On my slow fashion journey, I’ve been continually exploring ways to get clearer on my personal style, and few practices have been as helpful as defining my style words.
I’m going to share my process of uncovering my style words through three different stylists’ methods, which I hope will offer you some insights into defining your own personal style as well.
Before we dive into the nitty gritty, let’s start with the basics…
What Are Style Words?
Style words are adjectives that help describe your personal approach to dressing.
You’ve probably used style words already to describe what you wear: think words like classic or modern, bold or minimal, refined or relaxed, glam or casual, masculine or feminine.
The problem that many of us have run into with this is that it’s really difficult to pick just one word to encapsulate something as layered and personal as our own style.
That’s why many stylists and style content creators suggest selecting three words — and are clear that these words can evolve throughout your life.
How to Find Your Style Words
There are several methods to finding your style words and each may resonate with you in a different way. On my own personal style journey, I’ve tried all of them!
- Allison Bornstein’s Three Word Method
- Alyssa Beltempo’s Three Word Rule
- Amy Smilovic’s Three Adjectives
Below I’ll break down what each method entails and share my own personal experience with these methods.
There isn’t one that is objectively better or worse, but you might resonate with one more than another or like to experiment with all three to see which method leads to the best results.
The Three Word Method

Allison Bornstein has a step-by-step approach (that’s gone viral on TikTok) to finding your three style words.
What is the Three Word Method?
In this personal style method, developed by Bornstein, your first style word is a practical word, your second style word is an aspirational word, and your third style word is an emotional word.
Word 1: Practical Word
Essentially, this is a realistic look at what your style is now.
Bornstein recommends to go to your wardrobe and pull out your “regulars”. This is what you actually wear all the time, not what you wish you wore or want to wear.
Look for similarities among these regulars and sort out what word you might use to describe these pieces. Are all of these pieces oversized? Casual? 70s inspired?
For me, the first style word I found was feminine. My most-worn pieces are the ones with a feminine element, like a ruffle, romantic, an eyelet knit, or a floral print.
Word 2: Aspirational Word
The second word, Bornstein explains, is how you would describe what you want your style to become or how you ideally would want to dress.
Perhaps this might be how you describe the pieces in your closet that you wish you wore but you don’t.
Or if you’ve been following a lot of style content on social media, check your saved images or screenshots. If you use Pinterest, what’s on your style board?
Then among those images (or the pieces you’d love to wear that are already in your wardrobe), figure out if there are commonalities. Are all of these styles bold and colorful? Warm and neutral? Minimal and sleek? Oversized? Y2K?
After looking at my aspirational style screenshots and saved Pins, I was still unsure what exactly my second word would be. The looks I saved were certainly feminine, but that was already covered in my first word.
Other words that came up were natural or down-to-earth (a lot of natural fabrics and materials) and structured (like a bag with a solid structure) or elegant (like a tweed blazer).
But then I looked back at my favorite outfits, and realized that the looks I felt best in were the ones that had a feminine and structured element. For example a moto jacket with a flowy skirt or straight-leg jeans with a ruffled blouse.
Word 3: Emotional Word
The last word is perhaps the most interesting, but also the most challenging, word to figure out.
The final word is how you want to feel in your clothes. Do you want to feel powerful? Sexy? Warm? Joyful? Relaxed? Bornstein describes this as the “finishing touch” to your style.
Finding my third word took me months to refine!
It wasn’t until I watched this video of Bornstein where she helped a friend, Grace, find her three style words that I finally settled on the word “warm”.
This felt like the perfect word to round out my three words. I want to feel comfortable and look welcoming in my style. My first two words (feminine and structured) could come with the risk of appearing too unapproachable or stiff.
At first I thought my third word might be “cozy”, because that encapsulates how I want to feel. I don’t just want to feel comfortable, but I want to be comforted by my clothes. And cozy seemed to describe that.
However, with some of my outfits, integrating “cozy” felt too casual. It was also a bit tougher to interpret a word like cozy in summer when I just want to dress as cool as possible, though I do like adding in a pop of color or joy.
So when Bornstein shared that “warm” could be interpreted as joyful too, it felt like the perfect style word.
In warmer months I’ll interpret warm as joyful and playful. Whereas in cooler months, I may interpret warm as feeling warm with a cozy sweater.
During any season, I also might interpret warm as grounded or down-to-earth and integrate a natural element, like a straw hat or bamboo bag. So warm to me integrates the “natural” word I listed above as a contender for my second word.
And that’s the beauty of style words — it’s about how you interpret them. They’re there to help you get dressed in outfits you love and be more mindful of your purchases. No one else has to know your style words or understand them!
My Results After Trying the Three Word Method
So with Bornstein’s method, I came to my final three words being: Feminine, Structured, Warm.
These feel quite true to me. When I look at my favorite outfits in terms of appearance, they bring in both the feminine and structured elements. And when I think about my favorite outfits in terms of comfort, they bring in an element of warmth.
My style words from the Three Word Method feel quite tangible. They’re specific enough that I can answer “yes” or “no” when I ask myself “does this outfit embody my 3 words?
But they’re also flexible enough that I can use them to get dressed from the clothes already in my closet (and I don’t need to buy anything new).
The Three Word Style Rule

If you want to explore a slightly different approach, Alyssa Beltempo, a slow fashion stylist and content creator, has a 3 Word Rule to help find your personal style that is a bit more flexible.
What is the Three Word Rule?
Alyssa Beltempo shares three methods to find your style words with her Three Word Rule: your go-to’s your functional word, and your inspirational word.
Unlike Bornstein’s Three Word Method, Beltempo explains that you can use just one of these processes to find all three of your style words as well if you prefer.
Your Go-Tos
Similar to Bornstein’s “regulars”, Alyssa suggests to find your first word (or all of your words) by finding the comment elements of style among your go-to items. The elements of style Alyssa talks about often on her channel — and in her Shop Your Closet events — are silhouette, texture, proportions, color, and vibe.
Again, my word here would be feminine. I tend to wear feminine silhouettes (fitted waists, v-necks, flutter sleeves and flowy skirts), colors (I like to wear pastels for daytime) and textures (like soft and silky).
A Functional Word
The second method or the source of your second word should answer questions like, what does your lifestyle look like? Or what are the favorite parts of your day?
As Beltempo shares, “when we look at [style] words from a personality perspective or a lifestyle perspective, it can also help us make decisions that are more in alignment with who we are or what we do every day.”
This could be a word like comfortable or carefree if you work from home or have a busy life. Your word could also be polished if you go into an office regularly with a strict dress code.
Finding my functional word was a bit challenging for me at first. I work from home and so the easy word here would be “comfortable”. That word, though, feels too obvious and not all that helpful when picking out outfits.
And it comes with the risk of being interpreted as wearing sweatsuits everyday. There’s nothing wrong with that if that is what you enjoy wearing each day, but it didn’t resonate with me.
So then I decided to go a bit deeper and less literal. I want to be comfortable, yes, but when do I feel most comfortable?
And when I thought about what comfort is to be, the word grounded came up.
I love a floral dress and a pleated skirt, but I need a textured rattan bag or a sneaker to ground it. The word grounded inspires an earthiness and also a sense of functionality. It also describes my personality, which I’d describe as down-to-earth, along with other adjectives.
I like to live simply and I’m not drawn to flashy things. Being at home with a book is often more appealing to me than a party out! But I wouldn’t describe my style as minimalist. So grounded feels like the right word here.
Inspirational Word
Finally, Beltempo suggests to create a style inspiration moodboard, or reference an existing one, and then pull out the key theme(s). This can be your way to find your third word or all three of your words.
This is quite similar to Bornstein’s aspirational word.
So I also had the same word here: structured. I noticed that my favorite casual outfits had a rougher, more structured element, like a pair of jeans or solid belt and my favorite formal outfits also brought in structure through a bag or footwear choice.
My Results from the Three Word Rule
I ended up taking one word from each process, so my results were quite similar to the results I had with the Three Word Method. My words here would be Feminine, Grounded, and Structured.
The main difference of Alyssa Beltempo’s Three Word Rule is that instead of an “emotional” word, we’re finding a word that’s a bit more functional or more personal.
I actually really like the word “grounded” that I came to with this method.
The Three Adjectives Method

Amy Smilovic, the Founder and Creative Director of Tibi is also an advocate for using three adjectives to define your personal style. She doesn’t necessarily name the method, but she does share an exercise for finding your adjectives.
And Smilovic’s method might be completely different from anything you’ve heard of before.
She suggests that you do not look at what you wear regularly nor do you ask your friends or family for their opinions. Instead she suggests to look to quotes to help peel your style adjectives back.
Smilovic proposes this method because the feeling you get from your favorite quotes is “visceral… they reveal your thoughts and aspirations.”
Quotes aren’t about approval or external validation (whereas what we wear often can be) so quotes can be a way to dig deeper into our personal style.
How to Find Adjectives From Your Quotes
This method requires a bit more creativity, to be sure. I looked through my Pinterest board of “Inspirational Quotes” and my screenshots on my phone.
I have so many quotes that I like, so it was challenging to narrow it down to three. But I tried to think about the quotes that I felt a deep pull towards — ones that give me that “visceral” feeling.
The three quotes I decided on were…
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu
In terms of adjectives, this quote makes me feel of relaxed, calm, easygoing, carefree, flowy, flexible, tranquil, chill, and casual.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker
The first adjective I think of is powerful, but also confident, energetic, compelling, dynamic, and capable.
“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”- Chinese Proverb
When I read this proverb, it gives me the chills. I think of words like resilient, steadfast, expansive, persistent, enduring, and determined.
My Results from the Three Adjectives Method
Now comes the interesting part!
I looked at the adjectives from the quotes and thought about which terms would best translate into style words. That might be Relaxed, Confident, and Enduring. Words like energetic and dynamic could also be style words, though for my own personal style I tend not to gravitate towards bold and colorful pieces.
Finding my three adjectives was interesting and I appreciate the emphasis on defining your style as something that comes from within.
That said, I’m not necessarily clearer on what to actually wear after finding my adjectives, like relaxed and confident.
Perhaps this is because I picked quotes that were more inspirational rather than practical. Or it could be because I need to spend some more time and thought on how these adjectives can also be style words.
So all this to say that this particular method hasn’t worked for me thus far. Perhaps though, the adjectives method will result in your own personal style epiphany! I think it’s still fun to give it a try, if for nothing else but a self-reflection process.
A Style Word Ideas List
You might now be thinking, ok this all sounds great. But how do I think of style words? What could my style words be? Here is a list of 100 style word ideas to get you started.
- Casual
- Relaxed
- Carefree
- Calm
- Cool
- Effortless
- Ease
- Comfortable
- Practical
- Sporty
- Laidback
- Refined
- Polished
- Luxurious
- Grounded
- Thoughtful
- Sensible
- Outdoorsy
- Vintage
- Retro
- Grungy
- Futuristic
- Western
- Natural
- Contemporary
- Punk
- Modern
- Elegant
- Timeless
- Balanced
- Clever
- Unexpected
- Alternative
- Feminine
- Romantic
- Soft
- Delicate
- Preppy
- Bold
- Bright
- Eclectic
- Colorful
- Vibrant
- Joyful
- Flirty
- Confident
- Masculine
- Structured
- Streamlined
- Tailored
- Clean
- Androgynous
- Neutral
- Simple
- Minimal
- Classic
- Polished
- Sophisticated
- Cozy
- Warm
- Adventurous
- Subtle
- Flowy
- Harmonious
- Academia
- Folksy
- Urban
- Global
- Creative
- Playful
- Fun
- Sculptural
- Ornate
- Artistic
- Powerful
- Sexy
- Sensual
- Chic
- Quirky
- Edgy
- Understated
- Oversized
- Fitted
- Elevated
- Undone
- Intentional
- Discerning
- Glam
- Striking
- Modest
- Organic
- Smart
- Dramatic
- Dark
- Mysterious
- Chromatic
- Artsy
- Funky
- Antique
- Surreal
How to Use Your Style Words
Ok so now that you have your style words, what do you do with them? How do they help you with your personal style?
There seem to be a few main benefits to having your three style words in mind.
1. Having Style Words Makes Creating Outfits Easier
Your style words can help you clear out all the noise of what you “should” be wearing and help you put together outfits that are uniquely you.
In practice, this could look like picking out a piece from your wardrobe that satisfies each style word and use that to create a look that suits your individual style.
For example, if my words were feminine, structured, and warm, I might include one feminine piece (like an eyelet ruffled top), a couple structured pieces (like a pair of straight leg denim jeans and a structured leather bag) and a piece that makes me feel warm and welcoming (like a pair of natural raffia sandals or a whimsical piece of jewelry).
Smilovic suggests that you should be able to describe each piece you own and buy with your three words. Personally, I find this method challenging in practice because my words are somewhat different from each other. And this focus on the individual garment leaves me a bit stuck when I try to create outfits.
Though you might find that simplified method really helpful, especially if your words are more similar.
For my style, I like this idea of “tension” in an outfit that Alyssa Beltempo and Allison Bornstein talk about. It makes the outfit feel less like a style archetype you might get from a quiz in a magazine and more individualized.
Bornstein even emphasizes that the people with the best and most interesting style often have contrasting or even opposite style words.
2. Style Words Help You Buy Fewer, Better Aligned Pieces
Shopping, like anything else in life, is often easier with a strategy.
Many of us talk about wanting to be more intentional with our purchases and yet actually doing this in practice is a lot more difficult. It’s just too easy to get swept away with marketing campaign imagery and persuaded by what everyone else is wearing on Instagram.
Your style words can act as a filter.
When you’re trying to decide if you should buy a piece or not, you can ask yourself: “does this meet one of (or a couple of) my style words?”
Again, Amy Smilovic suggests that each piece you buy should meet all three of your words. Maybe this works for you if your words are complementary!
However, if your words are contrasting you probably just want to look for one (maximum two) of your style words in a piece at a time.
When this is the case, I find it helpful to ask if I can wear that piece with another garment already in my closet that meets one of my other words. I.e. if a piece would fall within my “feminine” style word, I’d ask: “does this go with one of my structured or more grounded pieces in my wardrobe?”
This helps me purchase pieces that I know I’ll get a lot of wear out of and avoid making a purchase that just sits in my closet for the next five years.
It also helps me totally eliminate purchases. If a piece doesn’t fit under at least one of my style words, it’s a no. Sometimes a piece looks fabulous on someone else but when you actually think about wearing it yourself, it just doesn’t feel right.
3. Your Style Words Help You Wear Your Unworn Pieces
No matter how much of a minimalist or slow fashion advocate you are, I think it’s safe to say that we have all had pieces in our closet that went unworn.
Your style words can help change that, though.
As Bornstein suggests, when you’re not sure how to wear with a piece — whether it’s a brand new item or just something you haven’t worn — you can define it with one of your words, and then bring in something from one of your other words.
Let me illustrate this with a real example from my closet. I have a blazer that alone, just felt too masculine and serious for my style. Using this idea of pairing my words together, though, I paired that structured blazer with a fun blouse and “grounding” pair of boots. All of the sudden the blazer felt like a natural fit.
So Is It Worth It To Find Your Style Words?
While it can take time to really refine your style words, I would say yes, it’s so worth it!
Finding my style words has been immensely helpful in creating looks that I feel comfortable in — I am finally able to pin down what it is about an outfit that makes it feel like “me”.
Now when I look back at some of my favorite outfits, it’s so clear why I love them — because there are elements of each part of me within those outfits.
In terms of knowing what to buy, the style words help me a bit as well. I tend to gravitate towards wanting to buy feminine pieces — lace trim, ruffles, florals! — and forget about the fact that I also like some solidity to my outfits as well.
So these style words have helped me balance out my purchasing decisions so I’m not stuck with a wardrobe that feels too frilly.
I’d love to hear about how your process for finding your style words goes as well!
And if you want to dive deeper into personal style, our contributor Stella wrote a great piece, How to Find Your Personal Style (and Why It Matters).
The post How To Find Your Style Words (Plus 100 Examples) appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.
Green Living
Sustainability In Your Ear: GoodPower’s Leah Qusba on Selling Clean Energy as Pocketbook Power
In 2024, 91% of new large-scale renewable projects around the world made electricity for less money than any fossil-fuel option, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. Solar power was 41% cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel, and onshore wind was 53% cheaper. The technology that can lower energy bills, keep the grid stable, and create jobs is now the most affordable way to build power almost anywhere. So, here’s the big question our guest faces every day: if clean energy is this good and this affordable, why is it still so tough to get people to support it? Leah Qusba leads GoodPower, a nonprofit focused on strategic communications and research. For almost twenty years, it was known as Action for the Climate Emergency, but it changed its name during Climate Week 2025. Since Leah took over, the group has grown about ten times bigger, built a network of over 8,500 content creators who share facts about renewables, and started running live messaging tests through its Good Data Lab. The new name highlights that renewable power is good power, and the best way to win support is by showing how it affects people’s monthly bills. The decision to rebrand was based on data. Leah’s team learned that words like “climate” and “emergency” can shut down conversations in rural, conservative areas where most new wind and solar projects are built. GoodPower shifted its message to focus on jobs, community investment, and steady power bills.

GoodPower also works to fight anti-renewables disinformation, which Leah says spreads fastest in the first day or two after a grid emergency. When Winter Storm Fern knocked out power in more than 20 states in January, the organization had a few days’ notice and quickly got its creator network ready to “prebunk” the usual claim that renewables caused the blackouts. This strategy, based on the Debunking Handbook, starts with the truth, points out the false claim, and then repeats the truth to make it stick. GoodPower uses the same idea in its AI tools: CleanCast predicts where local fights over new projects might start so communities can get accurate information early, and TrueVoice spots AI-generated comments in public records. Still, Leah says the best messengers are neighbors, since people trust those who share their experiences. For instance, when Boulder City, Nevada’s Republican mayor, Joe Hardy, talks about how solar and storage helped his town’s budget, it connects with other conservative communities in a way ads can’t.
GoodPower’s network of creators shares clean-energy messages through car-repair, food, and gaming videos. Leah calls this the raisin bread theory: the regular content is the bread, and the renewables message is the raisin. For communities already dealing with climate impacts, she highlights groups like Extreme Weather Survivors, which gives wildfire and flood survivors a way to push for policy changes from the ground up.
To learn more, visit goodpower.org and follow Leah Qusba on LinkedIn, where she is active and easy to reach.
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Interview Transcript
Mitch Ratcliffe 0:10
Hello! Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you are on this beautiful planet of ours. Welcome to Sustainability In Your Ear. This is the podcast conversation about accelerating the transition to a sustainable, carbon-neutral society. And I’m your host, Mitch Ratcliffe. Thanks for joining the conversation today. Let’s talk about accelerating that shift to renewables in detail.
The technology to lower our energy bills, build a more secure grid, and create millions of jobs already exists. Renewables are now the cheapest and fastest power to deploy almost anywhere on the planet, so here’s the puzzle my guest today wrestles with every single day. If the solutions are this good and this affordable, why is it so hard to build public support for them?
Part of the answer is that we’re trying to make the case for sustainable technologies in an openly hostile environment. Federal climate policy has been rolled back, and there are coordinated disinformation campaigns ready to blame wind and solar within hours of any grid emergency, whether or not the facts support those accusations. And the social platforms where most people get their information will quietly bury anything labeled climate, handing it only to people who already agree that it’s a concern. The audiences you need to reach most never see your message about sustainability.
Leah Qusba has built a career breaking through the noise to reach audiences intent on climate progress. She’s the CEO of GoodPower, an organization you may have known until recently as Action for the Climate Emergency, or ACE. She’s led it for more than 15 years, growing it roughly tenfold into one of the sharpest media and research operations in the climate space, and she runs real experiments on what messaging actually changes behavior, working with thousands of content creators to carry the conversation to people the movement has never reached before. Her own path started along Wisconsin’s Fox River, in a stretch of water she played in as a kid that later became an EPA Superfund site before she finished high school.
We’re going to explore how to sell the benefits of clean energy when the word climate itself becomes a liability, and how you fight disinformation when a lie travels faster than the truth, and why Leah ultimately believes affordability, not alarm, is the door most people will actually walk through when asked about climate. So, what can we do to shift the climate conversation? Let’s find out after this brief commercial break.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Mitch Ratcliffe 2:41
Leah Qusba, welcome to Sustainability In Your Ear. How are you doing today?
Leah Qusba 2:45
I’m doing great. How are you?
Mitch Ratcliffe 2:46
Well, I’m well, thanks for taking the time to talk with me. It’s always interesting to speak to somebody who’s been dedicated to climate awareness for so long. You grew up in Wisconsin’s Paper Valley, and a river you played in, the Fox, became an EPA Superfund site while you were in high school. How much of your work derives from the experience of having played in that river, which was polluted and needed a cleanup?
Leah Qusba 3:10
Yeah, I certainly didn’t know it at the time, growing up in small-town USA in northeastern Wisconsin. I think it has impacted me dramatically and greatly. I kind of look back — it’s over, you know, 25 to 30 years ago at this point. I look back at that time and think, wow, there’s nobody organizing people around that type of environmental disaster. People were angry, they felt powerless. It took over a decade, and then the EPA said, well, we did our best, we can’t really fully clean this up in terms of all the PCBs in the river. So I look back on that time, and I think it did set me on the path that I’m on today.
Mitch Ratcliffe 3:52
We know so much more about the world, and part of the experience of living by a river that turned out to be so polluted is your own recognition. How do you use that approach to storytelling to help other people make the leap to understand where we are with regard to the climate?
Leah Qusba 4:09
Well, I often think about my dad, and what’s interesting about my dad is he’s a staunch conservative — he believes climate change is not man-made — and he recently became a supporter of solar, not because of me, not because of his own daughter’s influence, but actually his HVAC guy has a side business doing rooftop solar, and it was that conversation that convinced my dad. So I think what I take away is: rural speaks to rural, conservative speaks to conservative, neighbor speaks to neighbor.
I think in an internet environment where people trust what’s on the internet less and less, and with the rise of artificial intelligence and related content, I think all we have left is really each other, and so we really leverage that. How do we find stories of communities that already have solar, wind, and batteries, for example, to demystify what these technologies are for a neighboring town, county, or state? It really works.
Mitch Ratcliffe 5:11
In September, you changed the name of the organization from Action for the Climate Emergency to GoodPower. What stopped working about the words climate emergency?
Leah Qusba 5:21
Yeah, I mean, I think as the years went on and we were using this brand, we don’t want to fall into traps where climate, decarbonization, and energy issues are sort of unfairly politicized as left versus right. When we say words like climate in a rural conservative community, that can be a non-starter. When we say things like emergency, do we fall into the trap of being climate alarmists, as we have been dubbed? There’s a different way — there’s a bigger-tent approach where, depending on the audience you’re speaking to, there’s different ways in to showing the economic promise of the energy transition.
Right, what do communities get? Jobs, community investment, long-term leases for farmers and landowners that are, you know, nervous private equity is coming to buy their land for an Amazon logistics warehouse or a data center or something like that. So I think for us, our brand wasn’t working for enough of the American people, especially where, you know, ground zero for the energy transition happens to be rural red America, where a lot of this infrastructure needs to be built and is being built.
So we did it because we wanted a bigger tent that more people could get under and feel a sense of belonging — that, wow, I see something for me in the energy transition. I see something for me in what community benefits I could potentially reap from decarbonized power being built in my town or community. So it was really about creating that bigger tent for more people to get under.
Mitch Ratcliffe 6:51
Well, your dad’s experience is recognizing that there’s economic opportunity in advanced technology. Funny thing, it wakes you up to the opportunity, but it doesn’t address the fact that we’re being told that there’s a crisis all the time, and one of the issues that I seem to run into a lot is that even within the climate community there are very rigid differences of opinion about where to focus our effort and investment. How has the movement torn itself apart to a degree, even as it establishes real credibility because of the fact of the climate changing so rapidly?
Leah Qusba 7:25
I mean, when you just break it down to scientific terms, right? Climate change happens very slowly, and then all at once, I think, is the famous quote, right? How did I go broke? It started slowly, and then all at once. I think for us, what we have learned — we’ve been in business for about 18 years, and I’ve been at GoodPower for about 17 of those years — the number one voting issue, cycle after cycle, and now even young people in 2024, in the last presidential, even young people rated the economy as number one. Usually they’re voting on values issues, you know, racial justice and all sorts of other things. They rated the economy. So the economy isn’t working for most people. Nearly 70% of us in the US live paycheck to paycheck.
So we really, at GoodPower, recognize that people want immediate change. How are my energy bills going to go down? Why are prices at the gas pump going up and down like the stock market? Why aren’t they more predictable? The answer: homegrown power — solar, wind, batteries. It’s not exposed to global commodity risks like oil and gas, right? There’s no far-off war that is going to make the cost of the wind and the sun, which happen to be free — there is no fuel cost — it’s not going to make those go up and down in that way.
So I think it’s about connecting the everyday experiences and things people are constantly worried about. How am I going to keep my job? Am I going to be laid off? Will I be able to afford groceries this week? My energy bill doubled in the last year, and there’s no sight. How do we look at the energy transition as unlocking this generational economic opportunity, right? This potential economic renaissance for the middle class. It’s not just saving money and having more predictability and control and autonomy around one’s bills. It’s also about the wealth regenerating and the economic investment.
I’m from a rural community. These communities are emptying out. Young people are leaving. They need investment. They need new schools, new infrastructure, new roads. Farmers are struggling — hundreds close every year in the US. Well, great: let’s farm 300 acres of solar, along with my 3,000 acres of soybeans and corn. When I have a rough year, the solar still pays the bill. So I think there’s incredible economic potential here, and that hasn’t really been communicated effectively.
Mitch Ratcliffe 9:39
You argue that renewable power is good power, but at the same time, as you just pointed out, our energy bills are going through the roof. Are you arguing for truly distributed energy generation, or are you saying that there is a path to a collectively owned — whatever form that takes — infrastructure that allows us to really meet the electrical demands of the era we’re entering?
Leah Qusba 10:00
I think that’s a false choice. Our position is all of it. We are huge proponents of distributed energy resources, dispatchable power, some of the virtual power plant policies and investments that we’ve seen. We’re huge proponents of utility-scale and community-level renewable projects. We think battery energy storage — when you pair that, right, that’s the invention of the battery — is how we get to more reliable power. So all of it. I think we need all of it.
I think, you know, global energy volatility is really a hidden tax on American families that people are really exhausted having to pay, in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis where everything else is going up — healthcare, housing, groceries. When energy goes up, by the way, everything else goes up too. So I think it’s the predictability, it’s having more control and not being at the whims of these sort of global markets and importing that volatility into people’s lives that already feel chaotic.
Mitch Ratcliffe 10:59
And yet we need to press through the capital investment phase of this with determination, and it seems like the determination is being shaken by, let’s say, people at the White House. How do you tell a story in the face of such rigorous and often completely misleading responses from the other side of the political argument?
Leah Qusba 11:20
Well, I think the American people are pretty smart. Only 40% of Republicans actually approve of their own president’s energy policies right now. That’s from GoodPower’s own national poll we did with the University of Chicago back in mid-March. So there’s extremely low approval. People understand — they feel it. You have to fill your gas tank up, right, probably once, maybe twice a week. If you’re going on vacation, a lot more than that. You have to pay that energy bill and open it up, or go online and pay it every month. So it’s in your face constantly. Nobody’s seeing change, and when you have only 40% of your own party approving your energy policies and your agenda, that’s pretty abysmal.
So I think, from my perspective, when we look at the sort of all-of-government approach to kill renewables, we’re choosing energy winners and losers, and Americans are left kind of holding the bill. It’s simple economics 101 here — supply and demand. If we’re restricting the fastest, most affordable electrons from coming online, which happen to be from solar, storage, and wind right now, we’re going to drive up bills. I mean, my 11-year-old daughter would understand the economics of that.
Mitch Ratcliffe 12:28
AI is going to play a big part in how we ultimately tell the story, and part of the solution in terms of how we optimize everything that we do — simply because we have visibility into how things work in ways we would never have been able to pre-AI. How do you integrate that part of the story, that some of this investment is necessary to develop the intelligence that is going to help us untangle the crisis that we face?
Leah Qusba 12:53
I think the stark reality is that data centers are highly unpopular right now, and land use in general — land use projects across the country are really facing increasing public opposition. I am seeing some really bright lights within the news cycle around land-use development that is being done very responsibly, transparently, in an innovative way. I think about some of the Google data center announcements recently in the MISO region, where they’re looking creatively at how do we get electrons through virtual power plants, how do we invest in infrastructure, how do we invest in community benefits, how do we procure clean electrons to power our digital infrastructure. So I think there are some really good actors out there lifting up those stories where these developments are happening in a very positive way.
I think we can look to the utility-scale renewable energy sector — I mean, this is a lot of GoodPower’s work — but just telling the stories: people have reaped enormous benefits and are very happy with this infrastructure when it’s done in the right way, and it’s transparent, and it’s with stakeholder input. I think there’s a way to do land use that can be really uplifting to communities, but getting their input and involving them as stakeholders, I think, is absolutely essential.
I think the other piece of the story that we forget: big tech, right — technology has been the number one global procurer of decarbonized electrons on planet Earth for the last 15 years. So in other words, the growth of the renewable energy sector has been commensurate with the growth and advancement in the sort of digital revolution and technology. So again, there’s a right way to do it, and if we can uplift stories of where the community is on board with this infrastructure — because they’ve been consulted and they’ve gotten to weigh in, and they’re really getting a good deal out of it — I think the more we can do that, the better off we’ll be.
Mitch Ratcliffe 14:47
On the other hand, AI is also part of the problem, because it is used by algorithms to direct people away from the issue. You’ve said that when you mention climate in a video, it immediately gets relegated to a pile of links to people who already agree. In other words, we’re talking to the converted. How do you articulate that to somebody who is focused on the concerns they have about their community — particularly a rural community, where I live in one as well — when talking about the need for the investment in electrification and AI, which is also potentially part of the problem that we face in terms of being relegated to pools of people who agree and never get the opportunity to evangelize to others?
Leah Qusba 15:28
We don’t say anything to rural communities. We let rural communities talk to each other, so that’s what we enable. We basically find stories that are under-told and under-platformed. For example, here’s a farmer in rural Oklahoma, in western Oklahoma. They’ve had wind on their land for 20 years, put their kids through college. They were able to keep their generational farm that was handed down to them for six generations, and they wouldn’t have been able to keep it without the wind industry, right? So that could be very convincing to another farmer who’s facing closure in a neighboring plains state, or even within the Midwest generally.
So brands, I think, need to say less. I think what we need to do more of is find and mine those stories where the projects were built responsibly, the land-use development was done in a way that enriched the community and, you know, consulted the community. How do we find those stories? We’ve produced hundreds of these now over the last five years, all over the United States, all over Brazil, the UK, right, where we were trying to really build positivity and social permission and social acceptance of this infrastructure. The stories are all out there, and it’s just about platforming and telling them and breaking through when we see this news cycle that has been so anti-renewable from this particular administration. This is the counterbalance. Just go and ask the communities, and they’ll tell you how they feel about this infrastructure.
Mitch Ratcliffe 16:55
Can you give an example of a story that, for lack of a better word, sells the idea of economic prosperity built on renewables?
Leah Qusba 17:03
Yeah, I mean, really authentic, genuine stories. I’m thinking of a story from Mayor Joe Hardy in Boulder City, Nevada. Mayor Hardy is a Republican. He’s a staunch conservative. His story is about how economically secure Boulder City, Nevada, is for the next 25 years. He talks about solar and storage. He takes us out to the fields and shows us what that looks like, and that the community has no economic worries in terms of property tax revenue, and where those revenues are going, and how it’s investing in community infrastructure, schools, etc.
I think of another story in Oklahoma, of a school superintendent who talks about how the community benefit agreement that they signed with this wind developer built a new school, and what that means for children in a community that has not seen a lot of investment over the last few decades. And then we have countless stories of farmers, landowners, neighbors to these projects who talk about the community benefits agreements — what’s in them: long-term leases, new infrastructure, donations of emergency management vehicles, police cars, fire trucks.
And again, when you position the community as a stakeholder and it’s transparent and you consult them, we can strike deals here that really work for the industry and for building decarbonized power, and that really work for people in the communities who feel like, “Wow, I’m being invested in, I’m not being extracted from.” We’re not replicating those systems of extraction; we’re investing in building something together. I think that’s really special.
Mitch Ratcliffe 18:35
Is there a risk in the movement swinging so hard toward pocketbook messaging that it no longer talks about climate, or clean in contrast to the dirty systems — or is that exactly the point?
Leah Qusba 18:45
I also think this is a false question, because we do talk about climate. It’s important to talk about climate. 8% of voters under 35 rated climate as their number one issue in 2024. So a front-door climate message, and increasing the awareness and the pie — you know, the slice of people who are really motivated by a climate message that’s front-door — I think there is a huge audience out there. We speak to that audience.
I think the point is, this is not a one-size-fits-all solution, right? The internet and social media are increasingly fractured. Audiences are tribalized. Knowing what platform you’re on and who you’re speaking to — once you know that information, you should have a very sophisticated segmented strategy. How do we connect audience to messenger and message? If you’re trying to have a silver bullet, sort of, you know, one campaign to rule them all, I think that’s a recipe for failure, and in fact you can have polarizing effects. You can make people feel less inclined to support energy and climate policies that are going to drive forward a decarbonized economy by not having the right messenger, or even a polarizing messenger that could make them more entrenched in that opinion. So I think you can do more harm than good in some cases.
I think having empathy — whether you’re talking to somebody on the left side of the ideological spectrum or the right side of the ideological spectrum, or somewhere in between — really knowing who those people are and what moves them and what they’re about, and really trying to seek to understand them and not label them as something other, or “these are not my people.” I kind of hear a lot of that sometimes. Everybody’s our people. If you’re a person, you’re our people. And I think there’s a way to speak to literally anybody about these issues in a way that’s going to land with them, and that’s really the science of communication.
Mitch Ratcliffe 20:37
To be a people person takes real work, especially when you’re telling stories. There’s a lot to unpack in this strategy. Let’s take a quick commercial break and come back to continue this fascinating discussion. Stay tuned, folks.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Welcome back to Sustainability In Your Ear. Now, let’s continue the conversation with Leah Qusba. She is CEO of GoodPower, which is a strategic communications nonprofit working to highlight the need for and benefits of renewable energy. Leah, how do you see the world of storytelling changing because we have the tools that AI unlocks to target and reach people better? Or are we going to be overwhelmed by misinformation? I’m just — where should we set the bar in our expectations about the future of storytelling?
Leah Qusba 21:25
What a deep and complex and fascinating question. So let me start with the platforms themselves, where people are now using Claude and ChatGPT and other AI platforms almost as Google search platforms, right? So they’re looking for information. So I think one way that we’re using these tools is really, how do we set the terms of what information comes up when people are searching around: is solar good or bad? You know, will this raise my bills, lower my bills? Right, so it’s basically like SEO, but for these AI platforms — it’s called AEO and GEO. So how do you do search optimization and get the facts, not the fiction, to pop up in search results? So we do some of that work, going to the source of when people are searching, what information are they getting.
I think then, you know, we think about AI as a technology when it’s really a set of complementary capabilities, right? We’ve got automation — how do we automate the tedious and repetitive things that humans don’t want to do, so we can focus on higher-level creative work? Predictive — right, how do we forecast where siting and permitting battles are going to be through 2030 around clean energy projects, or where opposition might be forming? So how do we predict the future? And then we’re all familiar with the generative capabilities around doing better analysis and communications and content creation, etc. And the way we look at these capabilities at GoodPower, it’s less about a single piece of technology; it’s about leveraging these capabilities to build custom models. So I can walk you through a few pieces of those technologies that we’ve sort of housed.
One product is called CleanCast, and this is a piece of predictive, AI-enabled technology. It helps us forecast where the renewable energy industry might build their projects, so it pipes in public opinion research from local counties, it pipes in the governmental, environmental, and regulatory constraints that might exist. Are there existing bans and moratoria? How does that state do permitting? Does it do it at the county level through a county commission, or is it a state process through a PUC or PSC? So all sorts of intelligence to help us predict: where are these projects going to be built? What’s the prime location? Can we get there first and inoculate the public to disinformation? Can we make them resilient and less vulnerable to disinformation?
The disinformation we see out there is astounding. There was a disinformation cluster last week trying to scare potato farmers, saying Frito-Lay won’t buy your potatoes if you host solar on your land, because they’ll have glass shards in them — your potatoes will have glass inside from the solar panels. We traced this disinformation to some potato trade industry associations that are funded predominantly by the fertilizer industry, and fertilizer is petrochemicals, right? So if you follow the money — how do we anticipate where disinformation or opposition is going to be? Where is the industry going, and how do we get there first? Generally, people remember what they hear first, right? So before the public understanding hardens around the disinformation, how do we get there first? So that’s an example of one product. I have a few more I could share with you as well.
Mitch Ratcliffe 24:41
Well, you also have a small army in what you call the Creator Collective — 8,500 creators, 350 to 400 million followers in food and fashion and gaming and all the things that creators do. How does the sustainability message travel through a network like that? Maybe the message begins with a car influencer, then you run into it in a fashion commentary as well.
Leah Qusba 25:03
Well, I think, going back to your previous question around the tribalization problem on social media — like, how do we break through when the algorithms just sort us into the, you know, left-of-center green climate bucket? We don’t want to be sorted into that bucket. So creator marketing is a way to get around that. We don’t generally lead with a sustainability message with everyone. We lead with the message we think is going to work with that audience.
So if we’re trying to reach a bunch of car bros or commuters that really could save thousands of dollars annually from switching to an EV — maybe they live in a rural commuter town, they drive to the city for work — we want to hire a bunch of car bros, right, creators that are talking about fixing cars, and they slip EV messaging into their regular content streams that are more entertaining for their audience. We call it the raisin bread theory, where most of the content stays the bread, and you’re sprinkling in the raisins.
You could apply this to any one of these content verticals. If we’re talking about regenerative agriculture and getting toxic chemicals out of our food supply, MAHA moms are a great example — suburban white women in the MAHA movement, right? We want to find a bunch of them, or doctors and nurses who are really universally credible messengers who talk about health content. So depending on the audience and the campaign’s goals, we look into that community and we decide: okay, who do we want to engage for this campaign, and who’s the right credible messenger for the audience?
Mitch Ratcliffe 26:26
So would you describe that as: you coordinate and plan a sequence of messages? Or is this something that continues to happen organically based on your urging?
Leah Qusba 26:35
We do both. We do long-term campaigns that are multi-year, sort of patient-capital investments to changing an entire community’s way that they think about these technologies, where maybe there was a huge gap in understanding. One example would be: over 55% of Americans say they’ve never or rarely even heard about battery energy storage. They don’t know what it is. Great — it’s a fantastic opportunity to provide some baseline education to a huge group of people, where these projects are probably going to be built. We can get there first, before any disinformation gets out around these projects.
Then we have things that are more reactive and tied to the news cycle. So, almost two decades I’ve been in this work, and we keep losing during these rapid-response, sort of high-attention moments. The wildfires in LA are a really great example from last January, and we actually lost that narrative — DEI was blamed, that we were too busy with DEI in California to, you know, do proper forest management. It was ridiculous, but when you looked online and did advanced social listening analysis of the narrative, there were more mentions where the disinformation around DEI took over the conversation, instead of “hey, climate change is making these disasters more costly, more dangerous, and by the way, insurers are leaving the market in California.” Who’s holding the bag for that? It’s not the polluters that caused the problem; it’s the ratepayers, the premium holders that live in that state. So how do we make those connections? So there’s both a rapid-response element where we’re gathering this intelligence from the news cycle and responding, and then there’s more long-term strategies that we’re building as well.
Mitch Ratcliffe 28:14
Talk a little about the rapid response. In January, Winter Storm Fern caused up to $6.7 billion in damage, and there were a lot of disinformation initiatives around that storm almost immediately, and they were blaming wind and solar for the grid not having stayed as resilient as it needed to be, ignoring the fact that it’s an ancient grid. What does an effective, fast counter-messaging effort look like? How do you move the truth at the speed of a lie when lies are propagating so quickly?
Leah Qusba 28:46
We actually did a rapid-response activation with our creator community that last weekend in January — I remember that vividly — and because Winter Storm Fern was a forecasted storm, we actually had a few days of lead time, so it wasn’t a same-day activation. We could plan and really activate our community.
So what we did: we used the best practices — sort of the gold standard for inoculation, or prebunking, is another way you can name it. It’s to prepare the audience for disinformation they might see, so that when they see it, it bounces off of them instead of sinks into them. So we follow the Debunking Handbook, and there’s a way to do it where you’re not reinforcing the disinformation. There’s a huge risk in social science of actually reinforcing the lie if you don’t do it in the right way, in terms of introducing the truth, talking about the disinformation, and ending with the truth. We call it the truth sandwich.
So we did that. We activated a couple dozen creators who got millions of views on their content, basically saying, look, the lights are going to go out because of this storm. It’s affecting over 20 states. It’s happening this weekend. If you see blaming or scapegoating — that, oh, the power went out because of those unreliable renewables — don’t be fooled, that’s not the reason. It’s actually inter-regional transmission in our aging grid, and literally frozen coal and gas supply.
And we can look back — we had people who went through Winter Storm Uri. We had some Texas moms who were in our rapid-response creator community that could talk about their own experience. Oh, the same thing: Governor Abbott actually said disinformation on national television in Texas, saying, “Oh, those frozen wind turbines, that’s why the lights went out.” So we actually had people from Winter Storm Uri, who went through that in ’21, that were part of this collection of creators that were activated and were able to speak to their own experience — that, oh, every time there’s extreme weather and the lights go out, renewables are scapegoated. Don’t be fooled, that’s not what it is, it’s this. And so it was very effective.
Mitch Ratcliffe 30:45
Now, you do a lot of randomized trials of different kinds of messaging, and I’m wondering if there’s an example of something that you didn’t expect to work but really did when you put it in the market — or conversely, something you thought was a surefire win that didn’t work at all.
Leah Qusba 30:59
You know what was surprising? We saw a speech that was televised on the Senate floor with Senator Brian Schatz from Hawaii. He was giving a speech on the Senate floor around how the Trump administration’s policies to block renewable energy were driving up the cost of electricity and utility bills for Americans, and that that will continue to happen. We said, wow, this is great — most people in our testing think Congress isn’t talking about these issues. So we said, why don’t we give this speech to our creators, have them clip it up and add some commentary to it, and we’ll have a bunch of them share it. And then we’ll do a randomized control trial, where the treatment audience saw the content — one of the pieces of creator content — and the control group saw nothing, or a placebo. Let’s see how this works.
And our research question was: does this help Democrats, or does it help Republicans? Like, what happens when we have people in Congress talking about this? And it turns out not only was it extremely effective at solidifying the idea that these policies to block renewables from being built are driving up bills — so it was very effective at education and awareness — it was very bad for the Republican party generally. Eleven points we were able to get in the treatment group on disfavor for how Republicans were handling energy policy and utility issues. So we found that to be fascinating. We didn’t think a single exposure of a speech of somebody in Congress talking about these issues would be that effective, or have that outsized of an impact.
Mitch Ratcliffe 32:27
One of the things I noted: you started off focused primarily on youth climate education, but as you pivot toward everyone’s energy bill — which is a very dinner-table kind of 30s-and-40s, you-got-kids, you-got-to-think-about-this-stuff kind of problem — how do you stay relevant to youth who continue to grow up into what they can see plainly is a crisis, but that is increasingly being cast as a pocketbook issue?
Leah Qusba 32:53
I think what’s fascinating, and the unique part of this story, is that I’ve been at GoodPower almost the entire time, so many of the young people I personally worked with in high school are now into their 30s. They’re working for social impact investors, they’re working at the EPA, they’re working for big foundations, some are working for hyperscalers and AI companies, and what’s fascinating is they’re taking those values around these issues into their professional lives.
I think, you know, this idea of kind of growing up and maturing within the movement — and I think post-COVID, when we see how COVID really affected the youth movement in general, and college campus organizing: nobody was in person, and you kind of got to be in person to do organizing, to build those relationships and pass the baton to underclassmen, etc. So I think, for us, seeing some of these young people mature themselves into the professional working world — this generation has now permeated the private sector, the public sector, and they’ve carried this sort of generational youth climate movement, sparked by Sunrise, you know, sparked by our organization, Power Shift Network. They have a whole new view, I think, that they’re bringing into corporate America right now, around their values and around how much they prioritize climate and energy policies that make sense.
I think they’re also living in a world where they can’t attain the same things their parents did financially. They can’t own a home, they can’t afford to buy a car, or even move out of their parents’ house. So I think our messaging around the economy — I think it works for young people that have kind of grown up in this movement and are very angry, like most Americans are, around this cost-of-living crisis.
Mitch Ratcliffe 34:37
The number of jobs represented by the capital that is being held in abeyance because of the misinformation must be incredibly frustrating for younger people. I mean, we can see the explosion of economic opportunity that would happen — it might look more like China, for instance. I was reading your 2030 plan; you’re leaning into AI and product development and breakthrough technology, and I’m wondering what those breakthrough technologies that you think are most important to understanding where we can go might be.
Leah Qusba 35:07
I think geothermal is really fascinating. Of course, anything that is zero carbon, I think, is really interesting to our organization when we think about the climate problem and decarbonizing the global economy. I think it’s a very nascent technology, so there’s some fair criticism there, but I would say uniquely it has this bipartisan support because it uses the same rigging and tools and equipment and skills as the fossil fuel industry, right — oil and gas and fracking workers. So I think there’s incredible bipartisan support as well, and I think as these technologies mature, we’ll be in a front-row seat, kind of looking and seeing how these develop and mature over time.
When we think about artificial intelligence tools, we think about it in a bit of a different way. I think one pervasive issue we’re seeing right now is AI manipulation and fabricated opposition in local siting — so AI-generated comments flooding decision-makers, and they don’t know what’s real and who’s real. So we built a product for that called TrueVoice that separates authentic local input from AI-manufactured opposition. We’re going to give it to community stakeholders, county commissioners, public service commissioners, the developers — everybody deserves to know: okay, what’s the probability that there was AI manipulation on this docket, and now how much do we weigh this? Maybe it’ll create new systems of what we prioritize and how we gather community input. Maybe there’ll be a premium on in-person hearings and showing up, you know, and reinvesting in local organizing.
So I think our use of these tools is really around identifying the cracks that could become fissures that could become huge cliffs for the work that we do in our pathway to accelerating decarbonization — and how do we fit within those, and how do we problem-solve and deliver solutions that don’t just solve our own problems at GoodPower, but sort of solve big, big systemic, sectoral problems.
Mitch Ratcliffe 37:04
As you think about where we are right now, and everything you just said in the context of what we’re looking toward in terms of the world we want to build — what are you most hopeful about right now?
Leah Qusba 37:13
Well, I think the market forces, much to President Trump’s chagrin, are just too strong to stop the industry. You know, we have a deadline coming up on July 4, where the PTC and ITC — right, if you haven’t begun substantial construction, and now this is being litigated, or this 5% test, you know, have you spent 5% of the project budget — you will not be eligible for the PTC and ITC, these important tax credits that make these projects more lucrative and more profitable and more desirable from a financial investment perspective.
But when you look at the impacts of this sort of arbitrary deadline that we’re all racing toward — yes, Rhodium Group says, you know, the industry is going to take a hit, and a lot fewer projects will be built, there’ll be more consolidation — but the industry is too mature, and decarbonized power is too attractive and affordable and clean and just desirable and homegrown and stable and secure. There’s just too many good things, I think, wrapped up in decarbonized power to stop it.
I think the same is true for electric transportation. If we look to the global south — we work in the global south and non-OECD economies — where you see these two-wheelers and people buying electric vehicles in droves, because they don’t want to import this volatility of the global oil market into their households either. We look to food and agriculture, the MAHA movement of regenerative agriculture, the best carbon capture solution nature offers. People don’t want poison in their food, and we’re seeing a movement around that, and we’re seeing people get very exhausted and disgusted with, you know, the administration’s actions with Monsanto recently.
And so I think there is too much momentum for any one person or one administration to stop what’s happening right now. Can we throw roadblocks? Can we create friction? Can we run interference? Of course. We see our role as removing those bottlenecks, and kind of the counterbalance to that. So I think that gives me hope. The question is, how much time will it take? Time is our greatest enemy, and if we can save time, I think that’s the point. That’s where we avoid the worst consequences, and we seize the most opportunity. So how do we save time?
Mitch Ratcliffe 39:22
How does the adaptation story fit into what you’re doing today? Obviously, we’re going to need to prepare for this.
Leah Qusba 39:28
I think there are fantastic organizations out there working more on adaptation, disaster relief, mutual aid — community-based organizations that are doing a lot of that work. I think it’s hugely, hugely important. We’re going to need to figure out how to live and thrive and support people. The stories out of New Orleans, you know — hey, people have to move; this is going to be us; we’re going to lose 60 miles inland, right? So it has to happen. That’s not work that GoodPower is leading.
There’s a group of organizations, and also environmental disaster survivors. Extreme Weather Survivors is a great organization led by a dear friend of mine named Sierra Kos. They’re doing incredible work to really platform disaster survivors and what it’s like to live through wildfires, lose everything, lose your insurance — what does it look like to be on the front lines of these climate consequences, and how do we really tell those stories and use them, I think, as a warning signal, but also as an education tool to move local, state, and federal policies further toward supporting people.
I think the last thing I’ll say is some of the insurance subrogation laws that are being proposed in Rhode Island and New York, California, Hawaii. These are some of the leadership states saying, wait a second, polluters caused this knowingly for four decades — why are my constituents being left holding the bag? Why are they footing the bill when this industry was complicit? There’s actually a huge state policy movement right now called insurance subrogation, where insurance companies can actually go and make the industry pay for this and clean up — have a superfund, basically, where these companies pay into it, and when these disasters happen, they have to help clean it up, and that bill should not go necessarily to the community or the homeowner. And the insurance companies, too, I think, always get the blame and the ire, but as this continues to happen, that market is going to be more and more difficult over time. So I think having a solution where those most responsible and complicit with driving this situation are also going to be helping to pay for it.
Mitch Ratcliffe 41:46
Leah, thanks so much for this incredibly inspiring conversation. How can folks keep track of what GoodPower is up to?
Leah Qusba 41:52
Oh, good. Go to goodpower.org. We’d love to hear from you. You can contact us, you can reach me on LinkedIn, where I’m active as well, and we’d love to be in touch. Thanks for having me.
Mitch Ratcliffe 42:02
Thank you very much for spending time with us today.
Leah Qusba 42:04
Take care.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
Mitch Ratcliffe 42:11
Welcome back to Sustainability In Your Ear. You’ve been listening to my conversation with Leah Qusba. She’s CEO of GoodPower, the climate and media research organization known until recently as Action for the Climate Emergency, and you can learn more about Leah and her team’s work at goodpower.org. GoodPower is all one word, no space, no dash — goodpower.org.
Let’s consider what it means when an organization that spent 18 years with the words climate emergency in its name concludes those words themselves have become an obstacle to connecting with an audience. Now, this was a data-driven decision. Only 8% of voters under 35 rated climate as their top issue in 2024, and young people ranked the economy first and most important. And that’s the movement’s critical base. If it’s to transform this economy, affordability is what people — especially young people, who want to buy their first home, want to buy their first EV, or would like to be able to put their kids through school. Those folks are the ones who are going to make the change that we’re talking about, who are going to vote — both with their wallet and at the ballot box — for a new world. GoodPower’s rebrand is a bet that the movement can meet them at the crossroads of economics and sustainability.
Leah accurately described global energy volatility as a hidden tax on American families. Every far-off war and commodity swing shows up in the utility bill and at the pump, while wind and sun carry no fuel costs at all. There’s only the capital investment involved in building the solar and wind systems in the first place; then you get free power. But with oil, those taxes are effectively paid to companies, not governments. And as we heard in last week’s interview with Shareholder Democracy’s Gabriel Grant, shareholders have not yet leveraged their voting power to exert control over the companies whose stocks they own, and those companies are ultimately accountable to those shareholders.
When you see the problem through the lens of the Trump administration’s hypocritical approach to market competition, in which they suppress emerging technology, the renewables argument becomes simple supply-and-demand mathematics. The fastest, cheapest form of energy is being blocked from coming to market, and the result is rising rates rather than economic resilience. This isn’t the proverbial 500-miles-per-gallon carburetor purportedly suppressed by the oil industry in the 1970s. This is a real technology ready to reduce the cost of living while doing immense good for the environment, and people see this. GoodPower’s polling with the University of Chicago found just 40% of Republicans approve of their party’s current energy policy.
There’s a real tension as we continue to reinvent the economy, and Leah’s decision to lean entirely on pocketbook messaging is a clear path to building support for solar, wind, geothermal, and other renewables, which will only become more plentiful, not run dry, over the next century, like fossil fuels ultimately will. Leah’s answer is audience segmentation: one message — a front-door climate message — for the audience that wants one, the people who are already convinced and who want to share that message; and on the other side, economics-based messaging for everyone else. The messenger now matters more than the message, and in an era of influencers, this really comes through bright and clear.
Leah’s father, a conservative who doubts human-caused climate change, went solar because his HVAC contractor made the case — not his daughter, who runs one of the country’s largest climate communication shops, but an HVAC contractor. As Leah said, rural speaks to rural, neighbor speaks to neighbor, and GoodPower has operationalized that instinct at scale. They have a creator collective of more than 8,500 content makers with a combined audience in the hundreds of millions, and they’re slipping what Leah calls raisins of clean energy content into the bread of car videos, food channels, and gaming streams. And they measure it. That’s a discipline that separates persuasion from wishful thinking. What you can measure, you can change. It remains too rare in a movement that too often assumes its urgent warnings will carry the day by themselves.
The last idea to revisit is a leading indicator, and that is that artificial intelligence has become the new front line of the information fight, on both sides of the aisle.
Mitch Ratcliffe 46:29
People now ask Claude and ChatGPT whether solar will raise their electric bills, so GoodPower practices answer engine optimization to make sure accurate information surfaces in the first AI response. Its CleanCast tool predicts where siting battles over solar installations, wind installations, and so forth will erupt, so that developers can inoculate communities before disinformation arrives — like the recent industry-funded campaign that told potato farmers that solar panels would result in glass shards in their crops. Another tool that GoodPower has come up with, the TrueVoice tool, launching now, separates authentic public comments from AI-manufactured opposition flooding county permitting dockets and congressional mailboxes.
So one of the good things about AI, at least, is that it allows us to cut through a lot of the noise that we’re being flooded with. But look, this is an arms race, and Leah is candid about the tools being young. These are nascent movements and a nascent set of technologies we’re building on. But the prebunking playbook worked with Winter Storm Fern in January, when creators reached millions with the truth about the aging grid before the wind-turbine scapegoating could harden into what would be perceived as truth by many people. There’s a clear strategic method evolving in real time, and we will keep tracking that race for the American mind here on Sustainability In Your Ear.
Hey, look, if today’s conversation was useful to you, could you pass it along? Sharing an episode with a friend or leaving a review on your favorite podcast website is a great way to get the word out there, because folks, you are the amplifiers that can spread more ideas to create less waste. And you can tell folks they can find more than 560 episodes of Sustainability In Your Ear at Earth911.com/podcast, or you can check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Audible, or whatever purveyor of podcast goodness you prefer.
Thanks for your support. I’m Mitch Ratcliffe. This is Sustainability In Your Ear, and we will be back with another innovator interview soon. In the meantime, folks, take care of yourself, take care of one another, and of course, let’s all take care of this beautiful planet of ours. Have a green day.
The post Sustainability In Your Ear: GoodPower’s Leah Qusba on Selling Clean Energy as Pocketbook Power appeared first on Earth911.
https://earth911.com/business-policy/sustainability-in-your-ear-goodpowers-leah-qusba-on-selling-clean-energy-as-pocketbook-power-2/
Green Living
Earth911 Inspiration: Be a Mountain or Lean on One
This week’s quote is a Somali proverb: “Be a mountain or lean on one.”
Earth911 inspirations. Post them, share your desire to help people think of the planet first, every day. Click to get a larger image.
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https://earth911.com/inspire/earth911-inspiration-be-a-mountain/
Green Living
8 Best Ethical & Sustainable Flats That Are Effortlessly Chic
Ballet flats have long been a staple in my wardrobe, but in the past few years have experienced a significant resurgence — and for good reason. The right pair can be practical, versatile, and oh so chic through days at work, with family, or out for the evening. But finding that “just right” set that’s well-crafted and sustainably made can be a whole other story. That’s why this sustainable flats guide exists.
Comfort, style, sustainability, and longevity are a lot to ask in a shoe, but I don’t believe it’s too much. It just takes some extra digging. And thankfully, I’ve done that digging for you. Because I get it! I want a flat that looks beautiful. I want a flat that’s made responsibly in line with my values. I want a shoe I can actually wear for my life. And I want that shoe to be worth the investment — it has to last. That’s why I vetted through dozens of brands to create this curated list of flats.
What Makes a Flat More Sustainable?
Material Sourcing
Footwear is a tricky category when it comes to sustainable fashion because we ask a lot of our shoes. We wear them in rain or sunshine, paved paths and cobblestone, day in and day out for years. And through it all, they have to remain beautiful. Because when they’re unwearable, there’s not much left to do with them: there is no viable footwear recycling today. Anywhere that calls it “shoe recycling” is really repurposing that footwear. But once it can no longer be worn, it’s simply trash.
In other words, our shoes need to be incredibly durable, even though the most durable materials don’t always come with the lightest footprint. In footwear, when we talk about durability, we usually rely on leather or high-performance synthetic materials. Leather can hold up with many years of wear, getting more beautiful with wear, and is easy to repair when needed. Synthetic materials are also durable, particularly for withstanding the elements like snow and rain.
But sourcing these materials conventionally is highly polluting — so how can we source these materials better?
For synthetics, we have recycled options. Today, that’s largely recycling from plastic bottles, which isn’t without it’s controversies, but there is much innovation happening in the industry around true textile-to-textile recycling.
For leather, I look for:
- Vegetable-tanned (rather than chromium tanned)
- Locally-sourced leather (more traceability), and/or
- Leather Working Group certified leather, which covers responsible management of water, energy, and waste; safe chemical management, traceability of the raw material, and occupational safety for workers.
Notably, there is no certification for animal welfare, so these are imperfect systems. But the alternative is footwear made from synthetic plastic materials or vegan leather alternatives that don’t yet meet the same durability standards as leather. Sustainability within today’s constraints requires trade-offs.
That said, there is always secondhand leather — by buying shoes secondhand you can access the quality of leather without adding further demand for the material.
Responsible Manufacturing
When considering responsible production practices, I look for first and foremost: transparency. Seeing what the brand shares about their material sourcing, their process, and who made their shoes where. And then I look at the details of that process: were the shoes made locally or within a geographic region? How are the workers paid and treated — and under which conditions do they work?
And, sometimes a brand employs an out-of-the-box approach to manufacturing entirely. There are a few slow fashion footwear brands challenging the traditional fashion system of ordering in mass quantities before demand is assessed —which inevitably leads to overproduction. These brands use an “on demand” model instead, producing their shoes only after they’ve been ordered. This reduces the risk of overproduction (i.e. producing more than what gets sold) while also encouraging more thoughtful consumption. You can’t impulse buy a pair of Mary Janes that you have to wait 8 weeks for.
Wearable and Beautiful
The most perfectly environmentally sustainable flat in the world is useless if no one wants to wear it. And as I mentioned earlier, footwear cannot be recycled into new footwear at the end of its life, so we want our shoes to last a really long time. That means they need to be design forward and comfortable, too.
My Top Picks for More Sustainable and Ethical Flats
Keeping all of that in mind, these more sustainable flats brands meet this criteria, albeit to various extents. Some err more on comfort while some more on style. Some have admirable levels of transparency and social impact, while other brands have more of a focus on their ecological impact. I’ve included descriptions alongside each brand as well as a summary of conscious qualities so you can find a brand that meets your priorities best. And, of course, a price range so you know what makes sense for your budget as well.
Some that this guide includes affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you shop through these links. As always, brands featured in shopping guides are brands that meet our strict sustainability criteria that we think you’ll love.
1. ALOHAS
Spanish brand ALOHAS flips the typical fashion production system on its head with its on-demand model.
Instead of overproducing thousands of shoes to later discount them, ALOHAS does the exact opposite. Its newest styles are available for pre-order at a discount of 30%, so the footwear brand can more accurately forecast demand. Then the shoes — like their flats — are primarily made by local artisans in Spain and Portugal. The brand regularly shows the behind the scenes of their production on their social media.
Conscious Qualities: On-Demand Production, Locally Made
Size Range: EU 35-42 (US 5-11)
Price Range: $195-$225
2. Rothy’s
If you’re looking for flats for all-day wear at work or running errands, Rothy’s is my recommendation with their cushy insoles. The brand makes their more sustainable flats from recycled plastic bottles, as well as materials like hemp and merino wool, but they still look sleek enough for the office.
While I might not wear Rothy’s flats to a fashion event (I prefer smooth leather for more elevated occasions), they are more than stylish enough to wear to most of my real-life scenarios. My favorite part about Rothy’s, though, is that they are machine washable.
Materials: Recycled & Natural Materials, Owns One Factory (undisclosed percentage of production)
Size Range: US 5-13
Price Range: $99-$165
3. Vivaia
Vivaia has the most adorable sustainable Mary Janes made from recycled plastic bottles. The adjustable straps and arch support make Vivaia’s Mary Janes suitable for all-day comfort, even if your feet are typically prone to slipping out of flats.
This vegan footwear brand also makes square-toe and pointed-toe flats for a more elevated look. And of the several recycled plastic bottle footwear brands on the market today, Vivaia tends to have the most elevated designs in my opinion.
Conscious Qualities: Vegan, Recycled Materials
Size Range: US 5-11
Price: $97 – $116
4. The RealReal
The RealReal is an authenticated luxury resale platform with contemporary, designer, and high-end luxury brands. Depending on your priorities you can find shoes in anywhere from pristine condition (but higher priced)) to “fair” or even “as is” for the largest discount from full price.
You don’t always have as many options aesthetically when shopping more sustainably, so I like to go to The RealReal when I’m looking for specific styles. I was recently looking for Mary Janes with feminine detailing and came across Larroude Flats on The RealReal, where I purchased a pair of neutral scalloped accent flats. (Pictured here!)
Conscious Qualities: Secondhand
Size Range: US 3.5-14
Price Range: $9+
5. ESSĒN
ESSĒN elegant, minimalist footwear is artisan handcrafted from Leather Working Group-certified leather in solar-powered facilities in Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Each shoe also comes with a product passport where you can view the step-by-step journey that product took through the brand’s supply chain from raw material to manufacturing to packaging and distribution.
Beyond transparency and responsible manufacturing, ESSĒN’s slow fashion business model prevents overproduction by operating on a made to order basis. Meaning while sizes and styles are predefined, the shoes are only produced after they’ve been ordered.
Conscious Qualities: LWG Certified, Supply Chain Transparency, On Demand Production
Size Range: EU 35-44 (US 4-13)
Price Range: $295-$450
6. Allbirds
Another comfort-first footwear option besides Rothy’s is Allbirds. The brand creates lightweight, super smooth and breathable flats from tree fibers, aptly called “Tree Breezers”. The (washable) shoes are also soft enough to wear without socks.
The Allbirds Tree Breezers are far more comfortable than typical flats, though I find that the Rothy’s are slightly comfier.
Conscious Qualities: Natural materials (FSC-Certified eucalyptus, castor mean oil, sugarcane EVA)
Size Range: US 5-11
Price Range: $105-$125
7. Darzah
Fair trade certified by Fair Trade Federation, Darzah’s ethical flats are entirely hand-embroidered and handcrafted in Palestine from locally sourced leather.
The tatreez flats from this nonprofit are embroidered by refugee and low-income women artisans in the West Bank with this traditional Palestinian techniques.
Conscious Qualities: Sustains Heritage Crafts, Fair Trade Certified
Size Range: EU 36-41 (US 6-10)
Price Range: $199 – $209
8. Nisolo
If you’re seeking a quality pair of classic leather flats ideal for your capsule wardrobe, Nisolo is a strong pick. Nisolo’s flats are handcrafted by artisans using leather sourced from a Leather Working Group certified tannery.
I’ve been wearing my Nisolo shoes for many years and can attest to their quality and durability.
That said, the brand has recently turned over to new ownership and now has significantly less information about their sustainability and ethics in their supply chain. I will be keeping a close eye on this brand to see if it continues to uphold the values Nisolo has long held.
Conscious Qualities: LWG-Certified, Artisan Handcrafted
Size Range: US 5-11
Price: $138 – $198
For More Slow Fashion Content:
You May Also Want to Check Out:
The Best Affordable Ethical Fashion Brands
Responsibly Made Vegan Shoe Brands
15 Brands with Ethical Boots to Rock this Fall (and Beyond)
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