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Any Job Can Be A Climate Job

Any Job Can Be A Climate Job

Written by: Louisa Henry
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 Join our movement to make every job work for our planet. New ideas to help you take action at work, strengthen your career, and help the environment.Louisa Henry Economics
Episodes
  • How Lab Design Shapes Energy Use for Decades

    How Lab Design Shapes Energy Use for Decades
    Feb 2 2026
    If you work in a lab, one small habit can save a surprising amount of energy: Shut the sash.Architect Jacob Werner explains why airflow, safety, and infrastructure choices are some of the biggest (hidden) climate levers.This episode is part of Any Job Can Be a Climate Job — a podcast exploring how people bring climate impact into everyday work, even in roles that aren’t labeled “climate.”👉 Subscribe and leave a comment — I’d love to hear what resonates.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Research labs are where some of the most important work in the world happens: curing disease, developing renewable energy, and building the future of science.They’re also some of the most energy- and resource-intensive buildings we have. Not because people are careless, but because labs are designed to optimize for safety, airflow, and precision.In this episode, I talk with Jacob Werner, an architect at Ellenzweig who designs science labs for colleges and universities, about why labs function more like machines than offices — and why that makes design such a powerful climate lever.Jacob explains how decisions about airflow, temperature control, filtration, and safety systems quietly shape energy use for decades — and how good design can make the sustainable choice the easiest choice, without relying on constant heroics from the people inside the building.Listen for:Why labs use so much energy (and what “stable experimental conditions” requires)What designers can “bake in” so sustainable behavior is easier (fume hood sashes, recycling access, efficient HVAC)How sustainability sticks best when it’s treated as good design, not an add-onPractical lab actions that matter: Shut the Sash, lights, and equipment power-down normsWhy climate action often starts far upstream, in systems most of us never seeAbout JacobJacob Werner is an architect with Ellenzweig in Boston. Ellenzweig designs science labs primarily for colleges and universities. Jacob also co-chairs the AIA 2030 Commitment, a program supporting architects in tracking and reporting progress toward lower-carbon buildings.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2030 CommitmentInternational Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) Resource HubI2SL – Smart Labs Toolkit (practical guidance)⁠Ellenzweig – Jacob / team page⁠Sustainability at Harvard LabsJacob on LinkedIn━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━00:00 — Cold open: reduce → electrify → renewables00:00:32 — Intro: why lab design matters00:01:53 — Who Jacob is + what he designs (Ellenzweig, AIA 2030)00:02:35 — What is AIA / AIA 2030?00:03:00 — How Jacob got into architecture and lab design00:06:25 — How you start designing a lab (vision + flexibility)00:07:54 — Why labs are so energy- and resource-intensive00:10:29 — What designers can build in vs what occupants control00:11:19 — Six Sigma + workflow convenience (waste + behavior design)00:11:37 — Persuading clients: make sustainability “part of the package”00:13:33 — Biggest lesson: climate action isn’t all-or-nothing00:15:00 — Project story: designing for ocean/climate research (URI)00:17:29 — Renovation + reuse + embodied carbon00:19:09 — Low-hanging fruit for lab occupants (Shut the Sash, lights, equipment)00:20:54 — Where to learn more (AIA + I2SL resources)00:21:28 — What green labs may look like in 10–20 years00:25:20 — Closing thoughts: everyone can contribute00:26:23 — Reflection: the biggest wins come from changing systemsDisclaimer: This episode is for informational purposes only. Views are the guest’s own, and nothing here should be taken as professional advice.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 Listen to the podcastYouTubeApple PodcastsSubstack (behind-the-scenes + updates)━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━✨ Work with me━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙 Any Job Can Be a Climate Job is produced and hosted by Louisa Henry Edited by ⁠Alex Leff⁠Original music by ⁠Run Riot Run Logo design by Cassidy Frost
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    27 mins
  • Turning Green Labs From Idea Into Practice

    Turning Green Labs From Idea Into Practice
    Jan 20 2026

    What does it really take to make sustainability stick?

    Pam Greenley shares how she brought the Green Labs concept back to MIT, and adapted it to a culture driven by metrics, incentives, and competition. By designing contests around resource savings and innovation, she helped turn an idea into everyday practice without forcing behavior change.

    This episode is for anyone working inside complex, high-performance organizations who wants to make sustainability normal, practical, and durable.


    🎙 Any Job Can Be a Climate Job is produced and hosted by ⁠Louisa Henry⁠. Edited by ⁠Alex Leff⁠. Original music by ⁠Run Riot Run⁠. Logo design by ⁠Cassidy Frost⁠.


    Newsletter: https://anyjobcanbeaclimatejob.substack.com/

    Coaching: https://www.kidoki.com/
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    31 mins
  • Process Improvement as a Climate Tool

    Process Improvement as a Climate Tool
    Jan 6 2026

    Teddy Salgado, a Senior Manager of Continuous Improvement at Boston Children's Hospital, loved the idea of using his education to help combat climate change. He had the opportunity to help a brewery in Thailand cut waste with the help of the process improvement methodology, Six Sigma.

    Disappointed in the lack of manufacturing opportunities to take the same climate action in Boston, he joined Boston Children’s Hospital to help with process improvement. Soon after, he saw an opportunity to connect those efficiencies with the company’s sustainability strategy. Teddy became a Six Sigma coach, helping employees across the company spot opportunities, and implement change.

    In this interview, Teddy talks through case studies, and gives us tools to help spot waste and take action in our own workplaces. You’ll leave with tips, ideas, and proof that the triple bottom line can (and does) exist: People, Planet, Profit.


    About Teddy: Teddy Salgado is a Senior Manager of Continuous Improvement at Boston Children's Hospital. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his Master of Business Administration from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. In addition to healthcare, Teddy has professional experience in education and sustainability. His current focus is partnering with the operating rooms on improvement initiatives, and he serves on the leadership committee for the hospital's sustainability focused employee affinity group. In his personal time, Teddy enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, biking, and hiking with his wife and retired racing greyhound. Mentions:

    • Lean Six Sigma
    • “8 wastes” DOWNTIME framework - Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra process
    • 5S Methodology - Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain
    • Visual management - using pictures instead of text
    • Triple Bottom Line - People, Planet, Profit
    • Boston Children’s Hospital - Sustainability


    Credits:🎙 Any Job Can Be a Climate Job is produced and hosted by Louisa Henry. Edited by Alex Leff. Original music by Run Riot Run. Logo design by Cassidy Frost. Subscribe for more episodes on how real people are driving climate impact through their everyday work. Found wherever you get your podcasts. anyjobcanbeaclimatejob.com
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    28 mins
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