Climate Club, the substack newsletter described as a “quick task list to save the planet,” promotes actions that people can take in 5, 15, or 30-plus minutes.

Product manager Emily Mabin Sutton, software developer Dhanya Herath, and data scientist Jenny Sahng teamed up in November 2021 to create the newsletter.

The trio are all in their late twenties and were all volunteering at various climate organisations. 

Although they were all engaged with the issues, Sahng says they still found it overwhelming to work out which climate actions would have the most impact. “We wanted to fill that niche by amplifying the work of other activists as well as existing campaigns in the space, and just make sure that those expert voices are heard in audiences that might not normally engage with climate news.”

She says the newsletter is designed for young professionals, busy people working full-time who don’t work with climate change, people who haven’t volunteered before but are happy to sign a petition or write a submission, and people who are curious but want support taking the next step to take action.

“From the feedback, even if our audience is not massive, it’s a very highly engaged audience. So we feel really grateful for that and want to keep growing that.”

The trio had brainstormed various ideas but eventually hit on the newsletter as the best “minimal viable product” with an email landing in subscribers’ inboxes as a regular reminder to stay engaged. “That also meant that the startup costs were free, because we use substack which is free if you don’t charge for subscriptions,” Sahng says.

The growth has been “amazing”, according to Sahng, with steady subscriber growth simply by tapping into their personal and work networks.

Based on clicks, subscribers are engaging most with the five-minute actions. “Sign a petition, make a submission - those are generally the kinds of ones if there’s a template for the submission.”

She says they often get grateful emails replies from people thankful for the opportunity to add their voice to important causes - which they compile into a “warm fuzzies” email document.

Climate Club has also launched monthly “lightning talks”, which are half-hour sessions with an expert for a deeper dive on a particular topic. “That’s been going really well,” Sahng says.

Their next foray will be an event at the Auckland Climate Festival, their first in-person event. “We’d like it to be an interactive session. Because we’re all about the action side of things, we want to have something that people can come to and feel that they’ve contributed.”

The trio hasn't sought any funding yet, but are considering looking for funding to see how they could ramp up - particularly in the social media space. “With a bit of funding we could do a lot more in that space.”

Sahng says they were partly motivated by fear to launch the newsletter. “It was partly fear of the climate emergency and our own futures, but also a deep love for the environment. Literally everything that you love - food, fresh fruit, summer days, swims in the rivers, snowboarding, barbecues, a stable political environment - all of that is at risk. We all love that so we want to fight for it.”