Biggest Challenges Faced By An Equitable Decarbonization Advocate At NRDC
Olivia's biggest challenges as an Equitable Decarbonization Advocate involve both internal and external factors. Internally, the ability to "change your own mind about things" is crucial for effective advocacy, as is acknowledging unintended consequences of even well-intentioned actions; externally, the slow pace and siloed nature of government work create significant hurdles in implementing holistic policy solutions.
Advocacy, Environmental Policy, Government Relations, Open-mindedness, Problem-solving
Advizer Information
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Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
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Olivia Walker
Equitable Decarbonization Advocate
Natural Resources Defense Council
Yale University, 2016
UCLA FEMBA
Environmental & Related Sciences
Climate, Environment, Sustainability & Waste Management, Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Climate, Environment and Sustainability
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Olivia's biggest challenge is the internal struggle of changing one's own mind and accepting that even well-intentioned actions can have unintended negative consequences. This highlights the importance of open-mindedness and critical self-reflection in advocacy work.
2. The second challenge Olivia mentions is the slow pace and siloed nature of government work, which can hinder progress on holistic policy initiatives. This emphasizes the need for patience, collaboration, and navigating complex bureaucratic systems.
3. Olivia's experience shows the interconnectedness of environmental issues with broader social justice concerns, and the necessity of a holistic approach to address such complex problems. This points to the importance of understanding the bigger picture and working collaboratively across sectors.
Transcript
What is your biggest challenge in your current role?
I have two answers to this. The first is that it's more of an internal challenge, and the second is an external challenge.
It's difficult to change your own mind about things. Your job is to change other people's minds, so if you can't grasp change itself, how can you change someone else's mind?
Second, I'm in an industry where everyone believes they're doing the right thing. Most of the time, you're serving a good cause, like improving the environment, making things better, and lowering GHG emissions. Those are good things, but sometimes a good deed can have unintended consequences. That's a hard pill to swallow when your job is about making things better.
It's difficult to recognize that something you did wasn't as helpful as you thought, or perhaps it wasn't effective. It might have even harmed people. You can't move forward and make things better unless you realize you weren't thinking about the problem correctly in the first place. To be an effective environmental advocate, you need an incredibly open mind.
I think that goes for advocacy in any social justice issue as well, because they're all interconnected.
The second challenge is a more literal and observable one. If you're doing advocacy, you're dealing with government, and government can be difficult to work with. This isn't because of the individuals. I firmly believe that people who go into government jobs, civil servants, and elected officials generally have good intentions. They want to do good things for the people in the city, state, or country they work for.
However, government is set up to move very slowly. This can lead to many work streams being siloed. Even on an issue connected to multiple departments, people might point to others and say, "That's his job" or "That's their job." There isn't necessarily visibility into how these things connect.
It can be extremely difficult to work on a policy that you want to be holistic, as it's almost impossible due to how siloed things can be in government. I think there are many great people working in government who are trying to fix this. I'm grateful for them and don't envy their jobs at all because they have a difficult job, probably more difficult than mine.