If you’re a designer considering a shift into climate work or simply want to become more active in promoting climate initiatives at your company, here are a few ways to get started.

I’ve been at the beginning of my own journey exploring climate tech and have found a handful of compiled lists out there already. This is a simplified uber-list with the resources I've found most helpful (and most promising, for those I haven't tried yet.)

My selections are geared towards UX designers, but most resources apply beyond as well – industrial, graphic, fashion designers, architects – and even people who might not use the label “designer.”

Hopefully these resources can make it just a little bit easier for you to take your first steps and begin making an impact for a more sustainable world. Enjoy!

Starting out

Just want to start somewhere but not sure where? I’ve got two great catalysts for you:

📖 Climate-Centered Experience Design: An Intro from Dayani.io.

“…We largely ignore the role of digital experiences in our climate strategy. Which is odd, because many of the digital experiences that establish our everyday, default behaviors are run by businesses that have aggressive, industry-leading and unrealized climate goals.”

▶️ Watch: My Journey into Regenerative Design by Joshua Stehr (28:50)

In this video, Josh shares his freelance journey (among other things) so far in climate. He offers a great template for getting started, not to mention some killer Notion skills. Figma preso here.

Finding a climate job

Whether you’re actively applying to a job or just want to get a feel for what’s out there, I’ve got you covered. Dive right in to the job boards and Slack communities I’ve listed below.

🏢 Climatebase is a jobs board that offers some other resources and fellowships as well – and runs SF Climate Week! As of writing, Climatebase offers some of the most robust filtering tools of the job boards mentioned.

Climate Designers also offers a job board run through Climatebase which is worth checking out.

🏢 Work on Climate is a Slack-first community with channels like #jobs, #role-designers, and #looking-for-work, which all target job seekers. There are a lot of people advertising their services (and jobs), which can be a bit noisy, but it’s a great place to feel the pulse of the community.

🏢 Terra.do is similar to Climatebase and has tons of resources for your job hunt, including the linked job board. It has a few helpful filters, and posts come up regularly. Check it out! If you sign up, Terra.do also has a list of upcoming job fairs and events, as well as a community app (which I haven’t tried yet).

Honorable mentions

• MJC Collective provides capital to climate tech, at least in part. It also has a jobs board with openings at their portfolio companies. It’s not super active but the jobs look good.

• Climate Tech VC is "the leading newsletter on climate and innovation” and has a job board.

• More jobs resources can be found listed at the Work on Climate Starter Pack and Climate Tech Careers, though – word of warning – some of these seem less active.

My advice? Don’t get too bogged down in finding the perfect jobs board. Choose one or two places to check up on so you can get a feel for the tempo of job listings and hone in on what exactly you’re looking for.

Learning about climate

If you want to learn about the climate space in general, here are a few resources to get you going. I’ll keep it light though, since there are near infinite links to be found through a quick google search.

General resources

This 📚 Climate Dossier offers more links than you could ever want regarding all things climate change. It’s brought to us by Zoe Samuel, who organizes the 1000+ climate group at Google.

🏢 Project Drawdown is an incredible organization emphasizing “drawdown,” or the moment when the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere begin to decrease. They have lists of solutions and industries to get you thinking about how you can contribute.

Courses and Fellowships

🏢 Terra.do, previously mentioned, also offers courses and fellowships in their “Climate Education” section. I’ve heard great things about their flagship Climate Change: Learning for Action, which offers not only educational material but a chance to build a network and your climate portfolio. If you’re looking for something design-specific, try out Becoming a Climate Designer, brought to you by the design founders of Climate Designers.

🏢 Climatebase offers a similar flagship program for specified industry tracks. Check out The Climatebase Fellowship, Technologists Track for a wonderful, comprehensive program. Note that for this and Terra.do courses, you have to pay, but financial assistance is sometimes offered.

Connecting with other climate designers

The very good people at 🏢 Climate Designers have built an outstanding community, both online and in person. In addition to their jobs board, they make a podcast and have set up Chapters across the country for events and networking.

If you're willing to pony up for a paid membership, it looks great for face-to-face interaction with other climate designers, like virtual hangouts, educational events, and support groups.

Marc O’Brien, one of the Climate Designer founders, separately offers 1:1 support with an initial pay-what-you-want 30 minute consult. I attended a group office hours with Marc through the Work on Climate Slack group and found it informative and empowering.

If there’s one thing you do after reading this article, make it reaching out to Marc, who is so graciously offering his time to designers entering the field. I can’t recommend it enough!

Slack communities

Finally, I’d like to again mention Work on Climate, which offers a wonderful community of designers in their Slack-first community. I’ve met a few friendly people through that group, and recommend you get set up and look at the #role-designers room to get started.

Making an impact at work

You don’t have to work at a climate company to make an impact. In fact, the companies with the most potential for impact are often in sectors entirely remote from climate tech. So before you start packing up and quitting your job, you might think about how you can become a climate activist at your workplace today.

Here are a few places to get started:

• 🔊Listen: Make an impact where you work from Climate Designers

• 📖 How to be a climate activist at work summarizes Project Drawdown’s guide (below) with a quick bulleted list of actions to take.

• 📗 Climate Solutions at Work. Go deep with this tome of a guide from Project Drawdown

• 📖 Digital = Physical presents green design principles from the team at Microsoft. (PDF)

• 📗 Greener Design from ClimateAction.tech offers step by step instructions and principles of it's own

• 📖 Cloud Jewels: Estimating kWh in the Cloud is an inspiring case study from the Etsy product team

• 📖 Designing For Climate Change shows how behavioral design can be applied to climate problems. It also has a nice list of success stories from companies.

Extra reading

If that wasn’t enough links for you, these guides and articles should keep you plenty busy:

• 📚 Work on Climate Starter Pack

• 📚 Climate Designers Resource Library and Getting Started Guide

• 📚 Resources from The Office of Ordinary Things, which is a design agency for social good and the climate. Scroll to the Sustainability section for some graphic and industrial design resources.

Do you know of resources I didn’t mention? I’d love to hear about them and find a home for them here. Email me at agn.dsgn at gmail dot com.