Degrees: Real talk about planet-saving careers

Greening your job often means talking about sustainability and climate solutions at work. But how do you talk about climate change when your boss doesn’t get it — and doesn’t want to hear it? On today’s show, climate communication rock star Dr. Katharine Hayhoe shares her own journey learning how to do some of the most difficult planet-saving work there is: learning how to talk about climate change across political, emotional, geographical, and generational divides.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and the best-selling author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, host of the PBS digital series Global Weirding, and chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy. Considered a Canadian polar bear where she lives in Texas, you’ll hear how Dr. Hayhoe has approached conversations on climate with everyone from women’s book clubs, to church groups, to college students taking jobs in oil and gas. Through listening and finding common ground, she’s persuaded all kinds of people to help save the planet. And you can too!

Federal legislation is projected to create 1.5 million new jobs in infrastructure and clean energy each year for the next ten years! Whether you want to decarbonize energy supply chains for hydrogen hubs, accelerate electric vehicle battery manufacturing or write grants to implement geothermal energy plants, there’s a role for you. Our guest, Betony Jones, directs the federal Office of Energy Jobs. A hallmark of her whole career has been finding climate solutions that boost the economy and provide good union jobs. In this episode, Betony Jones will guide you to where those jobs are and how to get one.

When it comes to green careers — and planet-saving vocations — there’s a huge sector many of us overlook: faith traditions. Religious leaders from practically every tradition are now waking up to making climate change central to their theology. Today, we take a deep dive with Rev. Dr. Ambrose F. Carroll, a pastor at the forefront of a movement to “green the church” — particularly the Black church. His passion for the natural world and climate action led him to found Green the Church, an organization devoted to helping Black Churches become hubs for sustainability and environmentalism.

In the sixth season of Degrees, “How to Green Your Job,” the pastor speaks with host Yesh Pavlik Slenk about his journey toward seeing himself as a steward of the planet and a faith leader. He shares the initial challenges he faced in engaging congregants and colleagues in conversations about environmentalism, and how he set out to “wake up the sleeping giant that is the Black Church.” You’ll also hear other faith perspectives on climate action, including Catholicism, Judaism, Islam and Jainism.

After a squirrely career path, Solitaire Townsend found her role in the sustainability movement by filling a big communication gap: she’s persuasive, an excellent storyteller, and loves talking to people. Today, she lives and breathes public relations for good as co-founder and Chief Solutionist at her company Futerra.There, she’s led sustainability planning with name-brand organizations from the United Nations to Formula 1.

But she’s also in a fight with her own industry.

Solitaire is working hard to get her colleagues in PR, marketing, and advertising to stop using their talents for the objectives of fossil fuel clients.

In this episode, you’ll hear about a crisis we rarely hear about: how, using the powers of storytelling and persuasion, the fossil fuel industry has been outsmarting the climate movement. And you’ll learn how Solitaire and her team began applying sophisticated storytelling strategies to sustainability before it was cool; ways you can use your talents to get a climate-fighting job in the creative services industry; or create a career in sustainability at the job you have right now.

Is the green job search making you feel downtrodden? Do you have application burnout? Do you lie awake at night wondering: Should I follow up — again? On this Degrees hotline episode with sustainability job coach Shannon Houde, we answer these questions and more.

Through Shannon’s company Walk of Life coaching, she has helped more than a thousand changemakers from around the world unlock their passions, change their careers, and make an impact. In this episode, she tackles your job-seeking challenges and guides you through the frustrating and exhausting parts of the search, whether you’re just starting your career journey or making a mid-career change. She’ll help you translate your skills to a field you want. She’ll help you celebrate every win (even if it’s not THE job) and teach you which job-hunting tactics will actually get you results. Don’t miss the insights she shares with Degrees host Yesh Pavlik Slenk, a green careers expert in her own right.

Scott Z. Burns intends to be part of climate action, and he’s using his prolific storytelling talents to both entertain and inspire others to do the same. You’ve likely seen his work. Scott has spent years honing his storytelling chops as a screenwriter, director, producer and playwright. He wrote screenplays such as the 2011 medical disaster thriller “Contagion,” 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “The Informant,” and was also a producer on Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” His new project, “Extrapolations,” is a series about how climate change impacts our relationships, work, worship– and ultimately every aspect of our lives.

In the sixth season of Degrees, “How to Green Your Job,” Scott speaks with Degrees host Yesh Pavlik Slenk about how he went from advertising (the famous “Got Milk” campaign) to Hollywood. He also talks about how a love for the planet has been an ongoing theme for much of his life, and how his experience volunteering at an otter rehabilitation center following a crude oil spill continues to haunt him. Finally, Scott shares advice for filmmakers and storytellers about “Trojan horsing” climate change into all genres.

Ever wonder what it’s like to bring your own seat to the table at one of the world’s largest, high-stakes climate conferences? Youth Climate Collaborative (YCC) founder Pooja Tilvawala certainly knows. Since attending her first global climate summit in 2018 as a college senior, Pooja has been getting her foot in the door to participate in some of the most important climate convenings of our time, including the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, COP26.

In 2020, at the age of 24, Pooja began laying the groundwork for YCC. She wanted to help other young people channel their climate anxiety into action on the global stage. On this episode of Degrees Season 6: How to Green Your Job, join us as Pooja–now 27–reflects on her journey. You’ll learn how you, too, can make your voice heard at global climate summits. And while it may all feel super serious, in the end there is always room for laughs.

You likely have lots of feelings about living in a changing climate: from anger to frustration, dread and anxiety, but also motivation to do something about it out of love for being alive, love for your family and love for the planet. Rebecca Weston says that while these emotions can be difficult and scary, all of the feelings you have about climate change, including your love for the planet, can be "mobilized" into action on personal and community levels. Weston is a psychotherapist who practices climate psychology. She’s also co-president of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America.

In the sixth season of Degrees, “How to Green Your Job,” Rebecca speaks with Degrees host Yesh Pavlik Slenk about how this approach to mental health care is different from how the field has historically been practiced. She also shares her journey from labor law to climate-aware psychology, and how she grappled with her own climate anxiety.

Creating a green career out of thin air? That’s bananas! Literally. Ciara Imani May is the CEO of the company Rebundle, a hair extensions brand made out of the fiber found in banana trees. What started as a quest to live a zero waste lifestyle and find a career through which Imani May could live her values, has led to a consumer product that solves an environmental problem — and a health issue too.

In this episode of Degrees Season 6: How to Green Your Job, join us as we take a trip down memory lane with Ciara Imani May to understand how she came up with her plant-based idea and transformed it into a product that’s positively impacting people and the planet. And while entrepreneurship might not be the path for everyone, her story shows that being values-driven and persistent can help you be the green change you want to see.

Struggling to find a sustainability job? Well, good news. You don’t have to find one…you can MAKE one. Drew Wilkinson was a punk rocker and eco-pirate when he landed a job as a paralegal at Microsoft. He felt like a fish out of water in the corporate tech world, but instead of changing his DIY-contrarian tune, Drew leaned in. Though “sustainability” wasn’t in his job description, Drew co-founded a powerful employee sustainability community. It would grow to the thousands, stretch across the globe, and push Microsoft to use their billions to do better for the planet.

In the first episode of Degrees Season 6: How to Green Your Job, Drew’s story is a top-notch lesson in forging your way into a planet-saving career. He took what he already knew how to do — disrupt a system, innovate solutions, and organize folks around him — and applied it to greening his workplace. Now, he’s taking his climate solutions work outside the walls of Microsoft and working independently to help organizations become more sustainable through employee-led solutions, and make sustainability part of everybody’s job.