Creative Climate Commitment with Susan Israel AB ’81, MAR ’86
Susan Israel AB ’81, MAR ’86 develops proprietary programs and hands-on creative workshops for sustainability, innovation, communication and leadership with her company Climate Creatives. Susan’s Public Art installations connect communities and foster action toward a more sustainable world. Susan uses her own artwork as a personal lab for exploring ways to connect people to climate issues. Her work has been exhibited in over a dozen group shows in recent years and she has partnered with over 100 organizations.
Susan is an architect, artist, climate communicator, and social entrepreneur. In 2008, after 20 years as an architect, she decided that she wanted to do something more for our climate. What would motivate other people to do more as well? Something fun and visible. What was preventing people from acting? Fear, and lack of belief that their actions matter. Thus, Susan founded Climate Creatives to use art and design to engage people because data alone just doesn’t do it: behavioral change begins with an emotional commitment. Susan develops proprietary programs and hands-on creative workshops for sustainability, innovation, communication and leadership and shares them around the world. She uses creation of public art to focus on the emotional and cultural aspect to appeal to people around climate change instead of data, to help them feel less afraid and more connected and engage to solutions.