Clarity Came from Action: My Path into Climate Work

I work as Director of Product at GIST Impact, a sustainability data and analytics firm. My role sits at the intersection of regulation, climate risk and data, building solutions that help organisations turn complex sustainability information into insights people can actually use to make decisions.

I wasn’t always in this space. I still consider myself relatively new to climate and sustainability, about three years in, after spending close to seven years in product development. That mix has shaped how I approach my work. I care about rigour, but even more about usefulness. If an insight can’t be acted on, it isn’t finished.

Before climate became my job, sustainability mattered to me in quieter ways. I made conscious choices, had thoughtful conversations, and carried a background concern about where things were heading. But for a long time, it all felt distant. Important, yes, but gradual.

That changed in 2020.

Covid, and a chicken-and-egg situation

COVID collapsed the sense of distance almost overnight. In a matter of weeks, the world revealed how fragile our systems really are, and how quickly “unlikely” events can become everyday reality. Climate and nature risks, which I had always been anxious about, stopped feeling abstract. They felt immediate, systemic, and impossible to ignore. Along with that came a sense of professional urgency. It no longer felt enough to care quietly.

At the time, my career was in product development and digital transformation. At McKinsey & Company, I worked on building and launching products, shaping digital strategies, and leading agile transformations across industries including financial services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and private markets.

As my interest in sustainability-focused problem statements grew, so did my frustration. I wanted to move closer to the space but couldn’t see a clear path in. Even in organisations where sustainability work was expanding, the expectation was prior experience in the field, something I didn’t yet have. I found myself in an uncomfortable loop: motivated, but unsure where to start.

That uncertainty lingered for months, during a period of exploration and recalibration, until I came across Terra.do through my wife, who was also exploring a transition into a climate career.

Learning, and a community

What helped wasn’t just learning content. It was two things working together. First, a structured way to understand the climate landscape. The language, the problem areas, and the types of roles that actually existed. Second, a community where I could engage openly at a time when much of my confusion came from simply not knowing where to begin.

The transition wasn’t straightforward.

Once I committed to moving into sustainability, I quickly realised how broad and fragmented the field really is. Climate risk, ESG reporting, carbon markets, policy, data, strategy. Each felt important, but none felt like an obvious fit on its own. The hardest part wasn’t motivation, it was direction. I kept asking myself where I could relate most strongly, and where I could actually have impact.

For me, impact meant helping drive positive change at scale through solutions that influence decisions across organisations, rather than contributing only to isolated projects.

One thing I was clear about was that I didn’t want to start from zero. Sustainability felt like a domain switch, not a reset. I had spent years building products, working closely with users, and translating complexity into something usable. The challenge was figuring out how to apply that experience in a way that felt authentic and valuable in a new field.

What eventually helped was changing the question I was asking. Instead of “Which sustainability role should I pick?”, I started asking, “Where can I apply product thinking in a way that feels natural and genuinely impactful?”

That reframing narrowed things down. Areas like climate data and analytics, energy, agritech and adjacent sectors stood out because they sit at the intersection of data, decision-making and real-world outcomes. It felt like familiar ground.

The real breakthrough came when I stopped trying to become a climate expert overnight and focused instead on becoming a useful translator. Someone who could connect climate science, regulatory expectations, and organisational decision-making. That made the transition feel less like a leap and more like a progression, even if the path was still messy.

With some clarity on direction, the next question was how to break in. I chose to connect with organisations already working in the space rather than starting something from scratch. I looked for teams operating in the domains I was interested in and used climate-focused job boards to understand where hiring was actually happening. From there, it was about conversations. Reaching out, asking questions and learning how different organisations were applying sustainability in practice.

About six months after completing the programme, that process led me to GIST Impact, where I’ve continued to grow into my current role.

Climate work spans many disciplines

Working in climate has shown me how early we still are as a field. While data and disclosures are increasing, turning them into real decisions remains a challenge. For example, many organisations have made significant progress on climate reporting and data collection, yet are still building the internal processes, tools and capabilities needed to consistently translate those insights into operational and strategic decisions.

Personally, this meant another learning curve. I moved from a broad understanding to working through very specific problem statements. I built depth by leaning on subject-matter experts, learning continuously and listening closely to customers. Their constraints and questions shaped my understanding more than any framework ever could.

Today, my work sits at the intersection of regulation, climate risk, data and decision-making, with a particular focus on understanding and translating climate risk impacts for corporations and financial institutions. Much of it is translation – turning regulatory intent, customer needs, and data realities into clear requirements that teams can build into scalable, decision-ready solutions.

It’s challenging work, especially in a field that spans many disciplines rather than a single narrative. But that complexity is also what makes it deeply motivating.

If there’s one thing I wish I’d known earlier, it’s that clarity often comes through action. Spending time learning, talking to people, and engaging with companies working on real climate challenges helped turn abstract interests into concrete understanding.

If you’re thinking about a transition into climate, don’t think of it as starting over. Climate needs people from many backgrounds. Treat it as a domain shift, not a reset, and focus on how your existing skills can create value in a space that urgently needs them.

 

 

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