Tyrone Hall: Communicator of Climate Complexity
Who are you?
My name is Tyrone Hall. I’m a generalist with a real passion for strategic planning and action around sustainability issues – from climate change and food security to health and wellness. I’ve been at the forefront of sustainability messaging for regional and multilateral entities throughout my career. On the personal side, I am pursuing an earth conscious lifestyle, from my primarily plant-based food experimentation and pairing to my ethical choices for consumer goods. I am enthusiastic about running, yoga and cross-cultural meditation techniques.
Can you tell us more about what you do at NDC Partnership? What is the most exciting/rewarding part of it for you?
I’m the Head of Communications at NDC Partnership, , a global coalition of 181 countries and international institutions at the forefront of climate and development action. I joined at an exciting time. The brand needed strategic leadership to showcase its global successes in coordinating resources (about a billion dollars thus far and a raft of technical support) to drive climate and development action around the world. I’ve had the opportunity to shape green recovery messages as part of COVID-19 responses, better package what this means for various audiences, streamline story-generation processes, prep and position key ministerial representatives to articulate their climate and development successes in the media, including Time, Reuters, DevEx and Inter Press Service.
I really enjoy mapping our communications back to strategic elements I outlined for the Partnership around communicating the brand identity and voice, finding the right people and messages for the right audiences, and monitoring and evaluating our progress. For me, it is important that ESG, SDGs and all forms of climate and development actions be guided by purpose, a logic, and carefully primed messages. It is critical for coherence. Otherwise, we risk treating reporting and messaging around these issues as add-ons – staid and ineffective processes.
What made you realize that you should be in this field?
I am an islander. I grew up in Jamaica. I’ve been to most islands in the Caribbean – a real privilege – and I am from four generations of men and women who engaged in resource dependent livelihoods, including jippy-jappers, who are weavers of the famed tourist hats associated with treks to Central America and the Caribbean, and farmers on my maternal side.
“I know what sustainability failures mean in real terms. For me, the risks are related to culture, including bonds across communities, livelihoods, existence! This is not just a job, a curiosity, a fad or trend.”
Undergrad courses in development communications and exposure to development economics really helped me to close the circle on sustainability issues being a passion and a career path. I dedicated my whole masters research to directly tackling sustainability questions and carve out a niche. Many years later, I spent four years of my life running around the globe, dashing through dozens of villages across India, Fiji and Belize studying this thing.
What was your first job working on sustainability topics? What did you learn from that experience?
I moved to Belize on a one-way ticket in the Summer of 2012 to run communications for a suite of climate change projects across Belize, Suriname, Guyana and a dozen Caribbean islands. It was a whirlwind. I had incredible bosses and colleagues who were keen on problem-solving. I had an opportunity to evolve into knowledge management, identifying lesson learning, truly probe critical questions and recognized that sustainability reporting needed guiding principles to be relevant for distinct audiences, especially indigenous and other resource dependent communities. I transitioned and sought to probe and directly answer some of those core questions.
Tyrone in Victoria.
You’ve worked in so many different sectors – you’ve worked with governments, multilaterals, and you’ve also been a doctoral student. What advice do you have for people that want to toggle between these different worlds?
It’s exciting to traverse so many spaces and places. I’ve also been eager to fully explore avenues to drive change. I highly encourage it. It’s important to still stake out one to three core competencies because we still live in a world where siloed thinking is dominant. It’s also key to routinely think about and clearly articulate how your varied experiences can be linked. How does this web of experiences and crossing of worlds connect? Of what value is it to you, the advancement of your ultimate goals and core values? In answering these questions, you will be able to shape your value proposition.
Why do you think diversity in sustainability is important?
Diversity in sustainability matters as a matter of principle and common-sense!
On principle, we are all affected by sustainability failures and racialized peoples are disproportionately impacted. You simply can’t fully address the issues without a wider range of ideas and approaches being fully articulated and considered.
It’s common sense. Diversity in all forms helps to evolve and strengthen ideas and decision-making processes around sustainability. Improved sustainability management is a risk management ethic. It’s good for the bottom-line or core business. It’s an obvious win-win. Again, it’s common-sense.
Do you have a mentor? How have they helped you in your career or personal growth?
I’ve had mentors since my childhood. They have served me extraordinarily well. But, what I need, and have been fortunate to have in recent years, is sponsorship. There’s just a point when what you need is not necessarily counsel but sponsorship – or mentorship that also offers a substantial level of sponsorship. I’ve had some form of this for about a decade. It is this sponsorship or mentor-sponsor support that really cleared or eased my path. This is really what racialized professionals need more so than traditional mentorship.
What has been your proudest moment in your professional career?
It’s tough to pinpoint one. I feel compelled to say the Placencia Ambition Forum. This is an initiative to bring together major actors in the climate change negotiations around a central theme of increasing ambition and a focus on safeguarding the Paris Agreement. I really had the confidence of my team to turn that event into a real showcase of messaging excellence, and demonstrate the power of strategic pivoting, messaging and creativity just as the pandemic struck. It has been recognized as a trendsetting showcase by many.
What quote do you most live by and why?
Not so much a quote, but a principle: How do we evolve or clarify? I am keen on problem-solving. If an idea is offered or an issue is presented, I am keen on asking the why and how questions to ensure we can identify a specific issue and/or area to act on. It’s important that we do not undermine collaboration and ingenuity with generalities.
What issues in sustainability are you most concerned about?
My core concern is the messaging. We really need to invest in making this relevant to broader audiences. This is the niche I am working in.
“ESG Reporting, in particular, needs to be disaggregated or segmented and reframed to be relevant to shareholders, distinct industries, the media, policymakers and their advisors, and various elements of the public. The current formulation isn’t just challenged conceptually, it’s not articulated in the most efficient, effective and relevant way even for investors.”
What development(s) have excited you most in the field?
I am thrilled by the emergence of sustainability focused podcasts such as the Refinitiv Sustainability Perspectives Podcast. The podcasts have really, really amazed me. We need more of this. They are helping to make the space more accessible to a wider audience. It’s really helping to spotlight a wider range of voices and could help build community.
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future, and why?
I am very optimistic about the future. I am deeply encouraged by the technological progress around renewable energy, the shifts in investment focus, and robust pro-climate youth movements around the world. The economic imperatives and associated options, and the ethical or existential facts are finally aligning. I know we must act with a great deal more urgency, but I see so many key players working tirelessly to make it happen.
Find out more about Tyrone at tyronehall.com.