Merrill Feather Of The Regenerates: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation About Sustainability And The Environment
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Really listen. As parents, it’s easy to default to a position where we have the experience and tips to offer. Really listening means assuming we have a lot to learn and showing up to our conversations with young people with tremendous curiosity.
As part of my series about what we must do to inspire the next generation about sustainability and the environment, I had the pleasure of interviewing Merrill Feather.
Merrill Feather is on a mission to apply her skills to have a material impact on the health of our planet. As the Co-Founder of marketing agency, The Regenerates, Merrill combines her expertise in brand strategy and marketing activation to guide sustainability-oriented companies and initiatives across the abyss between strategy and execution. These companies work with her to help them understand how to authentically use their voices and platform for climate and sustainability initiatives, both internal and external. She is a native of Chicago with roots in Nebraska farming and Texas oil and gas — both of which inform her interest in an equitable climate transition.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I grew up near Chicago in a family that values curiosity, empathy, adventure and being of service. We took epic road trips across the country together, and I got to know so many different places and ways of living. I wouldn’t describe myself as an outdoorsy child, but I can trace my interest in the planet all the way back to childhood. Road trip visits to national parks and indigenous cultural sites like Mesa Verde left an outsized impression on little Merrill. Experiencing so many different ecosystems, and learning about how indigenous cultures viewed their relationship to nature planted the seeds for my fascination with humanity’s place in it all.
Was there an “aha moment” or a specific trigger that made you decide you wanted to become an environmental leader? Can you share that story with us?
Over the course of my marketing career, I learned that stories of aspiration and possibility motivate people. That’s even more true in times of crisis: people need stories of what we’re fighting for, not just against. And there’s no crisis more central to all our lives than the climate crisis. My “aha moment” was really about connecting dots throughout my career: realizing I had been paying attention to the environmental impacts of my work and actions all along, and that I had the opportunity to contribute something.
In my early marketing career, I worked for a toy company. I remember being deeply unsettled by the news that 40,000 of the company’s plastic toys didn’t sell and were being returned. I hope someone donated the lot, but I still worry it was all sent to overflow a landfill somewhere. This experience with the scale of consumerism and what I now know is called “supply chain waste” stuck with me.
Fast forward to one of my first few weeks at a new job: the local waste management company came to our office as part of their program to help the community become better recyclers and composters. I guess I was asking a lot of questions because the recruiter who had just hired me turned to me and said: “Do I need to worry about you leaving to go work at the waste management company?” I obviously didn’t tell her, but my gut reaction was “yes.”
In 2018, I became increasingly distracted by the climate crisis. The more I read, the more I wanted to know. I went down a rabbit hole into science and began earnestly searching for solutions. I attended conferences, watched documentaries, and read books. I couldn’t look away. It became overwhelming and depressing, honestly. All the while, I was curious and craving to know what more I could do as a marketer. There were solutions, but it took digging to find them, so obviously there was a need for amplification.
Eventually, I realized learning about implications wasn’t enough. I really wanted messages of optimism to keep me going. I needed an alternative to the doom and gloom because thinking about my kids’ futures was paralyzing me. I needed to know there was something I could do to impact the outcome, and that people like me were doing their part. But, I couldn’t readily find those messages even though I knew viable solutions existed.
I finally connected the dots: I’m not the only one who needs the stories of what we’re fighting for. I realized if I wanted those stories to be told, I would have to create them myself.
Is there a lesson you can take out of your own story that can exemplify what can inspire a young person to become an environmental leader?
When I first realized I wanted to do climate work, I could not see a clear path from A to B. Did I have to be a scientist to contribute? And with no real examples of other marketers who had made a similar transition, I can see now that prioritizing a few key things helped propel my journey:
- Find your voice — being passionate about something is reason enough to speak up, and talking to more people is how you become more knowledgeable and confident. Don’t listen to the voice that tells you to make yourself small. I really had to build this muscle to put myself out there. Before this, my internal monologue was a lot of, “I should probably just listen.” and “I need to do X before I can have an opinion.” When I started connecting with other people about climate, I saw that my passion could become my work.
- Get to the “why” — Connecting with people on the climate crisis can be a pickle. Even though data shows that most Americans support climate action, you probably don’t want to open up a conversation at the next cocktail party with stats about ice melt. All kidding aside, the climate crisis is a big topic, so getting to specifics about why I cared or what I was curious about made conversations more engaging. It can be challenging to put yourself out there, particularly around the climate crisis, but you start to realize how important it is to normalize the topic, and then you get more comfortable creating that space for others. Those conversations helped me find my way to even more energizing ideas, and to amazing people who are now business partners and collaborators.
- Don’t be afraid to specialize — When I first started working on this, I didn’t know that there would be enough work for me to just do marketing consulting for climate solutions. I certainly didn’t anticipate needing help from a growing team, and starting to establish industry focus areas. Instead of doing a little bit of everything, I relentlessly pursued more and more specificity about what excites me most at the intersection of climate and marketing, and I have more to offer as a result.
Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?
The Regenerates is a growing network of marketers working to further climate solutions. We are focused on getting out the word that acting on climate can help us realize a cleaner, healthier, and better way of living.
One of the main things we do is support companies as part-time marketing leaders. Our projects usually entail some combination of developing a company’s messaging, coaching founders and leaders to get the story out, and helping them build their marketing and communications team. We touch all types of climate solutions from energy to food to entrepreneurship, with current and past clients that include Imperfect Foods, Techstars, Aurora Solar, and Blueprint Power.
Once we started working in climate, we realized how big the need is for more marketers to get into this space. And how hard it can be for marketers to find their way. So now, we are focused on helping more people move into the space by growing a community of values-aligned marketers who want to further climate solutions. A group-coaching model is one way we’re doing this and the next session of our program Regeneration for marketers: Harness your storytelling superpowers for climate impact starts October 5th.
The next phase for us will be putting our growing community of marketers to work. We’re experimenting with some fun ways of getting more stories out there and hope to have more to share in the new year!
Can you share 3 lifestyle tweaks that the general public can do to be more sustainable or help address the climate change challenge?
There is a lot of great literature out there about what people can do to help address the climate crisis. A recent IPCC report focused on two of the biggest levers people in developed countries have to reduce their carbon emissions in their everyday lives: waste less food and fly less.
Said differently, you can have a great impact by:
- Getting creative and making use of all the food you buy and prepare every day.
- When it comes to travel, prioritizing virtual work whenever you can and embracing local vacations and road trips are high-leverage ways to do your part.
- Voting. Voting early and often for candidates who will make climate policy a priority is up there.
In addition, I’d love to offer 3 perspective shifts to sit with that can have ripple effects in your impact going forward:
- Solutions exist. Yes, the climate crisis is a crisis, but it’s not always obvious that we also have most of the technology that we need today to address it. The real work is in deploying, scaling, and adopting that technology, and we need all the people we can get helping with that part.
- You have agency in the climate crisis. It’s easy to feel powerless amidst the doom and gloom, but you are shaping the world around you right now in how you show up, what you value, what you talk about with others, what you do and don’t do. You’re not solely responsible for fixing the problems, but you do have a role to play.
- You are nature. We often talk about ecosystems as if they are separate from humans, but we are part of them. We shape the ecosystem around us and what is good for the ecosystem is good for us.
Here is the main question of our interview: The youth-led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion, what are 5 things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement? Please give a story or an example for each.
As a parent who has drawn inspiration from the youth-led climate movements, I would actually suggest we parents reframe our role in this equation. Instead of seeing our role as inspiring something in young people, can we ask ourselves: “How can we listen to young people?” and “How can we partner with young people in this movement together?”
Here are 5 things we can do:
- Seek out opportunities to hear from young people. I’ve participated in various protests organized by youth-led organizations in the movement, where I’ve had the chance to hear from young leaders. Broaching the topic directly with a young person in your life and asking them about the personal reasons why they care is another great way to engage.
- Really listen. As parents, it’s easy to default to a position where we have the experience and tips to offer. Really listening means assuming we have a lot to learn and showing up to our conversations with young people with tremendous curiosity.
- Draw inspiration from their commitment. Back in September 2019, I knew I was probably going to leave my current job to pursue climate work full-time. True story — it was the youth-led climate protests marching a few blocks from my former office that prompted me to make the leap. I went out at lunch to join the protest for a few blocks, and texted my husband from the street to tell him I was giving notice that afternoon; the energy of the movement and the number of people of all ages joining up to demand action was simply that inspiring. I’m not saying quit your job, but find a way to act on your inspiration.
- Lend young people your agency. As parents, we have more agency in the traditional sense and can offer to support young people’s efforts by making connections within our networks, advocating within our companies, or navigating our communities. For example, I know of a college student who is working with alumni from her university to help her appeal to the administration to make changes to certain climate-related policies. The alumni have existing relationships with the administration to draw on, and together, they are a more compelling group.
- Model curiosity in and respectful relationships with nature for the youngest activists. What about the plants or insects right outside your window is interesting or joyful to you? Can you share that with your kids, and get them to look closer? Can you be straightforward about the need to use our natural resources wisely? When my kids were younger, I encouraged them to save water for the fishies; now I ask them more explicitly about the drought in California and how we can use our water wisely.
You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
We are already working on the movement we hope to see in the world: helping more marketers put their skills to use to further climate solutions. Marketing and storytelling are powerful tools for shaping our culture, our aspirations, and our behaviors. We need more marketers getting into this space, and using those skill sets to foster the better world we want to create. Still, the path for marketers who want to do this work isn’t well traveled, yet.
Our program Regeneration for marketers: Harness your storytelling superpowers for climate impact, is a big step in the direction of putting a growing community of marketers to work.
Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?
One quote I draw a lot of inspiration from is from Dr. Bayo Akomolafe, who says: “These times are urgent. So let us slow down.”
Just sit with that for a moment. It’s so uncomfortable at first because yes, it’s tempting in a time of crisis to try and run faster and fix all the things. In the case of the climate crisis, slowing down gives us an opportunity to think about what’s possible. Of what we’re fighting for, not just against.
What is the best way for people to follow you on social media?
The best place to follow me is LinkedIn. I’m active on my own profile and The Regenerates’ page.
This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Merrill Feather Of The Regenerates: 5 Things We Must Do To Inspire The Next Generation About… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.