Why We’re Building Communities of Practice (And Why They Matter)

Chances are, you joined the Work on Climate Community to connect with like-minded folks and find opportunities in the climate space. Maybe you’re looking to break into the space for the first time, seeking ways to integrate sustainable practices in your current workplace, or starting your own climate company. 

Over 30,000 folks have joined Work on Climate since its inception, signaling a clear desire to contribute their skills and expertise to tackle mounting climate challenges. Naturally, a community of 30,000+ members is not a monolith, and multiple subcommunities have sprouted based on specific interests.

To support the evolution of certain subcommunities, we’re focusing on building a deeply engaged, connected base of community members who are highly effective at using their skills for climate progress. As part of a strategic push, we’re going one step further from upskilling professionals to empowering a full stack of stakeholders around identified workforce barriers.

To address these needs and enhance the broader community infrastructure, we’re working hard to build our Communities of Practice.

What is a Community of Practice?

“A Community of Practice is a community whose primary goal is helping practitioners build relationships with each other that are helpful for their practice. It helps people collaborate and solve problems together, and gives them resources to be more effective.”
– Eugene Kirpichov, Co-founder and CEO of Work on Climate

A Community of Practice (CoP), coined by educational theorist Etienne Wenger, consists of three elements: 

1. Domain: a specific field or discipline 
2. Community: a group of members who interact with one another on a repeated basis
3. Practice: the shared repertoire of knowledge, experience, and resources

A Community of Practice is intentionally designed to promote proactive facilitation of knowledge retention and sharing. Members learn from each other and develop a shared identity as practitioners — improving their competencies within the domain.  

How Communities of Practice can bring together people united by a purpose

One key benefit to a Community of Practice is peer-to-peer learning. This piece is particularly critical to the success of Work on Climate because supporting the green transition requires talent that the workforce presently lacks. Opportunities to learn climate-focused skills such as carbon accounting, ESG reporting, and sustainable investment analysis are not widely available, even to those who work within relevant functions in other industries. Peer-to-peer learning is particularly critical for new entrants who already have the foundational knowledge of their function, but don’t know how to upskill for the climate space. By sharing experiences and resources with one another, we construct a more robust launchpad for those embarking on their climate journey.

Communities of Practice also emphasize idea collaboration. Making connections is huge at Work on Climate, and there’s nothing we love to see more than people meeting and working together. Through collaboration, people can increase their impact by magnitudes and produce the ripple effect needed to bolster a green workforce. 

By building Communities of Practice, we are creating diverse communities of stakeholders who work together to dismantle systemic barriers preventing the growth of a climate workforce. Through their shared knowledge and wide range of expertise, these members can high-impact design solutions for the most pressing issues in the climate space.

How we’re building Communities of Practice

We currently support two Communities of Practice revolving around climate founders and workplace sustainability. 

Why these two? These communities represent catalytic roles within the climate industry – founders because they create climate jobs and innovation, and workplace climate action and corporate sustainability because they transform big companies already positioned to make an impact. In Work on Climate’s Slack community, you can find these two channels here: 

• #Role-Founders: A community focused on helping build the climate-founder skills needed for success at every stage of the startup journey, both within the Work on Climate community and the workforce more broadly.
• #Learn-Workplace-Climate-Action: A community focused on helping build the skills needed to take climate action and improve sustainability in every workplace, even if an organization isn’t traditionally climate-focused. A “climate job” can take many forms!

By participating in these communities, members can share their expertise and insights in tight-knit groups. The testimonials below are powerful reminders that, spent with the right people, even fifteen minutes can be influential in driving climate action forward.

“Just had a very insightful and helpful session with Adam Gordon. He made some really valuable suggestions around how to figure out the right messaging for our start-up. If you are in the early days of building your own venture, I would highly recommend booking his next session!”
– Kunth Jain, Founder, Growth for Impact

“I’m still buzzing from yesterday’s SME Drop-In Session hosted by Work on Climate! Sharing my personal journey, challenges, and passions with fellow climate enthusiasts was truly inspiring. The session offered a unique opportunity to receive valuable feedback and guidance on our professional goals and aspirations. If you’re interested in becoming a Climate Founder, I highly recommend joining these sessions.”
– Sebastian Davila Santander, Founder and CEO, Yai Energy

“​Whether you’re an employee looking to get involved in climate action at work, or a business leader aiming to enhance your company’s climate policy agenda, this webinar will provide you with the knowledge and inspiration needed to raise your climate voice at work at a time when it’s never been more urgent.”
– ClimateVoice, shared by SME Drew Wilkinson, co-founder of Microsoft’s 10,000+ member employee sustainability community, in #Learn-Workplace-Climate-Action 

Thanks to your valuable support and feedback, we have a greater sense of where we want the community to evolve. By building Communities of Practice, we’re confident that their intentional focus and benefits will enhance the overall Work on Climate experience – whether it be job-seeking, career-building, or knowledge-gathering – and accelerate the green transition.

We’re always looking for founders and experts willing to lend their time and knowledge to these Communities of Practice, so come on over if you want to get involved – join our Communities of Practice!