You're looking to advance your sustainability career. How can you be more adaptable?

Collaboration is the key! Connect with mentors, peers, and experts to gain fresh insights. Join local climate groups like Florida for Good and volunteer with innovative startups like Seaworthy Collective to build skills and expand your network. At Creative Chi, we’ve seen firsthand how collaboration drives impact. We’ve spent many pro bono hours supporting local nonprofits and hosting community events. Get involved, learn, grow, and help create a more sustainable world. Let’s keep making a difference together!

Boyan Slat saw the ocean was dirty and made a way to clean it up. His story tells us we can learn a lot from others. By sharing ideas everywhere, we can solve big problems. Solving problems about nature is like figuring out puzzles in shifting sand. We need to learn from people around the world. Look for guides and friends online. Everyone has something special to offer. Share ideas, learn from different people, and work together. Every idea, no matter how small, contributes to the bigger picture.

Who remembers Tim Berners-Lee? He's the guy who changed the world by connecting people globally, even though he didn't know how at first. It was a tough challenge, but instead of giving up, he saw it as a chance to try new things. And guess what? He created the World Wide Web, giving all of us the internet. In the sustainability field, uncertainty is pretty normal. We may need to try new stuff & think creatively because there's no easy answer. But instead of being scared, we can use it as a chance to be creative & try new ideas. Embracing uncertainty means seeing challenges as chances to learn & grow. With a positive attitude, we can handle uncertainty & keep going. This helps us get better & find better ways for sustainability.

I like to look to Jamie Beck Alexander for inspiration and say that every job is a climate job. Climate thinking can be applied to every type of occupation and decision. Embracing uncertainty and just going with the flow can land you in some places you never would have thought. The small decisions you start to make could snowball into bigger initiatives. Just putting yourself out there and representing your ideals through your actions will help you navigate through the uncertainty. I have been on a year of throwing caution in to the wind and saying yes. It's a great exercise in embracing uncertainty and problem solving. It forces you to identify pitfalls and work through them.

You don't have to switch jobs; learn sustainability skills wherever you are. Every job can make a difference! Sir David Attenborough, a famous personality, has learned a lot about nature with his work. His shows teach us about animals and plants. He wants everyone to care about the environment like he does. Similarly, every job has a secret power for helping the planet! Whether it's picking eco-friendly materials in graphic design or reducing waste in accounting, every role can do good. It's important for all workers to keep learning. This helps understanding how work affects the environment and society. By learning, people can make sure they're helping to make the world a better place.

Sustainable solutions are released everyday, and that presents new opportunities to flex new skills, or pick up completely new ideas. Either way updating your outputs (resume, portfolio, one-pager) is a great way to highlight new skills and show actual results, tangible solutions. A great educator, mentor, and friend Anneli Hansson once said on a call, "You can be the best at what you do, but if no one knows you do it, then why/how would they find you?" We need to present our work and solutions to a world that suffers from imagination gap. Henry Ford famously said, "If you asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." Let's fill that imagination gap and show people the options they have.

It isn't hard to find a critic nowadays, anyone who has posted anything online could attest to that, but in an era of keyboard warriors, finding quality feedback can be hard from time to time. I like to join professional groups, both broad and specialty industry groups. It is a space where mutual respect is usually garnered and in terms of growth everyone there is open for those opportunities. When asking for feedback these are the peers I turn to, not too friendly to be overly nice or the other side where others talk without context. I find growth happens most in these environments, and these individuals give valid feedback and advice. Seek feedback, but only receive it from the right spaces, with respect and good intention.

Pixar learned from a young girl's feedback to enhance "Toy Story." She questioned why Woody wasn't happy about Buzz's arrival, prompting Pixar to add scenes explaining Woody's worry about being replaced. This made the movie more captivating and emotional, likely contributing to its widespread popularity. Feedback, though sometimes hard to take, is essential for growth. In sustainability, seeking feedback is critical for understanding our impact and improving contributions. Embracing feedback, positive or constructive, is key to becoming more adaptable and effective in our work.

I am a perfectionist, there I said it, and it really becomes hard when trying to create a solution that you want to change industries. A lot of times I see someone discount a solution because it doesn't do enough. I feel sometimes perfect is the enemy of good. People still see imperfections in a solution and prevent it from being implemented. Isn't some forward movement better than standing in place? This is where being flexible is key. Sometimes you have a solution that a better option presents itself, or maybe the solution isn't as environmentally sound as you would like. I say go with it, and plan for improvements along the way. Being able to be flexible is key to your sanity, because nothing ever is truly perfect.

As I look back in life I feel I have always been a bit of a natural leader. Someone who wasn't afraid to take the helm, but also relinquished control, so being proactive was never an issue for me. I believe that the best things in life have to be earned. that means taking action, and sustainable pursuits are no different. Nobody told me to design sustainably I just did it, and most climate jobs that will be created in the future will come from individuals who are proactive and seek them or make them. Change won't happen unless we do something, and that's why I say take "Climate Action? It tells you what to do... ACT.

Document it all. I have learned this the hard way, but as well look to people in front of us that we idolize, we tend to forget the world doesn't stop and there are new people where you were yesterday. By documenting our journey's and making that available to others, we really spread our message and education to a world of people who may need your knowledge more than you know. Documenting has become big for me, whether it's going over a meeting to see my mannerisms, or Im using it for training, it's all valuable. Just store the documents locally, a cloud server would just add to energy and water consumption for the server farm.

A transition from being an online content creator to getting involved in actual sustainability projects can indeed offer invaluable firsthand experience and insights into the actual challenges and opportunities that present themselves in matters of environmental sustainability. This move enables individuals to better shape their professional goals according to the needs of a specific profession and enhance their understanding about its realities. Additionally, engaging in practical activities promotes flexibility and compassion especially when people are able to see various viewpoints that other stakeholders working on sustainable issues have. This in turn naturally makes you more adaptable down the road.