🔑 The key to compelling climate stories? Look outside the industry
Brown Girl Green founder Kristy Drutman drives engagement and representation with creative climate storytelling.
Kristy Drutman, a.k.a. Brown Girl Green, is a climate storyteller. Her Instagram feed has highlighted how our unsustainably-changing climate is putting beer and oysters at risk, the types of awkward climate questions we should be asking on a first date, and an intro into what Climate Finance is—and that’s just in one week.
Over the course of six years, she’s built a powerful platform where she creatively applies her background in climate science and environmental advocacy to educate, inspire and activate younger generations on myriad environmental issues. She also uses her platform to advance social justice and inclusivity in the climate space. In 2022, she co-founded a climate jobs board called The Green Jobs Board focused on helping organizations find diverse talent.
We had the opportunity to chat with Drutman to hear about the importance of representation in climate conversations, why we need to start looking outside of climate media and climate spaces for inspiration, and the role she’s looking to play in supporting diverse talent within climate careers.
Tell us a bit about why you started Brown Girl Green.
I started Brown Girl Green from a place of frustration. I didn’t see many people who looked like me in mainstream environmental storytelling. I was passionate about climate advocacy and climate education. But when it came down to talking about this type of messaging or who it could reach or how to reach more diverse audiences and communities…that representation was dramatically missing. I figured I don’t want to wait on mainstream media to try to get this right—I’m going to figure this out myself.
How did you begin to take matters into your own hands? What sort of resources helped you get started?
I started independently producing a podcast and evolved from there. There was this disconnect between what was happening when it came to the climate crisis and the action that needed to happen. I felt like a critical part of that was making sure people of color were at the center of that conversation because we just haven’t been for a long time. So I wanted to have a platform that was talking about these issues through a more intersectional lens, addressing the voices that I felt had previously been silenced or underrepresented.
It was a lot of trial and error. There wasn’t a road map so I kind of had to collage it together. I didn’t really go into climate spaces to figure it out. I went into media and marketing and wanted to understand the psychology behind it. Like, how are big industries effectively reaching the public? In that way, I exited the climate echo chamber to understand media marketing and storytelling and to see how to meet people in a way that communicates these issues and gets them to care about it. That allowed me to do things a bit differently. There had been a lot of attempts by climate media in the mainstream to try to talk about these things but there again it’s the same voices and the same type of narratives. I already have a strong background in climate science and environmental advocacy. So I attended workshops, seminars and events that had nothing to do with climate change or environmental issues so I could translate that into being a bridge builder. A creative.
Our team had similar thoughts about being at Climate Week New York. It’s a powerful gathering. But it’s also an echochamber, so how do we reach the people who aren’t showing up? Would you say one of the goals of your platform is to do just that?
Yeah, definitely. It’s obviously a lot more challenging to do that. I can’t always say I’ve been successful but my hope is that if people are maybe seeking it out or if there are forums I can participate in, I try my best to do that. I’ve actively tried to find spaces that are again, not climate-oriented to speak at, especially with the Asian American community. I’m Filipino-American and very engaged in Asian American advocacy as well. So I’ve tried to get into more of those spaces to talk about climate because it’s not always the topic that is covered much. Similarly, I’m a content creator so I wear the hat of someone who works in media and get invited to spaces with people that are influencers or content creators not promoting anything related to this. But we’re all storytellers…so it makes me think about where I’m limiting myself, where my own biases are. I think if I stayed exclusively in the climate space, I don’t think I would be where I am today if I’m honest with you.
I exited the climate echo chamber to understand media marketing and storytelling and to see how to meet people in a way that communicates these issues and gets them to care about it.
Speaking of creativity—tell us about your new climate speed dating show, Love and Climate. We need to know more!
I went to the UN climate negotiations back in 2018 in Poland for COP24. Just being in those rooms as an activist, I would get fed up and frustrated because COP itself is a bit of a circus. And I just had this thought in my head: this reminds me of watching a reality TV show. And I thought, honestly there should be more reality shows that connect sustainability and climate. I went on Instagram and was like, “Send me some questions you would ask about the first day about being at COP,” because, if I’m being honest with you, I was just bored being there. Then after questions came through I thought, “Maybe I’ll have people go on a little date and ask each other the questions my followers came up with.” That was my first iteration.
Then three years went by, through the pandemic and everything. Then I went to COP26 in Scotland; I had a badge and was speaking in the blue zone. So, I decided I was going to recreate it there. You’re not technically allowed to do things like that…but I didn’t care! I literally took a cardboard box and my friends and I solicited people and asked, “Hey do you want to go on a quick date in the blue zone?” And we had important people—like those who actually wrote things in the IPCC Assessment Report and participating diplomats—who went on the date from a lot of different countries.
From there I wanted to make it a bigger concept. So just this past August, I took all the elements I’d come up with for it from the past five years and started implementing it as a speed-dating series starting in Central Park and then all over New York City. I’ve been doing it for three months and we’ve been featured in CBS and The Guardian and we’re now finally releasing episodes.
What are your goals for the series?
I feel like people don’t have the uncomfortable conversations around climate action or sustainability at a dinner table or when they’re considering who they’re going to spend their lives with. So I figured, it’s a great accessible way to make educational, entertaining content that people can relate to. This is the first series I’ve done in a long time that I think could reach people who don’t know anything about these things to actually want to learn more.
I attended workshops, seminars and events that had nothing to do with climate change or environmental issues so I could translate that into being a bridge builder. A creative.
Tell us a little about how you work with different companies and organizations from a sustainability lens.
Typically a company or organization will have a campaign or issue area they want to advertise or want to get people to sign petitions, or take action on and we work together to come up with a creative concept to push that CTA forward. It depends on the client and what their key objectives are. Sometimes it’s educational videos, sometimes it’s more campaigns and action-oriented, sometimes it’s talking about products. I’ve toured manufacturing plants to show, behind the scenes, how companies are coming up with climate solutions. It’s a lot of humanizing, putting a face, a voice and an explainer to a lot of these things. I’ve also consulted with organizations and companies on equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
My other company is Green Jobs Board, which is focused on improving the recruitment and hiring for environmentally focused companies and organizations. The work we’ve done there is building a community platform and tool to get those companies connected with more diverse talent. Green Jobs Board has been my other identity outside of [Brown Girl Green] and really like how I’m seeing the tangible impact being made in the world by improving the ways climate companies and organizations are thinking about their hiring practices.
When you were at Climate Week New York you talked about the economic opportunities connected to the green transition and making those accessible to everyone. In your view, how do we do that?
I think a big thing is storytelling and how it’s communicated. There’s a huge opportunity to shift the narrative now because of the Inflation Reduction Act and all of the jobs that are going to be available. It’s about creating the standard and transitioning people into a new way of thinking about good-paying jobs, the ways they could get skilled up and trained and get their community members also excited about that. It’s really important for people who are recruiting for these jobs to do more intentional partnerships that reach those communities and [establish relationships] there.
Are there any climate communicators who admire who you think do an excellent job at connecting with folks?
I want to shout out the collective I’m a part of, called EcoTok Collective. It’s a group of content creators, they all reach different types of audiences and communities across the world. We were able to form a whole entity and organization out of being content creators. We’ve done bigger initiatives and campaigns as a group which have been really awesome.
(Water) Cooler Talk
🎄’Tis the season for climate meetings
COP28 officially kicked off in Dubai today. Climate journalists are intently focused on covering the latest murmurings and announcements from the conference, which will run through December 12. Sentiments on this year’s event vary, with some calling it “climate Christmas” while others have referred to it as a “circus.” COP28 is the most controversial meeting yet, with particular concern around the potential for lobbying from fossil fuel companies. After a somewhat disappointing COP27, reporters expect a more productive event this year—the Heatmap team said in their latest coverage that they have a slew of embargoed news in their inboxes. At the time of writing, we’ve already seen an announcements about a new climate disaster fund for poorer nations. For a good explainer of everything you should be aware of, check out this piece from NPR.📗Updating the climate lexicon
Amid the deals and announcements, an important topic of discussion is on the agenda for COP28 this year: language. Bertrand Piccard, Swiss explorer and clean tech ambassador, is calling for climate leaders to reframe the language we use to talk about climate change today. In recent years, we’ve evolved beyond labels like “global warming,” to more urgent descriptions like “climate crisis.” Piccard’s thesis is that this language alienates both skeptics (it challenges their way of life) and those who are already worried about climate change (it scares them further). While opinions about his proposed language changes are mixed, as communicators, we’ll be thinking about how Piccard’s suggestions impact the message to different audiences.🤨Dealing with pushback
Meteorologists and climate scientists in the Midwest are receiving harsh criticism. A recent piece published by NPR, in collaboration with Harvest Public Media, highlighted cases across the region where those speaking about the reality of climate change were chastised by their community. The story underscores the need for thoughtful communication about climate topics. The pushback doesn’t mean that these communities aren’t open to learning about climate change—in fact, according to the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, 90% of Americans are open to learning about climate change. An associate director of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center says we need to humanize the impacts of climate change to audiences who are skeptical. The realities of longer allergy seasons, extreme weather, and reduced crop yields are some of the real-world impacts that Midwesterners care about.🦚Layoffs at CNBC
A slew of CNBC climate reporters took to social media before Thanksgiving to announce that they were let go. It appears that the entire climate desk was dismantled at the major business publication. This happens just a week after The Fifth National Climate Assessment clearly displayed the real impact climate change is currently having on the world. Vox also announced it is laying off some of its staff today, including a climate reporter. According to Akshat Rathi, senior climate reporter at Bloomberg, climate readership has only increased as the effects have worsened. In a twitter thread, he called for the business side of publications like CNBC to find a way to make a financial case for climate coverage.