic wildfire, sea level rise, drought, extreme heat and flooding.” It also provides for infrastructure investments. 

“The connection here to climate, the drought, the fires . . . is recognizing that we have a serious crisis with mother earth,” Garcia said. “We've got some work to do when it comes to not just building the infrastructure, but the conservation aspect of it is key for the first time.”

Garcia hardly followed a traditional “green” education and career path. He took time off after high school, then attended his local community college and completed his bachelor's degree at the University of California Riverside. His journey eventually led him to the Coachella City Council at 27. At 29, he became Coachella’s mayor, the youngest ever elected in that city. In 2014, Garcia became assemblyman. 

Garcia believes that young people can help save the planet by serving others. “I never thought that going into public service would end up being a career,” he said.  “When I came to realize that it is something that one can do to contribute to the betterment . . . of conditions in our communities, I kind of got married to the idea. I’ve been doing it since.”

Resources included in this episode: 

• Ca.gov: Budget Summary A breakdown of how the Climate Resilience Bond will be used. 
• Climate Candidates: https://climatecandidates.org/ To help people who want to run for office

Additional Information:

• Sierra Club:  The Great Western Drought, Explained New solutions are required for water droughts caused by climate change.
• Ca.gov:  Bill Text AB 1500 Safe Drinking Water... Details of the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparation, Flood Protection, Extreme Heat Mitigation, and Workforce Development Bond Act of 2022 that Garcia introduced February 19, 2021.
• Desert Sun: Eduardo Garcia Continues Momentum in Assembly  2015 profile of Garcia’s work in the CA Assembly.

Follow Eduardo Garcia:

• Official Website: Eduardo Garcia Official Website
• Facebook: Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia

Follow EDF:

• Sign up for the new Degrees newsletter!
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

John Davies of GreenBiz shares his latest findings on compensation, pay equity and how you can increase your value — and your salary. 

1. How does my role impact the salary I earn?

Managers in sustainability careers make anywhere from $50,000 to $280,000 a year. The longer you’ve been at your job, the more you make. But what are the other factors?

• Your responsibilities, particularly the number of people and projects you manage, have an outsized impact on salary. 
• Already working in sustainability but wishing for a bigger paycheck? When people switch organizations, they often do so for a raise. (But don’t overlook your ability to use a job offer to negotiate for better pay where you already work.) 
• When it comes to compensation, most master’s degrees don’t seem to make much of a difference. But in corporate sustainability jobs, having an MBA could. About a third of managers, directors and vice presidents have MBAs. 

2.  How diverse are green jobs? How does diversity relate to compensation? 

• The number of women in sustainability leadership roles has increased close to 20 percentage points in every category since 2010.
• Corporate sustainability jobs have almost achieved gender pay equity. On average, women make a few thousand dollars less than their male counterparts. 
• Increasingly, companies are hiring from outside, not simply promoting from within. This gives organizations access to more people. For organizations that are intentional about it, access to a wider pool of candidates can increase diversity. 
• But the profession has a long way to go. When it comes to racial diversity, the numbers are stark: 77 percent of managers identify as white or Caucasian. 
• To help solve this problem, GreenBiz is launching Greenbiz.org. It’s a nonprofit designed to bring more BIPOC candidates into the profession. 

3. A listener asks: “Having a passion for sustainability used to be a unique quality that would get you over that edge for a job, but that’s not so true anymore. How do I show my unique value?” John’s advice:

• Don’t wait for a sustainability job title to take action. Work within your current role to bring sustainability to your workplace.
• Identify your organization’s sustainability “problem areas.” What are your ideas for solving them?  Where can you improve circularity? Share your strategies with management and get to work where you are. 
• Then, when you are ready to switch organizations, you’ll be able to show off your real-work outcomes.  

Learn more:

Stay up-to-date with the latest news in sustainability and business with GreenBiz:

• Read the latest State of the Profession Report
• Watch webcasts on Women in Sustainability
• For more in increasing diversity in green jobs, visit GreenBiz.org 

Visit our Green Jobs Hub for job-hunting resources and listings and more links to information about salary and diversity in green careers. 

To support Dr. Rae-Wynn Grant’s work, subscribe to Going Wild on your favorite listening app. 

And if you haven’t yet followed Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers, follow our show on your favorite listening app and rate and review us, too. Your feedback matters! 

You can also get Going Wild updates and bonus content by following Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant and PBS Nature on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook. And you can catch new episodes of Nature Wednesdays at 8/7c on PBS, pbs.org/nature and the PBS Video app. Going Wild can be found at the PBS website here. 

 

How to connect with Degrees and Yesh Pavlik Slenk

Follow Yesh on Twitter @yeshsays. Have a green jobs question for Ask Yesh? Write to Yesh on Twitter and use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

 

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

 

Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Follow EDF on Instagram. 

Please share our show! It’s one step you can take to motivate others to choose planet-saving careers and make a difference. 

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

(Website) Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

Sustainability certifications are a minefield. Do you have to spend time and money getting certified? How do you choose? GreenBiz’s John Davies knows which credentials are worth the effort and the cost—and when you don’t need them at all. In this episode, John gives us the scoop on:

• Gold-standard certifications specific to different industries
• Hands-on experience through internships, volunteering and other jobs is just as valuable as a certification
• You don’t need an Ivy League degree to get a green job

1. Which green certifications do I need to get hired? 

• Entry-level jobs don’t often require certifications. If you need one to do your job, the organization should offer the opportunity to get it as part of your job training. 
• Each industry comes with its own certifications, as do many different roles within industries. You don’t need the entire alphabet soup of certifications. 
• Some gold-standards are the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), GARP in finance (Global Association of Risk Professionals), LEED AP in design and APICS in supply chain management (Association of Supply Chain management).
• On their own, certifications don’t guarantee a job, a promotion or a salary increase.

2. Additional valuable experiences that can give you a leg up 

• Leading the Sustainability Transformation from WholeWorks and GreenBiz is a 10-week simulation of a triple-bottom-line company. (Companies that attend to the triple bottom line attempt to ensure that their activities benefit people, profit and the planet.)
• EDF’s Climate Corps is a fellowship that offers opportunities to implement practical sustainability solutions in real companies. 

1. A listener asks: “Do I need an Ivy League degree to get a leadership role in sustainability?” 

• Not by a long shot! An elite degree is not a prerequisite for a career in sustainability. 
• Many sustainability professionals want to mentor the next generation of purpose-driven workers, no matter their educational background. 
• Your degree doesn’t matter as much as you might think. A critical thinking degree in the humanities is just as relevant to sustainability as is engineering or biochemistry.

Learn more:

Figure out which certifications are right for you: 

• GreenBiz’ certification how-to guide
• Sustainable Career Pathways’ certification breakdown 

For links to the policy and advocacy organizations mentioned in this episode, see our Green Jobs Hub. 

Obsessed with the loneliness and longing wrought from the impacts of a changing planet, Pete Muller discusses how he uses his camera to make "the invisible become visible" – and to tell the story of climate change from a human perspective. Correction: we inadvertently identified Glenn & Jill Albrecht as driving 20 miles out of their way to avoid viewing strip mines. This is incorrect; it is John & Denise Lamb who make this drive.

Drew Wilkinson is a climate activist and co-founder of Microsoft’s 10,000-member employee sustainability community, which has pushed the company to protect natural resources and operate with more sustainable practices. Now, as founder of Climate Leadership Collective, he helps organizations on the people side of sustainability: employee engagement, culture and change management, community building, green skilling, and leadership development. His mission is to make sustainability part of everybody’s job.

Resources from this episode:

• Check out recent reports on sustainability job growth:
  • The Deloitte Global 2023 Gen Z and Millennial Survey
  • Closing the Sustainability Skills Gap (microsoft.com)
  • The Future of Jobs Report 2023 | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
• Check out Drew’s website to learn more about his consulting work with Climate Leadership Collective. Learn about his punk rock, sea pirate, and DIY background.
• Read Drew’s blog on how to Make Sustainability Part of Everybody's Job. 
• Learn more about Microsoft’s Sustainability Connected Community:
  • Read Drew’s article on How to Build Your Own Employee Sustainability Community.
  • Listen to Powered by the People, a Microsoft podcast that tells the community’s origin story.
  • Watch Climate at Work’s panel about building grassroots sustainability movements within companies, featuring Sustainability Connected at Microsoft and Anthroprocene at Google. 
• Check out how Drew used the Microsoft Hackathon to help clean up the ocean. 
• Listen to the music of Drew’s hardcore punk band, Run with the Hunted, and the song you heard in this episode, Destroy All Calendars.

If you liked this episode, you’ll love these related Degrees episodes:

• How to green any job with Project Drawdown's Jamie Beck Alexander
• How Heather McTeer Toney is redefining climate action for the next generation of leaders
• The fastest electric vehicle fleet makeover in the west

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on X
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher and Audrey Nelson provided fact checking. Engineering by Kevin Kline. Editing assistance on this episode from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Scott Z. Burns is a screenwriter, director, producer and playwright. His film writing credits include “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “The Informant!," "Contagion,” “Side Effects,” and “The Laundromat.” As a director, his work includes “Pu-239” and “The Report.” He also was a producer for the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and served as an executive producer of the film’s sequel as well as “Sea of Shadows.” Most recently, he’s the writer, director, executive producer and creator of the Apple TV+ series “Extrapolations,” which features eight interconnected stories exploring how climate change will affect all aspects of our lives.

Resources from this episode:

• Read the media impact report from USC Norman Lear Center.
• Learn about Good Energies Stories, a nonprofit consulting firm focused on climate storytelling.
• Listen to Scott Z. Burns’ interview on the Climate One podcast.
• Check out EDF’s Green Jobs Hub.

Related episodes:

• Transfer your skills to a green job with Work on Climate’s Eugene Kirpichov
• How to green any job with Project Drawdown's Jamie Beck Alexander
• The future of climate-smart ag and the hot politics of your dinner plate
• Lake Street Dive on music, activism, and bravery

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on X
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher. Engineering by Matthew Simonson. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Eugene Kirpichov co-founded Work on Climate, an online community for people passionate about solving the climate crisis, in 2020. Prior to WoC, Kirpichov spent more than seven years as a software engineer with Google. But learning how severe the climate crisis was, he felt he could no longer stay in his job. The resignation letter he shared on LinkedIn went viral.

Read the transcript of this episode

Resources from this episode:

• Join Eugene Kirpichov’s Work on Climate community.
• Join other climate-specific communities:
  • Terra Do
  • Women in Climate
  • Climatebase
  • Climate Draft
  • MCJ Collective
  • Greenbiz Sustainability Conference
• Read Kirpichov’s goodbye-to-Google letter.
• Check out the Climate Change and AI report that helped Kirpichov understand which of his skills were transferable.
• Browse other climate-related job boards:
  • GreenBiz Sustainability Jobs
  • Green Jobs Network
  • Climate People
• To find people to follow on LinkedIn, visit LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the Green Economy list.
• Search the hashtag #OpenDoorClimate on LinkedIn to find climate professionals who are willing to chat with you. (This is the movement founded by Daniel Hill. Year of the Climate Job host and director of Environmental Defense Fund’s Innovation Fund.)
• Sign up for the Degrees newsletter.
• Here are some articles we love::
  • Fast Company: He quit Google to work on climate change. Now, he’s helping others do the same thing
  • USA Today: Hiring boom: A two-year degree lands a green energy job that pays ‘a pretty penny’
  • ‘Recession Resilent’ Climate Start-Ups Shine in Tech Downturn

Related episodes:

• How to network for a green job with purpose-driven LinkedIn expert Nick@Noon
• Browngirl Green’s Kristy Drutman: Taking the mystery out of finding a green job

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Daniel Hill on LinkedIn

👉 Stay up to date by following us at:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Daniel Hill hosts The Year of the Climate Job. Yesh Pavlik Slenk hosts Degrees. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf is senior producer; Kevin Kline is our audio editor; Andrew Parrella is our production manager; Elaine Appleton Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is podcast manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Women have been the main drivers of sustainable finance, or investing with environmental, social and governance (ESG) values in mind. After years of slow growth, sustainable investing is showing dramatic financial returns. According to Moody's, “In 2020, ESG products saw strong returns and investment outperformance that marked it as a watershed year.”

And yet the mostly male leaders in the world of finance continue to discount sustainable investing, or give it lip service. So says Taeun Kwon. And she’s sick of it. 

To combat the problem, Kwon and two cofounders created Women in Sustainable Finance (WISF). The organization educates women on sustainable finance and empowers them to have a positive impact. WISF offers mentoring, coaching, and courses on ESG strategy and communication. 

Kwon’s path has been anything but straight, as she tells Degrees host Yesh Pavlik Slenk in a lively conversation that follows her journey as a failed collegiate entrepreneur to the heights of global sustainable finance. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Website: Women in Sustainable Finance
• Greenbuzz: Greenbuzz

Additional Resources:

• Moodys: ESG Investing a Boon for Asset Managers
• Fortune: Women lead in responsible financing. Now men want in. 
• Moody’s: Moody’s ESG Solutions

Follow Taeun Kwon and Women In Sustainable Finance (WISF):

• LinkedIn: Taeun Kwon
• Twitter: Women in Sustainable Finance (@wisf_int)
• Website: Women in Sustainable Finance

Follow EDF:

• Sign up for the Degrees newsletter!
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

Jason Swann’s childhood in the rural south included living in “a small shanty in the middle of a cow pasture.” Sure, he played outdoors—but he wasn’t exactly hiking in wild places. 

He grew up to become a financial analyst, but that career ended after an encounter with the police ruined his reputation. His life upended, he moved from Nebraska to Colorado. There, he tells host Yesh Pavlik Slenk, “I found respite in the melodic powers of the outdoors.”

Inspired by his new connection with nature, Jason reinvented himself. He did what some career sustainability pros mistakenly think is impossible: He became a land policy analyst without first getting an advanced degree in environmental science or sustainability. Now, as an analyst with Western Resource Advocates and co-founder of Rising Routes, an environmental, social, and mental wellness advocacy business, he helps underserved communities gain access to the outdoors. He helped pass Colorado’s Create Outdoor Equity Grant Program, ground-breaking legislation that allocates millions of dollars for outdoor activities and education to those in need. 

The Create Outdoor Equity Grant Program and similar national initiatives seek to address the historical exclusion of BIPOC communities from enjoying outdoor recreation in the U.S.

Jason has little patience for sustainability career seekers who allow themselves to be stymied by a lack of an advanced degree. “For those who think you need to have a PhD or an environmental science degree or any of that, I say the hell with it…. Half of this job, if not 90% of it, is about relationships,” he tells Yesh. “You can learn technical things,” he says. “What you can't learn and you can't hide is your passion and love and appreciation for what you're doing.”

Be bold, he urges. Speak your truth. “If you are being quiet, you don’t have the power to shape the future of this work.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Colorado.gov: Create Outdoor Equity Grant
• Outdoor Afro: Outdoor Afro
• Latino Outdoors: Latino Outdoors
• Western Resource Advocates: Western Resource Advocates
• Rising Routes: Rising Routes

Additional resources:

• Outdoor F.U.T.U.R.E.: Outdoor Future Initiative This BIPOC-led group advocates for the National Outdoor Equity Initiative, which would allocate funds to make all U.S. public lands and parks financially accessible to underserved youth.
• American Trails: Historical Perspective on Racism in the Outdoors

Follow Jason Swann:

• Instagram: @jason_g_swann
• Facebook: Rising Routes
• Twitter:@Jason_G_Swann
• Rising Routes  Rising Routes
• Western Resource Advocates: Western Resource Advocates

Follow EDF:

• Sign up for the Degrees newsletter!
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

Be sure to explore the back catalog of Degrees. If you liked this episode, you'll love the conversation with environmental justice and green jobs advocate, Michelle Romero. If you're seeking a job tackling climate change, and I hope that you are, check out our "Land a Green Job 101 Bootcamp." 

Sustainability jobs are growing fast. From industry hot spots to the most-needed skills, Episode 2 is full of insider tips for jobseekers from John Davies of GreenBiz, the go-to hub for the latest in business and sustainability. For all of the guidance and resources mentioned in this episode, visit Land a Green Job 101 online. 

1. Which industries are growing planet-saving jobs?

After years of sputtering along, sustainability job postings on LinkedIn grew about 10% in 2019. 

• Some roles are part of small corporate sustainability teams. But sustainability skills are needed in more traditional positions as well. 
• Download the GreenBiz State of the Profession report.

These jobs are growing across industries:

• Manufacturing
• Supply chain management
• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Companies
• Finance
• Fashion
• Energy
• Technology
• Medical devices
• Transportation

2. Which skills are in greatest demand?

More and more industries are seeking people who understand circularity. For information about new jobs in the circular economy, read this GreenBiz column.

• Companies are greening their systems. Skills needed are specific to companies and industries.
• Industries moving quickly on circularity include medical devices, tech companies, and fashion. 
• For in-depth information, read corporate sustainability reports. Look for their problem areas. Which skills do you have, or can you learn, that can solve these problems? 

Learn how to build business cases for sustainability:

• Become a translator between different departments — for example, supply chain, purchasing and manufacturing.
• Building a business case takes communication, presentation, skill in interpreting and reporting sustainability metrics and collaboration.
• Be a constant learner. Stay current on new innovations and the latest research in your target industries and organizations.

Learn more

• Find new sustainability job posts daily. Visit our Green Jobs Hub.
• For dozens of job boards in energy, sustainability and the nonprofit sector, visit Sustainable Career Pathways. 
• Search for sustainability jobs on LinkedIn. 
• 18 million jobs will result from the Paris Agreement, reports The International Labor Organization. Read more about the growth of the green economy globally. 
• Read the Weinreb Group’s report on the rise of the Chief Sustainability Officer.  
• Read about how Chipotle and other companies are incentivizing executives to improve ESG goals through financial bonuses.

 

The Carbon Copy is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.

In a special collaboration with Grist, reporter Emily Pontecorvo discusses where to find all the electricians we need to electrify everything and how we can train enough new entrants to the field to meet our climate goal. Read Emily’s feature article.

Read a transcript of this episode: The great electrician shortage.

***

Related episodes from the Year of the Climate Job - a Degrees miniseries: 

• How to network for a green job with purpose-driven LinkedIn expert Nick@Noon
• Browngirl Green’s Kristy Drutman: Taking the mystery out of finding a green job
• Transfer your skills to a green job with Work on Climate’s Eugene Kirpichov
• Learn how to build your climate experience with Terra.do founder Anshuman Bapna

***

Resources:

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Daniel Hill on LinkedIn

👉 Stay up to date by following us at:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Daniel Hill hosts The Year of the Climate Job. Yesh Pavlik Slenk hosts Degrees. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf is senior producer; Andrew Parrella is our production manager; Elaine Appleton Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is podcast manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

After mastering logistics and delivery as a bike messenger in New York City, Steven Moelk blazed his own trail and found himself in a place he never imagined: as the guy responsible for bringing electric vehicle, zero-emissions delivery to IKEA.

Boma Brown-West is leading the charge to eliminate toxic chemicals from our food and consumer products. As the Director of Consumer Health at Environmental Defense Fund, her vision is to create a "new normal" where every aisle of every store is safer for every person.

LaUra Schmidt co-founded the non-profit Good Grief Network in 2016 with her wife, Aimee Lewis-Reau, to provide a space to help people cope with climate anxiety. Passionate about saving endangered species and panic-stricken about the climate emergency, LaUra had been suffering from her own climate grief and impotence. A childhood trauma survivor, LaUra had found solace in Adult Children of Alcoholics. So she took that group’s 12-step model (an offshoot of AA) and developed a 10-step program for others like her. Today, it’s helped more than 2,500 climate anxiety sufferers from more than 14 countries—and growing.  

Schmidt describes the despair of climate anxiety as “when we wake up to how severe the climate crisis is, paralleled with our social injustice issues... our ecosite issues and our habitat destruction issues.” That wake-up call can make anyone question themselves, she says: “It really takes on a personal blend of, ‘ What can I possibly do?’” 

The Good Grief Network arrived right on time. A recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet found that of 10,000 young people, ages 16 to 25, in 10 countries, 84% are worried about the climate. 

• The same study found more than 50% feel sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless and guilty about climate change.
• Forty-five percent said climate anxiety was affecting their ability to function in daily life.

The authors wrote that this stress threatens the health and well-being of young people and there is an “urgent need” for an increase in research and governmental response to this critical issue.  

Since its founding, The Good Grief Network has served more than 2,500 participants in more than 14 countries. Schmidt, who describes herself as a “truth-seeker, cultural critic, grief-worker, and the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor” hopes to help others around the world develop the resiliency and skill set to create change.

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• IPCC: AR6 Climate Change 2021
• The Lancet: Young People's Voices on Climate Anxiety and Government Betrayal, and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon

Additional Information:

• Today: Climate Anxiety is Real: How to Cope When it Feels Like the World is Burning  Results of the first large-scale, global peer-reviewed study on climate anxiety in children and young adults was published in the scientific journal The Lancet on Tuesday, September 14.
• Gizmodo: The Kids Are Not Alright  In what Gizmodo called “rare candor” by scientists, the authors said that they had hoped for significant results. But they added, “We wish that these results had not been quite so devastating.”
• Washington Post: Climate disasters will strain our mental health system. It’s time to adapt
• The Atlantic: A World Without Children

Follow Good Grief Network: 

• LinkedIn: laUra schmidt
• Website: Good Grief Network
• Twitter: Good Grief Network (@GoodGriefNetwk)
• Instagram: Good Grief Network (@goodgriefnetwork)

Follow EDF:

• Not yet receiving the Degrees newsletter? Join us here! 
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

Kicking our addition to fossil fuels is the single biggest job opportunity of a lifetime. This season, we’re spotlighting jobs of the future, those that will reduce carbon emissions the fastest. And tune in for our new feature, #AskYesh! Host and climate careers expert Yesh Pavlik Slenk solves your job-seeking dilemmas and offers her advice on how to get paid to save the planet.

Kristy Drutman is a speaker, content producer, consultant and environmental advocate. Much of her work is focused on where media, diversity, equity and environmentalism intersect. She founded the storytelling site Browngirl Green and co-founded the Green Jobs Board, where she curates good, paid jobs in the climate space. Drutman has been invited to speak on environmental issues at the White House several times, and E&E News listed her as part of the “next generation of climate and environmental visionaries.”

***
Resources from this episode:

• Browse Drutman’s Green Jobs Board and see what people are talking about on the jobs board’s Instagram page.
• Check out the Environmental Defense Fund Green Jobs Hub.  
• Read up on the 2022 LinkedIn Global Green Skills Report.
• Check out and join the following climate-specific communities: 
  • Work on Climate
  • Terra Do
  • Women in Climate
  • Climatebase
  • Climate Draft
  • MCJ Collective
• Browse other climate-related job boards:
  • GreenBiz Sustainability Jobs
  • Green Jobs Network
  • Climate People
• Sign up for the Degrees newsletter or the Climate Tech VC’s newsletter.
• Read #OpenDoorClimate’s “Day in the Life of a Climate Profile” series.
• Here are a few articles we’ve been reading about the Inflation Reduction Act’s impact on the green jobs market:
  • Bloomberg: 100,000 Green Jobs Announced Since US Adopted Climate Law, Study Finds
  • Greebiz: How will the Inflation Reduction Act spur job creation for the climate tech sector?
  • The Hechinger Report: COLUMN: New climate legislation could create 9 million jobs. Who will fill them?

Related episodes:

• How Heather McTeer Toney is redefining climate action for the next generation of leaders
• 10 ways to save the planet
• Building a Black community for green jobseekers 

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Daniel Hill on LinkedIn or through the #OpenDoorClimate initiative.

👉 Stay up to date by following us at:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Daniel Hill hosts The Year of the Climate Job. Yesh Pavlik Slenk hosts Degrees. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf is senior producer; Andrew Parrella is our production manager; Matthew Simonson is our audio editor; Elaine Appleton Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is podcast manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. The Degrees production team includes story editor Mia Lobel; producers Tressa Versteeg, Stephanie Wolf, and Ayo Oti; audio engineers Kevin Kline, Matthew Simonson, and Daniel Chavez Crook; production manager Andrew Parrella; podcast manager Tina Bassir, and executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Frank Kanawha Lake, Ph.D., is a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service. He’s been learning and teaching the role of fire in managing ecosystems in the northwest U.S. for more than three decades, and has introduced indigenous fire prevention and management practices to the Forest Service. He was mentored by botanist and best-selling author, Robin Wall Kimmerer.  

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

Resources

• Meet Frank Kanawha Lake (US Forest Service)
• Sacred Pollinators: An Interview with Frank K. Lake (California Native Plant Society)
• From Supercomputers to Fire-Starting Drones, These Tools Help Fight Wildfires (Smithsonian Magazine)
• In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things, by Bill McKibben (The New Yorker)

Credits

Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; audio engineers Rye Taylor and Matthew Simonson worked on this episode. Elaine Grant is supervising producer and CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Visit the Degrees website: https://www.edf.org/degrees

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Peggy Shepard, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of WE ACT, tells the story of how the environmental justice movement was born, where its headed and why anyone who wants a career in sustainability should care.

Elected at age 27, Heather McTeer Toney knows what it means to be a public servant. She was the first African-American, first female and the youngest to serve as mayor of Greenville, Mississippi from 2004-2012. In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed her as regional administrator of the EPA’s Southeast Region, at eight states the largest EPA region in the country. Currently, Heather is vice president of community engagement for the Environmental Defense Fund. She has appeared on numerous news outlets and in publications, including The New York Times and the Washington Post.  She is the author of the forthcoming book, “Before the Street Lights Come On: Black America’s Urgent Call for Climate Solutions”, in stores Earth Day 2023.

 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

 

Subscribe to EDF’s Misformation Brigade

“A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” That famous quote was made far before the advent of the internet — but it’s still true today. Especially when it comes to online climate misinformation. EDF’s Misinformation Brigade is actively working to stop the spread of climate misinformation. This volunteer army of truth-tellers is armed with the skills to spot and squash misinformation as it happens. Join the Brigade today and help put an end to deceptive and destructive climate misinformation.

 

Resources

• Heather McTeer Toney, EDF
• Heather McTeer Toney PBS Brief But Spectacular: Centering Black Leadership in Climate Change Solutions
• Moving Past Stereotypes: Climate Justice IS the Social Justice Issue of Our Time, Heather McTeer Toney keynote speech, Bioneers, 2019
• Black Women Are Leaders in the Climate Movement 
• Environmental Inclusivity: Heather McTeer Toney on Social and Climate Justice, Bioneers. “Our voices are required at this moment. It’s not an option. It’s a requirement.”
• People of color are more concerned than whites about climate change (survey results): Which racial/ethnic groups care most about climate change?
• Ten years later, BP oil spill continues to harm wildlife — especially dolphins, National Geographic, April 17, 2020
• Article by Trish Kenlon, founder of Sustainable Career Pathways: 18 sustainability fellowships for students and working professionals
   

Book Giveaway 

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

 

Who makes Degrees?
Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

How to find Yesh

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Website — Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

Mia Diawara is a partner at Lowercarbon Capital, where she invests in ambitious teams building needle-moving climate tech — always with her eye on equity and inclusion. Before Lowercarbon, Mia spearheaded decarbonization strategy across a portfolio of more than $90 billion in assets at TPG and advised companies across industries at Bain & Company. Previously, she assessed climate policy and market-based climate solutions at NRDC and RMI, respectively.

Mia is also a poet and dancer who has performed professionally with the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Company. She chairs the Nominating & Governance Committee on the board of Robert Moses’ Kin—a San Francisco-based dance company.

 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

Discover the solutions that are turning the tide on climate change. Subscribe to EDF’s Climate Tech Brief. Each month, you’ll hear diverse perspectives from business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs working on climate tech solutions around the world. Subscribe today. 

 

Resources

• The Climate Draft, a member-supported coalition of climate tech startups and VCs on a mission to collectively bring more top talent, investment, and commercial opportunities into the space
• LowerCarbon Capital’s extensive jobs board
• Clean Up on Aisle Earth — LowerCarbon Capital cofounder Chris Sacca’s blog post on raising $350 million to invest in carbon removal. This is worth a read to learn about the ethos of this forward-thinking company. 
• Twitter Space conversation about investing in climate tech
• Carbon capture startups received a record $882 million in VC investments, Protocol, 9/16/2022
• An Inconvenient Truth – the trailer
• On the fact that climate change disproportionately affects the global south: Temperatures in the Sahel region of West Africa will rise 1.5 times faster than the global average, according to this article by the Brookings Institution.
• TPG’s Rise Climate fund
• NRDC
• RMI
• The LowerCarbon Capital portfolio companies mentioned in this episode, and others, including: 
  Carbon Engineering
  • Living Carbon
  • Running Tide
  • Zanskar
  • Coda 
• Pakistan floods: A health crisis of epic proportions, Al Jazeera, 9/13/2022
• Pakistan’s Deadly Floods Pose Urgent Questions On Preparedess and Response, Center for Strategic & International Studies
• Jackson, Miss. residents struggle with basic needs as the water crisis disrupts life, NPR, 10/1/2022

Giveaway 

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

Who makes Degrees?

Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 
 

How to find Yesh

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Website — Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

 

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Daniel Hill on LinkedIn

👉 Stay up to date by following us at:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Daniel Hill hosts The Year of the Climate Job. Yesh Pavlik Slenk hosts Degrees. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf is senior producer; Andrew Parrella is our production manager; Elaine Appleton Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is podcast manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Sustainability jobs expert Trish Kenlon asked jobseeker Maya Johnson five key questions to help her narrow down her career choices. Try them! And visit Land a Green Job 101, where we’ve listed tons of planet-saving resources for job hunters, from job listings to expert advice to communities you can join.   

1. Which climate-change issue are you passionate about?

There are so many issues, it’s hard to know where to start. Whether it’s a field trip to a dump, growing up with toxic air pollution, or watching sea levels rise, consider the issues you feel deeply about. (Not sure? What are you curious about? What worries you? These are clues.) 

2. What kind of day-to-day work do you prefer?

Which skills do you enjoy using? Do you like sitting at a desk, working alone or with others? 

• Do you love talking with people? Try advocacy and community organizing.
• Do you like research and writing? Consider environmental policy and grant writing.
• Love data? You could be well suited to field research or lab work.
• Gravitate to social media? Investigate marketing and advertising roles in nonprofits, foundations, or sustainable companies.

3. What kind of organization do you want to work for?

Sustainability careers are now across industries and sectors. You could organize neighbors to grow a community garden; engineer fuel-efficient aircraft or write environmental policy—the list goes on.  

• Government work: You can work for local, state-level or federal departments. Starting at your mayor's office or parks department is a great way into a public-sector career. For a sense of how innovative public sector work can be, listen to Yesh’s interview with Orlando Sustainability Director Chris Castro. He’s working to make his city the greenest in America.
• Nonprofit: You can work for local land conservation organizations, statewide clean energy groups, nationwide or global nonprofits influencing sustainability practices on a larger scale. See our Green Jobs Hub for more ideas and links to sustainability job listings.
• For-profit: Companies need specialists who can help them implement triple-bottom-line policies and practices. It will take new leadership to expand organic farming, bring circularity to fashion and tech companies, and advance renewable energy use.

4. Where do you want to live?

• For federal policy work, D.C. is probably your best bet. Many large nonprofits also influence federal and state policy; headquarters are in many major cities. Of course, working remotely is more and more common.
• State and county-level environmental agencies are located in cities of every size in all 50 states.
• You’d rather live quietly? Consider field work, research and conservation, which tend to take you out into nature and more rural areas.

5. Which resources do you already have?

Organizations where you have worked or volunteered: 

• What did you like about the work? Dislike?
• Did you enjoy the people and work environment?

Friends, classmates and former colleagues:

• Where are they now? Can they connect you with people in organizations where you want to work? Follow them on LinkedIn.
• When applying for jobs, these connections are key to getting out of the resume pile and landing an interview.

Relevant news sources: 

• Start your day with news sources that cover climate change, such as E&E, Reuters, Politico and Bloomberg. (For more, see our Green Jobs Hub.)
• By staying current, you’ll be more confident when networking and interviewing for jobs. You’ll also learn about new-to-you organizations you may want to work for.

Learn more: 

Plan your job search strategy with job coach Trish Kenlon:

• Visit the Sustainable Career Pathways career coaching page.
• For more of Trish’s job search tips, listen back to How to Land a Sustainability J-O-B!

Network with jobseeker Maya Johnson:

• Learn more about Maya Johnson’s Reach One Book scholarship on Instagram.

For links to the many policy and advocacy organizations mentioned in this episode, see our Green Jobs Hub.

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

Resources on CarbonCure Technologies and low carbon concrete:

• Concrete: the worlds’ 3rd largest CO2 emitter from
• The urgent demand for low carbon concrete 
• How CarbonCure’s technology works 
• Why the building sector is important to decarbonize 
• Concrete market to reach $972.05 billion globally by 2030
• A list of some of CarbonCure’s projects, from highways to grocery stores to sea ports

 

Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

Visit the Degrees website: https://www.edf.org/degrees

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Rev. Dr. Ambrose F. Carroll, Sr., is the founder and CEO of Green The Church, a catalyst for environmentalism and sustainability built for and by the Black Church. Pastor Carroll serves on the National Environmental Justice Action Committee for the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He’s also been a fellow with the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity. He earned his B.A. in psychology from Florida Memorial University in Miami, FL, a Master of Divinity from Morehouse School of Religion in Atlanta, GA, a Master of Business Administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, CA, and a Doctor of Divinity from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. 

Resources from this episode:

• Learn more about Green the Church.
• Read Rev. Dr. Ambrose F. Carroll’s bio.
• Watch Pastor Carroll give a sermon about climate change.
• The Van Jones book that inspired Carroll so much, “The Green Collar Economy.”
• Learn more about the Catholic Climate Covenant and Dan Misleh.
• Read the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 2001 plea for dialogue and action on climate change.
• Learn more about Colorado Jewish Climate Action and Moshe Kornfeld.
• Learn more about Green Ramadan and Kori Majeed.
• Read Prof. Atul K. Shah’s bio.
• From Inside Climate News: “Religious Leaders May Be Key to Breaking Climate Action Gridlock, Poll Suggests”
• From The Tennessean: “Uneven Ground: Exceptional Black farmer and their fight to flourish in the South”

Related episodes:

• Hollywood screenwriter and producer Scott Z. Burns on making climate change central to storytelling
• From mud cakes to high stakes with Youth Climate Collaborative’s Pooja Tilvawala
• Eco-anxiety is fueling a new green career: climate psychology
• Why environmental justice is crucial for today’s climate careers

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher and Audrey Nelson provided fact checking. Engineering by Matthew Simonson. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Jeff Kirschner is the founder and CEO of Litterati, the crowdsourcing app that has helped people all over the world clean up more than 6 million pieces of litter to date. Litterati isn't just cleaning up the streets though: the data collected by the app is actually transforming the way some companies do business. Jeff has also transformed his own career, from ad exec and screenwriter to green entrepreneur. He's got a lot of heartfelt insights to offer on how to tackle big problems, how to use data, how to tell the story and bring people on board... and how to navigate the joys and sorrows of a purpose-driven career.

Technologist and entrepreneur Nick Martin founded the social impact company TechChange. He’s taught graduate courses at several colleges, including Columbia University. Martin is also known for his LinkedIn presence. Known as Nick@Noon, he has more than 200,000 followers who come to him for social impact career tips and resources. 

Episode transcript 

Resources from this episode:

• Follow Nick Martin on LinkedIn.
• To find people to follow on LinkedIn, visit LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the Green Economy list.
• Search the hashtag #OpenDoorClimate on LinkedIn to find climate professionals who are willing to chat with you. (This is the movement founded by Year of the Climate Job Host Daniel Hill. 
• Learn more about climate career scholarships from Dream.org.
• Check out Environmental Defense Fund’s Green Jobs Hub.
• Read the 2022 LinkedIn Global Green Skills Report.
• Join the following climate-specific communities and attend their events:
  • Work on Climate
  • Terra Do
  • Women in Climate
  • Climatebase
  • Climate Draft
  • MCJ Collective
  • Greenbiz Sustainability Conference
• Browse other climate-related job boards:
  • GreenBiz Sustainability Jobs
  • Green Jobs Network
  • Climate People
• Sign up for the Degrees newsletter.
• Here are some articles we love::
  • Bloomberg: 100,000 Green Jobs Announced Since US Adopted Climate Law, Study Finds
  • CNBC Work: How to get a job often comes down to one elite professional asset, and many people still don’t realize it

Related episodes:

• Land a green job 101
• 10 ways to save the planet
• The woman greening the golden arches
• Career reinvention: From world-touring musician to environmental champion

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Daniel Hill on LinkedIn or through the #OpenDoorClimate initiative.

👉 Stay up to date by following us at:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Daniel Hill hosts The Year of the Climate Job. Yesh Pavlik Slenk hosts Degrees. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf is senior producer; Andrew Parrella is our production manager; Elaine Appleton Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is podcast manager. Eric Aaron edited the audio in this episode. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

BJ Johnson is in a hurry—and for good reason. He’s frustrated by the slow pace of change to address the climate crisis. And he’s angry about how air particle pollution endangers everyone, but especially marginalized groups. 

Black, brown, and poor communities are especially plagued by harmful health outcomes—like asthma, COPD and other lung diseases—from environmental pollutants. Regardless of their state or income, Black residents are exposed to 26% higher levels of soot from heavy-duty diesel trucks than the national average. Once exposed, they are then at a three times higher risk of dying.

BJ won’t settle for it taking another two decades to solve the problem. As he tells host Yesh Pavlik Slenk, “This notion of, oh, well it's okay, that five-year-olds in L.A. today have asthma because we'll have electric school buses in 2040—we need to reject that type of thinking and start asking, no—why can't we start making this better today?”

Which is exactly what he’s trying to do. BJ talks with Yesh about how he and ClearFlame cofounder Julie Blumreiter are working to transform the dirty fossil-fuel-based trucking industry into a clean one, affordably. Now.

But that’s not all—the two founders are also fighting for more diversity, inclusion and equity in academia and in the world of high-tech startups. Johnson is one of a small handful of Black academics who have earned doctorates in engineering. 

Sadly, that’s not surprising: women and Black people (both men and women) remain underrepresented in STEM degrees and careers, according to the Pew Research Center. Black people are especially underrepresented in engineering, where they make up only 5% of all groups in that field, despite being 11% of the workforce. 

Blumreiter and Johnson, who is half-Black, call for an end to this inequity. Writing in an open letter on their website, they reference their own experiences as being “consistently underestimated” because of their identities. In their letter, they call for acknowledgment that solving the world’s problems must come from “a diverse range of thought-leaders.”

Additional Information:

• Grist: Grist 50 2021  ClearFlame was named one of Grist’s top 50 “fixers” of issues surrounding climate change in 2021.
• Techcrunch: ClearFlame Engine Technologies takes aim at cleaning up diesel engines
• OEM Off-Highway: ClearFlame Receives DOE Grant to Support R&D of Clean Engine Technology
• New York Times: Biden Tightens Emissions Rules
• Pew Research Center: STEM Jobs See Uneven Progress in Increasing Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity
• American Lung Association: https://www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/who-is-at-risk/disparities

Follow BJ Johnson and ClearFlame Engine Technologies: 

• Twitter: Clear Flame Engine Technologies (@ClearFlameEng)
• LinkedIn: BJ Johnson
• Company website: ClearFlame Engine Technologies

Follow EDF:

• Not yet receiving the Degrees newsletter? Join us here! 
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

(1) https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-increasing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/

Chris Castro joined the City of Orlando as the Director of Sustainability and Resilience in 2016, but his title doesn’t even begin to capture Chris’s drive to fight climate change and environmental injustice. In just a few years, he’s helped start solar co-ops. He’s increased electric vehicle adoption. And he’s helped low-income residents invest in clean energy. Chris believes that greening a city doesn’t just help fight climate change. It also helps communities and families prosper. One of his most exciting initiatives reduces the massive carbon footprint of the food we eat– and also helps feed families. It’s called fleet farming, and it turns front lawns into working farms. Fair warning: Chris is going to completely upend the way that you think about city government forever.

Solitaire is a renowned sustainability expert who works with some of the world’s most influential organizations. She is co-founder and Chief Solutionist at Futerra and trustee of the Solutions Union. In 2023 she was named ‘Agency Lead of the Year’ at Adweek’s Sustainability Awards. Her popular TED Talk, Forbes column and most recent book – The Solutionists: How Businesses Can Fix the Future – are available online.

Resources from this episode:

• Learn about Futerra’s projects, including climate campaigns, sustainability training for businesses, and products incubator. 
• Watch Solitaire’s 2021 TED Talk:  Are ad agencies, PR firms and lobbyists destroying the climate?
• Check out Futerra’s web series, Solutions House. The series includes debates, presentations, and workshops — all with the motto of “Answers Only.”
• Read Solitaire’s latest book, The Solutionists: How Businesses Can Fix the Future, and her previous book, The Happy Hero: How to Change Your Life by Changing the World.
• Follow Solitaire’s column in Forbes. 

PR & Climate must reads:

• How PR companies hurt the climate
• Former PR executive Christine Arena’s 2023 congressional testimony 
• ”Clean creatives” campaign pushing PR firms to fire their fossil fuel clients
• Fossil fuel companies are paying influencers
• The House Natural Resource Committee’s hearing about the role of public relations firms in preventing climate action

Related episodes:

• Hollywood screenwriter and producer Scott Z. Burns on making climate change central to storytelling
• Lake Street Dive on music, activism, and bravery
• How to green any job with Project Drawdown’s Jamie Beck Alexander

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher. Engineering by Kevin Kline. Editing assistance from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Other music in this episode is from Epidemic Sound.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe’s research focuses on understanding what climate change means for people and the places where we live. She is the Horn Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Public Law at Texas Tech University. Her book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, followed her 2018 TED Talk, “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it.” The Guardian called her “a committed Christian who has gained a reputation for being able to reach across the most partisan of political divides.” ‘

Resources from this episode:

• For climate communication and advocacy trainings, check out the Science Network Workshop Series from the Union of Concerned Scientists and read Work for Climate’s tips for talking about climate change at work.
• Subscribe to Talking Climate, Dr. Hayhoe’s weekly newsletter for good news, not so good news, and things you can do about climate change.
• Follow Dr. Hayoe on TikTok @dr.katharine and watch her PBS series Global Weirding for fact-based, practical, and hopeful lessons on climate change.
• If you want to push climate solutions from “the inside” of a workplace that is not doing anything, make sure you have a support network elsewhere. Try the Action Network’s Our Climate Voices or find your local Net Impact chapter.
• To understand more about how people in the US feel about climate change, and how it influences their actions, read this study from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. It will help you think about your approach beyond a believer versus denier binary.
• Dr. Hayoe recommends finding common ground through the things you love to do or ways you identify. For instance, she started a group called Science Moms, and recommends a blog called Fossil Free Football.

Related episodes:

• How a punk-rocking paralegal harnessed employee power to green Microsoft
• How Heather McTeer Toney is redefining climate action for the next generation of leaders
• Yes, you can turn your climate anxiety into meaningful action

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on X/Twitter
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher. Engineering by Kevin Kline. Editing assistance on this episode from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Check out the trailer for Degrees: real talk about planet-saving careers. Produced by Environmental Defense Fund and hosted by Yesh Pavlik Slenk, Degrees is part roadmap, part club and part therapy session for anyone who wants a career with purpose.

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

 

Resources on diversifying the planet-saving workforce and environmental justice

• BlackOak Collective
• Congressional Black Caucus
• EPA announces new environmental justice division (September 24, 2022)
• Greenbiz State of the Profession Report 2022

 

Sources used in the making of this story

• Wes Gobar in Grist
• A timeline of the march on Charlottesville
• Compressor pollution compared to diesel fumes from buses
• Reconstruction: What went wrong?
• What are sacrifice zones and who lives there? 
• What sank the Atlantic Coast Pipeline
   

Credits

Host: Yesh Pavlik Slenk

EDF Producer: Amy Morse

Production company: Podcast Allies, LLC

Supervising producer: Elaine Grant, CEO of Podcast Allies 

Senior producer: Tressa Versteeg

Project manager: Tina Bassir

Audio engineer: Rye Taylor

Music: Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. 

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Visit the Degrees website: https://www.edf.org/degrees 

 

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

Rebecca Weston, LCSW and JD is a metro-New York psychotherapist and co-president of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America. She supports climate-aware mental health practitioners and professionals on the front lines of climate work. She’s also written multiple pieces and spoken on the mental health impacts of the climate crisis, and how other systems of inequity affect climate mental issues. 

Resources from this episode:

• What is climate psychology?
• Visit Rebecca Weston’s website.
• Learn more about the work of Climate Psychology Alliance of North America
• Find more information on Climate Cafes.
• Watch Renee Lertzman’s TED Talk.
• Read more of Renee Lertzman’s work. 
• For those dealing with burnout, Weston recommends reading the work of Rebecca Solnit. 
• Read the Newsweek piece that Weston co-authored on “climate silence.” 
• Check out EDF’s Green Jobs Hub.

Related episodes:

• Yes, you can turn your climate anxiety into meaningful action
• How to green any job with Project Drawdown's Jamie Beck Alexander
• How a psychology major is on the frontlines of decarbonizing a global industry

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher. Engineering by Kevin Kline. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Michelle Romero, National Director of Green For All, is bringing together unlikely coalitions to find new solutions for reducing poverty while building a clean-energy economy. She's at the forefront of the environmental justice movement, the mastery of which is now essential for anyone wanting a career in sustainability.

Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder and editor in chief of Food Fix, which has rapidly become one of the go-to premium newsletters for anyone and everyone with a stake in food policy, from White House Staffers to famous chefs. Previously, she led coverage of food and agriculture issues at POLITICO for nearly a decade, winning numerous awards for her work, including a George Polk Award for a series on climate change and two James Beard Awards for features on nutrition and science. In 2022, she was a James Beard Award finalist for a deep dive on diet-related diseases and Covid-19.

Before launching POLITICO’s food policy coverage in 2013, Helena was the Washington correspondent for Food Safety News, where she covered deadly foodborne illness outbreaks and the run-up to Congress passing the most significant update to food safety law in a century.

Born and raised in Washington state, Helena attended Claremont McKenna College, where she studied government. She now lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, toddler and tabby cat.

 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

 

Resources

• See Helena accept the prestigious George Polk Award for her year-long series exposing the USDA for suppressing its own research on climate change. 
  “The stories examined how the Trump administration failed to promote its own research about the dangers of climate change; devoted a minuscule portion of its budget to climate adaptation; buried a study warning of lost nutrients in rice, the leading source of nutrition for 600 million people; and led farmers to feel frustrated by the lack of government help in tackling climate-related problems.”
  — Politico
• I’m standing here in the middle of climate change: How the USDA is failing farmers, Helena Bottemiller Evich, Politico, 10/15/2019
• What the Inflation Reduction Act means for food policy, Food Fix, 8/9/22
• Dr. Ayana Johnson’s TED Talk: How to find joy in climate action

 

Book Giveaway 

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

 

Who makes Degrees?
Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

How to find Yesh

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Website — Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

Anshuman Bapna is CEO and founder of Terra.do, an international platform with educational opportunities designed to help people get jobs working on climate. The aspiration is to get 100 million more people working in the climate economy in the next decade. Bapna is a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded and launched several startups. He’s also worked with Deloitte, Google, and MakeMyTrip. He says he gets his best career and life advice from his children. 

Read the transcript of this episode

***
Resources from this episode:

• Check out Terra.do’s different courses.
• Find other climate learning and training platforms:
  • UN SDG: Learn platform
  • Harvard Business School Online - Sustainable Business Strategy
• Join climate-specific communities:
  • Work on Climate
  • Women in Climate
  • Climatebase
  • Climate Draft
  • MCJ Collective
  • My Climate Journey podcast
  • Greenbiz Sustainability Conference
• Browse climate-related job boards:
  • GreenBiz Sustainability Jobs
  • Green Jobs Board
  • Green Jobs Network
  • Climate People
• To find people to follow on LinkedIn, visit LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the Green Economy list.
• Find nonprofits, public service organizations or higher education programs doing interesting climate-related work:
  • Rewiring America
  • Project Drawdown
  • UC Berkeley Opportunity Lab’s Climate and Society Initiative
  • Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
• Search the hashtag #OpenDoorClimate on LinkedIn to find climate professionals who are willing to chat with you. (This is the movement founded by Year of the Climate Job Host Daniel Hill. 
• Here are some articles we love::
  • GQ: How an online school is working towards a climate-smart future
  • Bloomberg: 100,000 Green Jobs Announced Since US Adopted Climate Law, Study Finds
  • Greebiz: How will the Inflation Reduction Act spur job creation for the climate tech sector?
  • The Hechinger Report: COLUMN: New climate legislation could create 9 million jobs. Who will fill them?

Related episodes:

• How to network for a green job with purpose-driven LinkedIn expert Nick@Noon
• Browngirl Green’s Kristy Drutman: Taking the mystery out of finding a green job
• Transfer your skills to a green job with Work on Climate’s Eugene Kirpichov

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Daniel Hill on LinkedIn

👉 Stay up to date by following us at:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Daniel Hill hosts The Year of the Climate Job. Yesh Pavlik Slenk hosts Degrees. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf is senior producer; Eric Aaron is our audio editor; Andrew Parrella is our production manager; Elaine Appleton Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is podcast manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Happy holidays listeners! The Degrees team is taking the week off, but we SO appreciate you that we wanted to gift you a few recommendations: things that have inspired us, fed our souls, stretched our brains, or made us laugh over the course of this strange year. We hope they do the same for you! Stay tuned: December 28 we'll bring you an incredible interview with Bill Weihl, a superstar of sustainability.

The clothing retail industry is not known for being climate friendly. The textile industry, as a whole,  emits 1.2 billion tons of carbon and uses five trillion liters of water per year.

Dawnielle Tellez, an EDF Climate Corps alum, is candid and thoughtful about the challenges of making the outdoor apparel industry more sustainable. “What's been tough for me to realize is that at the end of the day, the outdoor industry and broadly apparel industry is reliant on fossil fuels,” she  tells Yesh Pavlik Slenk. 

She finds reasons for hope, though. Tellez says the circular economy, the adoption of lower carbon materials, and scaling decarbonization are exciting, emerging ways the apparel industry will be reducing negative environmental impacts going forward.  

Tellez advises people looking to get into sustainability careers to set goals, ask for informational interviews, and explore the kinds of degrees she and other sustainability specialists have pursued. “The space is just wide open right now,” she says. “I feel like you can really carve out whatever it is that you want.”

Tellez fights social challenges as well as climate change—particularly the historical exclusion of marginalized groups from outdoor activities.  She hopes to see them become more visible and included in the outdoor imagination—some of which is modeled by high-profile outdoor apparel companies like REI.

“Looking to groups that are bringing access and knowledge of sport, [such as] Black Girls Run, Outdoor Afro, Latino Outdoors, organizations that are doing incredible work to build community amongst different BIPOC groups is, I think, hugely valuable to how we're going to be able to make the outdoors actually accessible for all people going forward.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• REI: A Sustainable Future, REI’s blog about their sustainability initiatives
• GRID Alternatives: GRID Alternatives. Dawnielle worked for this nonprofit, which provides affordable solar panels to low-income communities.
• EDF: Climate Corps
• GreenBiz: The 2021 GreenBiz 30 Under 30
• Black Girls Run:Black Girls Run. 
• Outdoor Afro: Outdoor Afro
• Latino Outdoors: Latino Outdoors

Additional information: 

• EDF’s Supply Chain Solution Center
• REI’s 2020 Impact Report (its corporate sustainability report) 
• Nature: The price of fast fashion
• World Resources Institute: Apparel Industry's Environmental Impact in 6 Graphics
• USC Diving: USC Dornsife Scientific Diving, Dawnielle’s 2012 blog post about scientific diving at USC

Follow EDF:

• Not yet receiving the Degrees newsletter? Join us here! 
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

Kameale Terry, CEO of ChargerHelp!, was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. The daughter of Belizean immigrants, Kameale has always had a focus on environmental sustainability and community engagement.

With over a decade of experience in clean tech, Kameale formed ChargerHelp! with her co-founder, Evette Ellis, to create a reliable electric vehicle charging infrastructure. ChargerHelp! uses data to identify and provide maintenance and repair services for electric vehicle charging stations. 

 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

 

Discover the solutions that are turning the tide on climate change. Subscribe to EDF’s Climate Tech Brief. Each month, you’ll hear diverse perspectives from business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs working on climate tech solutions around the world. Subscribe today. 

Combat misinformation: “A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” That famous quote was made far before the advent of the internet - but is still true today. Especially when it comes to online climate misinformation. EDF’s Misinformation Brigade is actively working to stop the spread of climate misinformation. This volunteer army of truth-tellers is armed with the skills to spot and squash misinformation as it happens. Join the Brigade today and help put an end to deceptive and destructive climate misinformation.

 

Resources

• ChargerHelp! Partners with Tesla to Support Reliability at Charging Stations
• ChargerHelp raises $2.75M to keep EV chargers working
• Global Green Skills Report 2022
• Wired article: Broken Charging Stations Could Be Stalling the EV Movement
• Edison Energy article: These two trailblazing entrepreneurs are getting EV charging stations and people back to work
• TechCruch article: ChargerHelp raises $2.75M to keep EV chargers working
• LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI)
• Elemental Excelerator

 

Win a copy of Speed & Scale!

We want you to have a copy of Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now by John Doerr with his co-author of Degrees guest Ryan Panchadsarum. To enter, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

 

Who makes Degrees?
Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

 

How to find Yesh

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

 

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Website — Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

 

Terms we discuss in this episode:

Scope: How companies categorize their emissions. 

• Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, sometimes called “operational emissions.” This includes reducing emissions from facilities or vehicles owned by an organization.
• Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from electricity, heating, cooling, or steam purchased by an organization. (For additional guidance on Scopes 1 and 2, see the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’ website.)
• Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (that aren’t included in Scope 2) in an organization’s value chain. These are sometimes called “supply chain emissions.” Scope 3 emissions include both upstream emissions (from production processes) and downstream emissions (consumer use of a certain product).

With Jenny, we talk a lot about Scope 3 — in McDonald’s case, the emissions from its supply chain and franchisees. Since franchisees make up 95% of McDonald’s restaurants, scope 3 emissions are significant. 

Science-Based Targets (SBTs)

SBTs provide a clearly-defined pathway for companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help prevent the worst impacts of climate change. McDonald’s uses SBTs. 

Absolute and Intensity Targets

These are two ways to measure emissions reductions.

• Intensity Target: Emissions relative to some other factor, such as the number of employees or revenue. Intensity targets account for economic growth. For example, McDonald’s could reduce the emissions per chicken nugget, while continuing to sell more happy meals each year.
• Absolute Target: An attempt to reduce all emissions, regardless of other factors. For example, an absolute target at McDonald’s would be saying that no matter how many chicken nuggets they sell, McDonald’s will reduce the amount of total emissions associated with chicken nuggets.

Resources:

• Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps program, where Jenny McColloch was a fellow
• McDonald’s 2021 Risk & Resiliency report
• McDonald’s Climate Strategy
• McDonald’s Net Zero by 2050 Announcement
• Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
• U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
  
   

Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

For this special episode, we super-sized our team. For our interview with Jenny McColloch, Yesh joined forces with Mike Toffel, host of Climate Rising, a podcast about the impact of climate change on business from Harvard Business School. 

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

Visit the Degrees website: https://www.edf.org/degrees

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Networking takes work. Sam Charner offers specific advice to help you become a more effective networker, no matter whether you’re a student, a new jobseeker, or a career changer. 

Don’t just sign up for a networking group. Get involved.

• Don’t just sign up and read the occasional newsletter. Participate in virtual and in-person events. Volunteer to help organize the next event.
• Join small projects and committees to get to know a small group of people on a deeper level. 
• Ask members to recommend job boards, events and additional networking groups and professional associations. 
• Don’t go into every interaction thinking, “How is this person going to help me get a job?” Build relationships. 

How do I choose a professional community (or more than one)? 

• Identity-specific communities can be wonderful support systems. Examples include communities for women, veterans, and people who identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQ. 
• Joining geographic-specific communities helps you meet other local and regional planet savers, and also people who live where you want to move. There are sustainability-minded groups all over the globe, in neighborhoods, universities, cities and towns, states and provinces. 
• To learn more about your desired field or profession and make connections within it, join industry groups like those for wind energy, agriculture, transit and urban planning, packaging, supply chains and more. 

What else should I consider before joining?

• Make sure the topics important to the organization are also important to you. You can’t join every organization, so pick the ones you’re truly curious about. 
• What does it cost to join? If it’s expensive, this community may be more interested in recruiting experts and seasoned professionals with extensive experience than newbies. If you’re not ready for that commitment, keep looking. 
• Word of mouth counts. Know a member of the community you’re thinking about? Ask them what it's like — and if they think it’s worth it.

Learn more:

• Join your local Net Impact chapter (or start one)! There are more than 400 chapters in over 40 countries.
• Peruse more than 40 networks to join on Sustainable Career Pathways.
• Register for Net Impact’s Regenerative Economy series of events, connection and conversation. 
• To make the most of your new relationships, read Net Impact’s guide to perfecting the informational interview.

Ciara Imani May is the founder of Rebundle, the first U.S.-made, plant-based hair extensions brand on a mission to provide more comfort and less waste through eco-friendly and non-toxic hair extensions. The idea for Rebundle sparked in 2019 when Ciara suffered from one too many itchy scalps from wearing braids made from plastic synthetic hair. In researching alternatives, Ciara came to understand that banana fibers could provide a sustainable option. That breakthrough led to Rebundle’s first product, braidbetter.

Resources from this episode:

• Check out the Rebundle website to learn more about the ReGen Hair Fiber™ that May’s company created.
• Follow Rebundle on social media: Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter)
• Learn about Rebundle’s recycling partner Terracycle, a company helping Rebundle customer’s recycle their old plastic-based hair extensions.
• Read this article for more about Ciara’s venture capital funding journey.
• Learn about the USDA’s BioPreferred program. Rebundle’s braidBetter is the first hair extensions product to receive the certification.

If you liked this episode, you’ll love these:

• The woman greening the golden arches
• Building a Black community for green jobseekers

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on X (formerly Twitter)
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Ayo Oti researched and produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Production manager Andrew Parrella edited this episode. Editing assistance on this episode from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Steph Speirs is right in the middle of one of the most critical challenges of our time: the quest to move our energy economy away from fossil fuels and into systems that are clean, equitable, and renewable. Steph is the CEO and co-founder of Solstice, a dynamic startup that is bringing solar energy to the 80% of Americans who are unable to install solar panels on their roofs. Our conversation with Steph goes way beyond solar energy. Her remarkable career path, from Bubba Gump Shrimp company waitress to serving as the youngest Middle East policy director in the Obama White House to CEO, has given her great insight on everything from engaging audiences to making the business case for diversity, inclusion and social justice.

Jamie Beck Alexander is the director of Drawdown Labs, a division of the climate nonprofit Project Drawdown. In 202, Alexander developed and launched Drawdown Labs, which works with the private sector to accelerate their adoption of climate solutions. She’s been heralded for her TEDx Talk about empowering workers to be the driving change for the climate crisis within companies. Prior to Project Drawdown, Alexander worked for Ceres, which also encourages companies to establish ambitious climate goals and reduce emissions. 

Read the transcript of this episode.

Resources from this episode:

• Check out the Drawdown Labs Job Function Action Guides:
  • Finance Job Function Action Guide
  • Government Relations and Public Policy Job Function Action Guide
  • Human Resources and Operations Job Function Action Guide
  • Legal Job Function Action Guide
  • Marketing Job Function Action Guide
  • Procurement Job Function Action Guide
  • Sales and Client-Facing Roles Job Function Action Guide
• Learn about The Drawdown Roadmap: Using Science to Guide Climate Action
• Follow the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group and read Amazon’s Climate Pledge.
• If you don’t see your profession in Drawdown Labs’ Job Function Action Guides, try other resources on how to green your job, like the Climate Action Resource Library.
• Join climate-specific communities:
  • Terra Do
  • Women in Climate
  • Climatebase
  • Climate Draft
  • MCJ Collective
  • Greenbiz Sustainability Conference
  • Work on Climate
• Browse other climate-related job boards:
  • GreenBiz Sustainability Jobs
  • Green Jobs Network
  • Climate People
• To find people to follow on LinkedIn, visit LinkedIn’s Top Voices in the Green Economy list.
• Search the hashtag #OpenDoorClimate on LinkedIn to find climate professionals who are willing to chat with you. This is the movement founded by Daniel Hill, Year of the Climate Job host and director of Environmental Defense Fund’s Innovation Fund.
• Sign up for the Degrees newsletter.
• Here are some articles we love:
  • protocol: “The Inflation Reduction Act is testing Big Tech’s climate resolve”
  • Greenbiz: “Solving the sustainability careers and connection crisis”
  • NBC News: “Amazon workers press company on climate change response after Pakistan floods”

Related episodes:

• How to network for a green job with purpose-driven LinkedIn expert Nick@Noon
• Browngirl Green’s Kristy Drutman: Taking the mystery out of finding a green job
• Transfer your skills to a green job with Work on Climate’s Eugene Kirpichov
• Learn how to build your climate experience with Terra.do founder Anshuman Bapna
• The fastest electric vehicle fleet makeover in the west
• How to solve the EV problem and a jobs problem at the same time
• Why employees are key for a hopeful future

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Daniel Hill on LinkedIn

👉 Stay up to date by following us at:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on Twitter
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Daniel Hill hosts The Year of the Climate Job. Yesh Pavlik Slenk hosts Degrees. Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Stephanie Wolf is senior producer; Kevin Kline is our audio editor; Andrew Parrella is our production manager; Elaine Appleton Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is podcast manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

 

Resources on electric school buses (ESBs)

• World Resources Institute School Bus Initiative
• Electric School Bus Newsletter 
• Mom’s Clean Air Force on environmental justice and electric school buses
• How infrastructure bill is related to electric school buses
• How electric buses reduce toxic exposure for kids 
• Stockton Unified School District Energy Patrol video that got a standing ovation at the school board
• Stockton Unified School District is an exemplary case study at WRI
• Modesto City purchases largest single order of electric school buses from Bluebird

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

 

Fighting climate change is the biggest job opportunity of our lifetime. But which career will make the biggest difference — and where will you fit in? In this episode, Ryan Panchadsaram explains the 10 solutions outlined in Speed & Scale: six areas to decarbonize and four ways to do it as rapidly as possible. 

To win a copy of Speed & Scale, rate and review Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers on Apple Podcasts, Podchaser or  Spotify. Take a screenshot of your review and share it with us on Instagram @Environmental_Defense_Fund. Use the hashtag #DegreesPodcast. We’re giving away up to five books per episode!

Yesh Pavlik Slenk is Degrees’ host. Amy Morse is our producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg is senior producer; Rye Taylor is our audio engineer; Elaine Grant is CEO of Podcast Allies and Tina Bassir is project manager. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

Follow Yesh on Twitter at @yeshsays, and stay up to date with us on Instagram @environmental_defense_fund. 

Have a green jobs question for Yesh? Send it to her on Twitter @yeshsays. Use the hashtag #askyesh. 

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more. 

Resources:

Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more. 

Speed & Scale, by John Doerr and Ryan Panchadsaram

To learn more about how rapidly green careers are growing, see the GreenBiz report mentioned in this episode. Seventy-five percent of large companies have added sustainability jobs since 2019. Their latest report says,  “Hiring of green jobs in the workforce in the United States is rising faster than any other category.”

For a great example of the potential of sustainability careers in city government, listen back to Yesh’s conversation with Chris Castro (Season 1, Episode 2). He became head of sustainability for the city of Orlando before he turned 30. The White House recently recruited Castro to work at the Department of Energy, helping cities across the country become more sustainable. 

For more on this episode’s Ask Yesh segment on narrowing down your career choices, listen back to episode 1 in our Green Jobs 101 miniseries).Sustainability careers expert Trish Kenlon offers live coaching to jobseeker Maya Johnson. (Johnson found her first dream job a few months later.)  While you’re there, listen to the rest of our Green Jobs 101 miniseries, and to all of the episodes in Season 3 as well!

Visit the Degrees website: https://www.edf.org/degrees

Share Degrees:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

Some people know from an early age that they are environmentalists. Dan Schnitzer certainly did. Inspired by childhood nature walks with his mom, he studied pond water under a microscope. At age 13, he conducted the first of many environmental experiments—for a science fair, he made clean fuel from fruit.

After learning about the concept of "poverty traps" in college, Dan realized that lack of energy access is an infrastructure failure—and a massive burden on disadvantaged communities. Approximately two billion people worldwide either don't have energy access or it’s unreliable. 

Without reliable sources of electricity, people are forced to rely on dirty fuel like charcoal and kerosene to generate power, which are dangerous and expensive. The use of these fuels, particularly indoors, leads to devastating health outcomes, including early death from pneumonia, heart disease, and lung cancer.

Dan traveled to Haiti in 2008 and worked with communities to learn more about their energy needs. Within a year, his nonprofit, EarthSpark International, was helping to build a different, more reliable kind of infrastructure called microgrids. That was just the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey. 

Today, SparkMeter sells software that helps utilities in 25 developing countries provide reliable, affordable electric service in rural areas. SparkMeter recently ranked #1 on Fast Company's 10 Most Innovative Energy Companies of 2021. 

Dan tells Degrees host Yesh Pavlik Slenk that his mother instilled in him an ethos of gratitude and responsibility. She encouraged him to pursue a career helping other people. He wanted to make sure, though, that his service was actually useful. “There's a long history of development working to help people, but in ways that really didn't go well,” he says. “And as the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Dan believes everyone should be invested in helping developing nations access clean, reliable, and  affordable energy. “The climate problem is a global problem,” he says. “The emissions that come from Nigeria into the atmosphere are going to have the same effect on climate change as the emissions here.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• IFC: The Dirty Footprint of the Broken Grid

Additional resources:

• Fast Company: The 10 Most Innovative Energy Companies in 2021  
• WHO: Household Air Pollution and Health
• Northwestern University: Poverty Trap
• Greentech Media: Sparkmeter Closes 12m to Expand From Metering Minigrids to Analyzing Broken Grids
• Researchgate: Microgrids for Rural Electrification Dan Schnitzer’s 2016 critical review of microgrid practices in rural areas 

Follow Daniel Schnitzer and SparkMeter:

• LinkedIn: Daniel Schnitzer, CEO SparkMeter
• SparkMeter: SparkMeter
• Twitter: @SparkMeter

Follow EDF:

• Not yet receiving the Degrees newsletter? Join us here! 
• Twitter: EDF (@EnvDefenseFund)
• Facebook: Environmental Defense Fund
• Instagram: environmental_defense_fund
• LinkedIn: Environmental Defense Fund

Trying to break into a sustainability job? Tune in to Land a Green Job 101 —six short episodes with pro tips from GreenBiz, Net Impact and Sustainable Career Pathways to help you find a planet-saving career. Visit our Green Jobs Hub for sustainability job boards, blogs, communities to join, expert tips and more.

Cynthia Shih is the climate change activist and Director of Knowledge at mckinsey.org who’s helping to redefine what recycling means for the 21st century. But you might also know her as touring and recording artist Vienna Teng. Cynthia longed to be making more of a direct, positive impact on the planet, so she ditched the tour bus to tackle a dual Master’s degree, because she’s convinced there’s more than one way to fight climate change. It doesn’t just come from the world of business or from people taking to the streets or from songwriting. Cynthia talks about how being a musician and a management consultant gives her a unique perspective on the world’s problems, the pros and cons of feeling like an outsider and why her colleagues call her the “Cynthia-sizer”.

Pooja Tilvawala is an Indian-American climate justice advocate, opportunity curator, and youth engagement expert with five years of experience in the global climate movement. Since 2020, she has served as the founder and executive director of Youth Climate Collaborative (YCC), which is creating a more just, inclusive, and intergenerational climate movement that sustains youth and their initiatives for meaningful climate action. She is a current recipient of the Walking Softer Award for young climate leaders, and an Advisor to Rivet, which intends to create the world’s largest micro-grant fund for youth-led action.

Resources from this episode:

• Learn about the work of Youth Climate Collaborative. 
• Listen to another interview with Pooja about how to make climate justice work accessible.
• Network with Pooja by following her on LinkedIn.
• Check out this climate comedy recommendation: Climate Town with Rollie Williams

Related episodes:

• How to network for a green job with purpose-driven LinkedIn expert Nick@Noon
• Learn how to build your climate experience with Terra.do founder Anshuman Bapna

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund X (formerly Twitter)
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Credits:

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Ayo Oti produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Engineering by Kevin Kline. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive.

Betony Jones is a nationally recognized expert in labor-climate issues, with a focus on the intersection between climate jobs, clean energy, and unions. As the director of the Office of Energy Jobs, she oversees workforce development strategies and engages with organized labor and other stakeholders to ensure that the Department of Energy’s (DOE) policies and program implementation result in high-quality jobs and economic equity. Previously, Jones was a senior advisor on workforce for the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. She began her career working on climate science in the White House Office of Science and Technology policy in the Clinton Administration. From there, she spent 20 years researching the economic opportunities associated with climate action, including as associate director of the Green Economy program at the University of California Labor Center and as founder and CEO of Inclusive Economics, a national strategy firm working at the intersection of labor, workforce, and clean energy.

Resources from this episode - how to learn more and where to apply: 

• Through the Registered Apprenticeship Program, get paid to earn nationally recognized credentials and receive hands-on training and mentorship in industries like manufacturing, construction, energy, and transportation. 
• Find information about opportunities and grants that fund clean energy and infrastructure projects—and the jobs that go with them— through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law launchpad.
• Read these GreenBiz articles on how to compete for the Department of Energy’s $97 billion in funding and three grants specific to renewable energy.
• The American Climate Corps is set to get 20,000 citizens into climate jobs. One of their first available programs is Forest Corps. Apply here. 
• Want to work with Betony Jones? Here’s a fellowship at her department, the Office of Energy Jobs. 
• How the Department of Energy supports retooling automotive factories for electric vehicle manufacturing. 

Clean energy fellowships, internships and other opportunities:

• Check out Sustainable Career Pathways’ list of 18 sustainability fellowships for students and working professionals.
• Read everything you need to know about an EDF Climate Corps Fellowship and tips on the application process. 
• If you’re an undergraduate college student, consider the United Nations Academic Impact Millennium Fellowship, where you can make your campus more sustainable. 
• For recent graduates, there’s the International Council on Clean Transportation Fellowship, which supports research on transportation policy around the globe; and the Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy has fellowships in both wind and solar energy. 
• If you are working full or part time, there’s programs for you too! Check out fellowships with the Clean Energy Leadership Institute, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), and Climatebase. 

Must-reads on the impact of the legislation on climate jobs:

• Betony Jones’ article Good Jobs with Good Pay and Benefits are Key to Building the Clean Energy Future.
• How the Inflation Reduction Act is impacting green job creation, according to the World Economic Forum. 
• The fact sheet on how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) will create, on average, 1.5 million jobs per year for ten years. 
• Confused by the acronyms? Here’s the differences between the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
• Learn how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act are making historic levels of funding available for fossil fuel communities in transition to clean energy.  

Related episodes:

• How to solve the EV problem and a jobs problem at the same time
• This climate champion will upend the way you think about city government jobs
• The EDF Climate Corps alumna greening the golden arches 
• How a psychology major is on the frontlines of decarbonizing a global industry

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on X/Twitter
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher. Engineering by Andrew Parella and Daniel Chavez Crook. Editing assistance from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Additional music from Epidemic Sound. 

Leading the sustainability efforts at Google and Facebook might seem like dream jobs, but for Bill Weihl there were still nights when he couldn't sleep. Acutely aware of the narrowing window to avoid the worst effects of climate change, Bill was haunted by a burning question: how could he create more change, faster? Thus was born "Climate Voice," his new initiative designed to empower employees of any company to be agents of change... particularly around influencing public policy.

After a meandering career path through more "typical" purpose-driven jobs, Adam Heltzer had an epiphany: the private sector--and in particular the world of finance-- was THE place for him to create lasting change. Once a "nice to have," ESG is quickly becoming an essential, core piece of any leading business. Today, Adam Heltzer is Managing Director and Head of ESG at Ares Management and shares his career journey with us.

Join our newsletter to connect with our community! 

Shannon Houde is the multi-lingual International Coaching Federation (ICF)-certified coach and talent strategist behind Walk of Life Coaching, where she has mentored and trained 1000+ change leaders to maximize their personal brands to advance their impact careers. After working as a financial analyst, eco-tour guide, recruiter, and then ESG consultant for clients like Adobe, BlackRock, and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Shannon has learned all the ins and outs of the green job search. She’s also the author of a step-by-step book called Good Work: How to Build a Career that Makes a Difference in the World.

Resources from this episode:

• Book a trial coaching session with Shannon Houde of Walk of Life Coaching
• Follow Shannon’s step-by-step guide, Good Work: How to Build a Career that Makes a Difference in the World
• Visit Walk of Life’s “hot jobs” board listing openings in the impact careers
• Read Shannon’s six tips to making your LinkedIn Profile stand out

Related episodes:

• Diversity, equity and inclusion in the climate job hunt with Kristy Drutman
• Yes, you can turn your climate anxiety into meaningful action
• Land a Green Job 101 - Five key questions to turbocharge your job hunt

***

🌎 Job hunting? Visit our comprehensive Green Jobs Hub for job listings, networking resources, skills and certification information and more.

💚 Follow and rate Degrees on Apple, Spotify, CastBox, or your favorite listening app. 

📧 Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on green careers, upcoming episodes and more.

🔗 Connect with Yesh Pavlik Slenk on LinkedIn

👉 Follow up on social media:

• @environmental_defense_fund on Instagram
• @EnvDefenseFund on X (Twitter)
• @EnvDefenseFund on TikTok
• Environmental Defense Fund on LinkedIn

***

Who makes Degrees?

Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers is presented by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Yesh Pavlik Slenk is our host.  Amy Morse is EDF’s producer. Podcast Allies is our production company. Tressa Versteeg produced this episode. Mia Lobel is our story editor. Ayo Oti is our researcher. Engineering by Kevin Kline. Editing assistance from executive producer Elaine Appleton Grant. Our music is Shame, Shame, Shame from Yesh’s favorite band, Lake Street Dive. Other music in this episode is from Epidemic Sound.