Meet the team! – Emily Buchanan, programme director, coach and trainer

Emily is Climate Change Coaches Programme Director and has been part of the team since 2019. A New Zealander now based in France; she is also our very own Emily-in-Paris! Emily trained as a health and nutrition coach, and when she is not with us, she helps social change leaders with wellbeing and resilience so that they are able to have more impact. In her work as a coach and as a trainer, Emily finds meaning in helping people to get to grips with big challenges, so the climate crisis was something she was drawn to professionally as well as personally. “It’s hugely satisfying to be part of others’ journey to figure out what their piece of the climate solution puzzle is and bring others along with them.”

As someone who always made ethical and environmental decisions in her home life, Emily describes realising the full enormity of the climate crisis and wanting to make her work life count even more. “Like many parents, it was concern for my kids’ future that catapulted me out of complacency and into a reckoning with the climate crisis. I met Charly when I was trying to figure out how to align my health coaching practice with my concern for the climate crisis, and joining the team felt like I had found my tribe.”

Like all of us at the Climate Change Coaches, Emily feels keenly the damage that has been done to the climate and its ecosystems. “We live on such a beautiful planet. It took billions of years to create stable conditions for life to even be possible, and we’re undoing that in just a couple of hundred years. That feels insanely reckless to me.” She also sees the injustice of this destruction:

“Those who are least contributing to the problem are paying the highest price. I really believe that another, more equitable world is possible, and I want to be part of building that.”

There are few people in our team who understand and have had as big of an impact on our approach as Emily. She was heavily involved in the editing our book “Climate Change Coaching: the power of connection to create climate action”, working behind the scenes to edit the 150,000 words of text not once but four times, before it went to press. She has also worked on the redesign of both of our flagship programmes, Climate Change Coaching Mastery and Green Transition Coach, and has lead on the delivery of both.

“I love being involved with a team that takes impact seriously. This is a team built on integrity and genuine care, not just for the work we do, but for each other. This makes it a really nourishing environment to work in and fertile ground for stepping out and trying new things.” Emily sees how these qualities also translate into the way other people experience us: “A recent graduate of Climate Change Coaching Mastery described his experience of training with us as not only extremely practical but like a warm hug. This is a satisfying affirmation that we are putting heart into serious work.”

Emily’s advice for February!

“As we head into February, take joy in the little signs that spring is soon to come. For me, these are small moments of delight that bring about a sense of possibility for the new season ahead. I also love cooking for family and friends. There’s nothing better than gathering up your favourite people and cooking up a huge (sustainably sourced!) feast.