“I think that we are just scratching the surface of the beginning of a boom of so many sustainability jobs across every single sector, across every single region of the world,” says Kristy Drutman, founder, Browngirl Green and co-founder, Green Jobs Board.

“Climate change is very ever-present on everyone’s minds, especially with the recent wildfires, floods around the world, island nations slowly worrying about going underwater. The tension is there. What are we going to do about it?”

WorkingNation sat down with Drutman at JFF Horizons in New Orleans.

As co-CEO of the Green Jobs Board, Drutman says finding a job was not easy despite her B.A. in environmental policy and city planning from the University of California, Berkeley. As a Filipino-American, Drutman says, “I felt like there wasn’t great representation of Black, indigenous, and people of color in the environmental space.”

She continues, “It really woke me up at a very young age that things need to be different. If we really want to get people to take action, we have to realize it’s not enough to bring people of color into the room.”

“There has to be an environment that they want to thrive in, that they want to feel good in. And that requires an analysis talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the gaps that exist.”

Learn more about Browngirl Green.
Learn more about Green Jobs Board.