Climate Solutions at Work

Job Function Action Guides

Employees are critical catalysts for climate action. As the engines that keep businesses running, you represent a range of skills and knowledge that can scale climate solutions in the workplace and beyond.

The Drawdown Labs Job Function Action Guides are practical and shareable resources that highlight specific, high-impact climate actions employees in common corporate professions can take at work. Each guide includes why your role and skills are needed in addressing climate change, tangible actions you can take to make your job a climate job, and key considerations and resources to help you get started. Each guide is also accompanied by a simplified Climate Action Checklist—something you can print and keep at your desk to keep you motivated and organized as you implement climate action at work.

While the guides are job function-specific, avoid working in isolation. It’s important to not only engage your own job and team, but also coordinate across all company functions and roles—to ensure lasting and effective climate action.

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Corporate finance roles influence how a business manages, spends, and invests its money. Finance professionals can influence how their company approaches financial risk, banking, insurance, cash and investments, retirement plans, planning and budgeting, supply chain finance, philanthropy, and impact investing.

Finance

Those who work in government relations or public policy can not only help their own company reach its climate goals, but also advance solutions in the broader world, through policy and regulatory advocacy, public shows of support, and influencing trade associations.

Government Relations and Public Policy

By rethinking how they run employee benefits, recruitment, and professional development, shaping workplace culture, and making operational changes, human resources and operations professionals can ensure their company’s workforce can move climate action forward in the organization.

Human Resources and Operations

Members of in-house legal teams can integrate climate action into their work by reassessing how they work with external firms, considering climate in legal agreements, and advocating for and complying with policy and regulation. Those who work as general counsel also have influence over the company’s board—from executive compensation decisions to how the board itself is governed.

Legal

Marketers understand consumer motivations and can help sway public perception and catalyze action. By engaging customers, rethinking production, creating climate-focused campaigns, and helping support climate policy advocacy, they can help ensure the business is promoting climate solutions.

Marketing

Procurement professionals can leverage their purchasing power for climate action. They can work with and influence suppliers, help design products differently, and utilize good data to make procurement a force for climate action.

Procurement

Product management weaves together business, technology, and user experience. As such, product managers can influence how their company conducts market research, develops product positioning, and defines customer success.

Product Management

Employees who work in a customer or client-facing job can utilize their roles as connectors and propensity to be goal-oriented to take climate action. By reassessing pricing and fees, customer engagement, and sales models, and fostering dialogue within the broader industry, those in sales and client-facing roles can directly integrate climate action into their workflow.

Sales and Client-Facing Roles
Don’t see your role?

Are you interested in taking climate action at work but don’t see an action guide for your job function? Let us know so we can get to work creating one to meet your needs! And check out these other great organizations in the meantime:

Reach out

Do you have an inspiring story of taking climate action at your workplace? Do you have resources (or other recommendations) that we should include in future updates of the action guides? We’d like to hear from you! Reach out to us at labs@drawdown.org or using the contact form below.

Acknowledgements

We want to extend our appreciation to our reviewers who provided much-needed insights and considerations:

  • Svetlana Beazley, Director, Walgreens Health Procurement, Walgreens Boots Alliance 
  • Charlie Bischoff, Treasury Director, Patagonia
  • Julia Comeau, Sustainable Impact Government Affairs Lead, HP Inc.
  • Susan Gladwin, Founder, ClimateOnBoard and Co-Founder and CEO, ReadySetReplace
  • Kwan-Yin Graw, Investment Analyst, Capricorn Investment Group
  • Kate Herbert, Senior Manager, Brand Experience, General Mills
  • Liesje Hodgson, VP Strategy & Innovation, Aruliden, a Material Company
  • Kevin Houldsworth, Sr Partner Manager, Pinterest
  • Daniel Irivn, Associate, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Social Enterprise and Impact Investing
  • Tim Riedel, Founder & Managing Director, planetgroups, Berlin
  • Michael Santos, Associate, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Social Enterprise and Impact Investing
  • Harry Stanwyck, Associate, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Social Enterprise and Impact Investing
  • Trent Wolbe, Sustainability Lead, Global Events & Experiences, Google

We’d Like to Hear from you

Are you an employee, corporate decision maker, investor, or philanthropy looking to take climate action or learn more about partnerships? We want to hear from you! Fill out the form below or contact us as labs@drawdown.org.

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Looking to request a speaker from Drawdown Labs on employee climate action and/or the Drawdown-Aligned Business Framework? Please use our Speaker Request Form.