Joe Bialowitz builds powerful partnerships and inspires others in a large organization.
“When I came to understand that extreme climate threatens people just as much as extreme poverty and extreme ideology,” explained Joe Bialowitz, Principal Environmental Stewardship Consultant at Kaiser Permanente, “it was the eye opener that made me devote myself to a career in environmental sustainability.”
Profoundly influenced by his father’s experience of surviving a Nazi death camp and by the Los Angeles riots that occurred when he was a teenager, Joe always aspired to create positive change on a large scale. As an undergraduate, Joe studied political science and subsequently worked for a non-profit that sought to eliminate illegal discrimination in the Bay Area housing market. After completing his master’s degree in urban planning, he worked for a developer of affordable housing. Seeing firsthand how poverty is exacerbated by unhealthy environments—from urban heat islands to air pollution to food deserts—Joe was inspired to pursue a second master’s in environmental management in the Netherlands.
Today, Joe weaves together the narratives of health and environmental sustainability into his work with Kaiser Permanente—one of America’s largest integrated health care providers—to inspire change and build partnerships within the organization and in the communities it serves.
The following questions and answers draw from our conversation over the phone and through email.
When you were a student, did you imagine you’d be where you are today?
As an undergrad, definitely not. I thought I’d be a civil rights lawyer and maybe one day a judge. But my thinking shifted a bit in grad school, thanks to some books on “green urbanism” and visits to a few utopian housing communities in Northern Europe. One of these places was an “ecovillage” built outside Stockholm by a large company that, up until that point, only had experience with more traditional forms of housing development. But the company was able to take the inchoate concept of “ecological housing” and bring it to life. After seeing how businesses like that one could be a force for scaling up good ideas, I decided that was what I really wanted to do.
Was there a pivotal lesson that has helped you to succeed?
I spent a year and a half living, learning, and working in the Netherlands. My goal was to learn about how multinationals go about improving their environmental performance. What I found there was a comprehensive approach to the craft of sustainability, based on centuries of experience with managing nature for the common good. One of their secrets was the use of formalized environmental management systems, such as ISO 14001, that any organizations can use as a blueprint for establishing an environmental strategy and wrapping infrastructure around it. In my work with many different teams, I’ve consistently found myself returning to ISO 14001’s basic elements—such as materiality assessments, SMART targets, and management reviews—as extremely practical tools for improving environmental performance.
How did you evolve into your current role bridging health and sustainability?
I started out at Kaiser Permanente in their environmental, health, and safety department. This gave me a great understanding of how to operationalize changes that simultaneously improve the health of our workforce, our members, our communities, and our natural environment.
What challenges keep you up at night?
Like a lot of people, I worry that, as a society, we are not moving fast enough to preserve and protect our planetary life support system. But a better question would be to ask which solutions help me to sleep at night! I’m always reminding myself that environmental problems are caused mostly by humans, and we can therefore solve them. It will take a lot to succeed: holistic thinking, active management, and willing cooperation. But the centuries-old battle against disease is the precedent that I look to. Just like many diseases, environmental stressors are complex, widespread, and disproportionately affect the world’s most vulnerable people. And just like efforts to combat some of the most complex health problems like cancer and obesity, climate solutions require a multi-faceted mobilization across society. It doesn’t happen overnight; it’s going to take decades, but I know that we will win this fight.
What’s the role of healthcare professionals in meeting the sustainability challenge?
They have a central role to play in today’s environmental movement. Healthcare professionals have experience to share when it comes to treating long-term, systemic problems. Of course, they start with their core competency, which means helping patients to cope with the presently observed health effects of climate change—such as higher rates of allergies and respiratory ailments. But clinicians are also finding ways to reduce their own environmental impacts, and they are urging society to act decisively to decelerate climate change and its very real effects on public health. When I see clinicians embracing these roles, it gives me a lot of optimism. They are viewed as trusted partners, so when they act, others are much more likely to follow.
How do you engage partners to spread sustainability throughout Kaiser Permanente?
Sustainability requires innovation, and innovative ideas in Kaiser Permanente—and in a system of any kind—frequently come from all directions. So it’s very important to constructively challenge everyone. lnvite them to find ways to incorporate environmental responsibility into what they do. But first, gain consensus on lofty, long-term goals that inspire everyone. Then encourage people to establish specific goals for their departments, align their incentives with these goals, assign the appropriate resources, and measure and report their performance. Despite the hard work involved, we’ve gained great traction with our initiatives because people throughout the organization recognize the myriad of ways in which environmental stewardship can improve the health of our members and communities.
What sort of skills do you use that you initially wouldn’t expect?
While we mustn’t minimize the problems that we face, I’ve learned to always present them in ways that people can relate to and act upon. Research has shown that people often tune out or deny problems like climate change when the problems are presented as scary or overwhelming. On the other hand, people are inspired to take action when they are presented with personal stories and clear examples of solutions in which they can participate.
What advice would you give someone who wants to make a positive impact?
Much of the work of innovation and embedding sustainability inside a company is done within the individual business units of an organization. So if you want to work directly on green initiatives, probably the best way to do it is to become really good at something else. Then integrate environmental responsibility into that something else that you’re doing. It’s also essential to be a good “lateral manager” who can constantly cooperate and coordinate with your colleagues.
