WHY “Our Climate Common”?
Our Climate Common’s mission is to build relationships of trust throughout our society so we can get important things done, together, on the ground.
Climate change is an all-hands-on-deck challenge. Everyone is needed, regardless of political affiliation, cultural identity, or economic status. The atmosphere is our single largest “common pool resource,” meaning a resource we all depend on. Unfortunately, we’ve become a hyper-polarized citizenry. We’re divided by income, education, occupation (blue vs. white collar), geography (e.g., rural vs. urban, north vs. south), race, religion, gender, and of course, politics. When we get this divided, we can no longer solve big problems, like pandemics or climate change. We have a relationship problem, not a science problem.
What We Do
Our Climate Common builds relationships of trust with people in sectors of our economy that have been left out or left behind in the climate conversation. We need their knowledge and their leadership to solve a problem this large and complex.
We start by listening and learning. We develop an understanding of what people value—what matters to them.
Once we’ve built trust, together we design a project that requires the skills of both of us to carry out. The end goal is to do something that matters for the climate, but that also advances our respective interests.
We call this approach to social change “Relationship as Method.” It works. We’re building broad social will for solving climate change across our divides.
Building trust at the individual level might seem slow and painstaking, but ironically, it is highly efficient in creating lasting solutions with broad public support.