5 ways I levelled up my sustainability expertise in 2024
CARE CAREER COURAGE 🌱 BLOG #2
Hello, lovely new readers - how exciting! Happy Blue Monday 💙.
Just a note to say: I write my blog features as and when reflections and insights come to me. So sometimes features might get published a little while after their original inception.
I hope you enjoy reading, and any thoughts or comments of your own are always welcome in return!
Before I began my current role in sustainability, I have to admit I didn’t put in too much effort to properly educate myself on all the climate, nature and societal issues existing today. I believed in the crisis at hand and that was enough to influence me as a consumer and citizen to make changes to my behaviours and beliefs even if I didn’t have the arguments to back them up. I played more of a reactive and follower role when it came to sustainability, doing the best I could with the time and effort I had. Which I have to admit… was fairly minimal.
Since sustainability became my job and no longer just an extra-curricular hobby, I have been able to dive deeper into the systems and sources of sustainability issues today. Partly driven also by my worry of not having the adequate knowledge to do the job I now had, I called on environmental professionals in my network for some help. As you’ll quickly find out in this field of work, everyone is very generous and keen to support each other! So, what was intended to be a 30-minute call with a graduate peer quickly turned into a 2-hour deep chat (for which I had made the mistake of going into a stand-up phone booth in the office, but no regrets). I walked away with a hella long list of recommendations to check out… and a pair of very achy legs.
Here are five ways I levelled up my knowledge in 2024:
The Burning Question, Mike Berners Lee & Duncan Clarke
This book taught me SO MUCH. I still can’t believe it’s over a decade old and still so relevant and educational, it’s scary how much hasn’t changed in fossil fuel industries since then.
The Future We Choose, Christian’s Figueres & Tome Rivett-Carnac
OK so I skipped over the first anxiety-inducing chapter scenario of the planet on fire… but the rest of the book definitely had some worthwhile perspectives to consider which you might not have before.
Environmental Science CrashCourse Youtube Series
A great resource to re-jog memory of your school geography lessons
How Bad Are Bananas, Mike Berners Lee
Super interesting and useful! … OK I haven’t finished this one yet, but I will I promise.
Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA)
I joined IEMA as an affiliate member - which anyone can do, no matter your profession!
I also attended many events filling my brain with thoughts and lessons left right and centre! Perhaps another blog feature on these might be necessary; EarthFest, GreenTech Festival, Blue Earth Summit, Net Zero Festival, SPARK! Net-Zero Action Workshops 2024.
Here are five things top of my list for 2025:
Material World, Ed Conway (currently reading)
Podcasts… I’m not sure which ones yet but I want to start listening to some again
MSc in Sustainability!!! (more to come on this one)
I thought I was feeling in control of not being in control of my career path... but it turns out I might be more lost than I thought. Or it could just be the yoga or the couple glasses of sangria getting me in my feelings.
Either way, such times of divergence seem to inevitably feel turbulent. It's getting comfortable with the uncomfortable unknowns which is the trickiest part. Being comfortable in the 'grey' area as Emily in Paris once pitched (iykyk). That episode especially stuck with me as I very much relate to trying so hard to 'go with the flow' or not be phased by uncertainty. But on the inside I'm a type A personality. OK fine... on the outside too.
I don't know about you but trying to forge a path for my future makes me feel at one moment excited and then the next anxious. One moment I'm keeping chill and prescribed to the notion of going with the flow. I'm taking things as they come, trusting myself in the hands of the universe to carry me to where I'm supposed to be. Then the next, I realise I have to make a decision and I'm told I need to take some time to clear my head, determine what I truly want, and focus to make it happen. I get pepped up to be resilient and ‘achieve the end in mind’. Then I realise I have no clue what the fuck I actually want and revert to the latter mindset.
How do you maintain this balance without swinging too far one way? Either shortening your vision to not looking past tomorrow or overstressing yourself with a whole life plan.
My first goal for 2025 is to create a vision board and at every 11:11 manifest that things will work out. ;)
Last summer, I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the first things it shone a new light onto about myself was the "scripts" I live my life by. These scripts are narratives at first given to us mostly by our parents, but could also be from teachers or societal stories told to us in our upbringing. By reflecting upon these scripts, you're able to evaluate those which have been given to you without question and those which you have chosen to follow. For me, I began to reflect on the life goals I have, where they come from and whether they are really what I want - what I’ve chosen. There's one in particular that I still don't feel like sharing, because even though I know it’s something I desire born out of a narrative told by a part of our society that I don’t align my ideal self with... it’s still a sign of success so deep-rooted in me that I don't want to let go of it. There are many things like this, that are both a source of serotonin and pain in my life because they exist out of short-term thinking or lizard-brain scripts of what it means to succeed in life. E.g. the sudden dose of oxytocin you get when you receive external validation such as praise and awards.
Since then, I haven't dedicated any further time to work through these reflections and to determine the next steps to better align my ideal self and actual self in this conflicting area. (There are a lot of tools and exercises I've wanted to work on since finishing the book, but life keeps getting in the way as it does with these things!).
But in November, I attended an amazing Q&A panel discussion "Finding Balance Between Modern and Ancient Ways", and among the heaps and heaps of thoughtful and beautiful nuggets of shared insights and experiences (all of which will still take me time to digest and unpick)... I think I found something in particular that’s given me my next piece in this puzzling challenge: myths. I have spent much of my adult life so far fighting to unlearn the dreams and stories we grew up with as children. Because what once gave us hope and inspiration, is now perceived by our peers and parents as unachievable and gullible. Since I read 'Feel the fear and do it anyway' when I was 20, I swore to never see positivity as "unrealistic". However, our modern society has still instilled in me that I must justify and rationalise every life decision I make in adulthood. Very rarely do we trust ourselves on intuition or that it'll all work out, instead our family and peers warn us how to avoid risk with analytical and "constructive" advice.
However, what if this modern concept practised to "protect us" is actually what causes many of us internal conflict and more suffering day to day? Throughout human history and still in many cultures around the world today, myths guide societies and people throughout their whole lives, not just through childhood. People carry with them the morals of stories of spirits, dragons and warriors, following the traditional structure of a beginning, middle, and end, with a clear conflict that is resolved. When we instead leave these stories behind as we grow up, we also lose the lessons these stories tell us... the ones which are made to carry us through tougher and darker times.
As one of the panellists put it… this feature is to be continued in the next blog, because I think it’s getting a bit too long to dump it all on you in this edition! I just had so much to say about this insight - sorry not sorry. :)
Stay caring and courageous,
Isabelle