Celebrating three years of OG!

17 Oct

Today’s our third birthday! But what’s a workplace without it’s fantastically committed staff, who help to shape our culture and give OG its life and soul? We spoke to some of our team at our recent birthday party at London’s fantastic Somerset House, and asked them about their highlights of working at Opportunity Green.

I’m beyond delighted with everything Opportunity Green has achieved over the past three years! It has completely exceeded my expectations. It’s been great to really begin to see the impact that our work is having on climate action. Our team is just phenomenal and their great work has meant new funders coming on board all the time, and almost all of our old funders renewing their grants each year. We are eternally grateful for the trust they have put in us and their support, without which we would not be able to continue our work.

Our north star is always impact, ensuring we are concentrating on sectors where emissions are not yet decreasing. We started with aviation and shipping but now we also look at steel, agriculture and finance, and alongside that have started to expand our capabilities by adding economists and scientists to the lawyers and policy experts we already have on staff. I’m really excited for what the next three years will bring!

What inspires me most about working at OG is that we’re not afraid to be bold. We know what we need to do to fix the climate crisis, and we’re not afraid to call for big change.

My most memorable moment is the day I started. I was really excited to do something that I’m passionate about every day, but I was mindful of the fact that workplaces often offer opportunities and then don’t quite deliver. However, on my first day I came in and the spirit around the room, everyone's enthusiasm, the work they were talking about made me realise I was in the right place. Eight months later that’s still my favourite moment.

**James Meadway,** Senior Director – Economics

The main thing that drew me to OG was the idea that if we take climate change as a huge, all-encompassing problem (which it actually is, one that is going to reshape everyone’s lives for the rest of our lives and for generations beyond), it can look absolutely overwhelming, to the point that people actually throw their hands up in despair and give up, which is kind of understandable.

What I like about OG’s approach is its thinking, “Ok, if you have this very big problem, what are the points in that problem where you can deliver the maximum impact with the limited resources we have, using the right policy and legal arguments.” If you start by saying “aviation’s hard but not possible to decarbonise, so what do we do to get there?” Same thing with shipping, it’s very hard to get a ship to sail without its engine churning out loads of greenhouse gases, but you can get there, so what do you have to do to get there? And that’s a really nice way to think about what would otherwise be an absolutely overwhelming, impossible problem.

**Emma Fenton,** Senior Director – Climate Diplomacy

Two things really inspired me to work for OG. The first is its ambition and sense of strategy to achieve the greatest impact. And the second thing is just the strength of the culture. It’s a fabulous place to work, it is incredibly supportive and that’s not that common in the professional world.

What am I looking forward to most? Just getting stuck in and contributing. I’m really looking forward to, in my Diplomacy role, taking the advocacy that we already do effectively at the IMO and expanding that to other multilateral fora. I can’t wait.

I really love the issues OG works on and the chance to make a real systemic global change. But also the team I work with: they’re young, they’re dynamic, they’re super passionate, and just watching the work that they do on a day-to-day basis is super inspiring.

My most memorable moment was definitely the foraging team day. Walking around Hampstead Heath in the sunshine with your teammates, learning about the plants and trees and the environment and how to be more sustainable with food was real a highlight of the year so far.

I have to say there’s a lot of organisations that do amazing stuff for the environment out there, but I think what sets OG apart is the internal governance. From implementing a four-day week to upping the parental leave policy, there have been so many changes that are centred around personal wellbeing which is unfortunately still rare in the charity sector.

A highlight working at OG was when I was attending the hearings for advisory proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Hearing representatives of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) making the case for the application of the law of the sea to climate change, and hearing testimonies from frontline communities was hugely inspiring. Then when a massive win was secured before the tribunal just earlier this year, that felt like it all came full circle.

**Beatrice Oyadoke,** Operations Assistant

I think one of my most memorable moments so far would be moving to a bigger office as OG grows. It’s been awesome getting my colleagues’ ideas and hearing what they value in a workspace. Also working in line with our values and internal policy has been an eye opener and I look forward to continuing to get stuck into other transformative projects that demonstrate our true commitment to climate justice.

I’m inspired by the SASHA Coalition’s ambition to decarbonise shipping and aviation, two sectors that have a really long way to go. But there are really promising solutions out there and I think OG’s focus on how we can deliver those solutions in a just and equitable way whilst bringing stakeholders from SASHA’s member companies to Global South partners along with us is really inspiring.

I’m proudest of how the SASHA Coalition has grown to a size where we’re now able to put ourselves out there to policymakers. Our stand at this year’s Labour Party conference got great feedback from our members on the profile we’re building, we were able to engage with politicians on our key asks and build a solid understanding of where we’re able to push this government to deliver on decarbonising shipping and aviation.

Keen to follow OG into its fourth year? Stay up to date by signing up to our newsletter, and make sure to watch our birthday panel discussion.

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