Here’s an excellent twitter thread from Cody Simms (Partner, MCJ Collective @mcjpod and Co-founder, Climate Changemakers @theclimatevote) about climate work and side hustles that may be of some inspiration as you contemplate the practicalities of switching to a green job.
1: One of the best things about how remote work is evolving is the ability for people who are fortunate enough to continue doing it to be able to have multiple side hustles and/or explorations going at once. I’m seeing this trend help a lot of people transition into climate.
2: When you worked full time in an office, there were always people coming by your desk. What was on your screen mattered. Remember the “Boss Button” on the March Madness livestreams? Lol.
3: And your work hours were also generally accounted for. During the 8-10 hours you were in the office, you were for the most part doing work work.
4: Today, everyone is more in control of their schedules, their hours, and their breaks. And digital async comms have become the norm. This isn’t news to anyone, but it the second order effects are huge.
5: Slack & Discord have become the command centers for our professional lives. Zoom and Twitter Spaces have digital conference rooms. When you WFH, no one cares what Slack or Discord window you have open when you are in between meetings or when you are on a call.
6: This has allowed online climate communities like MCJ (@mcjpod) and Climate Changemakers (@theclimatevote) to thrive and become vibrant. And the boom in DAO projects on Discord like @ToucanProtocol has benefitted similarly. People can be checked in while also still working.
7: Time is malleable. If you don’t have to commute, you’ve found an extra 30-90 minutes in your day, and the idea of one project for one locale and a different project for a different locale has melted.
8: Working on your climate community project mid-day? Don’t feel guilty…just do your day job work later that evening. And vice versa. As long as you get your stuff done and are a productive team member, it all comes out in the wash.
9: So much of learning a new space today is learning who you want to learn from. Community tools help the most informed people find a platform for their work and generate a following, which helps more people ascribe to their knowledge and their systems. It’s self-reinforcing.
10: Learn by doing is real. So many people I know are volunteering fractional time on climate projects. Much of that can even be the operational structure of the climate communities themselves. Leverage operational skills while absorbing climate content & knowledge.
11: Structured learning is fitting this trend too. There’s no need to “go back to school” when you can pursue per-based learning through platforms like @terradotdo that fit their learning structure neatly into all of the trends above.
12: Can you fit in 2-3 hours of workshops and seminars into your day over the course of 12 weeks? Yes. Can you still get all of your work done, of course. Does anyone care what’s open on your screen at any given time? Nope.
13: And then once you are ready to go from learning to doing, the collaboration structures are already in place and are already how people have been learning.
14: Going from climate learning in @terradotdo, climate networking in @mcjpod, climate action in @theclimatevote, climate contributing in @klimadao to pursuing your own climate building with groups like @beondeck is just natural.
15: And this isn’t just for tech startups. I’ve seen this same playbook used by new climate marketing groups like @we_regenerates, content groups like @PiqueAction, design groups like @ClmtDesigners and so many more examples like this.
16: Not ready to start your own thing? Totally cool…use the skills & network you built doing all of these things and find a climate gig at a company (and there are more and more climate jobs appearing every day). Recruiters like @climatepeopleare plugged into all of this too.
17: Not only is remote work speeding innovation cycles for climate, it’s also good for our climate problem! Less travel, less commute, less office footprint…these are all good.
18: Just make sure to take care of yourself. It’s easy to grind yourself down. Yes the carbon math says this problem is beyond urgent. But it’s also easy to get into overwork cycles too. Pace yourself so you don’t end up burning out. Sustainability applies to you too!