To mark International Women’s Day, Nature Impact Collective CEO Esther Abram had a chat with co-CEOs of Environmental Justice Australia (EJA) Nicola Rivers and Elizabeth McKinnon.
Esther: Happy International Women’s Day! I am keen to hear about the unique CEO position sharing arrangement you have, what it means for you both workwise and personally?
Nicola: When we first started the shared role nearly five years ago the response was mixed. We had a few people say they thought sharing a CEO role wouldn’t work. And it made me quietly determined, because we knew each other so well. We had worked together, we had done a lot of talking about our vision for EJA and we were both so passionate and committed to that vision. We were really confident that there would be great benefits to both EJA and the wider movement we work in, from our joint-leadership. In reality it has been even better than we expected.
Elizabeth: Yes, some of the benefits are obvious, like the two sets of skills, experiences, networks and passions that we bring to the role. This has all been helpful. But the things that have been perhaps happily unexpected are the high quality decision-making, the energy we bring, our sustainability in the role and the culture of collaboration that we have been able to engender at EJA.
Esther: Tell us about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of making a CEO job share arrangement work.
Elizabeth: Before we began in the role together, we had some executive coaching, which ended up being a bit like what I imagine pre-marriage counselling is like! We had to talk through issues and try to preempt any problems that we might have, which was incredibly helpful. The level of admiration and respect we have for each other is very high, and I believe that’s really important when you’re relying on each other and having to back each other’s decisions.
Nicola: Yes, there’s a huge amount of trust and respect. Before we started, we also met with another co-CEO, and she very generously told us about her entire model and how the nuts and bolts of it work, which was very helpful for working out our model. We both work three days a week, with a crossover day on Wednesday when we are both usually in the office. And we share an address for email and other messaging, so we can see what’s happened on our days off. Our staff, the EJA Board and other stakeholders report that they experience it as ‘seamless’. On the home front, it’s unusual for our parenting days to be encroached upon by work. Which in a CEO role, is unheard of.
Esther: How does this arrangement influence the culture at EJA?
Nicola: The culture at EJA is very collaborative, partly because we demonstrate it on a daily basis, and it filters through. And because we are two different people, you get the benefit of both perspectives – for big decisions, we thrash them out, and we think of all the problems and benefits, and we come to a position. Two heads are really better than one!
Elizabeth: It’s funny because the concept of co-leadership is not new. Some of the biggest tech start-ups in the world are co-led. But it is rarer to have joint CEO appointments occurring within more established organisations. It has become a topic that we are really passionate about, because job sharing at senior levels presents more opportunities for women to work how they need to and still progress their careers at a time in their lives when they may not want to (or may not be able to) work full time. It can be a fantastic model for anyone whose caring orresponsibilities or other individual needs mean they want to work part time, but in senior roles. And everyone benefits. In our case, that means more impact for nature, climate and communities.
Esther: EJA strives to use the law to make the world radically better, which is a terrific mission. From where you sit, is there a pushback against organisations and communities that use law to protect the environment?
Elizabeth: Yes. Right now, this work is getting harder. Environmental lawyers, our clients, community groups, expert witnesses and peaceful protesters are facing increasingly aggressive attacks. We are seeing tactics in our cases designed to make accessing courts scarier and harder for the community. These include drawing out cases to increase legal costs, media smear campaigns and other procedural legal tactics designed to exhaust our time, energy and resources.
Nicola: We have seen a trend in SLAPP suits (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) overseas in the US and Europe for many years, and recently we have seen some of these tactics land on Australian shores. This is happening because for some companies and corporate interests in Australia, and some governments, it is very inconvenient to be held to account for harms caused to nature, climate and communities. For being required to comply with laws. It should not be the job of the community to enforce laws and require integrity in decision-making, but the reality is, it comes down to these brave individuals and groups to force this. And they need access to the legal system and the courts to do it.
Elizabeth: The people we represent are frontline communities. People like the extraordinary citizen scientists from groups like Wildlife of the Central Highlands who collect evidence of threatened wildlife with night vision cameras on cold dark nights. People like Traditional Owner Tibby Quall who in his 70s has trusted us to run multiple important court cases and legal actions to protect his ancestral lands. People like the members of a national grassroots organisation determined to expose unlawful subsidies to fracking companies. These are people with a deep passion and care for their communities that are entitled to access the legal system to hold decision-makers and companies to account for environmental harms. Them being able to do so is a fundamental feature of a healthy democracy.
Esther: You have just launched a new strategy for EJA – congratulations! What are the priority areas for EJA for the next three years?
Nicola: At EJA we support the communities who are impacted first and hardest by environmental harm, and those on the ground working to improve the health of nature and communities. The law can create systems change: addressing the root cause of problems, not just the symptoms. We are not just tinkering around the edges. And of course – we are independent. EJA accepts no federal government funding, a move which was only possible because of our supporters backing us in.
Elizabeth: There is a huge legal need out there and unfortunately we can’t help everyone, so we focus on areas where we can support our clients and partners to have the biggest impact. Our priority areas have been developed with a salutary reality in mind: in Australia and globally we face a triple crisis of climate breakdown, ecosystem collapse and deepening injustice. These are the areas where the legal need is – where our clients want us to work – and form the three key focuses of EJA:
Climate – The climate crisis is a threat to everything Australians love. Yet while the world works towards solutions, Australia remains one of the biggest fossil fuel exporters on the planet.
Nature – We are on track to wipe out 70% of all species on Earth. Yet across Australia, bushland, forests and wetlands are bulldozed, drained and destroyed at an alarming rate. Weak laws, loopholes and political inaction fuel this.
Justice – First Nations people have cared for this land for millennia and still do, despite ongoing colonisation, destruction and violence. Frontline communities are locked out of decisions and bear the brunt of environmental harm. Meanwhile, industry heavyweights attack environmental defenders, weaken laws, and drown out community voices.
Over the next three years, EJA’s team of skilled and committed lawyers and specialists will be working to:
- Support more communities to use the law to stop environmental destruction at its source.
- Like grassroots groups in the Northern Territory ensuring the cotton industry’s bulldozing of the Savannah is scrutinised.
- Run more landmark court cases, investigations, law reform and advocacy to hold more corporations and governments to account.
- Like acting for our client Lock the Gate to ensure fracking in the Northern Territory is assessed under Federal law, as it is supposed to.
- And back in First Nations and frontline community leadership
- Like supporting traditional owners’ push for genuine consultation over gas exploration.
- Like supporting traditional owners’ push for genuine consultation over gas exploration.
Esther: Finally, tell me about the role of philanthropy in building and strengthening EJA.
Elizabeth: Philanthropists have always played a huge role in EJA’s success, ever since we came to be, 35 years ago. However over the past 5 years in particular EJA has nearly entirely become independent from government funding, thanks to a host of generous supporters and donors and philanthropic partners like Nature Impact Collective, who share our vision for communities using the law to create a radically better world.
This independence is critical, because we need to be fearless in holding governments to account for the communities we serve.
Nicola: And so many of our donors bring so much more to the table than just funding. They do their own advocacy, provide advice or a steer on tricky organisational problems, connect us with partners, and provide support and mentoring to us as leaders. We could not do this work without them.
Read more about Environmental Justice Australia and how you can support them here – envirojustice.org.au
Read more about why we chose to support Environmental Justice Australia in our 2024 funding round here.