‘Greening the minds that shape our Planet's future’
GreenMatterZA is the engine for growing Biodiversity skills. Developing the right people at the right time for the green economy.
GreenMatter is an initiative that drives transformation in graduate level skills for Biodiversity. Co‐founding partners SANBI (the South African National Biodiversity Institute) and the Lewis Foundation led the development of a Biodiversity Human Capital Development Strategy (BHCDS) in 2009–2010. The strategy is aimed at producing specialist, research and management skills for all organisations with biodiversity mandates, objectives, interest or impact, in the context of skills shortages, the need for social transformation and opportunities for growth and employment in the greening of the South African economy.
GreenMatter activates through the involvement of a range of organisations, institutions and partners (which include NGOs, SMME's, parastatals, national and provincial government departments), Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), SETA's and Business, in delivering through a shared implementation model on the needs for quality skills and transformation.
Source: Adapted from GreenMatter, www.greenmatterza.com. © John Wiley & Sons.
Personal Profile
Megan Fraser, Certified Coach, UK
I began my career in start‐up consultancy in Canada, where I became fascinated by how effective leadership impacts an organisation’s success (or not). This led me to start studying coaching in 2015. I’m now a certified professional coach and facilitator based in Scotland and I love working at the intersection between personal development and wider societal change.
In my private coaching practice, I work 1–1 with professionals, leaders and entrepreneurs who want to create a life and career in line with their values. Often my clients come to me in transition, feeling stuck or lost as they try to figure out next steps. Many of my clients have a deep sense of social responsibility or an awareness of the climate change emergency – whether or not they’re currently working in the green economy – and want some help to decide how to use their talents to contribute meaningfully. I’m also a member of Climate Change Coaches, where we see climate change as a human behaviour problem, and help people take action around it.
I’ve coached at The Journey, the world’s biggest climate innovation summer school, where we help young people think about how we might tackle climate change through entrepreneurial thinking. I also coach at Good Ideas, Scotland’s incubator for social innovation; and at The Lens; a social enterprise that develops leadership and intrapreneurial thinking across the Third and Public Sectors in the UK and beyond.
Top Tips
Green Job Searching Tips:
1 Create your own structure and goals for active job searching. Without this, it can feel overwhelming and very difficult to quantify your success. It’s helpful to adopt a simple mantra of ‘one seed a day’. Importantly, this ‘seed’ needs to be an action in the outside world: time spent polishing your resume, updating your LinkedIn profile, or researching jobs don’t count as seeds (though all those things are still part of your search).A seed might be an informational interview, a job application, an interview, an email to someone requesting a phone call, a message to your network asking for introductions to particular types of professionals. Once your seed has been planted, you’ve done all you can do and can move onto the next seed. Of course, you can plant more than one a day, but one is your minimum.
2 Don’t mistake quantity for quality. I’ve met many people who tell me they’ve applied for ‘hundreds’ of jobs online and haven’t heard back from any of them. The reality, however, is that sites like Indeed and LinkedIn – while allowing us to technically ‘apply’ via one click – can be black holes for resumes. And if your resume isn’t optimised for their algorithm, it might never even be seen by a human. Instead, focus on good quality networking (below). One solid informational interview is worth innumerable one‐click ‘applications’. Don’t chase the numbers.
3 Be proactive in 1–1 networking. Surveys indicate that between 60 and 85% of jobs are found through relationships, not job boards. Research organisations you’re interested in working with and follow them online so that you’re up to date with their news. Read environmental blogs and magazines to learn who the main players are in fields that interest you. Actively start finding out who you already know in those organisations, or who might be contacts of people you know already.Start inviting these people for 30‐minute informational interviews where you can learn about their jobs and whether you can see yourself growing into them. Always ask them for a referral to someone else, too! Often, they’ll introduce you to a couple of people, each of whom you can then interview too. Your network of quality contacts will steadily grow. Stay in touch with everyone you meet – but don’t be pushy or try to sell yourself. Aim to help them. Be friendly. This will help you stay on their radar.
4 Always over‐prepare for interviews. Never make the mistake of ‘winging it’. An interview is the fruit of many hours of research, networking and hard work. This is not the time to finally relax. This is the time to bring your best game!Find good 25–30 sample interview questions online and take the time to actually write out your responses to these. You don’t have to remember your answers word‐for‐word but writing them will help you know exactly what you want to say. Then rehearse them repeatedly in front of a mirror and with a friend. Get feedback about your responses (and whether you’re waffling) and tweak your responses until you sound fluid and are answering exactly what the questioner is asking.
5 Lastly: if you’re drawn towards part‐ or full‐time entrepreneurship, remember that even purpose‐driven organisations need to be business literate. It’s not enough to be passionate about solving a problem. Often social innovators are so driven to fix something, they neglect the need to plan for revenue streams. And at times, the problem they’re trying to solve (like climate change) is so huge that they don’t think strategically enough about how to tackle just one particular part of it.In your planning, always put the customer (or user) first. If they don’t see value in what you provide, there’s no business. The Strategyzer tools, available online for free, help you map out your value proposition and potential business models and will give you lots of additional tools to grow your ideas.
Source: Megan Fraser, Certified Coach, UK. www.meganfraser.org www.linkedin.com/in/meganclarefraser. © John Wiley & Sons.
Top Tips
Zoe Greenwood, Oxford HR Consultant and Climate Change Coach, UK
1 If you are passionate about the environment but you’re not a scientist, engineer or something more conventionally ‘suitable’ for the sector, then remember that you can use your skills in service of the environment whatever they are. Many of the organisations listed in this book need fundraisers, HR, finance, communications and more. Journalists, lawyers, educators and coaches can all specialise in the environment. In summary, to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we need people with a wide cross section of skills and competencies. Whatever your professional interest is, there will be a space for it.
2 This is a sector that is changing by the day and with any luck fast becoming business as usual. Climate change has gone mainstream, businesses no longer want to be compliant but sustainable with transparent supply chains, coastal cities
