Driven by social impact and solving our planet's big problems, Audrey Jean-baptiste joins Climate Salad as Director of Impact.
- Audrey, what inspired you to jump in at Climate Salad?
A balanced cocktail of lived experience, acquired skills, fear and optimism.
Having grown up in New Caledonia amongst beautiful coral reefs, unique terrestrial biodiversity and a mix of cultures, I witnessed first hand the growing impacts of climate change on the Pacific Islands region, affecting our islands’ ecosystems. I saw those impacts intensify over the past five years whilst working with social and environmental entrepreneurs across Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, increasing my awareness of how climate change can and is already increasing social and economic inequalities.
This growing understanding of the challenges of Climate Change, paired with a healthy dose of optimism, underpins my interest in Climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Mixing in my experience in creating access to support, capital and markets for hundreds of entrepreneurs across both tech and non-tech sectors is what inspired me to join Climate Salad. And as a little side, I’m also undertaking a Masters degree to dive deeper into the Science of it all.
- What are you working on at Climate Salad?
I primarily focus on driving the research, strategy, design and successful implementation for two types of programs at Climate Salad. The first looks at cross-sector partnerships that aim to address specific Climate Tech industry needs, and the second covers programs that aim to help our founders go global. These both build on our Climate Salad community, and focus on deepening our collaboration with our members in line with our shared vision of helping Australian Climate Tech companies have outsized, global impact. Being the first Climate Team member based out of Melbourne, a core part of my role is to drive the growth of the Climate Tech ecosystem right here in Victoria.
- What are your superpowers?
I’ve been told that one of my superpowers is designing space for meaningful collaboration to occur. With Climate Change being a shared responsibility that will require collaboration across sectors, borders and communities to solve, I am excited to keep strengthening this superpower and apply it as part of my role at Climate Salad. I enjoy the challenge of navigating power dynamics, creating shared context and alignment between different actors, and connecting dots to achieve big things!
- What excites you most about Climate Tech?
We need many solutions to address the complexity of Climate Change, and we need them to be big, diverse, inclusive and to work together. Tech and entrepreneurship are essential ingredients to making this all happen at scale. That being said, I find Climate Tech to be most exciting when it drives, and is being supported by the right economic, policy, societal and behavioural changes.
- How do you take your coffee?
Very grateful this wasn’t a question as part of my interview process, with me seemingly being in the very small % of people living in Melbourne who don't drink coffee. I’ll take a Chai, Peppermint tea or Coconut water anyday.
- What do you do for fun on the weekends?
Growing up in semi-tropical weather, my weekends are spent chasing the warmth in Victoria. You’re most likely to find me in and around water, or on a hike.
- What do you do to help our Climate apart from all the amazing work you do at Climate Salad?
I read, listen and learn. I try to be deliberate about the everyday choices that I make. I only invest in ethical and sustainable funds. Being in the privileged position to have choice, I try to use my purchasing power to reduce waste as part of my everyday life and try to make conscious choices in terms of how much, what and where I buy. I’m also very interested in the intersection of psychology and climate change, and am speaking to some environmental psychologists to explore collaborating around some research.
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