How to quit your job for the climate

Hi Ascar, Happy new year to you. So one of the things that we hear a lot about while working on this podcast is just how many new jobs the green economy will create. But even though that transition is already well on the way, I think it's often talked about in the future tens. It's something for lace this decade or maybe even next. So we wanted to hear from some of the people who have already taken a

very deliberate decision to work in the climate space. Yeah, and I find people who have changed their careers really inspiring. I really enjoyed hearing these stories. To switch fields is very difficult and scary, especially if you've already sunk years into your industry. You've got a lot of financial responsibilities, and there's just always this feeling of is it too late? But as you will hear, is never too late. The green economy is very real and people found new jobs.

So last year we put out a request for people to send us their own climate career stories, and we asked for four things. One what job did you quit and what is your new role? Two what moment made you quit? Three what were your expectations and what was the reality? And for what advice do you have for others? And we heard from listeners from all over the world and with all sorts of different career paths. I used to work in reality television in Hollywood, my job as

a management consultant at BCG. I live in Lipari in North Karelia in Finland. I decided to move in with my partner on a completely off grid island four and a half years ago. I quit my corporate job in the beauty industry to fight climate change. Unfortunately, we won't be able to play through all of them, so really sorry in advance if we didn't get round to yours, But thank you so much to everyone who sent in

their stories. Christine, would you like to introduce the first one. Yes, the first story we're going to hear comes out of the United States, and it starts with a disaster. My name is Laura Brown, and my story really starts in March twenty twenty. It was March third, in the middle of the night, win a massive tornado just completely wiped out my neighborhood in Nashville and caused over one and a half billion dollars and damages to the Middle Tennessee community.

It's been one year since the Mid South witness history a tornado outbreak, taking the lives of twenty five people and changing the lives of countless others. That was then made worse when a week later the COVID blackdowns happened, and nobody in my community had any place to go. We didn't have power. Most everyone's house was just completely destroyed, so we were basically climate refugees. During the first part of the pandemic, Laura's career had been on the upswing.

She was a publisher for a travel magazine. She'd recently gotten a big promotion and had been given a bigger budget. But when the pandemic hit, it shut down the travel industry and forced her to rethink her career and honestly, like the tornado really put a fire under my butt that climate change is no longer an issue that I can ignore. So went to business school, took a bunch of extra classes on sustainability esg. Running business for good, and then spent about six months on the job search.

The job search was much harder than she expected. She had an MBA, and she saw that people were talking about climate jobs and big institutions were putting money into climate. But the reality was the jobs that I was applying to were largely looking for someone who had already had climate experience. I think for every interview I got, I probably got twenty five knows and probably another fifty just I sent my resume into the ether and then didn't

ever hear anything again. I think anyone who's recently applied for a job can identify with the agony of sending in applications and just hearing nothing in return. Yes, I really loved her weird chimes of sending them into the ether. But she did eventually find a job right happily, Yes she did. And my advice to others, I think you just have to make the decision and then stick with it.

We're in this for the long haul. This is not a problem that's going to go away, and there's a lot of really great, profoundly empowering work to be done. Thank you. Thanks Laura Oscar who's not so We actually heard a lot of stories of people who were leaving

the oil and gas industry. We heard from one listener called Yan who was working in the Public and Government Affairs department of Exon in Germany, and he called quitting the company the best decision of his life and moved to Sweden, studied sustainable development and you met my wife. But there was one story that really piqued my interest,

and that came from Dmitri la Fleur. I was a geoscientist at CHILL and a geoscientist provides views and analysis on the harder carbon reservoirs, what they look like, how big they are, how much oil or gases in there where you would drill to optimize oil or gas production. Dmitri had spent more than a decade working for Shell and after a few postings in Europe, he became an advisor for the company's offshore gas fields in Western Australia,

which were exporting ellen gy to Asia. At the moment I quit was the confirmation that Shell was not moving fast enough with diversification of its business portfolio. And at the time I was thinking that Shell should use its competitive advantage to develop geothermal energy and move into the electricity sector. At the time, the idea that Shell would

be moving into the electricity sector was laughed at. Dmitri says he was told Shell wouldn't be committing any serious money to alternative energies for fifteen years, and he realized in that moment he didn't want to spend the next decade and a half working on gas projects, so he

left the company. So what went into that decision, Well, he told us that his job at Shell had given him a lot of security and that the company was seen as a really good employer when he joined in the nineteen nineties, but when it came down to it, his values no longer matched the companies and that was the deciding factor. My expectation was that I had to go back to university to do a degree in climate change or energy transition to be able to transition to

the renewable energy industry. The reality is that doing a PhD wasn't necessary, but it did make me realize that transition of a workforce is not easy. How do you effectively repurpose the skills that are present in an industry that fundamentally has to change. So what's Dmitri doing now? Dmitri is using his skills to evaluate the emission plans

of big pollutus. My role today is chief Scientists at ACCR, and we analyze that climate transition plans of big greenhouse gas emitters to understand how and if they are decabinizing in line with the Paris equipment. Okay, so let's talk about another listener, this time a restaurant reviewer. My name is Catherine Cleary and I quit my job as a

restaurant reviewer. Catherine was a food critic at the Irish Times in Dublin, and the turning point for her was reading a report that the Intergovernmental Panel and Climate Change IPCC released in twenty eighteen. That report outlined what's likely to happen if we exceed one point five degrees celsius of warming in the next few decades. I burst into

tears at my desk. I was working from home at the time, so it was less embarrassing than it sounds, but the twelve year time frame really hit me hard. My youngest son at the time was eight years old, so that twelve years would bring him to literally becoming an adult, coming of age in a world that was rapidly becoming uninhabitable. Fast forward a couple of years and the pandemic hits. Restaurants close and Katherine ended up using

that time to start a new venture. In twenty twenty, I set up a social enterprise with my co founder called Pocket for Us. We try to reconnect people with nature in the urban areas by helping them to regenerate soil and plant small pockets of native trees and shrubs. And Katherine isn't the only one who made their decision

after seeing a major climate report. We also heard from Justin Kennedy, who was an oil and gas lawyer based in Australia for twenty two years, but who's now working on the construction of sun Cable, which get this, it's a four thousand, two hundred kilometers subsea cable that will send Australia in renewable energy to Singapore. The particular tipping point was in May twenty one, when the IEA put out its report saying basically, no new fossil fuel projects.

And you know, the sort of work I did was new developments, and I was working on the Scarborak l energy project at the time, massive project, and I was thinking, well, it probably is time to get out, and so I was really from that point on motivated on getting a job in renewables. And so far he seems to be

loving it. It's still early days. I've only been doing it a couple of months, but it's going brilliantly well because the skills that you know, I refined over many years, particularly in commercializing gas and LNG projects, it's directly applicable. So it's kind of doing what I love doing. I'm enjoying it. It's complementary to my skills. Justin told us that the job security in his new role isn't as good as it was when he was working as an oil and gas lawyer, but the upside is he gets

to work on renewables projects. We heard from several people who had faced the same dilemma, but no one said that they've regretted their decision. And what advice did Justin give basically to lean on your network especially when it's not clear what opportunities might exist for someone with your skill set. It's not a lot of roles around, and I do have some sympathy for people who stay in oil and gas. But I think we've past the tipping point.

You know, the transition is happening. The roles will be there, just people working at it, and hopefully, you know, you'll find your opportunity. If you can't find an opportunity, you can also make it. We heard from Patrick Long, who started a new enterprise, earth Shot Labs, after spending years in tach So. I spent eleven years at Google. I left Google to join Two Sigma Investments, and then I had a big awakening at the beginning of two thousand

and twenty. So again, early twenty twenty, just before the pandemic hits, Patrick hads to Hawaii to go on a spiritual retreat. So we've got Google, we've got finance, and we've got a spiritual retreat in Hawaii. This is a very Silicon Valley sounding story, yes, and it also taps into networks, so it continues. At the retreat, Patrick meets his co founder and they create this company called earth Shot,

and as they're developing their projects. They bring this tech centric way of building things, but they slowly realize that this does not offer all of the answers when it comes to something like forestry adopting the traditional Silicon valley and also financial industry mentality of treating it like something to be optimized, like ride sharing or you know, building a search engine, it's just not going to work. The

most important thing is trusted relationship. Like you can't just walk in with you know, a technology solution and expect people to just say, oh, great, you have an amazing technology. You can optimize this. No, there's a sort of a messy, human, beautiful aspect to this that can't just be solved using technology. After the break, what happens when you go to the ends of the earth for climate and what you do?

You just want to stay put, Christine. You mentioned earlier in the episode what a life changing event switching jobs can be. Yes, it affects everything, your finances, how you spend your time, your relationships, and all of that ways into someone's decision, which is why I think for most people, changing jobs is enough of an ordeal to want to keep everything else in life the same. But some listeners we heard from took their quest for a climate job

a little bit further than others. Like Rebecca Cook. So, I was a freelance journalist and communications professional, and I was working in London, and I felt a real professional friction between what was deemed urgent by my work and what I knew to be urgent in reality. So what do you do when the professional friction becomes too much?

I quit my job. I left London as well at the same time, and I decided to move in with my partner on a completely off grid island in New Zealand, to live completely off grid, be powered completely by solar, to try to get as much of our food as possible from a vegetable garden, and get the water that we used from a nearby stream heated by a solar water heater. Rebecca is now an energy and climate content writer, maintaining contact with the world through her solar powered Wi Fi,

which doesn't always behave itself. I did see an immediate drop in my earnings, and there definitely were times when the solar inverter would blow or winter meant the batteries weren't charged enough for the Wi Fi to work, and some people just weren't happy that I couldn't meet a deadline within a few hours because I was relying on power that was provided by the sun. But that actually didn't really bother me, because I felt a real sense of renewed purpose from being in closer alignment with what

I feel is right. Rebecca, thank you very much for using your pressure solar power to send in that recording. Thank you, Rebecca. And there seems to be a trend of Londoners moving to Australasia as an antidote to a frustrating job. We also heard from Neil, who was working for a London based travel magazine when he realized he

wanted to move into the climate space. Our officers in Piccadilly Circus and I remember sitting typing while Extinction Rebellion was protesting outside, and I remember hearing the helicopters and I really wanted to be there, And I just thought, why am I sat here writing about the new exhibition at the National Gallery when Nike None of this matters anymore.

Neil quit his job, moved to Australian in twenty nineteen with his now ex boyfriend and spent most of the pandemic there, he worked on a regenerative farm and began writing articles for Extinction Rebellion. One of my articles was about banking and how people don't think about where their money is being saved. And then we set up this

organization called Bank doot Green. Go to Bank doot Green and you can type in the name of your bank and the country you're in, and it will tell you whether or not your bank is investing in fossil fuels.

A quick side note here to say that after listening to Neil's story, I actually went to the Bank doot Green website checked my bank, which was absolutely awful, saw it had invested something like one hundred and thirty billion dollars into fossil fuels over the last five years, which is a pretty catastrophic amount of money, and actually moved my bank account to a new greener bank as a result. Yeah, changing banks is easier than changing jobs if you're so inclined.

But unfortunately, despite the fact that Neil is doing good work, the change has not always been easy. The reality has been that I struggle a lot with confronting this stuff every day. But it's also that's forced me to make sure that I have some kind of balance, you know, make sure that I do things that make me happy in my life as well while I'm working on this stuff. And then I'm also really not getting paid much at

the moment. I didn't expect to get paid a lot, but the reality is that if you have to start working for free and volunteering them, do it, because yeah, no one is going to pay us to save the world. Finding a new job in the climate space is not that different from looking for any new job. It can take a while to find something that matches your skill

set and you have to be patient. But a recurring theme in the messages we received was this feeling of urgency to make the switch, a feeling that if we're going to address the climate crisis, it's now or never. And I think this next story really exemplifies that. Hi, this has been badross. I'd spend about fifteen or so years working as a lawyer, mainly on accountability for international crimes like war crimes and genocide or transnational crimes like

people smuggling or trafficking in persons. I remember when we got this voice moment and you messaged me like, oh my gosh, A war crime's lawyer wrote in Yeah, it was pretty amazing to hear why he felt working on climate change was more urgent than what he was doing before. And what Ben told us was that he was at this moment in his career where he wanted to specialize. He had two options in front of him. One was to focus on inequality and political polarization, and the other

was climate law. And in the end urgency of the climate crisis, one out. There was one day I think I was added the garden, and I just remember thinking that with climate change, if we get that wrong, it basically doesn't matter what else we get right. When you're looking at it on a generational time scale. There are other issues that we can come back and fix them later.

We can't do that with climate change. His decision was also influenced by a conversation with an old friend and colleague, who stressed how important it was that people from all different industries applied their skills to the problem. He said that climate change isn't all hands on deck emergency, but that doesn't mean that everyone needs to kind of do the same thing. We don't all need to go out

and become a modern solar panel installars. We should all look at how the skills and expertise that we can be deployed to address the climate crisis. And that requires some humility because it may not always be the most exciting or high profile pieces. Coming back to what you were saying earlier, Christine, it took Ben a lot of time and a lot of patients to move into the

climate space. He couldn't just jump into working on the highest level climate litigation, as much as he had passion for it, so we instead built up a portfolio taking on climate projects here and there until he was able to land his new role. My new role, I work as director of Legal Strategy at a small NGEO supporting enforcement, action and litigation that address climate handful activities TRIPLECA, which

stands for the Centific Climate Crime Analysis. Okay, so after that serious story, Oscar, have you heard of the Solar Coaster? That's Disneyland's new attempt to greenwashing right, sadly No. It's how people in the solar industry talk about how fast the industry changes and all of the roadblocks that come their way. As our next listener found out, Hi there, my name is Sandy Honorius and I'm the Chief Technology Officer of Sun Run. I quit my job as senior

vice president of Expedia Group's Commercial Integrations department. It's been three months since I joined sun Run and when I first joined, someone said to me, welcome to the solar coaster, and I wasn't quite sure what they meant by that,

But it has been just a wild ride. Sun Run is a company that installs solar panels and batteries and homes across the US, and just the first three months of Sandy working there, there were dramatic changes in how solar panels get paid for, some that were good for the industry, that were not so good. And then of course the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, extending tax credits for solar across the US. But for Sandy, that wild

ride has been worth it. My advice is that life is really more than just about the dollars and cents, and so as you're going through a decision making framework for yourself and what might be next, I really encourage you to consider the types of problems that you're solving and the impact that you'll have to the world in

the intangible's portion of your compensation package. Thanks the transition to a green economy will create millions of jobs directly involved in climate issues, but the majority of companies will not be directly involved. They won't be installing Certino panels or helping write climate legislation, but they will need to decarbonize. So what do you do if you're a climate conscious employee but you aren't looking to leave your job. Lucy Piper has some ideas. Hi. My name is Lucy Piper,

and I run work for Climate dot org. Lucy quit her role as a senior manager at a travel company to become the director of Work for Climate, which offers blueprints for decarbonizing companies. From the insight, I had the best job on the planet. I got to travel all over the world to make films about the communities and destinations that we've visited. But the moment that prompted me to make the decision to quit, i'd recently become a parent.

I was on my daily commute and Greta Tunberg had just given her first speech to the UN and I found myself moved to tears uncontrollably when she said the words we will never forgive you. It really crystallized for me in that moment that by doing nothing, I was complicit in the potential collapse that lay ahead, and Lucy's advice is this, if you're in the position to make change from the inside, pursuing that might be just as

effective as switching jobs. The corporate sector is responsible for over seventy percent of global emissions, controls enormous capital that flows into the fossil fuel industry, and more importantly, has the power to lobby governments for progressive climate policy. So employees have so much influence over how corporations behave so good luck. Thanks. Lucy's advice about trying to make a change first is good and sober, but as we've heard from many of our listeners, it's not always easy to do,

especially if your job is tied to fossil fuels. Our final story is one of those. My name is Joe Daniel. In the twenty ten I was working as an engineer for the oil field services company Baker Hues. The moment that made me quit was when I pitched an idea that would help cut a refinery's wastewater pollution in half, and best of all, it would actually say gave the

company money in the long run. But the company rejected the idea, and the reason that they gave was because they were afraid it might mean their permit would get more stringent down the road. If regulators saw that they were able to do so much better than the current permit allowed, it opened my eyes just how much policy had to be the driver for change, and that most policymakers didn't have engineering backgrounds. So Joe decided to take

his engineering experience and enter the world of policy. Joe is now a manager on the carbon Free Electricity team at the think tank Rocky Mountain Institute. He expected that the climate movement would be full of philosophical and political debates rather than the kind of practical problem solving he was used to. Now, I could have been more wrong. The movement is incredibly diverse when it comes to expertise

and skill sets could be more diverse. Sure, but I was coming from oil and gas, so my reference point was a world of homogeneous workforce. But there's an incredibly deep bench of economists and engineers and data scientists working on his issues. My advice to others is that if something isn't working, it's always a good idea to try something new. Oh and never ever waste your time. Indeed,

controls or anyone acting in bad faith. Your time is too valuable, and talking a valuable time, We've already taken up enough of yours. Thank you very much for listening, and a special thanks to everyone who sent in a recording. Happy New Year from all of us at zero And if you've got a climate story to share, we'd love to hear from you, please send it to zero Pod at Bloomberg dot net. We couldn't employ everyone's story in full, so before we go, here's some of our favorite bits

of advice from listeners. We heard from Amber, who used to work as a luxury brand consultant. My advice for others really is just to be unashamedly and unapologetically passionate and idealistic. We heard from Mikael, who founded a climate focused design studio. We need great, beautiful and wonderful designs and the innovation, especially for this climate positive age. Don't leave all of this work just to the engineers and mountains.

We really need the creatives. Simon, who quit his job at BCG in Switzerland to become a climate activist, get surrounded by people support you. It's not easy to go against the current and to give up a fixed job. And it's privileges. So being surrounded truly helps. Jackie, who gave up her job in reality TV in Hollywood to work on climate and food, you know, as one single person. So hows feels like I went from making no impact at all to just like a drop in the ocean.

But if enough people make this change and make their climate views known and part of their life and their values, I think it's we can make a tidal wave. Martin, who left his job as a data scientist at Airbnb to found a company focus on decarbonizing the textile industry. I used to suffer from cox as a lot of people. I was, you know, reading news. I just had a detailed daughter, and so you know, reading about IPCC we bought and what is going to be the world fifty

it's pretty depressing. And so if you are in the suffering format anxiety, my advice would be to start doing something about it. It doesn't mean that the news get better, you just mean that your perception is that's after I'm trying. I just I'm doing something, and that's that has a

calming effect. I'm Christy who grew up on a boat and work for fifteen years at a sustainability focused engineering phone, I, as a forty five year old gen xer, will not be experiencing the brunt of climate change that will be experienced by the younger generations, my children, our children's children, and for that reason I have this piece of advice.

Please harness the amazing, endless energy of our youth. Mentor them, Invite them to the table, allow them to post everything we do, allow them to have side hustles, and keep them engaged. Get them up to speed as fast as possible, because we need their energy and we need their optimism, and then we can all gather collectively to work toward a carbon free future. Thanks so much for listening to Zero. If you like the show, please rate, review, and subscribe

on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps others discover the show. Tell a friend, or tell someone who doesn't really like their job. If you've got a suggestion for a guest or topic or something you just want us to look into, get in touch at Zeropod at Bloomberg dot net. This episode was written by Zero's producer Oscar Boyd, with assistance from senior producer Christine driscoll. Our theme music is composed by wonderlely. I'm Kshatrati, wishing you a happy new year. We'll be back next week.