Today's guest is Lucy Piper, Director at WorkForClimate.
WorkForClimate is a not-for-profit that provides individual employees with clear step-by-step playbooks to help influence and accelerate a company's decarbonization initiatives. Lucy and Cody discuss how climate change can be an intimidating topic and pushing for change inside your company can be risky. And yet it's clear that if the world's corporations don't change quickly to reduce emissions, the effects will be worse.
So how do we quickly help employees feel educated and empowered to push for change? WorkForClimate solution comes from its playbooks and programs. They've identified four key areas of change that employees can impact: energy, emissions, money, and influence. Lucy and Cody chat about each of these, why they matter, and some of the steps that WorkForClimate recommends employees take to maximize their collective influence. And one thing that isn’t covered, but nonetheless important is that when we take personal agency around climate change, it inspires more people to do the same, encouraging more and more. As organizations realize that these well-informed asks aren't coming from some radical minority, but rather from a significant amount of their employee base, that's ultimately what drives change.
In this episode, we cover:
- [4:22] Lucy's climate journey
- [7:39] Employees as influential stakeholders to drive climate initiatives within corporations
- [12:45] The power of strength in numbers despite risks
- [14:44] An overview of green teams
- [15:57] How formally organized groups and sustainability professionals factor into WorkforClimate's playbook
- [18:00] The areas WorkforClimate focuses on, including energy, emissions, money, and advocacy
- [23:04] The issue of greenwashing
- [25:46] An overview of WorkforClimate's playbooks
- [29:12] Pros and cons employees have to grapple with to inspire corporate action
- [33:00] WorkforClimate's emissions framework
- [40:05] The type of companies best suited to collaborate with WorkforClimate
- [47:15] The money category WorkforClimate addresses, including bank accounts, treasury, and retirement funds
- [54:28] The role of corporate influence on policy
Get connected:
Cody Simms
Lucy Piper / WorkforClimate
MCJ Podcast / Collective
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Episode recorded on March 22, 2023.
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
