Work Remotely from the Global South as a Climate Communications Officer at GAIA: Apply Now!!

Full Time , Location: Remote, ideally located in a Global South country near other GAIA teams (Remote)

GAIA seeks a creative, collaborative, and nimble Climate Communications Officer (CCO) for the Global Climate Team. This position will play a pivotal role in GAIA’s work to uplift zero waste systems as a major climate solution, while supporting our members’ communications about their zero waste campaigns and implementation models as climate champions. 

ABOUT GAIA

GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 1000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organisations, and individuals in over 90 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, zero waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped.  We recognize that our planet’s finite resources, fragile biosphere, and the health of people and other living beings are endangered by polluting and inefficient production practices, and health-threatening disposal methods. Because of this, we oppose incinerators, landfills, and other end-of-pipe interventions. Our goal is clean production and the creation of a closed-loop, materials-efficient economy where all products are reused, repaired, or recycled.

ABOUT THE ROLE

GAIA’s Climate Communications Officer (CCO) will support the development and implementation of GAIA’s Global Climate Program as part of the GAIA Global Climate Team, and will report directly to the Climate Program Director. 

The Global Climate Program is focused on campaigns around methane and organics management, zero waste, and fighting waste-to-energy; aimed at international financial institutions, carbon markets, or other international sources of climate finance; policy advocacy at the UNFCCC and other key international fora; and narrative-shifting among the general public or specialists and academics.

The CCO will support the strategic growth of the program in a rapidly-changing policy environment, moving forward the programmatic work while being responsive to new opportunities and threats. At GAIA, all work is collaborative in nature, and the CCO will support and eventually lead processes to ensure consultation and integration with other global support team staff, regional teams, and members. The CCO must be an effective organizer,  networker and communicator, skilled in climate policy communications from a movement-building perspective. 

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

This position is responsible for developing and executing high-impact communications to uplift the work of GAIA and our members. Balancing the needs of grassroots members with our policy goals as an organization, the CCO will create messages and assets that center frontline organizers in narratives about solving the climate crisis and combating the misleading messages of waste and fossil fuel industries. 

The role requires working with both internal and external stakeholders, including grassroots organizers, technical consultants, scientists, and GAIA staff and leadership, who have varying levels of comfort and familiarity with communications campaigns. Successful applicants will demonstrate an ability to adapt messaging to a variety of audiences, from mainstream media to industry publications, legislators, municipal agencies, movement allies, and our member network. They will also show facility in translating highly technical reports into approachable language, as well as identifying grassroots campaigns and victories that will resonate with broad audiences and move people to action. 

A limited but crucial element of the role is serving as a member of our global communications team, where regional and global communications staff collaborate to amplify regional work and identify cross-regional communications alignments, as well as with GAIA’s global communications staff, who coordinate cross-regional communications across programs. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Support the development and execution of an integrated communications strategy focused on shifting the narrative on waste and climate at the global level.
  • Implement a work plan that builds and connects the stories of GAIA’s program work across the waste space to engage a variety of audiences to uplift movement work.
  • Manage and develop content from various regions on climate and waste topics.
  • Foster new media relationships and build GAIA members’ capacities as media spokespeople.
  • Monitor the media landscape for rapid-response opportunities, highlight trends in climate media that may be relevant for the GAIA Climate Program, and  create responsive media strategies and messaging. 
  • Grow GAIA’s Global Climate online presence through social media platform management, marketing, and analytics.
  • Represent GAIA in other communications spaces, and in relationship-building with communications staff in allied organizations    
• Develop communications plans for report releases, including creation of press kits, press releases, and social media guides
  • Play a key role in building a communications strategy based on programmatic goals and key audiences
  • Write, edit, and produce communications materials for GAIA’s report releases, including being responsible for  layout for fact sheets and other collateral; drafting press releases and op-eds, executing media outreach; creating blog posts, photo essays, memes, infographics, and other communications collateral. On occasion, oversee consultants to produce these materials.
  • Deliver materials to allied organizations and movement spaces to amplify GAIA’s work.
• Coordinate GAIA communications for GAIA delegations in global policy spaces such as UNFCCC COP and other similar conferences.
  • Being the main responsible person leading the communications for the GAIA delegation at UNFCCC COPs including overseeing the overall agenda of events; being responsible for the coordination of specific events; elaboration, delivery and dissemination of promotional materials leveraging the visibility of the GAIA delegates (including coordination with GAIA regional and global comms teams offsite); support the elaboration of presentations; coordinate the provision of printed materials and coordinate and execute media outreach around COP. 
  • Facilitating linkages to other communication teams from other environmental groups, as well as to experts/sister advocates. 
• Support GAIA’s regional communications staff and regional member organizations by providing communications support, as needed.
  • Regularly consult with GAIA’s regional communications staff and organizational members on messaging and narrative development.
  • Recruit and train GAIA members to serve as spokespersons for the movement.
  • Provide communications support to GAIA members, as needed.
  • Coordinate rapid-response moments with members and staff 
  • Oversee consultant work and manage communications project budgets.

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS:

• 2-3 years of experience preferred in strategic communications, science communications, journalism, or a related field
• Strong writing and communications skills, including the ability to translate technical information into powerful messages that resonate with organizers, movement allies, and the media.
• Demonstrated ability to secure earned and traditional media and an understanding of the climate media landscape.
• Demonstrated ability to distill stories and other content into short copy for a social media audience.
• Experience working as part of a team to integrate and deliver web content and/or social media results as part of a larger integrated campaign strategy, and familiarity with online audience-building tools

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STRONGLY PREFERRED SKILLS:

• Spanish language skills.
• Existing relationships with journalists who cover climate and justice issues.
• Experience in global climate communications, particularly in spaces like the UNFCCC COP
• Experience working with database management and online forum software, such as Salesforce and Asana, and G-Suite platforms.
• Personable and enjoys interacting with people from different places.
• Willingness to travel domestically is required, with 3-5  trips per year. 
• Strong interpersonal communication skills. Good listener.
• Familiarity with waste, pollution, and climate issues.
• Corporate campaign experience is a plus.
• Systematic and goal-oriented – in it to win it!
• Basic photo/image editing and graphic design skills, using Adobe, Canva or a similar platform(s), primarily centering around digital communications strategy development.
• Familiarity with at least one content management system (e.g. WordPress).

COMPENSATION, LOCATION, AND WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Competitive compensation based on location and experience.
• This position will be based remotely, ideally located in a Global South country near other GAIA teams, such as The Philippines, Indonesia, India, South Africa, Ghana, Chile, Argentina, and others. 
• This position will require international travel for external events, team retreats, etc.
• Full COVID-19 vaccination is required for GAIA team members who travel and attend in-person meetings for GAIA.
• Work is performed both independently and collaboratively. Work is performed on a computer, requires almost constant use of a keyboard, mouse, or other pointing device and may be performed sitting or standing.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

We are committed to equal employment opportunity principles and providing all employees with a safe work environment free from discrimination and harassment. We welcome you regardless of your race, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, age, physical ability, nationality, or any other status unrelated to the performance of the job and protected by law. GAIA practices affirmative action, and candidates from historically disadvantaged or marginalized groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

TO APPLY

If this sounds like a good fit for you, submit your resume, cover letter, and 1-2 relevant links to writing samples through this link here

You can submit website links to your writing samples, for example a link to a news article you wrote or Google document link. This position will be open until filled; applications will be reviewed as they are received, and the first round of interviews will commence quickly.