Impact Interview: Sarah Lazarovic
Name: Sarah Lazarovic
Role/Function: Creative Director, Illustrator, Writer, Clean Prosperity Marketing VP
What She’s Currently Working On:
Almost a year ago I started a newsletter called Minimum Viable Planet. I've long written essays about climate and eco-anxiety, which I call The Mean Greens, but I needed a space where I could write positively about ways to counter both The Mean Greens and the climate crisis itself. I try to make the newsletter both actionable and funny. I may include too many Saved by the Bell GIFS. I've loved hearing from readers about how they cope, and how they take action. Just knowing there are other people processing the magnitude of what it means to be alive right now in a similar way can give you strength.
I also write a quarterly comic column called Small Works, on small things that can have a huge impact, for YES! Magazine. Incrementalism gets a bad rap because we know that we need huge systems to change right now, and because politicians use it as a delaying tactic when there's less than no time for delay. And yet, as everyday humans we do things in increments, and having some top-down authority tell us our individual actions mean nothing is disempowering and depressing. So Small Works is about illustrating that lots of little things can foment big change, in a million deeply consequential ways.
When I am not doing that I try to convey my thoughts on sustainability and the environment through charts and drawings on my Instagram and internet points beyond (editor’s note: you’ve probably seen Sarah’s “Buyarchy of Needs” illustration, which we adore!). I really love the power of charity heuristics for helping simplify how to do things in a world gone mad with complexity and busyness. I've translated some of my charts into dozens of languages, and love to see them spread around like so much dandelion fuzz.
Beyond that, I co-run Toronto Action Design, the Toronto chapter of the Action Design Network. It's a meetup where we invite speakers to share how we can use behavioral insights to implement environmental and pro-social change across our marketing and design work.
1. What was the “aha” moment that sparked your interest in social impact?
I began studying behavioural science about ten years ago, and it was then that the lightbulb went off. Social impact allows you to work in spaces where change at scale can have huge positive implications. Behavioural science made me see how simple defaults or more thoughtful choice architecture could facilitate better decision making, and result in huge sustainability gains. Up until then I thought you could change minds merely by educating people. Once I realized that was only a small part of it, I knew I needed to work in social impact.
2. How did you break into the social impact space?
About a dozen years ago I wanted to start working for sustainability-minded organizations. I had been a journalist, illustrator, and designer for years, but didn't know if my skills would be useful to an environmental org. I emailed a friend of a friend at an environmental organization I supported, and within weeks I was doing really fun design work for them. While I did start off unpaid, they began to pay me after a short while. I realize this is not a viable option for many, but I was lucky to be able to squeeze in this work between paid gigs and bad baking, to see if there was a need for my work in this space. I slowly built up a clientele of people seeking design or marketing help supported by deep knowledge of environmental communications.
3. What most excites you about the social impact space right now?
In my day job, I realize that there's much chance to effect from within organizations. I wrote an op-ed in The Globe and Mail about why businesses should give their employees time off for climate strikes and actions, and was pleasantly surprised to hear from higher-ups at a few companies about how they were now going to do so. I had been inspired by Future Super, and their Not Business As Usual effort. To my mind, companies are embracing a broader range of discourse than they would have even a few years ago. The idea that large corporations might allow employees time off for peaceful civil disobedience has shifted, as the climate crisis seems to have pushed the Overton Window to encompass more progressive climate ideas.
FOR MORE “5 QUESTIONS” INTERVIEWS ALONG WITH CURATED NEWS, JOBS AND INSIGHTS FROM THE WORLD OF CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL IMPACT, SIGN UP FOR THE RECONSIDERED NEWSLETTER.