🤝 Doing what we can - reflecting on 2021 by Sophie Lambin

Sophie Lambin is the CEO of Kite Insights and The Climate School.

Having directed Global Thought Leadership at PwC for 7 years, Sophie Lambin knows a thing or two about addressing the big questions, challenging the status quo and writing on current affairs. Now CEO of Conduit Connect portfolio company, Kite Insights and it’s new project, The Climate School, Sophie reflected on a year of frustration, disappointment but also significant developments in achieving the global sustainable development goals.

It was with no surprise at how well she articulated the feeling many of us felt leaving 2021, however, her optimistic outlook at our progress is incredibly infectious and motivating.

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Dearest friends and partners,

 After another year of widespread uncertainty, loss, and deep frustration with the state of our health and climate crises, I would be surprised if we had not all, at some point, felt the pull of despair. But I am writing to you today from a place – to borrow Christiana Figueres’ wonderful phrase – of stubborn optimism, which, despite how I might feel initially, always compels me, in the end, to engage with these threats as the most important challenges and questions of our time; to see problems as opportunities, people as everyday heroes, and their disagreements as the ultimate imperative to act.

This year was by no means all bad. A few things stood out. We saw, of course, the US and China, the world’s two largest CO2 emitters, agreeing to boost their climate co-operation to stay well below 2 degrees; an exponential increase in companies committing to net-zero emissions; and a huge investment in clean energy technology.

For the first time in history, 28 indigenous peoples were nominated by the UNFCCC to engage directly with governments as knowledge holders. According to a recent European Investment Bank survey, there was a tremendous amount of global support for strengthening climate education in schools and raising awareness of sustainable consumption.

But one of my personal highlights occurred at the TED Countdown Summit in October 2021, where Kite, as a Strategic Partner, hosted a number of interactive breakthrough sessions with Lindsay Levin and the TED team. We were there to discuss collaborative and thoughtful climate action, with a focus on the innovation mindsets, positive tipping points and the cultural shifts required for societies to tackle the climate crisis. 

Little did I know that another conversation I was there to see – between Chris James, founder of Engine No. 1, Lauren MacDonald, a Scottish climate activist, and Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s largest oil and gas company – would put that collaborative vision, and my own sense of hope, to the test.

It wasn’t long before Lauren MacDonald turned to Mr van Beurden with tears in her eyes and accused him vehemently of greenwashing; declaring that young people would never forgive Shell’s decisions and ‘direct contribution’ to the rising toll of climate-related deaths around the world. She refused to share a stage with him, removed her microphone and left the building, followed by her fellow activists.  

It was a confusing moment for everyone. A conversation which had been presented by the moderator, Christiana Figueres, as a listening exercise, had turned out to be precisely the opposite. While many of us might have felt frustrated by the uncompromising nature of the walk-out, Figueres reminded us that the underlying emotion was real. We had just witnessed a case of deep pain.

It is confusing - unsettling, even - to see such unbridled rage in a young person. We aren’t used to it. While we might have once naively expected youth activists to come to the discussion table level-headed and composed, we must now face the fact that many of them are done holding back, done waiting - and clearly, in Lauren’s case, done talking. When she left the stage, I had to accept that she would not return. 

At that moment, something happened. I found myself reaching for the hand of the woman sitting next to me, who, to my surprise, was reaching for mine. I didn’t know her; she did not know me. But we held on tight, silently acknowledging what was at stake. ‘Stand in your own pain,’ Figueres called out, ‘So you can empathise with what you’ve just seen.’ Only then, she said, can we do the work that must be done. 

But in this letter, I would also like to celebrate the act of doing what one can; because I’m proud to say that at Kite, we’ve done a lot this year - and achieved things that have made me more stubbornly optimistic than ever!

 First, and I cannot resist writing it in capital letters, WE HAVE STARTED TO DELIVER THE CLIMATE SCHOOL. We are so proud and excited. For those of you who don’t already know, this initiative, which we conceived more than 2 years ago, prepares organisations for the green economy by upskilling employees across all professional roles. We’ve partnered with some of the world’s best scientists to curate, alongside AXA Climate and its CEO Antoine Denoix, the most accurate and inspiring climate content available to corporate employees: from the science of climate; biodiversity; natural resources; and human societies; to a series of action-oriented modules on decarbonisation and the implications of climate change for different professional roles. 

It’s simple. If companies hope to meet their commitments and transform their value chains, they have to create the internal conditions for those shifts to occur and for new solutions to emerge. And it’s time we realised that those conditions, well, they start and end with people. 

Climate action, said Cassidy Kramer at The New York Times Climate Hub during COP26, is about “human connection, not just business connections.” This sentiment coursed through our veins in November as we raced around the hub for nine days, ensuring the successful production of over 90 sessions of live journalism that gave an unprecedented platform to voices who needed to be heard. With the trust and support of Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, Whitney Richardson and their team at The New York Times, we curated, alongside Hannah Fairfield, an unbelievably exciting range of sessions, and heard stories that changed many hundreds of minds in the audience. 

Through a conversation between indigenous women leaders, a surprise panel of youth activists hosted by Emma Watson, an interview of John Kerry by Tom Friedman, among so many others – we shone a light on the vital importance of authentic corporate leadership, of co-creation and alliance-building in the face of climate lethargy, corporate power and its use of land and natural resources, the intersecting challenges of colonialism, and other climate justice issues around the world. Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Malala Yousafzai, Tori Tsui, Viviam Villafaña, Daphne Frias, Dr Mya-Rose Craig and Dominique Palmer - the Climate Avengers, as Emma Watson called them - condemned a tendency, among climate actors, to fetishise iconic leaders or ‘climate mascots’ on the global stage, instead of developing more diverse, inclusive and well-distributed leadership models with local leaders who know how to bring the climate emergency to people’s doorsteps.

It is important to remember that so many solutions - that cater to the diverse needs of different communities around the world - already exist, and give us myriad reasons to be optimistic. At Kite, we are continually amazed, for example, by the power of women-led impact, and are proud to be facilitating this agenda as content partner across a whole range of issues, including with:

🤜 🤛 The Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, under the new leadership of Audrey Tcherkoff, which launched Building a sustainable and equal world for all, a primer for companies seeking to engage with the issue of climate justice.

👩⚕️ Fondation L’Oréal, which held the Women in Science Festival, where Alexandra Palt called on us to explore what inclusive science would look like if institutions and companies made it a strategic and economic priority.

💸 GenderSmart Gender & Climate Investment Working Group, through the report we co-authored with Suzanne Biegel, on how investors can revisit their portfolios to invest in gender-smart climate solutions.

🧩 The Rallying Cry initiative, founded by Carey Bohjanen, to bring the voices of African women leaders to the Global stage. At The New York Times Climate Hub, Rose Wamalwa shared with Matt Damon and Gary White of Water.org how local women can be “more than the beneficiaries of their climate investments - they will design the best solutions.”

What I remembered that day, in October, holding Colette’s hand, was that thoughtful action is not just about thinking through a problem well. It’s the expression of a meeting point between people, communities, companies, and governments that need one another’s perspectives and contributions to do better. It’s a nexus, a reason to connect. 

That is why Kite positions itself, now more than ever, at the intersection of issues, sectors, and actors – at the place where ideas and visions collide to produce thoughtful action.

 And we could not do what we do without you, friends! This past year, when things got difficult, you were my personal reason for optimism. So I dedicate this letter to our friendship, and to all the great work that lies ahead for us in 2022. 

A final word about Kite. Through the support of our clients, partners, advisors and now, investors, we have grown considerably this year. I am thrilled to welcome our new Chief Product and Growth Officer, Shuvo Saha, who previously founded Google’s Digital Academy, and who has now been charged with developing The Climate School and sending Kite to the moon!

It has been an ineffable source of joy, for me, to see the talent, passion and prowess of my colleagues flourish in their fearless pursuit of issues that matter, and in their nurturing of all of Kite’s relationships - with such kindness, care, and fun! They bring a smile to my face every day.

I would therefore also like to dedicate this letter to the Kite team, my everyday heroes. 

With very best wishes and gratitude, 

Sophie