Not-for-profit leaders are uniquely situated in the fight against the climate crisis – regardless of their organizational mission. Michael Davis of Our Kids Climate joins for our third episode of the year to discuss how boards can integrate meaningful environmental sustainability dialogue into their work and act towards climate justice within their own organizations. We also talk about how a focus on climate is a matter of keeping up with social innovation and being a leader in inevitable public policy changes. 

Resources: 

• Ourkidsclimate.ca
  
• Ep. 63: Democracy, Equity, and Climate Change – oh my!

Time stamps: 

00:00 | Intro
01:52 | How it all began
04:28 | How boards can make a difference
06:39 | Who is Our Kids Climate for?
07:43 | What action looks like
11:37 | Does keeping up mean “going green”?
12:30 | Mitigation and Adaptation
16:06 | Ad
17:01 | Exploring Our Kids Climate Sessions
20:06 | Strategic planning for climate justice
21:23 | Scoping sector interest in climate action
26:26 | Getting started
27:56 | Expecting the unexpected
31:25 | Outro

Michael Davis is the founder of Governance for Our Kids Climate, a group of volunteer board trainers dedicated to helping small- to medium-sized organizations — community benefit organisations, corporations, strata councils, and co-ops — incorporate fighting climate change into their governance.  

Michael is also the Principal of PublicAffair, a communication, government relations and stakeholder engagement firm in Vancouver. He has been on boards since 1996, holding a variety of positions including President, Finance Chair, Governance Chair and a contracted Executive Director for organizations that include a maritime museum, social service agency, pan-provincial umbrella organization of social service agencies, a political party, and a refugee resettlement charity. He has been doing governance training for boards since 1999.  

Michael also provides research assistance regarding our energy transition to a low-carbon economy at Royal Roads University.