We were lucky to catch up with Kristy Drutman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kristy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Green Jobs Board didn’t begin with a group of environmental enthusiasts trying to start a profitable company. We were born from an instagram post that led to an engaged and buzzing community asking the same question: what are the steps we need to take to build a career in the green economy?

Kristy Drutman, the Co-Founder of GJB, also known as Browngirl Green (@browngirlgreen), spent the beginning of her career trying to land a job that could change the world. She personally experienced the obstacles job-seekers face – gatekept role postings, unrealistic experience expectations, and organizations that aren’t conducive to retaining diverse talent. The process wasn’t clear, and opportunities were hard to find – especially for women, BIPOC, and people with disabilities.

But, challenges create solutions after all. Kristy partnered with Usman Fahimullah, childhood friend turned Co-Founder and Co-CEO, to create educational content on @browngirlgreen that empowered job-seekers to find their first step. Conversations were flowing, people felt heard and seen in the challenges they faced, and traction ensued. The engaged community caught the eye of new employers seeking to connect with engaged candidates, and GJB evolved to meet the demands of the future generation. As popularity increased and engagement soared, the need for more accessible resources was clear.

As our community grows, we grow alongside them. What started as a humble attempt at condensing content into one new Instagram account (@greenjobsboard) quickly became much more. We exist to empower all job-seekers with the education and tools needed to build impactful careers that solve the climate crisis. We create accessible pathways and conversations that enable trust, transparency, and inclusion between our community of job-seekers and employers. Join us as we build the standard for an equitable and sustainable future, together.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Please see previous answer!

I got into this space studying environmental policy and city planning at UC Berkeley. During that time, I realized there wasn’t great coverage of environmental issues on a large scale to motivate, engage, and inspire communities toward action. So that’s why I created my Blog and media series Brown Girl Green to begin the practice of using digital media tools for community building and resource sharing for folks wanting to be educated and activated In This work. I now work with organizations across the spectrum from non-profit to government to for-profit on producing educational content for social media about environmental issues. For my other company Green Jobs Board, our community of over 150,000+ people are consistently being provided opportunities and resources to build careers in the climate space. Further, employers work with us to post environmental and/or social impact driven roles on our site to support with their recruitment efforts. Our social engagement and community has impressed and supported many orgs we’ve worked with in the past.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Largely through my original content creator platform Brown Girl Green- I built a lot of trust and rapport with my community, which led to authentic, organic growth of my customer base & ultimately gave more credibility to what we were creating over time

How’d you meet your business partner?

We have been friends since we were 11 years old- now we are best friends from two different worlds to make a difference with our respective talents and passions. Mine being climate, his being design & innovation!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Browngirlgreen.com
• Instagram: Browngirl_green
• Linkedin: Kristy drutman
• Youtube: https://YouTube.com/browngirlgreen
• Other: Check out my website browngirlgreen.com. And please pitch/ support us as a woman of color owned business !