Meghan Chapple
she/her • VP of sustainability, Georgetown University • Silver Spring, MD
2023 Climate Wayfinding @ Omega alum
“I think so many of us — even when we aren’t talking about it — have this anxious part inside saying, ‘Get to net-zero by 2030. Fight all the wildfires. Do everything good for the climate, alone, right now… go!’ And we don’t know how to admit this to each other, much less how to unpack it so that it doesn’t freeze us in fear, in inaction, in isolation. We miss the ‘nourishment’ piece — making connections, playing to your strengths, and feeling the joy that comes from that. Climate Wayfinding gave me that nourishment and the skills to bring it into my own work.”
As vice president of sustainability for Georgetown, Meghan Chapple is deeply involved in climate work. She strategizes with colleagues to embed tangible climate good into every level of the university, mentors students looking to find their role in climate, and builds partnerships across higher ed to share best practices in sustainability. Meghan has spent three decades working in the sector; still, she knew she had more she wanted to learn and do.
In 2020, Meghan began to reflect on her climate journey in new ways. “I realized I needed to look to more diverse voices for both answers and inspiration. My mental models started to change.” She discovered All We Can Save, the anthology of writings by 60 women at the forefront of the climate movement. “The anthology was a balm and an invitation, full of generative, creative, and reciprocal ways of addressing the climate crisis.” After reading the book, Meghan held a weighty question that would come to define her approach to climate work: How do we face the truth of the climate emergency, summon the courage to act on proven solutions, and show up as our whole selves — feelings and all?
Unpacking that question alone is…a lot. Meghan yearned for a kindred community of people grappling with the same thing. She wondered whether a space existed where she didn’t have to explain away or justify her climate emotions. Where no one would give her a funny look for crying if she felt tears arise. She sought out Climate Wayfinding, offered in spring 2023 as a retreat-style workshop at the Omega Institute in New York’s Hudson Valley. “At Climate Wayfinding, I found the time, supportive space, and heart-forward approach to really connect with other people who are on their own climate journeys. I remember thinking, ‘I can let it out here. I’m not alone.’”
Through the program, Meghan learned how to weave space for connection into her work at Georgetown. Using Climate Wayfinding approaches, she now grounds all of her team’s large-scale institutional projects — expanding mass transit options for students, for example — in the relational aspects of the work, carving out time on meeting agendas for personal connection and reflection. She has even brought Climate Wayfinding concepts like “generous questions” and “authentic power and deep joy” into conversations with her friends and family members, deepening their relationships in the process. “What it comes down to for me is this: We don’t know what the future holds. We could be holding hands while the world burns, or holding hands while the world thrives. But no matter what, we are all going to be standing, holding hands.”
