Sustainability in climate work
As I sit down to write my first newsletter introduction since December, I reflect on the past three months at ACTT. January and February were both full of events and we kept our emails event-specific in an attempt to avoid over-frequenting inboxes. And, after two very busy months following a very busy year in 2023, we took a little space in March to breath, plan, and reflect, all while continuing to move projects forward, simply without the usual number of public-facing events or communications.
The question of sustainability in climate work has been at the forefront of many recent discussions of which I have been a part. While our work in community-driven climate solutions is often very fueling and inspiring, many factors converge that also make this work particularly intense: sense of urgency; the emotional aspect of working on climate; the recent flood of inquiries and interest as collective concern grows (good news, but still overwhelming at times); critical battles at the state legislature and public utilities commission…the list goes on. In conversations with folks working on climate from throughout the state, I hear common questions: how to avoid burnout; how to combat sense of urgency with a sustainable pace; how to build in space to talk about the emotional aspects of climate work; how to engage in legislative battles without carrying the accompanying tension any further than necessary; how to stay focused and not stretch beyond capacity…again, the list goes on.
These questions are essential. When I contemplate potential answers, two themes emerge.
The first was perfectly captured recently by former ACTT intern and current College of the Atlantic (COA) student, Angie Flores. For her senior project at COA, Angie is exploring the meaning of community resilience and how that meaning might connect to lessons learned from mycelium. As Angie and I spoke recently about her project, she raised a question that encompasses all of the questions listed above: how do we work deeply, when all the pressures of the climate crisis might propel us towards shallow, quick efforts?
I’ve been thinking about this question quite a bit recently, as I work with the staff on strategic planning, support the board in organizational development, and generally consider how this work unfolds with deep, lasting roots, consciously choosing not to stretch ourselves too thin. Angie visited our last meeting of Local Leads the Way, ACTT’s program supporting community-driven climate initiatives throughout the state. It was a joy to sit in front of the zoom and be guided in a meditation, along with my fellow participants, in which we considered resilience work from the lens of mycelium, taking time in our day to ground deeply, each zooming in from a different part of the state. As we did so, I felt a sense of deep-rootedness growing.
The second theme I return to continuously when considering sustainability in climate work is the theme of community. In March, the entire ACTT team participated in the University of Maine Mitchell Center’s Sustainability and Water Conference. I was one of multiple co-leads for a day-long session at the conference and the focus of the session was community-driven climate work. Throughout the day, we heard from over thirty different leaders of community-driven initiatives scattered throughout the state. These were folks of all ages and backgrounds, and each had found their way to the work through a unique path. (I was overjoyed to hear one leader explain: “Well, I enrolled in A Climate to Thrive’s Climate Ambassadors Program online a year ago, and it was clear I wasn’t going to leave that program without starting an effort in my own town.”) Many of us were collaborators before the conference, some were strangers to me, but we greeted each other like college alumni at a reunion. We feel a sense of connection, each drawn to bring our skills, perspective, and resources to this work of climate solutions grounded first and foremost in local communities. And that sense of connection, of company within the work, is deeply fueling.
We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events! In the meantime, thank you for being part of this community, helping to build deep roots under this important work.