Eiffel Over

Tag: Training on what to do after declaring a climate emergency

  • The Boy Who Cried Climate Emergency

    We all know the story of the boy who cried wolf. He didn’t really mean it. In the end, everyone stopped believing him. Wolf didn’t mean anything. But the danger was still there. When the wolf came, nobody helped. The wolf got him.

    What do you think happens if your organisation declares a climate emergency and then doesn’t really do anything about it? 

    In an emergency, individuals take the shortest path to a place of safety. The normal rules don’t count. People collaborate to help others in greatest danger. The situation is monitored to see if the danger has subsided. We only go back when it is safe to do so.

    If your organisation has declared a climate emergency, but most of the business is carrying on as usual, then do they really mean it? Has your work and the work of your colleagues changed substantially since declaring that emergency or not?

    If so then they don’t really really mean it. Climate emergency will stop being meaningful. But the danger is still here. 

    When the wolf came, nobody helped. The wolf got him. Except the him is all of us.

  • Book notes: What if we stopped pretending

    I originally wrote this post for the ‘Training on what to do After Declaring a Climate Emergency‘ alumni network, and I’m sharing it here too. For some start-the-week inspiration I’m sharing some thoughts after reading Jonathan Franzen’s ‘What If We Stopped Pretending‘. Thank you to James Norman for lending this to me a week a go. 

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  • Culture of climate emergency

    Culture of climate emergency

    If you are interested in understanding how your organisation should perform in the climate emergency then you should be interested in organisational culture. An emergency is a state in which we require people to behave differently to normal and take urgent action.

    We can understand organisational culture as the way a group of people get things done. If we want people to behave differently in the climate emergency then we need to change our organisational culture to one that is more appropriate to the urgency of the situation.

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  • #16 Bengt Cousins-Jenvey – How to save a million tonnes of carbon – shownotes

    #16 Bengt Cousins-Jenvey – How to save a million tonnes of carbon – shownotes

    Bengt is a consultant and ‘re-designer’, working in sustainability and circular design in the built environment. This year we are working together to create training in response to the climate emergency. In this interview I ask Bengt about his big question: what single thing can you do to save a million tonnes of carbon. Exploring this question we get into:

    • High-level strategies for accounting for carbon that help avoid getting stuck in the detail.
    • Using culture-change models to guide organisations as they respond to declaring a climate emergency.
    • Thinking frameworks that help consultants engage with the businesses they are supporting.

    Listen on Apple Podcasts , Sticher or by download here

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