Drawdown Georgia: An Equitable Framework for Bringing Climate Solutions Home

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Introducing Reverend Dr. Gerald Durley 

10:51 Reverend Durley: From Civil Rights to Climate Justice 

20:33 John Lanier: The Origin Story of Drawdown Georgia 

29:01 Lessons in Equity Since the Murder of George Floyd 

34:41 What’s Next for Drawdown Georgia 

39:49 Nathaniel Smith: Equity as a Compass for Climate Action 

58:59 Moderated Q&A: Investing in Frontline Communities 

1:09:29 Audience Q&A: Atlanta’s Equity Paradox 

1:14:27 Audience Q&A: Building Equity Into Grant Budgets 

1:19:01 Closing the Livestream and Continuing the Conversation 

1:21:23 Audience Q&A: Mentoring the Next Generation of Leaders 

1:29:03 Audience Q&A: Solving the Workforce Chicken-and-Egg Problem 

1:34:03 The Atlanta University Center Resilience Hub 

1:37:56 Audience Q&A: Climate, Voting Rights, and a Monumental November 

1:42:00 What Does Progress Actually Look Like? 

1:46:14 Audience Q&A: Centering Women of Color in Climate Solutions

Georgia is the first state to take a localized approach to Project Drawdown, the ambitious blueprint for reversing climate change by scaling market-ready climate solutions. But scaling those solutions with equity as a core value, not just a nice-to-have, is a different kind of challenge entirely.

Recorded at The Carter Center as part of the Living Future 2022 conference, this conversation brings together Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks of Spelman College and the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley, a lifelong civil rights and environmental justice leader, John Lanier of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, and Nathaniel Smith, chief equity officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity, to unpack how equity became the compass guiding Drawdown Georgia’s work.

From the Civil Rights Movement to the Climate Movement

Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley opens the conversation by tracing his own path from the civil rights movement of the 1960s to environmental justice today, and makes the case that both movements demand the same willingness to sacrifice and take risks in pursuit of what’s right.

How Drawdown Georgia Came to Be

John Lanier shares the personal and family story behind Drawdown Georgia’s founding, from a 2016 conversation inspired by Project Drawdown to a multi-university research effort that identified 20 high-impact climate solutions for Georgia, evaluated on equity, health, and economic opportunity, not just carbon reduction.

Equity as a Compass, Not an Afterthought

Nathaniel Smith makes the case that structural inequity and climate injustice share the same roots in the American South’s history, and argues that real progress requires philanthropy and the climate movement to give up more than money, to give up power, privilege, and the comfort of the status quo.

What Real Investment in Equity Looks Like

The conversation turns to concrete questions: how should philanthropy structure grants to actually support frontline organizations, what does workforce development look like when it’s designed and led by the communities it’s meant to serve, and how is the Atlanta University Center building a Resilience Hub that trains the next generation of climate leaders.

Your Questions, Answered

An extended audience Q&A covers Atlanta’s paradox as a hub for racial progress and a city with deep inequality, how to build equity into grant budgets, mentoring the next generation of climate leaders, and how Drawdown Georgia is working to center the wisdom of women of color in climate solutions.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley sees the civil rights and climate movements as fundamentally connected.
• How Drawdown Georgia’s 20 high-impact solutions were chosen using equity, health, and economic opportunity, not just carbon impact.
• Why Nathaniel Smith argues equity requires giving up power and privilege, not just writing checks.
• What meaningful, equitable grantmaking looks like in practice, from general operating support to multi-year commitments.
• How Georgia’s HBCUs and youth-led workforce programs are becoming engines for a more inclusive clean energy transition.

Continue reading in our companion blog for more on how equity can help us guide climate action in Georgia.

Download the Interview Transcript

Prefer to read the conversation instead? Download the complete transcript of this event to explore the panelists’ full remarks and audience Q&A.