As an organization founded on the principle of sustainability, it’s no surprise that climate change is top of mind for the Net Impact community. For the past five years, climate change has consistently ranked in the top three issues that our members care about, among Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Responsibility, and ranked as the number one topic that our Chapters want exclusive programming around. In fact, 56% of Net Impact Chapters have put on their own Chapter-based engagements on climate change just in the last year, higher than any other issue area in our community-- and that’s during a global pandemic.
After another record-setting year for climate change (2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record), Net Impact is fervently leaning into our mission to inspire, equip, and activate emerging leaders to tackle the toughest social and environmental issues. To do this, we’ve partnered with Climate Interactive and MIT’s Sustainability Initiative, both long-time thought leaders in the climate policy space, to launch our inaugural cohort of Net Impact Climate Ambassadors. The Ambassadors come from a total of 10 different countries, 5 different continents, span a variety of educational and social backgrounds, and come from both in and out of our Chapter Network. What unites them is their steadfast commitment to participate in the climate movement, learn deeply about climate system dynamics and the highest-leverage climate solutions, and the commitment of centering all of the above in environmental justice. Through an 8-week online training course, our Climate Ambassadors will learn to use data and Climate Interactive’s tools to model scenarios that mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. They will then be trained to use their new skills to facilitate educational workshops in their workplaces, college campuses, and communities.
Meet Members of the Inaugural Cohort
We’re excited to highlight three members of our inaugural Climate Ambassadors cohort who will play a crucial role in advocating for climate action.
Frank Nguyen, San Francisco Professional Chapter
After working as a consultant and manager at Mastercard for the last four years, Frank transitioned full-time to the climate movement at the non-profit Climate Leadership Initiative. In this role, he works to guide new donors to impactful solutions at scale. Through the Climate Ambassador Course with Climate Interactive, he’s focusing on building his communication skills for a general audience and using the Climate Interactive platform to kickstart conversations about climate solutions with his peers and local community.
Sukriti Boparai, York University Graduate Chapter, Canada
As an undergraduate in Business and Accounting in India, Sukriti started her career working in the energy and mining sector. After having the opportunity to work on the company’s CSR initiatives, she pivoted her career to tackle the socioeconomic and environmental impacts that the energy sector helps produce. While her MBA program has given her a robust understanding of the issues from a management and strategic perspective, she’s excited to use the Climate Interactive platform to understand the issues from a science-backed, systems-oriented perspective for actionable solutions.
Samel Tetteh, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Chapter, Ghana
Samel is the Vice President of Membership of his Net Impact Chapter at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Samel hopes that the Climate Ambassador certification will provide him with the skills to influence his local community to build climate resilience within the energy sector.
Learn More
To learn more about our Climate Ambassador program, check out our website. To hear about what Net Impact is doing to promote the allyship between people and industry to preserve the planet, be a part of our Regenerative Economy series.