Making Change Happen from Within: Empowering Employees to Fight Climate Change

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

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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.