What drew you to work at OG?
I came across OG in my long search to find a job that would combine my creative skills with having a tangible impact on an issue I care deeply about. At the time, I was juggling three roles to tick both these boxes: a full-time job, a freelance job and a volunteering role. After months of scrolling through job listings, I really had a strong sense of just how rare what I was looking for actually was.
So when I found OG, I could hardly believe the job ad was real. It was a company tackling the issue I’m most passionate about, climate change, but not just in any way – in a way that felt ambitious and intentional. When I joined, OG was only three years old, yet it had already delivered impact and planted the seeds for much more. I was impressed by its rapid growth, its positivity and its energy. I wanted to be part of it.
It was driving change in hard-to-decarbonise sectors. That’s a bold move in itself. When you report to funders, it can be tempting to focus on sectors that are already on an upward decarbonisation trajectory. But OG chose the big, challenging ones, like aviation and shipping. What stood out to me was also its multidisciplinary approach: tackling climate change by using their legal, policy, diplomacy, scientific and economic expertise – this sounded like a powerful strategy and a great learning opportunity.
And then there was the truly progressive working culture. Often, small companies try to get the maximum number of hours out of highly-motivated employees for the lowest possible pay. Meanwhile, OG offers a four-day work week, a generous market-aligned salary and full transparency about pay and responsibilities. Progressive inside and out? It almost didn’t seem real.
A year in, I can honestly say the level of motivation and productivity here is unmatched. I think that comes both from our shared passion and vision for tackling climate change, but also from genuine gratitude for OG’s progressive approach to employee wellbeing. When you feel valued and supported, you naturally want to give your very best in return.
What has changed since you started?
We have grown not only in headcount, but also in the number of sectors we tackle. We now work on steel, data centres, agriculture, finance and heavy-duty vehicles, as well as aviation and shipping.
OG has also truly embraced its multidisciplinary approach. People across legal, diplomacy, advocacy, science, economics and communications collaborate on projects, bringing different perspectives and expertise, and ultimately making our work stronger.
On the comms side, as the organisation has grown, so has the volume of publications we produce. That means we’ve had to step back and become increasingly strategic about our priorities and key messages. In a crowded space where everyone is fighting for attention, breaking through the noise is hard. Being part of that transition – sharpening our messaging and choosing where to focus – has been very interesting.
And of course, a major change has been our new website, which leads me to…
What are you most proud of being involved in since you joined?
Our new website!
Being involved in the redesign has been one of the highlights of my time at OG. We completely rethought its structure to make it as easy as possible for users to understand our complex work. We future-proofed it, to have a website that can grow alongside us as a young and dynamic organisation. We stayed true to our brand colours and shapes, but created something bolder, clearer and more engaging while keeping OG’s distinct feel.
As part of the redesign, we also rewrote the website content from scratch, including launching new topic hubs. I really enjoyed writing the hubs on climate law and data centres – researching them meant I learned so much along the way. It made me even more excited to continue building out content across our other areas of work.
Now, seeing it live – and knowing you’re reading these words on a website I helped shape – makes me very proud. It’s not perfect, and we still have a long list of improvements we want to make. But I’m proud of this first step. It has also been a healthy exercise for my inner perfectionist: celebrating progress! Being 80% done is worth celebrating. The remaining 20% can come later.
What inspires you about what you’re working on?
I feel very strongly about the urgency of climate action. Working alongside experts and learning from them every day only reinforces that feeling. Every time I read a piece of their work and discover yet another gap that needs closing or another injustice, I want everyone to know about it.
I truly believe their work is essential, and I take my responsibility very seriously: making sure their research and analysis reach as many people as possible.
What are you looking forward to in the coming year?
I’m particularly looking forward to working on our communications around the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). This year presents an opportunity to extend it to international flights.
Currently, the aviation industry benefits from a tax status that no other sector enjoys, despite being one of the most polluting. Under the EU ETS, airlines must account for CO₂ emissions from flights within the EU, but flights between EU and non-EU destinations are not included. This has resulted in over 1.1bn tonnes of unregulated CO₂ and roughly €26bn in lost climate revenues since 2012.
This feels wrong on many levels. First, no one is paying for this pollution. Second, it puts aviation at an economic advantage compared to cleaner transport alternatives. And there’s also a fairness issue: the average family flying within Europe pays for their emissions, but a more affluent traveller flying long-haul to New York or Dubai does not. Nor do companies sending employees on frequent intercontinental business trips.
While this blog isn’t meant to convince you, I’m very passionate about this issue (as you can tell) and can’t wait to bring my ideas to life, raise awareness, and hopefully help push change over the line.
Beyond that, I am excited to keep on learning! As someone with a lifelong passion for learning (forever grieving uni days, RIP), I feel very grateful to be in a company like OG. I am lucky that my role allows me to collaborate across areas, which means I’m constantly learning from our experts. And as a growing and young organisation with a rather small comms team, I get to experiment – from social media to website development, media outreach to newsletters. And finally, OG really invests in its people. We get training opportunities and have an annual learning and development allowance to use on courses of our choice – something I’m keen to make the most of!
Finally, I’m excited to see how much OG continues to grow – and feel grateful to be part of the journey along amazing people!
