Celebrating one year at OG with our Legal Director Carly

As the second hired employee to hit the one-year milestone, Carly reflects on why she joined Opportunity Green and what she’s most proud of so far. She also explains why her young son is one of her biggest drivers to work in climate change.

Carly (right), with OG’s first employee Ana (left) and CEO Aoife (centre)

What drew you to work at OG?

Oh gosh, this sounds so clichéd but as soon as I saw the job I knew it was for me. I wasn’t looking for a new role at the time, I’d not long gone back to work at National Grid after maternity leave at the time, and I was enjoying what I was doing there.

But I’d met Aoife in a former life 10 years prior when I worked for an MEP in the European Parliament in Brussels, and I remembered her being really good at what she did then. When I saw her post on LinkedIn I couldn’t stop thinking about it!

I went into law when I left the Parliament, but it was always with the dream of trying to do some societal good with the legal skills I gathered along the way. Climate change has been a passion of mine – if you can call the greatest issue we face today a ‘passion’ – and this job combined my skillset and desire to make a difference perfectly.

I was also really excited by the chance of getting in at the beginning – Opportunity Green was just Aoife when I interviewed – and having a degree of latitude to shape my role as well.

It was a big decision for me to leave a good job with great colleagues at a big company for a brave little start-up with (at the time) one other person, but it was an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down.

“Climate change is the defining issue of our generation. This is our last chance. If we don’t get it right now, it will define every single generation to come. ”

What has changed since you started?

So much! I remember sitting in a meeting room in our first ‘office’, a coworking space just a few hundred metres away from where we now. I said that in a year’s time I wanted to have developed three good ideas for legal actions to pursue, and to have bridged them in three years’ time.

Only two months later we were recruiting for two more legal colleagues, and six months later we have so many exciting projects and potential actions going on it’s hard to keep track – but it’s way definitely more than three!

It is so gratifying to work with so many passionate, smart people with a genuine desire to do their bit to try and make the world a better place.

Getting out of the office on a recent away day at Freightliners City Farm

What are you most proud of being involved in since you joined?

There are so many things, but at the root of all of them is the amazing team that we have built.

From the legal perspective, in the last few months, we have:

• Delivered a legal submission to a top international court arguing that countries are legally obliged to act to reduce shipping emissions.

• Supported a small organisation in Crete who are fighting the expansion of an airport.

• Been working hard behind the scenes on potential greenwashing in the shipping industry.

• Been working with partners to develop climate litigation strategies across a number of other sectors.

It is so rewarding seeing ideas that I had a few months ago come to fruition, and so exciting to see our name being mentioned with other non-profits who have been around for much longer. This is a real testament to the strength of our legal team and the Opportunity Green team in general.

What inspires you about what you’re working on?

Climate change is the defining issue of our generation. This is our last chance. If we don't get it right now, it will define every single generation to come.

It’s not so much what I’m working on, but what I’m working for – but I’m constantly inspired (and exhausted, frustrated and dumbfounded in equal measure) by my toddler, who is likely going to live his life in a very different world than the one I grew up in.

As syrupy as it sounds, I want to be able to look him in the eye and tell him I did everything I could, in whatever small way that is, to try and make the world a better place for him and his buddies. He keeps me accountable, and not just as a provider of snacks/deliverer of his every whim.

“It is so rewarding seeing ideas that I had a few months ago come to fruition, and so exciting to see our name being mentioned with other non-profits who have been around for much longer. ”

What are you looking forward to in the coming year?

I’m looking forward to growing and developing our small but mighty team even more while working hard to maintain the friendly, inclusive and (dare I say it) fun working culture that we’ve purposely tried to cultivate.

From a legal perspective, I am really looking forward to seeing what the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea have to say in respect of countries’ legal obligations to protect the marine environment from climate change. I’m especially interested in whether they agree with us that shipping emissions should be reduced as part of that. I’m looking forward to moving forward some of our sectoral legal action strategies from idea into reality.

Inspired to come and work at Opportunity Green? Keep an eye on our vacancies page and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.