This new series from environmental sustainability expert Heather Burns explores coaching with the climate in mind, including how best to coach professionals directly involved in tackling climate change Part 1: Setting the scene
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
Dr Jane Goodall, anthropologist
The news headlines and the numbers are everywhere, and they are terrifying. I’m not talking about Covid-19 but climate change.
Prompted in part by the release of a Special Report in October 2018 from the United Nations’ leading authority on global climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), media and public opinion are experiencing a collective “breakthrough” as the reality of “a 12-year” deadline to stave off a “climate change catastrophe” sinks in.1
The Fourth National Climate Assessment published the following month, echoed the IPCC and added context: “Climate change creates new risks and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities in communities [in the United States], presenting growing challenges to human health and safety, quality of life, and the rate of economic growth.”2
Most of us can think back and remember what we were doing 12 years ago. In 2008, I was a single parent of two toddlers building a business to align with my values and assuage my climate change angst, interrupted by the global recession which required piecing together freelance gigs until I could build my sustainability and corporate social responsibility consulting practice
back up.
Twelve years before that, I was an ex-pat living on a sparsely developed 21-square kilometre island in the Sea of Thailand, and working as a divemaster. I pushed aside my galeophobia every day to dive in the same salty waters, and over time I found myself connecting spiritually to the world below the waves. As rainy season approached and the trade winds and tides grew stronger, the once pristine beaches were covered with trash blown in from the commercial fishing boats moored off the coast.
I spent the next year on the island figuring out how to help two industries (commercial fishing and tourism) find ways to work together to minimise their environmental impact.
Once back in the US, I finally got around to renting the film, An Inconvenient Truth on DVD (remember those?). I made some popcorn, sat down and reluctantly pushed ‘play’. Sure, I was expecting a sobering dose of reality, but watching Al Gore point to a line of greenhouse gas emissions ascend all the way up and off a 12-foot screen nearly propelled me into a panic attack. Just before I hit ‘stop’, he said, “Before you jump from denial to despair, stop in the middle and do something.”
I’ve spent the past 12 years working with thousands of purpose-driven business leaders and entrepreneurs who are figuring that ‘something’ out.
Answering the call
Making the decision to use one’s career as a tool to solve the climate crisis is a brave one, and it requires a degree of professional risk as we stretch into new territory and move purposefully from overwhelm to action. Those who are successful incorporating climate change action into their work are skillful at negotiation, relationship building and communication. They excel at empathy and take on the mantle of ‘servant leadership’, even when they are most comfortable operating behind the scenes.
A higher purpose drives us outside of our comfort zone and calls on us to master skills, take on roles and navigate system conditions we may have otherwise avoided. This is true for coaches leaning into this space,
and for the climate change leaders and advocates they wish to serve. So where to begin?
The North Star of climate change
It’s easy to find ourselves wrapped up in the ‘what’ and ‘why’ and fumble around to figure out where or how to start. This is particularly true these days when there is so much information out there about the causes, impacts and co-impacts of climate change – not to mention the overall decline of ecosystems. Ocean plastics pollution, factory farming, genetically modified crops, toxic chemicals and water pollution are all noble plights that will improve the state of the environment, but will not improve climate change.
I am not suggesting we give up on working to solve our most pressing environmental problems, but if we recognise that a warming planet will make every environmental and societal problem we face today worse, then all decisions, actions and changes we make must “reduce greenhouse gases by avoiding or sequestering carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere”. 3 The good news is that we can exponentially increase the positive impact of those actions by supporting business leaders who seek to deepen their company’s commitment to carbon reductions; the activists who challenge the old guard and demand changes to public policy; the entrepreneurs who take the leap of faith required to grow companies that provide us with solutions; and the artists who seek to connect us to ourselves, to nature and to each other.
Connecting to climate
“Climate is determined by the long-term pattern of oceanic and atmospheric conditions at a location, and is described by temperature, precipitation, and other variables, and by the intensity, frequency, and duration of weather events.”4
It is not something we typically think about day-to-day, aside from choosing our attire for the day, nor is climate top of the priority list. At least that was true before wildfires ravaged Australia, floods wiped out food supplies in the US and hurricanes have grown in a frequency and intensity impossible to ignore. Yet, the cause of these destructive natural events – greenhouse gases – remain invisible to us.
How can we change something we can’t even see? Greenhouse gases originate from five primary sources: electricity; industry; transportation; buildings and food, agriculture and land use. Those gases are trapped safely by carbon sinks in the ocean and soils. By eliminating greenhouse gases on the front end and protecting the sinks that naturally store them, we can draw down carbon in the atmosphere to a point where the climate can stabilise.
When we place climate change at the centre of our personal actions, learning how to connect everyday activities directly to the reduction of carbon emissions becomes clearer, and the path to a low carbon economy required to stabilise the planet’s climate more attainable. When we extend our commitment from our personal lives to our profession, we can scale the impact and watch the magic happen.
- Next issue: How to make climate change more central to your coaching practice, including how to talk to existing clients about climate change, and reach new ones working in the field.
- Heather Burns is CEO and founder of Breakthrough Sustainability and the Connecticut Sustainable Business Council. https://bit.ly/2SpghR1
Getting started – some useful definitions
- Carbon sink: a forest, ocean, or other natural environment viewed in terms of its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Climate change: this occurs when changes in Earth’s climate system result in new weather patterns that remain in place for an extended period of time.
- Corporate social responsibility: a management concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders.
- Environmental sustainability: avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
- Greenhouse gases: Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
References
1 Intergovernmental Special Report
2 The Fourth National Climate Report
3 The Drawdown Review, Climate Solutions for a New Decade 2020
4 National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration