Climate Coaching and Mediation

wherever we live at this particular moment in time, we can’t ignore the signs of the changing climate and crises around us, can we? 

If you are an entrepreneur, a leader, a sustainability manager, a coach or a mediator, an academic, a teacher or a parent, a student or a kid, however Earth friendly you are, you might perceive some kind of pressure to be different, to change your behaviour to a more pro-climate one, to „perform“ hope and clarity.  While some of us are 

• organising sustainability reports and strategies (which need to meet the legal requirements and employees and social expectations),
• creating and upholding sustainable and safe work places, 
• teaching the facts of i.e. the planetary and health crises and at the same time dealing with increasing tension, mental health issues and confusion,
• or wondering how persons or governments dare to tell you that your hedonistic attitude is wrong, or that you should be patient when it comes to your attempt to have an sufficient impact on society*

I would like to offer you some space and partnership in maintaining hope and allowing personal, organisational and societal development.  If this introduction struck a chord with you, I kindly invite you to read the following lines. Hopefully you will find some inspiration around climate coaching and mediation, sustainable work place leadership and The Ecology of Human Beings in the BANI World. I will share some thoughts, sources and questions with you, that could support your further steps on the way to become even more aware of your possible development or contribution or to create a community which is with you, here and now. 

*I am aware that all this might sound a little cynical. I don’t want that at all. I strive to observe the complexity of our world: critically, demanding of myself and aware of the fact that we co-create this reality in every single moment.  

What climate coaching or mediation are and what they are not? 

Climate coaching is a partnership-based assistance in order to explore, create and implement a climate friendly strategy i.e. within organisations and universities. I offer it mainly to executives and boards who want professional and experienced support in becoming a part of the solution. It is also aimed at politicians and academics, at people of every age and background, at everyone who wants to implement a “blue ecology“.

Climate or environmental mediation is about working on conflicts and decisions which arise due to climate correlated disputes and social conflicts. These can include disputes about the direction of the company, its digital and analog approach, use of resources and legacy. It can also be about creating a car-free city center, an energy wind park or the renovation of buildings etc. 

This is usually the moment when organisations or parties start looking coaching or mediation. Before that we may have stopped listening to ourselves and each other or have functioned without considering the side effects of our actions. We might even have felt ashamed by our own actions or reactions or made others responsible for the conflict. During that time you probably experienced how difficult it is to implement the agreed strategies, to listen deeply to the others involved, especially if their attitude, opinion, behaviour differs from yours. Where are you today? Do you perceive for instance how your communication and action change, when you are under time pressure or a decision needs to be made quickly? How easily it can happen to be filled with rage and escalate a conflict from an originally rather small difference in opinion?

If we want to experience conflicts or relationships in a different way, we need to consider pausing and questioning ourselves about how our actions and thoughts might neither be helpful for ourselves nor the planet. 

What usually has a positive impact is a Thinking Environment, a space for critical and appreciative reflection that will help to change the course and increase the quality of thinking and acting – of persons, organisations and in the sum of our society. 

To support the success of such change and a climate positive contribution, it is crucial to rethink one’s own status quo, the opportunities and constraints of life and work. Doing this with a climate coach will help you to force awareness and both personal and organisational development, to consider biases and blind spots and to co-create the change in a sustainable manner. 

This is why climate coaching or mediation are aimed at companies and organisations that are striving for truly sustainable change and have recognised the need for it. Supported in their personal and organisation maturity clients improve the efficacy and sufficiency of their action. Their way of thinking and acting with beings and processes become more clean and integer, with no rush, no finger pointing. This also means, that climate coaching and mediation are not meant as green consultancy. If needed I can recommend you specialists in this area. Meantime my offer entails partnership-based assistance to individuals and/or entire teams who desire competent support in order to achieve their professional goals | constructive and efficient cooperation and/or also to make even better use of the diversity of their resources. According to the International Coaching Federation, coaching is also a process of asking thought-provoking questions and supporting creativity on behalf of the participants.

By the way: if you are a coach or a mediator by yourself, there could be some question mark around the approach of a coach, their attachment during the process in such delicate issue as climate change is, right? From my perspective climate coaching is not a process in which we step in with a mission, an attachment or an idea of what the client should do or stop doing. It is not about judging the client or ourselves, it is not about climate neutrality because as we belong to this planet, we breath and eat and produce carbon dioxide – especially in the industrialised countries.