What if saving the planet means first saving the people who are fighting to protect it?
Breaking Point to Turning Point
In 2022, the climate and environmental movement faced an urgent but largely unspoken crisis: the devastating toll of burnout on the passionate individuals fighting for a habitable planet.
While public discourse centered on carbon footprints and renewable energy targets, those on the front lines — particularly individuals from communities of color — were experiencing toxic work conditions that led to exhaustion, disillusionment, and, in tragic cases, even death.
Tamara Toles O’Laughlin and the team at Climate Critical, a community dedicated to addressing climate change, recognized this profound multigenerational challenge and sought a new perspective.
Climate Critical turned to Third Plateau to conduct groundbreaking research that would shift focus from environmental metrics to the well-being of environmental workers themselves, creating the first comprehensive study of its kind on burnout in the climate sector.
Understanding the Human Cost of Climate Work
Climate Critical sought to illuminate the emotional and psychological realities facing climate workers while developing actionable solutions for organizations across the sector. This required navigating significant complexity:
- Creating trauma-informed research methods that would not further harm a community already experiencing burnout
- Building trust across 108 organizations, groups, and foundations in a sector unaccustomed to discussing mental health and workplace culture
- Elevating marginalized voices and centering the experiences of workers from communities of color who face compounded challenges
- Translating lived experiences into practical organizational strategies that employers could implement
Together, these needs defined the research, methodological, and cultural challenges that made this study both essential and unprecedented.
This groundbreaking research became the first comprehensive study of burnout in the climate sector. Earning a 2024 Anthem Award, the report established new language, norms, and practices for a movement in urgent need of transformation.
A Community-Centered, Empathetic Research Approach
Third Plateau designed a comprehensive, multi-phase research process that prioritized community voice, psychological safety, and actionable insights. Leveraging decades of sector relationships, our researchers deployed a Burnout Assessment Tool through carefully crafted surveys and organized focus groups specifically designed to avoid re-traumatizing participants.
The methodology combined quantitative assessment with qualitative depth: participants shared stories of lived experiences and hard truths while maintaining agency to interpret their experiences and form solutions. Throughout the process, we emphasized empathy, dignity, and sense-making, creating space for climate workers to be heard on their own terms. This trauma-informed approach ensured the research would both document the crisis and empower the community to chart its own pathway forward.
A Vital Resource for a Movement in Crisis
The engagement culminated in the Climate Burnout Report, a 2024 Anthem Award-winning resource that provides a comprehensive analysis of burnout triggers, conditions, recovery mechanisms, and barriers to support within the climate workforce.
The report establishes crucial language, norms, and practices for addressing the emotional costs borne by environmental workers. It delivers evidence-based strategies for organizations, activists, and policymakers to prioritize worker well-being while maintaining the strength, resilience, and solidarity the movement requires.
By centering community voices and providing actionable guidance, the research enables employers to take critical steps to mitigate burnout drivers, particularly for workers from marginalized backgrounds. The report makes clear that achieving environmental goals cannot come at the cost of those working tirelessly to make them a reality.
Ultimately, this partnership equipped the climate movement with an essential framework for building a sustainable, compassionate, and effective path forward — one that honors both the planet and the people fighting to save it.
Does your organization need research that centers community voice and drives systemic change? Reach out to start the conversation.
