Saad Amer
Saad Amer @saadamer, is a renowned climate activist and the Founder of Justice Environment. A social impact consultancy that helps businesses, governments and nonprofits navigate climate change and sustainability. Saad Amer has served as a consultant to the UN, discovered a new hybrid species in French Polynesia, and co-created Harvard University’s inaugural Sustainability Plan.
IRK: Saad tell us your “Why”
Saad: I started my environmental activism in my first year in high school. Where we helped to establish a 100 acre land preserve in New York. I created a local organization around the preserve and brought thousands of students out to learn about climate change and conservation. While making films about the importance of the environment. I studied Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard. When I was a student, I toured factories in Pakistan. Learning how harsh, working conditions are and how people in the West create global supply chains. That extract profit from these communities, leaving them with pollution, waste and the consequences of climate change. The climate injustice of the situation was tangible, and I knew things had to change.
When I graduated I moved to India. Where I was researching the impacts of climate change on rural villages in the Himalayas. Many of these villages were without clean water or electricity, struggling with subsistence agriculture as their climate was changing.
I am a climate justice activist. I believe it is essential to center a just transition as we deal with the realities of the climate crisis. The work must be intersectional, and we must work in addressing inequities as we address the climate crisis.
IRK: What are you most passionate about with respect to taking care of people and the planet?
Saad: My work centers environmental justice. It is essential that those communities bearing the brunt of the costs from the climate crisis have a say in addressing it. And are able to benefit from a just transition.
I launched Justice Environment, a social impact consultancy. Focused on climate change, sustainability and the just transition to deal with this exact question. Companies are facing issues with both diversity and sustainability. They intersect at environmental justice, and need to understand that the negative impacts of their environmental and social governance operations.
I believe that when we create community and mobilize people, push companies to shift their practices, and force governments to pass policy. We can fundamentally shift the direction of our society for the better.
IRK: What are some conscious actions you implement in your daily life?
Saad: It is essential that we go beyond individual action. Fight for systemic changes to address the larger environmental costs of our society. That being said, our society is composed of individuals and we must all take action to push culture and our planet forward. The most impactful action is to vote, and to mobilize to ensure others are voting, too. When we mobilize on mass, we can elect politicians who can pass policy to fundamentally transform our society for the better.
IRK: What’s Saad Amer’s hope for the future of the planet?
Saad: We will face the climate crisis no matter what. The question lies in if we have the will to take action before things become more dire. Or if we will wait for people to suffer on a larger and larger scale. My hope for the future rests in the people of this planet. I know we can organize and take action. I know we can protect our planet, because it is the only way to save ourselves.
What Sustainable Development Goal do you align with the most? https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Saad: SDG 13: Climate Action
