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Katelyn Prendiville can’t quite pinpoint the moment she fell in love with riding horses, but there are photos of her, aged two, proudly sitting atop ponies on her grandparents’ farm. By the time she reached her teens, the Perth native was regularly competing in equestrian contests around the country, with dreams of riding at the Olympics.
When she wasn’t on horseback, Katelyn was busy being an “outdoors kid”. She vividly recalls a childhood spent on family camping trips, snorkelling on vibrant coral reefs, swimming in freshwater gorges and running barefoot through the red dirt of the Kimberley coast.
“I’ve always had a strong appreciation for the beautiful yet chaotic and delicate order of the natural world,” she shares.
The climate penny drops
By 2019, alongside a burgeoning marketing career, Katelyn was running an e-commerce equestrian apparel business when she describes a “niggling feeling” that something wasn’t right. She had started to engage on climate topics in a desire to make her start-up more sustainable, when the penny dropped.
“I began to realise the scale and complexity of the problem, and how ineffectively it was being addressed,” she says. “My years working in marketing prior to that had shown me the power of comms and storytelling in driving change, and it felt like none of these strategies were being used by the climate movement at the time.”
She knew she had to make a change. “My work in the sustainability space feels less like a passion and more like a calling,” she explains.
A life (and climate) changing pivot
Katelyn had to overcome a healthy dose of “imposter syndrome” before making such a big career shift, but there was a clear tipping point in her journey. ”It’s easy to feel a sense of ‘that’s not my job’ and be overwhelmed by the lingo, particularly in the world of corporate sustainability,” she says. “Then I realised that I didn’t need to be perfect to work on climate, and in fact that's not possible. I knew I could learn what I needed, and that I actually had unique skills and passions to bring to the space.”
So, just like that, Katelyn’s whole life pivoted.
“I decided I wanted to use my background in marketing and appealing to people’s hearts and minds, to work on this broader socio-cultural change”. Identifying the corporate world as a space with a huge amount of economic power and scope to shift narratives, she started a stint in corporate sustainability consulting.
From imposter syndrome to SeedCulture
Taking learnings from her consulting work, Katelyn soon co-founded SeedCulture, a company focused on the challenge of making sustainability part of everybody’s job (sound familiar?). How exactly? “We created a gamified software tool that upskills and engages employees to integrate sustainability into their daily decision making, no matter their current role or function,” she explains. “The approach lends heavily on behavioural science, integrating strategies such as social norming and gamification with the aim of making sustainability a core part of company cultures.”
"I realised that I didn’t need to be perfect to work on climate"
Why don’t you write a book about it?
Katelyn learned so much over this journey, she even wrote a book about it. Yes, a book! The Climate Mindset Manifesto captures what she has learned in her time working in both corporate sustainability consulting and immersed in the world of climate tech. “We need transformative solutions that work for the many, not just the few,” she says. “And that means looking at how every person makes choices, has conversations, and makes commitments within the systems that we operate in.”
Working for Climate
The next step on Katelyn’s journey has brought her to WorkforClimate. Stepping into our Head of Experience role while Laure Legros is on parental leave, Katelyn is focused on supporting and activating the amazing change-making employees in the WorkforClimate ecosystem. “I’m engaging corporate professionals who want to drive change but don’t know how or where to start, providing them with the tools and motivation to unlock the biggest impact they can, in the areas that matter the most.”
Finding the climate connection
Across her journey, Katelyn has learned that so much of how we relate to the climate crisis is about connection: How we connect to nature, ourselves, each other, and to our role in the broader world.
“If I’m feeling low on motivation, something that always pulls me back is to think about how my future ancestors will look back on the work I did or didn’t do,” she says. “By transforming our economies and societies to tackle climate change, life will be so much better for humans, animals and all living creatures for the rest of time. If that’s not an inspiring thought, I don’t know what is.”
With such an incredible and varied path so far, what is Katelyn’s advice for budding climate intrapreneurs? “Anyone can be an activist, all you need is to be active,” she says. “Whether that’s having a conversation with friends and family, the decisions you make at work, the way you engage as a citizen. Action begets action, and if you can tap into your own unique strengths, roles, and passions in this action, it will ripple out in the most incredible and lasting ways.”
Want to make sustainability a part of your job and start on your journey to becoming a climate intrapreneur? The WorkforClimate Academy gives you the tools and space to take climate action in the workplace, no matter what your job title. Head here to register for the next cohort.
