I do this often. I point to Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris as a SHINING example of my climate influence approach. With the media coverage of the Olympics, and with both her “less car” city AND her jumping in the Seine to swim the newly cleaned up river, she’s basically a “cities for climate” rock star.
The U.S. needs a growing roster of such - in mayor and corporate leader form (I interviewed a few I could find for Season 1 of Living Change.).
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This is the faded page from the TIME 100 publication from October, 2020, where Al Gore wrote about Mayor Anne Hidalgo as an “urban climate visionary”. It has been aging on my refrigerator ever since. I wish I had this on a t-shirt.
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In this audio post, I talk about why this matters.
She was seen biking around Paris over the past few years. She’s been WISELY laying the storytelling narrative for when she was ready to propose big city shifts. Well done!
THIS is what I argue a lot more of the sustainability and climate leaders of today should be doing - and whether as Mayor, CEO or cultural leader with any size platform.
We need more of you to have done this before #ClimateWeekNYC and before #COP29. Why should we listen to you? Are you walking the talk as a human being who happens to lead?
May this post inspire you. When you are ready for a jumpstart, you can always contact me - andrea@andrealearned.com - for a single hour’s advisory session. I have seen my clients eyes light up when they realize they can get comfortable more authentically sharing how their personal climate values inform their professional decisions.
Again - I will be in NYC for Climate Week, focused fairly heavily on my NYC Food Policy Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge work, but give me a heads up if you’ll be floating around. And, as I mentioned in my post, I am gearing back up on Instagram.
Paris, Mayor Hidalgo and Being Seen Leading