By Ethan Brown for The Sweaty Penguin.
Broadcast version by Shanteya Hudson for Alabama News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

A 2023 Pew Research survey found only 27% of U.S. adults feel individual actions can help "a lot" to reduce the effects of climate change. But according to panelists at a Tuesday webinar from ClimateVoice and WorkforClimate, there's a solution - advocacy in the workplace.

"A lot of people understand that if they can get a hold of their employer's resources, they can have an outsize impact on climate change in a way that you will never be able to do as an individual voter or consumer," said Drew Wilkinson, Founder of Climate Leadership Collective.

Prior to founding his own company, Wilkinson was a paralegal at Microsoft. In 2018, two years into his tenure, he emailed The Ocean Cleanup to propose a collaboration at Microsoft's Global Hackathon to find solutions for ocean plastic pollution. At that point, The Ocean Cleanup had built technology to remove plastics from rivers and deployed it in Indonesia and Malaysia, but could not yet identify whether collected waste was actually plastic, or other debris such as sticks and leaves. Through Wilkinson's Hackathon project, participants developed a machine learning model to perform this task, successfully identifying over 30,000 ocean photos.

That same year, Wilkinson and a coworker launched the first employee sustainability community at Microsoft. The group grew rapidly, reaching 10,000 members and 37 local chapters in 2023, and playing a central role in Microsoft's strategy to become carbon negative, water positive, and zero waste by 2030.

"This is fundamentally about changing the paradigm of who gets to work on sustainability in a company," said Wilkinson. "It's not just for the people who have it in their job titles. It's about democratizing sustainability so that everybody can work on it in whatever way they want to."

In fact, a majority of employers want their subordinates' help with sustainability. In Willis Towers Watson's 2021 HR and Climate Strategy Survey, 84% of North American executives reported that employees play a major role in the successful delivery of their company's climate strategies.

It wasn't just large corporations where panelists made their mark. According to Arielle Terry, now Manager of Lending Solutions at ATMOS Financial, even a brand new employee working remotely can create positive change.

"Climate matters so much to me," said Terry. I'm so passionate about it, and I know my friends are probably like 'stop talking about it all the time.' But I just can't."

Before her current job, Terry worked as an Implementation Expert at Perceptyx, an employee experience transformation company with around 400 employees. A month into her job, Terry was shocked to learn that her 401(k) was invested into fossil fuels, deforestation, and other companies whose values did not align with her own.

"As employees, we should not have to invest in things we don't agree with," said Terry.

Before a company town hall, Terry posted a question about climate friendly 401(k) alternatives in the company Slack channel. To her surprise, her question received the most responses and was the first one asked at the town hall. After recruiting ten colleagues to a climate employee resource group, Terry eventually succeeded in convincing the company to add a climate friendly fund. She now works to improve solar lending practices at ATMOS.

While Wilkinson and Terry notched exciting wins in their respective roles, they did not come without challenge.

"A big thing is just, kind of, being ignored," explained Terry. "We were told 'we're gonna reevaluate benefits in 2023' and just being pushed off a lot."

In initial conversations with human resources, Terry learned Perceptyx did not have sustainability goals going into 2023. But by organizing coworkers and staying persistent, she still made a difference from the ground up.

Wilkinson echoed a similar sentiment.

"What it really takes to drive change for employees is a small but very tenacious and very persistent group who refuse to go away. If you can get more colleagues to join your cause, obviously it's harder to say no to ten than one, or ten thousand than a thousand."

To help individuals start their workplace advocacy, ClimateVoice developed an Employee Action Guide. The guide details four steps for all employees, regardless of title, to inspire progress: get the facts, find your influence, engage your coworkers, and advocate for action.

"No matter where you work, you have inside access. You have the relationships with your coworkers, with your leadership," said Deborah McNamara, Co-Executive Director of ClimateVoice. "Start thinking systemically about who's making the decisions and how you can have these important conversations about creating change."

ClimateVoice encourages employees to not just inspire action within the company, but also push employers to use their company's power to influence government policy.

"Right now we have this very lopsided situation where fossil fuel companies are unfortunately dominating the discourse," explained McNamara. "We want employees and companies to be doing more to advocate for the climate solutions that we need through policy."

ClimateVoice acknowledges that political engagement on climate may be daunting for some executives. That's why their guide includes a list of common objections - such as a preference for focusing on internal sustainability, a fear of wasting lobbying firepower, and a worry for pushing away partners like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - and ideas for how employees can respond.

"It does require changing systems that are very entrenched," said McNamara. "We believe that employees are an important lever for change."

While corporate sustainability - particularly the concept of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals - has become controversial in recent years, companies who engage in the practice report several benefits beyond helping address climate change. Strong ESG practices increase sales, cut costs, attract investors, build customer loyalty, reduce legal liabilities, and improve recruitment with younger employees.

Panelists shared that their workplace advocacy didn't just help their companies' carbon footprints; it also helped their personal climate anxiety. A 2021 Pew Research poll found 59% of millennial and 69% of Gen-Z social media users said they felt anxious about the future after viewing climate content. While studies show excessive fear and anxiety often leads to lower engagement in the climate cause, Wilkinson's sustainability work at Microsoft allowed him to flip that script.

"For me, the antidote to anxiety is action," shared Wilkinson. "Believe that you can get power and influence. [We] are here to tell you that you surely can."


Ethan Brown wrote this article for The Sweaty Penguin.

Each summer, more lake beaches shut down as toxic algae blooms spread across the water and while climate change is often blamed, new research revealed a deeper culprit: humans.

Researchers from Michigan State University used open data to study climate change in 24,000 U.S. lakes. Using new methods and satellite data, they found climate-driven patterns in algae levels across freshwater lakes.

Patricia Soranno, professor of ecology at Michigan State University and co-author of the study, has spent nearly 30 years researching what affects water quality. While climate change plays a role, she said human activity is the true driving force behind the growing problem.

"We know what causes lakes to be greener," Soranno pointed out. "It's agriculture runoff, urban runoff, extra nutrients that come from lawns. All of those things we've known for decades, that's what causes lakes to be green."

Soranno and her team found climate affected algae in a third of the lakes, but not as expected. Only 4% had lasting algae growth, while 71% saw short-term spikes.

The study revealed sudden algae spikes often go unnoticed, making climate effects harder to track. Researchers said their method helps fill this gap. Soranno added while human activity drives more blooms, lakes with less human impact are more vulnerable to climate change.

"It's affecting the lakes that are fairly pristine now and are in pretty good shape," Soranno noted. "This influences Michigan lakes actually, because Michigan lakes have fairly good water quality already."

Soranno stressed the need for strong policies and regulations to protect waterways. Her team has a goal to study every U.S. lake using satellite imagery. However, she is deeply concerned federal cuts could threaten their research.


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School districts and county governments across Texas are being encouraged to consider building decarbonization to combat climate change.

The process reduces or eliminates carbon emissions in buildings by making energy efficiency improvements. According to a report by the Texas Climate Jobs Project, existing structures are a large contributor to carbon emissions, adding as much as 40% to the total worldwide.

Sandra Bustillos, the organization's carbon-free and healthy-buildings coordinator, said the report focuses on three main areas of improvement.

"There's the utility savings aspect of it," she said. "The next one is job creation, so we really abdicate for the creation of high-quality, family sustaining jobs. And then lastly, we also discuss health benefits."

She said Americans spend 90% of their time inside buildings that have carbon emissions that could impact their heart and lungs. They found that retrofitting all the public schools in Texas could boost the economy by creating up to 84,000 jobs.

The report shows that making small changes like installing solar panels, upgrading windows and doors and enhancing insulation can improve building efficiency and reduce emissions. Bustillos says the impact of climate change has been evident in recent weather events across the state.

"Hurricane Beryl this past year or four years ago Winter Storm Uri. It had really deep impacts on our communities - whether that be environmentally, socially or financially. So, I think it's urgent to be thinking about the effects of climate change and it's also urgent to be thinking about how we can create resilient buildings. "

The report found that rising heat also threatens the local economy and natural resources. Experts warn that a changing climate is likely to reduce water availability in the state, which will impact farmers' ability to grow crops.


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For generations, small family farms have worked to feed Mississippi communities but small-scale operations, particularly those run by Black farmers, face growing challenges in a landscape increasingly dominated by large agribusinesses.

The struggles are not new. Systemic barriers to getting loans and resources continue to disadvantage Black farmers.

Henry Bell, co-owner of Old Country Farm in Jefferson County, said his father started farming in the 1930s. Now working alongside his daughter, they focus on sustainable livestock farming and seasonal crops, like berries and sweet potatoes. Bell pointed out challenges like delays in loan disbursements have directly affected their planting schedules.

"You know, you have growing season and all that. You miss that growing season then you've got to wait to start the next year, and of course that put us back behind the white farmers," Bell explained. "The white farmers, they always got their money on time and most times, they got more money than they need."

Bell worries corporate farms "get the best of everything," compared to smaller operations. Last year, the Biden administration provided more than $2 billion in direct payments to Black and minority farmers who faced discrimination from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Climate change adds new threats. The Bells remember the devastating 2001 freeze, which wiped out their livestock and severely affected the farm.

Brittany Bell Surratt, co-owner of Old Country Farm, said extreme weather, from intense heat to sudden freezes, continues to disrupt their operations.

"The South shouldn't get that cold. But at the same time, we are also seeing these extreme heat temperatures, to the traditional climate change point, in which you have long periods of droughts," Surratt observed. "So, there's not rain that's coming, to be able to have the grass and to fertilize."

Many small Mississippi farms also struggle with the digital divide. Surratt noted her father remains largely disconnected from modern technology, operating mostly off the grid.

"They don't have Wi-Fi at his house," Surratt added. "There's a technology divide that is shutting out rural and older farmers where they are not being able to get the information that's needed when these types of climate disaster do happen and there may be sometime of relief."

Despite the challenges, the Bells said they are dedicated to sustainable farming and advocating for policies to support small farms, including race-based programs to address historical discrimination.

They also want to inspire younger generations to take pride in farming. In 2018, Bell's granddaughter made history as the first African American girl in the area to win the "Dairy Goat Queen" title at the local fair.


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