Dr. Renee Lertzman is an expert on this type of existential change management — the practice, strategies and tools needed for organizations to confront an existential threat such as climate change.

A climate psychologist, researcher and strategist, Lertzman works with companies such as Google, VMware and Unity to apply psychological and social science research to engage with these complex and overwhelming challenges, and mobilize towards solutions. She recently founded Project Inside Out, an online hub and set of tools and resources to support people working on climate.

Lertzman will be speaking next week at VERGE 21 on the keynote stage alongside Michiel Bakker, Google’s vice president of global workplace programs, on leadership and rethinking the hope and despair binary. I’ll also be interviewing Lertzman in an interactive "Ask an Expert" session on balancing climate anxiety and action. In advance of these conversations, I sat down with Lertzman to discuss the complexity of working in sustainability and leading through the emotional rollercoaster of climate change.

Phipps: What does it mean to be a climate psychologist and professionally engage with climate anxiety?

Lertzman: My work is not about everyone sitting in a circle and just talking about your feelings, processing your feelings and then going off and saving the world. It’s much more about understanding what it means to be an effective practitioner today and in the future. We have to level up our emotional intelligence. And we have to create more norms in our sector where we can talk about when it's time to slow down, when it's time to take a pause. You know, bringing more reflection in in order to go faster.

Read the full article about climate psychology by Lauren Phipps at GreenBiz.