Michael Hower, Manager, Corporate & Marketing Communications, Carbon Lighthouse

Michael is a sustainability and social impact communicator with a decade of experience working on both sides of the ‘podium’ — as a journalist for publications like GreenBiz and Triple Pundit, and a sustainability communications consultant for major brands such as The North Face, Kashi and HP.  He has also engaged in advocacy efforts to advance progressive climate policy in the United States through his work with the Environmental Defense Fund.

In his current role at Carbon Lighthouse, Michael leads the company’s corporate and marketing communications efforts in support of its mission to stop climate change by making it easy and profitable for building owners to eliminate carbon emissions caused by wasted energy.

Carbon Lighthouse is a different kind of clean energy services company, taking an innovative approach called “Efficiency Production” by going deep into buildings to uncover and continuously correct hidden inefficiencies that add up to meaningful financial value and carbon elimination that lasts.  The company is poised to tap into the $100 billion in “Efficiency Reserves” that exist nationwide in non-residential buildings in the form of wasted energy. The company also makes it easier for small businesses, schools and other organizations to go solar by applying Efficiency Production to buildings and reducing the number of panels needed. Since 2010, Carbon Lighthouse has worked with commercial real estate, educational, hospitality, and industrial customers nationwide to enhance building comfort, increase net operating income, and achieve sustainability goals.

An important differentiator for Carbon Lighthouse is that it recommends, implements, and then actively monitors all projects for ten years in order to guarantee savings. Unlike consultants, the deliverable isn’t a report or a completed project － it’s actual energy savings in a building.

Check out Michael’s articles on GreenBiz: https://www.greenbiz.com/users/mike-hower/

Keep up with Michael on his personal blog, Climate Talk: http://www.michaelhower.com/climatetalk

Listen to Climate Solved, Carbon Lighthouse’s podcast, which Michael co-produces: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/climate-solved/id1379886773?mt=2

What do you actually do all day?

I lead corporate and marketing communications efforts at Carbon Lighthouse.  What this means is that I am responsible for getting our name out there in a strategic way by employing a variety of tactics — from media relations to speaking engagements to contributed content and social media, among others. This helps to build our brand awareness and supports our sales team so that we can help more buildings benefit from profit-driven carbon elimination.

Like most of my colleagues at Carbon Lighthouse, there’s no telling what I might be up to from day-to-day — that’s the fun part of working at a high-growth company. One day I might be working with our PR agencies to strategize new ways to tell our story, another day I might be in New York City rubbing shoulders with commercial real estate investors at a conference. The one thing that remains constant is our team’s commitment to the company mission of stopping climate change.

Carbon Lighthouse takes a different approach than many clean energy companies in that we package our product as a financial tool.  We’ve designed our clean energy service to tie profit to carbon elimination.  As a communicator this creates challenges because we’re addressing audiences who typically aren’t as experienced with or committed to sustainability; however, the only way we can solve the climate challenge is by engaging those who don’t see it is a priority.  For the most part, we already have all the technological tools we need to stop climate change. The real challenge is persuading certain actors to take a particular action. That’s where storytellers like myself come in.

We need to find creative and compelling ways to communicate complex ideas to decision makers so that we can get climate solved. Luckily, money talks. And there’s nothing more heartening than when you’ve convinced someone to take climate action simply by appealing to their wallet.

To build inroads into commercial real estate and hospitality markets, we employ partnerships with organizations such as NAREIM (National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers) and ALIS (The Americas Lodging Investment Summit). It’s an incredible experience to attend conferences with customers who don’t see sustainability as an opportunity, have them listen to what we have to say during a panel discussion, and then leave truly thinking of energy as a financial tool.

Many of our customers are commercial real estate owners and investors who are focused on increasing a portfolio of building’s net operating income (NOI). Think the annual rent minus expenses. The higher the NOI, the more valuable a building is.

On average, we find about 10%-30% of the energy in a commercial building is wasted. To illustrate the value of Efficiency Production: In a building spending $1 million each year on energy, this would add up to about $300,000 in savings. While that might sound like a lot of money, to commercial real estate investors working focused on projects worth millions, this is a drop in the bucket. Also, most commercial buildings change hands every couple of years, meaning that most building owners won’t even be around to enjoy the payback. That’s why Carbon Lighthouse takes this a step further in guaranteeing savings over a ten-year period. In this example, we might guarantee $300,000 in savings per year over ten years, meaning that this remains so even if the building changes hands. Because of this, that $300,000 increase in NOI can increase the building’s overall value significantly (often by millions of dollars) more at deposition.  If you rolled this out portfolio-wide, it could lead to millions more in profit-driven carbon elimination.  This is what causes our customers’ ears to perk up.

The best part is that a lot of the work we do focuses on very specific building operations changes, we look closely at HVAC cooling towers, motors, etc. and how they operate.  We don’t install new equipment frequently, we simply make the buildings better with what they have.

What are some of the key skills for success in this role?

Like anyone working in sustainability or social impact, the ticket to entry is a passionate commitment to building a better world.  There are easier career paths and it’s passion that will fuel you through the darker and more difficult times.

The key to success is being able to grasp complex ideas and communicate them to variegated audiences in a way which is memorable and compelling.  This means that you have a natural curiosity for learning, and that you are always consuming some sort of media — news, books, reports, videos and more.  In the clean energy space, this means staying abreast of the latest technologies, policies, and trends that might impact your business.

In a similar vein, strategic and analytical thinking is of the utmost importance.  Every day I need to think about how Carbon Lighthouse’s solution fits into the larger climate puzzle and then I need to zoom way, way in and understand the audiences we are trying to reach.  For example, I’ve had to become an expert on the commercial real estate investor industry so that I can better anticipate their needs and help craft the best narratives for interesting them in profit-driven carbon elimination.

Another key skill is more of a trait — grit. Often, it may feel like you’re losing more than you’re winning, but that’s why it’s so important to remember what’s at stake — everything.

What is your favorite part of your job?

Being able to come to work every day and be surrounded by some of the sharpest and most driven people I know. At Carbon Lighthouse, we call our people “Keepers,” a name traditionally applied to the people responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse. Each Carbon Lighthouse Keeper has a job to do which helps advance our mission, and we have a strong environment of collaboration and supporting one another. We check our egos at the door because we’re humbled by the challenges we face. But if you spent just one hour with the Keepers I get to work with each day, you’d start to feel sorry for climate change.

What is the hardest part of your job?

The unpredictability. Operating in a such a dynamic field means that you never feel 100 percent prepared for anything. Technologies, policy environments, and market conditions are in a constant state of flux. I need to make sure that I am on top of all of these changes so that I know what our audiences are thinking about so that we can remain top-of-mind for them. This means that I operate in a constant state of action planning. I’m building the ship as I’m sailing it, so to speak. But, to be honest, this also is one of the things I love most about my job. If you’re bored, that means you aren’t doing your job.

What is your proudest professional achievement?

My proudest professional achievement so far is finding a way to be useful in the fight against climate change.  Breaking into this space isn’t easy, and it’s been a long and arduous road developing a niche that allows me to make the impact I strive for.

What are the game changers in your world?

In my world, the game is always changing. This means you have to “keep your eye on the ball” to avoid distraction while exhibiting enough flexibility to bend without breaking.

Yes, technology breakthroughs create new opportunities for cutting carbon profitably. But the truth is, we already have many of the technologies we need to make a significant dent against climate change.

That’s why I believe the real challenge at hand isn’t technological but cultural. We need to change our culture around climate change so that we can unleash all of the opportunities already at our fingertips. One of the best books I’ve read in recent years is Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, which asserts that culture is but a set of shared stories that enable us to make sense of the world and take collective action. I couldn’t agree more. If we want to change our climate culture, then we need to tell better stories. That’s what will inspire a shift in collective thinking, and enable us to turn this ship around.

What was your path to this role?

Like many people, climate change initially was just another nebulous threat I felt little sense of urgency or agency to do anything about. However, I always had felt a strong connection to nature, growing up in California and spending much of my childhood enjoying the outdoors. To be honest, it wasn’t until I witnessed the social impacts of climate change first-hand that I knew that stopping it was what I was put on this planet to do.

I left my first job out of college to spend a year volunteering in a poor neighborhood of Bogotá, Colombia. Throughout that year, I saw how social and environmental sustainability go hand-in-hand as Colombia’s capital struggled with air quality and other environmental issues. But I also saw how this could spark innovative solutions, such as the Transmilenio, a rapid bus system that revolutionized public transit in the city. Likewise, during a visit to the San Blas Archipelago off the coast of Panama, I learned of the plight of the Guna — an indigenous people who survived Columbus, but will soon be forced to flee their homes due to rising sea levels.

Returning to the U.S., I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to stopping climate change. But at the time I didn’t know what my role in it would be. I wasn’t an engineer or a scientist — I couldn’t physically turn the knobs that would create a low carbon world. But I had always loved storytelling, and writing in particular, so I explored ways to leverage that. I began writing for Sustainable Brands, Triple Pundit and later GreenBiz. With each article and op-ed written, I developed a deeper knowledge of sustainability and social impact issues, forged relationships with the leaders I interviewed and helped drive the conversation around climate change.

But like many young professionals trying to enter the sustainability world, I found it difficult to find full-time roles. Therefore, I worked in tech by day and moonlighted as a sustainability writer. Seeking to deepen my understanding of climate policy, I moved to Washington, D.C. from San Francisco to earn a Masters at George Washington University. During my time in D.C., I witnessed the tail end of the Obama Administration and served as the GreenBiz Washington Correspondent.

I have never identified as only a journalist or a communicator. That’s why during graduate school I spent a summer participating in the EDF Climate Corps program working with Pacific Gas & Electric Company on an on-bill energy upgrade finance initiative. After graduate school, I returned to San Francisco where I took a job on Edelman’s Business + Social purpose team, where I worked on sustainability strategy and communications for some major brands, including The North Face, HP, and Kasi, among others.

But my first “sustainability love” has always been energy, and I wanted to devote myself to an organization focused on bringing more clean energy to more organizations. Late last year, Carbon Lighthouse was looking for someone to take over the reins of their communications program, and the rest is history.

What’s your advice to someone interested in a role like this?

We need you. The world needs you. The challenges of climate change and all of its social and environmental impacts are too great for any of us to take on alone. We need more people doing more things everywhere so that we can stop climate change before it’s too late. Remember this, always.

But finding your place in this mess isn’t going to be easy. The field of sustainability, social impact, CSR or whatever you want to call it is still in its Wild West phase. There’s no clear path from Point A to Point Z. Narrowing your job search from “anything that makes money” to “anything that makes impact” means that you are going to face more failure than the typical professional. But you owe it to yourself and the world to keep at it. Maybe you will have to do what I did, and pursue sustainability on the side while you take a non-sustainability job to pay the bills. You will get there if you remain committed. To learn more about my personal journey, I invite you to read my article on GreenBiz I wrote to help people like you: How to Make it in Corporate Sustainability.

More practically, if you want to break into the world of sustainability and social impact, you need to define and develop a niche. What is your “professional super power?” For me, it’s writing. For others it might be number-crunching, video production or mechanical engineering. Don’t limit your search to roles with “sustainability” or “social impact” in the title. Look at organizations focused on making a real difference in the climate fight. Whatever it is you do, work your butt off to become the best at it, and eventually one opportunity will lead to another.

Also, be sure to reach out to those already working in the field. Look on LinkedIn for those who have roles that look interesting and reach out to ask for an informational interview. I am humbled to have several people reach out to me each year asking for advice on how to “break in” to the field. While I hardly feel like I’ve “made it” myself, I will never turn anyone down. Indeed, I am only where I am today because others were willing to mentor and guide me along the way. I’ve made a personal promise to myself that, no matter how senior I get in my career, I will always find the time to talk to someone looking for a way to join the climate fight.

What are your favorite resources?

To stay on top things, I find that talking to others in the field to be the most useful resource. As I mentioned, sustainability and social impact is a field in a constant state of flux, and it’s nearly impossible to ready every article, book, or paper coming out. I find that I learn the most going to conferences and learning about the work of others. Often, they help me take a step back and see how things are developing at the macro level.

Besides people, news sources such as the national dailies like The New York Times and Washington Post, as well as trades such as Greentech Media and GreenBiz, are great for staying on top of the latest news. Climate Nexus has a great daily newsletter than rounds up the most relevant climate headlines of the day and allows for easy consumption. Social media also is a good source of news, although you need to be careful not to get sucked down that rabbit hole.

Books are a must for going more in depth into sustainability and social impact issues. My favorite climate communication book is George Marshall’s Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change. This is basically a must-read for anyone who works in the field, in my opinion. There’s an endless list of other books I would recommend, so feel free to reach out if you’re looking for other recommendations.

Who (or what) is your sustainability hero?

Joel Makower, Chairman and Executive Editor of GreenBiz, is one of the people I admire most in this field. Joel has built a media empire out of GreenBiz, which started as a simple green newsletter decades ago. I think that he has helped to change the way corporations think about sustainability, and he did so via effective storytelling. Indeed, Joel has been a great mentor to me, helping me to break in and find my place as a sustainability and social impact communicator.