Some advice for climatetech professionals

For the last two years I've been writing a column for Canary Media, originally called Friday Social (focusing on social media & climate change), we later broadened it to Climate Meets Culture.

I've been fortunate to chat with some brilliant and creative entrepreneurs, inventors, artists, musicians, and climatetech professionals for the column.

Early on, I started asking my interviewees what advice or message they had for Canary's audience of climatetech professionals and policymakers. The answers were always insightful, so it's become a staple question that I ask of everyone.

I've compiled some of the answers below.

Super Soaker Inventor turned climatetech entrepreneur, Lonnie Johnson

Mike Munsell: What advice do you have for Canary’s audience, many of whom are renewable energy and climatetech professionals?

Johnson: Well, climate change is an important problem to address; it’s probably the most important challenge humanity has faced. It could literally lead to our demise. So I would encourage anyone who has technical interest, and even social interest, because there are a lot of people that need to understand the implications of what we’re facing. There’s a role for everyone to play in addressing this challenge and getting the resources and problem-solving momentum that we will need to move things in the right direction.

Read more: This billion-dollar-selling toy was inspired by heat pumps

Sidenote: I also wrote an article with resources for getting a job in climatetech

Children's music legend Raffi on talking with kids about climate change

I asked Raffi (of Baby Beluga and Down by the Bay fame) what his advice was for parents about how and when to talk to their children about climate change:

Raffi: "Wait. Wait until the child asks you about climate change. And then, depending on the child’s age, your response can be brief and not alarming. You don’t want to get into a long climate-data talk. Keep it brief, don’t say too much. If and when the child returns for more, then say more. We want to comfort, not add to the child’s anxiety. Comfort comes in knowing that many are engaged in climate action, and we’re in this together."

Read more: When — and how — should you talk to your kids about climate change?

Britt Wray, PhD , author specializing in climate & mental health

Munsell: As a professional in the energy and climate space, I struggle with a dichotomy: On one hand, I feel that I’m barraged with climate catastrophe news 24/7. But simultaneously, I’m aware that we’re really close to the solutions and are seeing the energy transition happen in real time, albeit not fast enough.

Wray: Those who are really close professionally to the climate crisis are one of the frontline communities in terms of the psychological impacts. Staring into the abyss of the climate crisis eight hours a day takes a mental toll, but it often isn’t recognized. So many of us are buttoned up at work. Of course, there are no norms for talking about emotions when we’re dealing with rational, solution-based work, for example, or highly empirical data gathering on how the climate crisis is affecting our ecosystems.

Psychosocial supports to prevent burnout are critical but so underexplored. There’s a climate adaptation professional named Susanne Moser who specializes in creating the resources to support climate mitigation and adaptation professionals. It’s much like with the pandemic — we see that our frontline health care workers are burning out in massive numbers doing the kind of work that they’ve needed to do for the last two-plus years. The emotional drain is real. And as the climate crisis continues to challenge our communities, the demands on all the experts in the climate space will also continue to grow.

Interestingly, many of the people like you who are so close to solutions understand that all is not lost. And that’s key — being able to have eyes on the solution, not just what we’re fighting against, but what we’re working for. And being able to have that within reach is so important for the way that we’re modeling our climate communications, giving people robust, meaningful pathways to think through and imagine that are inherently hopeful. And to get away from the misinformation, which often a depressive mindset can kind of cling to.

Munsell: Do you have any advice for Canary’s audience of energy and climate professionals and policymakers? 

Wray: I would suggest creating a space in your work team to have a conversation about how everyone’s feeling, because everyone, I’m sure, is really talented and committed as an external action-taker. But is there also a space for addressing the psychological, internal, emotional aspect? Can having conversations that validate this lead to greater connection to your colleagues and to the work? Could it be helpful?

Read more: Worried about climate change? You’re not alone

The Tetris Company & Blue Planet Energy founder Henk Rogers

Munsell: OK, a couple more quick questions. Canary’s audience is largely climatetech practitioners and policymakers. What advice do you have for them?

Rogers: First of all, welcome to the club. We as an industry have to organize. Lithium ferrous phosphate is still called lithium-ion, so it gets bundled together with the more flammable nickel manganese cobalt. And just because it says lithium-ion, it’s treated like hazmat. Let’s call it something else — call it ferrous phosphate instead of lithium-ion. I want people to understand safety is an important factor. Let’s switch to a chemistry that’s benign and clean up our act.

My other message to everyone is about solving the climate crisis: We are doing this. We are doing this. This is not like we may do it or we hope we’ll do it. People ask me if I have hope. The answer is no, I do not have hope. I have determination. In order to solve this problem, we have to have determination. And if we do, it’ll be solved way ahead of time.

Read more: Meet Henk Rogers, video game icon turned climate champion

Wes Andrews , Climatoonist

I asked Andrews if he had a message for Canary’s audience. He talked about the importance of having a sense of humor, particularly in the face of challenges when working on renewable energy projects at the local level.

He went on:

"Ultimately, it’s going to take a lot of unlikely alliances and collaboration to get projects built in a way that benefits everybody. The folks that have gone to bat with you on a project are often not the ones you’d expect. For example, in a very red county, you may have right-leaning people who are cheering you on to build your project because they see it as a business opportunity that will benefit their locality and landowners. And on the other side of the table might be an environmental organization that is more aligned conceptually with the idea of clean energy but is pushing back due to land-use restrictions, zoning or other reasons. It can be frustrating because it feels like we should be all pulling together, but I think it’s also really interesting, which has led to some of my sketches."

Read more: Is the energy transition funny? This cartoonist thinks so

Nate Adams 'the House Whisperer' on electrifying HVAC

I asked Adams if he had a message for Canary’s audience of energy and climatetech professionals. While the focus of this column is typically online content, he had a very offline answer.

“Get out of your office and see what [an HVAC] job looks like, boots on the ground, and understand how complicated the job is and how complicated the job is to sell.” He went on to say, “If you can try to understand what’s going on in the lives of HVAC contractors, it will be very helpful, and you’ll get to expand the boundary between blue and white collar.”

Nate believes educating both homeowners and HVAC contractors is paramount to quickly moving the needle forward on residential decarbonization.

Read more: Micro-documentaries on climatetech, the Electrify Everything online community and more

Climate communicators Alaina Wood & Doria Brown on short form video platforms

I told The Garbage Queen that I’d be writing this up for Canary’s audience of thousands of energy professionals and policymakers and asked her what she’d want to tell them.

“They absolutely need to be on TikTok because people are asking all the time, ‘What are the solutions? Who are the groups that are actively implementing these solutions?’ I can’t answer all of those questions because I’m not in those industries.”

She went on to say how much demand there is on the platform for knowledgeable people working on climate solutions.

I also caught up with another EcoTok content creator, Doria Brown, whose day job is serving as energy manager for the city of Nashua, New Hampshire. On TikTok, she goes by the moniker Earth Stewardess. When asked what her message would be for Canary’s audience, she said:

“The future is that app with all the little dancers on it. The future is video, and it’s important to learn to communicate in those quick [Instagram] Reels and TikTok-style videos.”

Read more: Friday Social: Welcome to our Tik-Talk

Climate career experts Brendan Andersen and Kristy Drutman on getting jobs in climatetech

I asked Climate People’s Brendan Andersen about his recommendations for climatetech jobseekers. He said, “Do your homework and understand as much about the industry as possible. Use climate-specific resources to find jobs — they’re out there to help you.”

Kristy Drutman told me that men, specifically white men, are overrepresented in the climatetech space, and she wanted to create a more inclusive platform. In a recent Instagram post, she notes that Green Jobs Board will be “working to bridge the ‘green divide’ when it comes to getting more people — especially BIPOC, low-income, and folks in the Global South — eventually employed in companies and organizations aligned with addressing the climate crisis.”

Read more: Want to work in climatetech? Here’s how to get started

Climate reporter and podcaster Kendra P. ierre Louis

Munsell: Your podcast is great at highlighting climate solutions. Do you have a message for Canary’s audience of professionals working on these solutions?

Pierre-Louis: Think beyond individual actions. For so long, the climate messaging was “buy this green thing,” and not only is that not true, it’s disempowering. What we need is people getting together as active participants in our democracy, working toward solutions on the school board, in the PTA, going to community board and planning board meetings, drafting legislative bills with their neighbors, and so on.

Read more: Podcast party: A chat with Kendra Pierre-Louis of ‘How to Save a Planet,’ plus a Canary podcast playlist

Gregory Horner and Doria Brown on local climate action

I asked Horner what advice he has for anyone thinking about getting involved in local climate action.

“You have to think of it as a marathon, not a sprint; you don’t want to get burned out. Try not to bite off too much because it’s a long game. Everything takes a long time to come to fruition. [A solar carport at the school] has been approved and in the queue for at least six months already, and it’s not going to happen for probably another year.”

I posed the same question to Doria Brown , a climate communicator and energy manager for the city of Nashua, New Hampshire, who has also been involved with local climate action in New England. Here’s her answer:

"I would say to pick your battles. When you’re investing time into a project, that project has to be viable and exciting to the community and provide real value and impact. If you can positively impact your community by increasing the size of their wallets and [also] bring renewable energy or a sustainability aspect to it, I think that that’s a great and viable project and worth the battle."

She had one more thing to say.

“My [other] piece of advice is to be careful. I first got into the local energy climate solution thing by joining my municipality’s Environment and Energy Committee. And I am now the energy manager for the city of Nashua. So here we are. Those local committees really can have a lot of impact.”

Read more: Here’s what local climate action looks like in small-town USA

Michael Hawthorne Jr. and Corey Dennard on the importance of culture in the context of clean energy adoption

“The technical solutions are needed to facilitate the clean energy transition, but don’t forget about the culture,” said Hawthorne. “And don’t underestimate its power. I think a lot of people in this space have done amazing work on the technical side. But I see a reality where we can blend the two worlds and accelerate the solution.”

“Let’s all get together and make a real change,” said Dennard.

Read more: This Atlanta duo has a theory to drive climate action: Make it cool

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