Juliette Devillard: 'A high-agency individual with a can-do attitude is always the better investment'

Juliette Devillard is the founder and CEO of Climate Connection, which after launching in November 2021 now hosts more than 40 networking events for green start ups, VCs, corporates, and government representatives each year.

Having spent more than five years in the US working with early-stage climate start ups and deep tech innovators, Devillard now works with stakeholders across the low carbon economy to support founders and drive more investment into climate change tech and solutions.

Devillard is also a public speaking coach, helping hundreds of founders with both their communication and fundraising efforts.

BusinessGreen Intelligence: What was your first job in sustainability?

Juliette Devillard: I started my climate tech career by working at Greentown Labs, the US' largest climate tech incubator. The place was wild - 100 hard tech and climate tech start ups all working on their innovations under one roof. Lab spaces, prototyping spaces, community, and constant building were the norm.

What qualifications or experience did you have before starting in sustainability?

In my undergraduate degree, I studied a combination of maths, physics, engineering, Mandarin, politics, and literature, as part of a wildly creative new course called 'Arts and Sciences' at UCL. Towards the end of this, I decided to start my career in diplomacy. I spoke English, French, Spanish and Mandarin, and I had fallen in love with Model United Nations at university. This led me to live in China for two years and become professionally fluent in Mandarin, as well as working briefly for the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs.

Work at the UN was fascinating, but also extremely frustrating. I realised I would struggle to stay in an environment that had so many protocols and red tape in place.

Which 'green skills' are you looking for in new recruits to take your business to the next level?

While baseline knowledge of the entrepreneurial or climate tech spaces can be helpful, I look most closely at the hard - and soft - skills that new recruits bring, as well as their mindset.

I particularly welcome applicants from non-traditional backgrounds. Take for instance our chief of staff - a PhD in nuclear physics who also used to be the general manager of a nightclub - you would be hard pressed to find anyone better at organising events and snapping people into shape.

My belief is a high-agency individual with a can-do attitude is always the better investment, even if they come with less industry knowledge. Knowledge can be taught, changing someone's mindset is much harder.

Where do you see the next wave of green ideas and leaders coming from?

Everywhere. I believe we need to move into a system of education that includes green skills as baseline parts of regular jobs. Engineering courses that discuss greener ways of building. Finance courses that acknowledge the impact of investments.

Too many people feel they need to leave their day job and work specifically for a green company. This creates silos: the incumbent companies bleed green-curious talent and loose the people who could push forward meaningful change from within.

On the other hand, the sustainability sector is already hyper-competitive and sometimes underpaid. We need to move away from the belief that 'to make a change, I need to quit my job and go work for a climate company' and instead encourage people to ask ‘how can I be the green champion within my existing company?'

What green swaps, life hacks or changes have you made to your life away from work?

Almost everyone I know who works in sustainability adopts green practices in their life, and I'm no exception. But I also think this question is often a distraction from the larger goals we need to be working on. Yes, I'm 95 per cent plant-based, yes I've switched my energy provider to Octopus, yes, I think more carefully about waste than the average person.

But we're so focused on individual action that we get caught up in climate guilt - feeling like you're not doing enough - and the fear of climate shame - being afraid of being called out for not doing enough.

Ultimately, for most of us working on climate, our true legacy will be the ripples of impact our work creates - not whether we switched to paper straws. I'd love for more of us to acknowledge we're taking whatever personal actions we can but let go of the guilt for whatever we can't do and stay focused on the bigger picture.

What area or aspect of sustainability do you think isn't getting the attention it deserves?

Most people probably think of EVs, wind turbines, and solar panels when asked about sustainability, but the reality is there are so many industries that create significant carbon emissions that most of us wouldn't even think about in day-to-day life.

For example, cement is responsible for up to eight per cent of global emissions. With the current rate of global construction and population growth, the demand for cement is projected to keep on rising.

Other areas that fall into this category include the production of steel, glass, chemicals, and other categories of heavy manufacturing. Many of these incumbent industries are the bedrock of our society and will require substantial hard tech innovation to transition into more sustainable modes of production.

Are there any past or historic green initiatives you wish you'd been a part of?

I would find it fascinating to be able to rewind time and understand how policymakers and politicians managed to unite the world to prevent the destruction of the ozone layer.

Seeing the negotiation of the Montreal protocol, how people-built support, and understanding what united us then could be very insightful as a way to inform coalition building around climate change prevention today.

Which setback or failure has taught you the most about sustainability?

When I first began actively seeking sponsors for Climate Connection, I struggled to secure backers. We were getting rave reviews from our attendees but the success of the events on the night wasn't translating into interest in sponsoring the business, and I couldn't work out why.

Then, one fateful month, we lost our venue - a large bar in central London that had been our home for over a year. I was shaken, and deeply worried that we wouldn't find a replacement home that could accommodate our community. It felt at the time that this could be the end of our adventure.

Luckily, within a few months, we found new venues that were not only more professional but were also just as focused on sustainability as we are. Today, we are based at The Conduit, an impact-focused members club in Covent Garden, London. We also partnered with 4Change media to completely redesign our brand, website, and logo.

Sponsorship sales became significantly easier after this and it taught me a key lesson: No matter how impactful your mission, you still have to learn how to package your work in ways that will convince and attract people who haven't yet seen you in action.

What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

It's hard to explain the magic of meaningful networking until people experience it for themselves. The truth is, so many events, across climate and beyond, are just... not very good.

Conferences are often too big and impersonal to spark real connection. Casual pub meetups tend to be too unstructured to be meaningful. And VIP dinners? You end up seated next to the same person for three hours, learning their life story while missing everyone else in the room.

On top of that, attention spans are shrinking. I can't count the number of events I've attended where half the room is staring at their phones or buried in their laptops while a panellist speaks. It's such a missed opportunity for real engagement.

What do you know about sustainability now that you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?

Never assume that people are as committed to climate as you are. Many people have different drivers, like staying within budget, hitting milestones for their next promotion, or avoiding rocking the boat internally - going in strong with a climate angle won't always work.

If you can understand a person's drivers first, you can adjust the way you speak about your offering and help them understand how it supports their internal goals. It's more than possible to get people to implement the more sustainable approach, but you need to recognise that a lot of people won't do it for that reason.

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