The Climate Career Gameplan: Tips and Strategies with Kealy Herman

Hey there,

I am excited to share the first episode of the Sustainability Skill Set podcast with you!

Over the next few weeks, I will describe some of my favorite parts of the 8 episodes we've recorded so far.

Episode 1. The Climate Career Gameplan: Tips and Strategies with Kealy Herman

In this episode, I spoke with Kealy Herman, Global Technical Director of Net Zero Strategy at the sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy firm, Arcadis.

We had such an interesting conversation about the key activities sustainability professionals perform in their jobs and how they integrate sustainability into the way we run organizations.

Here’s what I found most interesting and applicable to my job:

#1 - Prioritizing Sustainability Initiatives

Prioritizing projects is key for sustainability teams that are small and under-resourced.

It’s tempting to want to focus on everything at once, but Kealy describes the importance of using certain techniques to identify which projects will have the greatest impact and highest probability of success.

#2 - Change Management

Sustainability professionals use change management skills to transform organizations by engaging with people, developing a plan, and guiding a smooth transition to a new status quo.

I’m always interested in finding useful frameworks for thinking about the ‘job’ of sustainability.

I will definitely seek to learn more about the tools and approaches for effective change management after hearing Kealy talk about it.

After all, once you come up with a sustainability strategy, the main function of a sustainability professional is often about guiding organizations to make improvements.

#3 - Adjusting your message

This episode was a good reminder to always align my messaging with the values and priorities of the people I speak with to gain their support and cooperation.

Everyone is facing different demands in their work and the best way to win their cooperation is to fully understand their perspective and demonstrate to them that you want to work WITH them, not against them.

Successful sustainability professionals ask difficult questions to get to this level of understanding.

Having worked as both a consultant and in-house sustainability leader, Kealy has a unique perspective on sustainability careers in consulting versus those within companies.

She wrote a fantastic LinkedIn article on this topic and dove into the differences during this episode, highlighting the differences in specialization, company politics, and collaboration with internal partners between these two types of positions.

Read or listen to the full episode to learn more.

Thank you for your interest in this project! Feel free to hit that reply button anytime. I would love to hear from you.

Wishing you the best,

Louis DeMaso