Transcript: How to get a climate career
TEDxLondon Climate Curious
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Description:
Every job can be a climate job, says Kristy Drutman the founder of Browngirl Green and the Green Jobs Board, on the Climate Curious podcast. With the potential for 24 million new green jobs to be created globally by 2030, this episode outlines some different routes for climate careers you might consider taking, and why it’s not just up to the environmentalists, engineers and scientists – there’s plenty room for everyone else, too!
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TRANSCRIPT
Ben Hurst:
In this week’s Climate Quickie, we hear from Kristy Drutman, the founder at Browngirl Green and the Green Jobs Board – helping people find their dream climate career.
If you’ve ever been curious about what it’s like to work in climate, how to get into it, and what sort of roles there are, beyond being a scientist or a politician, this is the Climate Curious episode for you!
Let’s head over to Kristy to learn about green jobs.
Stay Curious!
Kristy Drutman:
Yeah. Hi, I’m Kristy Drutman and I am the founder of Brown Girl Green and the co founder of the Green Jobs Board, which is a climate tech company focused on recruiting and getting people into climate related and social impact jobs.
Green jobs encapsulate a wide I would say at the core of it is a job that is focused on improving the environmental well being of the planets and communities and are prioritizing people in the planet over profit
I would say when people think of a green job or a climate job, you’re typically picturing an old guy with glasses, in a lab somewhere studying soil. But a green job can be so much more than that. We’re saying that green jobs can mean that you are a reporter, a journalist on the ground reporting about these issues.
A green job could mean that you’re an accountant. Crunching numbers to help support,a non profit or a for profit climate tech startup.
Like, I think there’s just way more creativity that’s out there now. Like, You can do arts, you can do writing, you can do marketing, um, you can get into finance and research analysis, um, it’s not just about the strict science anymore, and I think expanding that definition will make a lot more people feel like they can be a part of a green job,
The International Labor Organization estimates that 24 million new green jobs are going to be created around the world because a lot of industries are now shifting towards being more sustainably minded, mostly because I think a lot of
There’s a huge demand for wanting to work at a place that is more values aligned and is centering people in the planet at the forefront.
And I think the concept of a green job offers That promise rather than just working for a job for a job. I think people who are looking for green jobs are people that want to have their job have some sort of extra meaning to it, giving back being able to think about the long term impact of what that position or that career is actually going to look like.
It goes far beyond just a job. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a it’s a new mindset shift around knowing that Um, you can make your work have double or triple the impact and to not just stay in your own. Silo of thinking about those things. And so we need more people expanding the definition that every job can become a climate job,
I think everyone has a responsibility, even within their job to be thinking about that. And so I just wanted to include that as well, because I think people think, oh, it’s just up to the environmentalists To solve this issue, but the fact of the matter is the green, a green job is a really amazing teaching tool in which people, no matter what career they’re currently in, can be thinking about, hey, how could my job or my workplace be more, uh, [00:08:00] sustainably minded?
I have been doing environmental activism and advocacy for almost 10 years now. I started off in university and really got deep into the environmental space. But I remember even though I was so passionate about these issues, I didn’t see people who looked like me. I didn’t really feel like I had a clear blueprint or roadmap.
By the time I graduated, I still had no idea what I was gonna do, and I would send my resumes out to the wind and not hear anything back. And it felt so discouraging when I felt like. I had done the work. I had done my due diligence to prove that I was in the space. I was passionate. I had the skill set.
I had to fight tooth and nail, and luckily had mentors who helped.
And I would say my story is not unique. I would say it’s a story that happens to so many people around the world who maybe care about these issues, but at the end of the day, it’s not their priority. They don’t see the opportunity in it. And that’s why I think the Green Jobs Board felt like such A timely opportunity to now create a new conversation about climate solutions in a way that felt tangible, practical, especially speaking to young people and saying, Hey, you know, this is part of it, right?
We’re building workforce. We’re doing workforce development. We’re going to think about how do we build this next generation of people who can get into [00:18:00] climate jobs?
To do better, to make it more accessible, to think about how this industry has been very gatekept and hasn’t provided the right conditions to really employ more diverse, qualified candidates.
So people can learn more by following green jobs board or people can learn more by going to my website, browngirlgreen. com, and also following at Green Jobs Board and at browngirl underscore green, where we talk all things, uh, environmental education and climate jobs and opportunities.
EPISODE ENDS
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