The Drawdown Labs Job Function Action Guides will help employees understand how their roles are critical in addressing the climate crisis, as well as implement high-impact solutions and navigate key considerations for taking action inside the workplace.
To make your finance job a climate job:
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Learn more about your company’s banking relationships. Direct decision-makers toward banks that are:
- minimally financing the fossil fuel industry and deforestation;
- shifting their financing to climate solutions;
- committing to aggressive anti-fossil fuel policies, like prohibiting loans to the tar sands, oil and gas, and coal industries; and
- calculating their financed emissions. (See this great example of reevaluating corporate banking from Patagonia).
- Gather a group of your colleagues (ideally, in conjunction with company leadership) to express concern to your bank over its fossil fuel lending and lack of transition plan, which is misaligned with your company’s climate commitments (see resources below).
- If your company works with an insurance broker, inform them that you want to consider not only policies and pricing during each insurance renewal, but also the sustainability of insurance carriers.
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Encourage decision-makers to allocate excess cash to banks that are fossil fuel-free, B Corp, or members of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV).*
* For those companies looking to invest excess cash into marketable securities and other liquid investments, there are a range of ESG and climate-aligned investment opportunities offered by many investment managers.
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While large established banks are needed for many of your company’s financial services, lower impact services and excess cash can be held with highly value-aligned banks.
- Using the resources below, team up with the human resources and operations team to evaluate whether retirement plans, 401(k)s, and other portfolios are invested in fossil fuels—and if they are, work to shift the default retirement option to a climate-safe one (or, at minimum, offer multiple climate-friendly funds in their place).
- Invest in products, strategies, and businesses that align your company with climate solutions.
- Minimize carbon-intensive business travel for you and your team, and opt for virtual gatherings. If possible, instead of flying, choose lower-carbon travel options, such as the train.
- Build community with other climate-concerned colleagues within your team and beyond. Come together to brainstorm ways you can take action, and raise your collective concern at team and all-staff meetings.