Re:WIRED GREEN 2022: WIRED editor, Hemal Jhaveri chats with Regina Hall and Sarah Shanley Hope on Combating Climate Change at Home

Thank Matt, I told him that when I got out here,

I would tell him he is one of the three best MCs

we have had all day, which I appreciate.

I'm so excited to be in conversation

with Sarah Shanley Hope and Regina Hall

from The Solutions Project.

It's gonna be a great conversation.

We're super excited.

Sarah Shaley Hope is the VP of Narrative Strategies

at The Solutions Project where she also spent seven years

as the organization's first executive director.

In addition to The Solutions Project,

she has 20 years of experience in brand strategy,

philanthropy, and social change.

And under her leadership,

the organization has launched award-winning climate

and equity funds and work diligently

towards climate justice solutions.

Of course, also, Regina Hall, I would like to introduce,

she's an actor and producer.

You may know Regina from Her Star Turns and Girls Trip,

The Best Man, Scary Movie,

and as co-host of this year's Oscars.

She can currently be seen in her in a dark comedy,

Honk for Jesus Save Your Soul.

In addition to her award-winning, acting and producing work,

I know she does a lot.

She's deeply committed philanthropists and creative partner

for The Solutions Project

working towards climate justice.

So please help me welcome two very impressive women

to the stage. [applause]

[upbeat music]

Hi, well welcome.

I'm so excited that we're finally doing this.

Thank you. Yes.

Nice to be back in person with everyone.

Yes, post Covid.

It is really lovely to see everybody's bright shining faces.

Well first of all, Sarah,

I was hoping you could just tell us a little bit

about The Solutions Project.

Of course, thank you.

So The Solutions Project we fund and amplify Grassroots

Climate Justice Solutions.

So basically, you know,

you all heard Doria Robinson speak earlier today.

[applause] She's one of our partners.

You'll hear Colette Pichon Battle shortly after us.

And The Solutions Project moves money, media,

and momentum behind the innovations and solutions

and strategies of hundreds now grassroots leaders

all across the country.

That's awesome.

And Regina, can you tell a little bit

about your involvement with the organization?

Well, I was actually introduced to Sarah

through my co-star actually Don Cheto.

And he's a big climate justice advocate.

And it's been really exciting.

I have learned so much.

I've learned about so many women who are at the frontline

of their own communities creating solutions,

solutions projects involvement

with helping people find resources, find information.

I've been able to interact and create with them,

be a creative partner and also a donor,

which you all are able to do as well.

Solutions projects, donating is a big part

because as with many things,

money is how we are able to help communities

in need help themselves.

So there's so much good work that happens

at The Solutions Project,

and one of the key parts of that is reframing the story

around climate change.

So much narrative around climate change,

it's really about is, can be frustratingly abstract

and we're focusing on the global scale

at the expense of direct impact

on frontline communities.

And so The Solutions Project really works to work

with those frontline communities who are experiencing

those effects first now.

It's not a problem for the future,

but a problem of now that disproportionately affects black,

brown, and indigenous communities

so like, with this perspective, my really like big question

for you is like with your work with these communities,

how do we get to a future that we want to?

I mean, I think the first principle

is just understanding that the people closest

to the problems are also the first of the solutions.

And in our country and the world,

as you think about compounding problems,

compounding crises and you know,

the consequences of racialized capitalism,

you're solving multiple problems at once.

And so in community building, community, you know,

a solar panel or a renewable energy

as a climate solution

is also being like seen as a good job creation strategy

as something to bring about more positive health

in the community.

And so those like intersectional.

Saves you money. Yes, and saves you money

Saves you money.

Exactly. Yeah.

And so I think that's the opportunity that we have

is to see the multi solving that's happening

at the front lines of the crisis.

Affordable housing.

Yeah.

You know, lowering utility bills with energy efficiency.

Yeah, and you know, if you have children,

if you have a family, you're doing laundry

several times a week and you know,

as things change, inflation, utility bills go up,

gas prices go up as we see.

And so when you have alternatives that are out there

and they're existing and that you can also tap

into resources in the government, right?

And you can also see if you can get help

with some of those solutions,

and then you can reap some of

the financial rewards that can help people

have a little bit ease in their own lives.

And I think that's a big

like misconception Right.

In the climate movement is, you know,

that communities are waiting for others to come.

Yeah. And again,

as you heard from Doria that is not the case.

You know, folks in Richmond are figuring out, okay,

what do we have and what can we build towards?

And again, at the neighborhood level,

solving these problems in ways that then build power

and actually organized to transform state policy.

Now federal policy, the Justice 40 initiative,

the Inflation Reduction Act, we had a big win

with the death of the side, you know,

the dirty side bill yesterday. Yeah.

A real victory of the climate justice movement.

So you see that kind of local to national scale.

I think we're used to thinking about it

as trickle down, right?

Like we're used to thinking about it

from the policy level. Yeah.

And then it trickles down to us.

But this is really inverting that pyramid

and really pointing out that these solutions

are actually happening

on the ground... Yeah.

With some really vulnerable communities

who are taking the lead.

And it's about reframing that narrative as well.

I want to, you've actually said a couple of things

and I wanna back up to those,

but the first really

is that small solutions have big impact.

That is something that I think we don't think enough

about with this.

So what you just said earlier

and when we had chatted earlier,

we also said that no community

is waiting for people to save them.

Yeah. And that you focus

on solution areas.

Am I saying that right? Yes.

I would love to hear a little bit about some of the most

inspiring stories that you have with The Solutions Project.

Like some of your grantees.

Well, we have some photos.

I forgot to bring the clicker out with me,

but if it's possible to start,

so this is in the... Oh, they're down here.

This is in the middle here, but oh, great.

So this is incredible story.

This is an organization Solidarity

in Highland Park, Michigan.

And again, like you don't wanna gloss

over the problem because it's egregious.

This is a community, you know,

mostly black working class, lower income

where the city went bankrupt,

the city of Highland Park went bankrupt and they privatized

the street lights and then they were repossessed.

So you literally go around... Wow.

This community and you see the stumps,

the cement where they've removed the lights again,

not waiting for somebody else to come save it.

Solidarity the community organized,

they figured out what's the technology

that is gonna be affordable. Yes.

That's gonna, you know,

be something that we can... Yeah.

Bring in... To the community.

And that'll bring us even,

better than we have before.

So they partnered with a company, they were able to,

these are solar powered wifi enabled street lights.

This is many years ago, this is seven years ago.

And now they actually,

they want a campaign for the community to have control over

the whole Highland Park, you know, street city lights.

I just wanna say the reason it's so exciting

is so often we feel like everything

is out of our hands. Yeah.

And it is just, it is so empowering

and hopeful when you see communities who say, you know what?

This has happened.

We can take the power back in our hands and we can literally

help our community financially, but also have streetlights.

Yeah. Things that seem so like,

oh, what are we gonna do?

They did A, B and C, I mean,

I love when I see stories because they're like this

and people like this 'cause it's triumphant

and it is where it is.

It's where I feel like I'm so proud to be connected

with The Solutions Project because that's, I mean,

that's why the name is so fitting.

It really is about solutions and not just,

not exclusively solutions for government, but for us, yeah.

And solutions that have incredibly

direct impact on people's lives.

Yes. By installing street lights

you have improved safety, Yes.

Wellbeing... Yes.

Health, overall function.

Yeah.

Getting back to the power here of storytelling,

I want to address how we narrative,

like how we frame climate stories in the media.

But with your work in The Solutions Project,

Regina, you specifically,

what have you found like proved most effective

in helping share stories of kind of climate justice

and social justice?

I don't know.

I think for me it's really important in,

when I think of stories to make the stories really human

to show how they impact us every single day.

I mean, I know when I worked with Solutions Project,

we did a Woman's Crush Wednesday or is it...

More than a year? Yeah, for more than a year.

And it was exciting for me to just see all of these amazing

women and to be able to highlight

what they were doing in their communities,

but to see how many people did not know...

Yeah. Yeah.

What that was going on.

And so it's happening, but what,

how much more can we have it?

How much more can we help if we increased the resources?

Yeah. That these people

who are out here doing it,

they don't get the same amount of funding and help.

I mean, Sarah knows more about this than me,

but they certainly don't get the same quantitative help...

Right. That other places do.

But like, how can we empower them,

be able to help them invest more in their community

and let people like everyone here

know how they can do that as well.

Because it's not an isolated incident ever.

Like we really can all take charge

and that's probably the biggest thing the human,

not just result, but like what we can,

the human activity that we can be involved in.

Yeah, we often say humans are the heroes,

the technology are the tools that help us win.

And so I think that's something, you know,

you can go back and or forward on the photos here

to see some of these other stories.

But here's from Urban Tilth in Richmond,

we did I think 18 months every single week amplified

a black woman leading in climate

on Regina's social channels and...

And it's returning.

Yes. Yay!

And you know, in philanthropy and climate, philanthropy,

like less than 1% of funding actually goes.

[laughing] I know. I, yeah.

And really,

the thing about like reshaping the narrative

and reframing the narrative

is that so much when we think about

the funding for climate change

and we think about people who are on the forefront,

they end up being kind of obscure male,

you know, tech figures maybe.

But we are not great at elevating the stories.

And I mean, we as in terms of like media,

we are not great at elevating the stories

of like frontline communities directly impacting

the people around them and their families.

This is the second part of The Solutions Projects works.

So we do the Grassroots grant making

and then we focus on media and storytelling.

So, you know, you can't be what you can't see.

And so bringing these stories into the media

is a huge part of our work.

And, you know, we do this annual media tracker.

We research the media narrative in news coverage

in the United States.

And when we started the research in 2018,

less than 2% of clean energy articles

even referenced a community of color.

Now, you know, and of course the 2020 Racial Reckoning.

Yeah. And the movement

for Black Lives was a huge force in this change,

but now it's like 30%... Yeah.

Of clean energy.

So what can we be doing to change the victim narrative?

We chatted a little bit earlier and some of it

is like when we see pictures of communities suffering

from climate change, they're always communities of color,

but they're never like shown in empowering ways.

Like what can we do to change the victim narrative

that kind of is perpetuated

and where are the gaps in media coverage?

Well, I always think about, you know,

there's what we can do

and then there's what we can do, right?

And so one of the things we can do

is we have midterms in November,

we can vote and we can vote for a government that supports

what we believe in.

And that's climate justice for all communities.

That's the first thing and then for others,

those who are able to give really should give

and Solutions Project is amazing.

You can always donate to thesolutionsproject.org

or follow @100isnow,

and then there's also people

individually they can go and actually get grants right

from the government cleanenergy.gov

where they can see what they can do,

what funds or what funding

is out there for their own communities.

And those are ways that, you know,

we can become certainly more active in our own lives

and then in our own communities and...

Yeah, and I think media covering that.

Yeah. Like this transition

is happening, the solutions are here.

Yep. There's abundance.

Yes.

I loved hearing the story earlier

in Richmond, California,

this abundance that grew from community

and from the North Richmond farm and...

And isn't Doria running? Yep.

That's right.

And Doria is running for office.

So, you know... Richmond City Council.

When we have people that are active on the frontlines

who are out there running for office.

That's why voting is important.

Let's make sure that we support people

who are not just talking about change,

but are being the change. Yeah.

And checking our assumptions, right?

About who's innovating,

about who's leading, about who is, yeah.

Ready to serve in government.

And like you said,

it is a lot of women of color who kind of quietly are doing

the work that don't get the attention

and hence don't get the money.

Yeah. Yeah.

And that's what it boils down to.

To shift gears just for a second,

I do want to address very quickly,

we had chatted earlier

and one thing that really struck out to me

is that you talked about climate solutions

as self and community care.

I was really like,

I was really moved by it and helped me reframe it

because it was less about punitive action

or less about kind of a punishing doom

and gloom look at climate change.

But really that caring for the environment

is really about caring for yourself.

And I know, Regina, you have some thoughts on that.

I mean, I do, I mean, I certainly

don't have statistics off of the top of my head

and I wish I did, but it,

you know, literally when you think about,

for example, eating red meat twice a week

instead of every single day.

I mean, you would be surprised at how less land you need,

how fewer cows you need, how much water that that saves.

But that's also a direct,

indirect relation to your blood pressure and you know,

maybe the high cholesterol and you know, those, you know...

In your sleep... And your sleep.

And there's certain things,

you know, in our communities, health issues,

there's also in terms of well we know

what using electric cars does to the environment, right?

Emissions, there's, I got more.

There's, I get so excited actually when I hear about.

Well even gardening, I mean,

how many of us have become plant moms?

Yeah, yeah, and even gardening.

What that does in terms of not having artificial flavors

and things and pesticides

in your own body genetically modified.

It's like a direct, it's indirect relationship

to personal health.

And so it's kind of like you save mother nature,

you save yourself.

Yes, yes.

And this is a great example here from the Good Life Gardens

in Brooklyn, New York,

another one of our grantee partners, you know,

this is a space where they're growing great food

for the community.

They're educating the community.

There's incredible artists and musicians that live

in the neighborhood and they're doing concerts.

And so there's this joyful experience in climate solutions.

And I just... Yeah

I always just say, this is where we were, you know,

this isn't new.

Yeah. Yes.

This is what we did.

You know, like, we really lived off the earth.

Like there's so much many nutrients in our soil.

Our soil is not as nutrient rich.

No. And so that's a big thing.

So we really have to get back to getting literally healthy

soil that helps health,

that has so many benefits to just literally digestion.

You know, you have people suffering

from digestion that's like,

there's so much good bacteria that used to be in soil.

I'm like obsessed with soil, with bacteria and dirt.

That's why when kids eat dirt, they didn't get sick.

Right. There's actually

a lot of healthy bacteria in dirt.

Don't go eating dirt said Regina.

'Cause this will turn Regina Hall said Eat Dirt.

I'm not saying eat dirt.

I'm saying that nutrient rich soil is very important.

Stick your toes in the dirt.

Stick your hands in the dirt.

Time for a big spoonful, but it really is a,

like I said, reframing of problems but really as solutions,

less about scarcity and punitive actions,

but more about empowerment, stepping into yourself,

stepping into your power,

and then realizing that climate justice is not separate

from social justice, it's not separate from, you know,

racial justice, gender equality.

It's all linked together. Yeah.

I wanted to ask you a little bit

about philanthropy in terms of like,

you have a small organization

and you give grants to small communities

and my understanding is that there actually,

you know, would be like,

the money comparatively is very tiny,

but it has a big impact.

What do you think is broken in the system of philanthropy?

Ooh. [laughing]

I think, you know, our CEO, Gloria Walton, who you know,

was an inaugural grantee partner of The Solutions Project

down in Compton in South Central Los Angeles

and came in to the organization exactly two years ago

to run the organization.

She brings forward this framework of like moving away

from charity, which again is this very presumptive approach

to philanthropy that like you can parachute in

and you've got the answers

that other people are just waiting for.

And shifting that, you know,

beyond just trust based philanthropy to actual solidarity,

you know, showing up in relationship and understanding.

It's like, okay, what can I bring to the table?

You know, what is Regina and Don

like bringing in terms of your life experience,

your storytelling capacity, the spotlight and the platform

that you offer into community in service,

Right. Of the innovations

and the solutions that are only gonna

come again from the folks

that are living closest to the problems.

Do you, Regina, did you?

Oh, I mean, yeah, of course.

I mean obviously you and it,

it's right when you are in a community that's literally,

you know, you are living on the front lines

of the issues that other people don't necessarily

have to think about.

You see how it impacts your family,

your health, your life...

Right. And so in some,

instead of someone just telling you

this is what you should do

you know, it's allowing and encouraging people

to just like we talked about with the street lights,

encouraging people to find those solutions.

And that's always gonna be better, right?

Yeah. Because just even

how you're able to communicate with that community

is different, you know?

And how you're able to impress upon the need for change

that activates people.

And I think the biggest thing

about all of this is activating people, you know, not just,

I mean obviously we have to activate businesses,

but you know, like we have to,

you know, activate communities.

And I think when that's activated then those communities

are like, and now we're gonna act, you know,

we activate government...

Yeah. Yes.

So we choose and it's kinda, you know.

Exactly.

And that's why I think the solidarity approach

in philanthropy is so important as a shift is it actually

is the greatest impact.

That's how you scale.

It's not trickled down, it's ground up.

Yeah, like and that again is like,

we have to invert that pyramid of money coming down

from the bottom.

I mean, that being said,

I think you did mention that The Solutions Project

has some exciting news... Yes.

Yeah. Yes.

That, it's been, it's good news.

It is. And it's, again it's

how we show up in solidarity

with our frontline green tea partners.

We're making $3 million in new grants right now.

Wow. For frontline innovation

and disaster response, in technology implementation,

in green industry and good green job creation.

The innovations, we have 16 solutions areas

that we support and hundreds of organizations

that you can see.

We have a map.

So you can find organizations in your community

at thesolutionsproject.org.

That's great.

Well thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you. [applause]

I really appreciate this.

We didn't thank Mark.

We do.

Yeah, we have to just thank Mark Ruffalo, too, right?

That's true, he's a co-founder of The Solutions Project.

Sorry, we only said Don's name this entire time.

We did, we have to

and I think that's actually important too.

It's like, it's not just, you know,

one person this individualistic approach.

Yeah. It's like organizing

and building that community building

across the board.

And how long has it like taken you

to build this community though?

Like it's not overnight.

No, so this solutions project,

I always know our age because my youngest daughter was born

a week after we launched our final program.

So we're, you know,

about eight years old as an organization

and then we've just begun to scale under Gloria's leadership

in the last two years, yeah.

That's awesome. Well wonderful.

Thank you so much.

So thank you so much Regina, Sarah, Mark,

and on. [applause]

Yeah. Yes.

Thanks so much.

[upbeat music]