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Madeleine: Tell us about your work, explain the work that you're currently doing, and the things that got you to this point in your life.

Raine: I work at NRDC (The Natural Resources Defense Council) -- my team is focused on 10 states across the country, and giving our members ways to get involved on priority campaign work, whether it's trying to influence how utilities run in Michigan, or thinking about how you get led out of drinking water in places like New Jersey. It's from coast to coast. 

I got here through a circuitous path. I'm not somebody who studied environmental policy. I'm not a lawyer. I went to art school, I studied photography. This was not part of my life plan.

Obviously, we're all kind of feeling the impacts of climate change more and more, and for me, it was through ordering takeout and trying to stop the utensils from coming along with the meal. It was a never-ending stream of stuff all the time. I got super frustrated. I kept trying to say no, but I felt like I was just being ignored.

I wanted to see what would happen if I kept all of the stuff that I tried to refuse and to see how much it actually accumulated. Then I wondered if there was a law to report people for giving out this stuff after people had refused. I found out that there was this piece of legislation, which at the time had five sponsors in city council, and it was like tackling this very thing. 

I didn't know how I could help. All I knew is that I wanted to be helpful in some way.

Raine Manley

When I was a kid, my mom called me ‘the great participator’ because I just like to be in all the things. So, I just did some cold outreach to the main bill sponsor’s office asking if I could help. This was in early/mid 2019. I emailed this office every week checking in on the progress and seeing what was happening. Through that, I was introduced to the Reusable NYC Coalition, which is about 30 organizations in New York pushing for reusable solutions and pushing for this legislation over the last three plus years. 

So, now I've totally changed my career, am working at this environmental org, and Skip the Stuff has finally passed! Overall, this was such an empowering experience, and was personally great to see just how accessible local officials are. People think that the government is some mysterious thing that you can’t influence at all, but at least on the local level, they want to hear from you. You’ll call and people pick up on the second ring and you'll get the legislative director, or someone's chief of staff.

Madeleine: That’s so cool! We live in this wonderful city with so many elected officials, and they really do exist within our communities as people we can talk with. I’m also curious: how did your work with Skip the Stuff turn into your role with NRDC?  

Raine:  My work with Skip the Stuff 100% led to me working at NRDC. NRDC is a member of the Reusable NYC Coalition. I connected with Eric Goldstein, who is the New York City Environment Director at NRDC. So when I finally decided that I wanted to focus on the environment full-time, I saw NRDC was hiring and reached out to Eric. 

So now I have been able to set up a team that runs campaigns like Skip the Stuff in 10 states across the country. So, it's a direct throughline from this singular experience to the work that I'm doing now. 

I’m leading a team of six campaigners who are working in the states across the country. And I make sure they've got the tools, the processes, and the workflow that they need to be able to run with their ideas. 

However, at my core, I am still super committed to local action, and so even though Skip the Stuff has passed in New York, there’s still a lot of work that has to be done on implementation. I kind of joke now that I seem to be really interested in the city's trash. I’m like the garbage lady. I have a soft spot for New York City waste management issues.

Madeleine: It’s wonderful how your work that you were just doing as a passion has led you to now being an expert in this subject matter. You did it and learned the ins and outs and now you can do it on a much larger scale and teach other people about it.

Raine: It's definitely one of the most fulfilling things I’ve worked on. For somebody who has had many different lives in my professional career so far, this is the first time that I feel that my job  aligns with my values and the person that I want to be. 

Madeleine: What are your superpowers? I think you already touched on this –  your mom calls you the great participator. 

Raine: I think my biggest superpower is around organization. Which is a super transferable skill throughout my work – from the photo world, to a consulting agency, to my current work at NRDC. My big thing is always about how we take something that's big and complex and confusing, and then break it into bite-sized chunks that are easy to understand and easy to take action on. Now in this case it’s thinking about how you get legislation passed and how you get the public to care about something. It's not always that I need to be the one doing the thing. I've always seen myself as somebody who's more in service to other people. I'm here to bolster other people's work. So yeah, organization is my superpower. Hands down.

Madeleine: To that end, do you have people you consider to be your heroes in this space?

Raine: My hero right now, on the global stage, is Prime Minister Mia Mottley, from Barbados. Barbados, is a tiny island in the Eastern Caribbean, but Mia has shown unbelievable leadership pointing to the disproportionate impacts of climate change that are being felt by the countries that are contributing to it the least. 

At the local level in New York, Emily Gallagher, who is the New York State Assembly Member for district 50, which is my district. Emily is championing amazing legislation, like the All Electric Buildings Act, and the Home Energy and Affordable Transition (HEAT) act. Emily is a champion for the community and I’ve been so impressed with her leadership.

Within NRDC, Eric Goldstein, who's the New York City Environment Director, is definitely a mentor for me right now. He's been within NRDC since the 80s. As someone new to the space, he could have easily disregarded me, but instead he was so welcoming and has taught me so much, which has been helpful in the transition.

Madeleine: It's so important to know people with the kind of impact you want to have. And of course, beyond climate work, it’s so important to have folks who you respect and look up to. A common thing that I wonder is: why is there so much gatekeeping in this space? And why aren't we understanding that like, this really serves the collective?

Raine: Yeah, I know, it's not helpful. At the end of the day, we need more people to care about the things in whatever way they can, to bring whatever tools they can, and to chart the path forward together. 

Raine Manley

Madeleine: The goal of the podcast is to highlight the super individual and unique question of “what do I bring to climate justice or social justice?”. With this, I’m wondering, as someone who got involved and found their unique way to make a difference, what are your recommendations for people who are looking to get involved more deeply in climate/ social justice?

Raine: My biggest recommendation is, if you're somebody who gets fazed by the big stuff, just like, start by tackling the “little stuff.” That's enough. Thinking about the massive scope and scale of climate change is terrifying. How can I, this singular person, influence all of these governments around the world to switch over where they're getting their energy sources from? I don't know how to do that. But the thing that I am able to do is to tackle one concrete thing. For me, this started with the plastic forks that I kept trying to say no to. Recognizing that maybe I could make a difference with that one thing opened up such a significant world of possibilities.

If the scope of it seems insurmountable that's okay. It seems insurmountable to most of us. Find your little corner of it, that you can make an impact on, and that's enough.

Thinking about Skip the Stuff, we just passed it in New York City and subsequently, Westchester County passed it. I attended a meeting a week and a half ago focused on Tompkins County which is where Ithaca is, and they're now considering it as well. That's how progress happens.

Madeleine: That's awesome.

Raine: It's so cool. And I'm Jamaican. I'm not a US citizen yet. I can't even vote. So, it's been great to be able to find some ways to get involved and also just learn. I consider myself politically aware, but like most people I didn’t know the ins and outs of how local or state governments work. This work has been like a really interesting crash course in local government. 

Raine Manley

Madeleine: Very, very cool. And, like, makes me want to go out right now and find an issue. And I hope that, obviously, it is the same for everybody who's reading this. So my last question is generally, what inspires you these days? 

Raine: I have two people and one thing. One of the people is a woman named Yayoi Koizumi. She formed a group called Zero Waste Ithaca which is pushing for reusable solutions in upstate New York. She’s another example of someone who has a day job that is not working on the environment, but found a handful of things where she felt she could make a difference. 

Another person is my friend Carla Yuen. I met Carla through my old job. And at the time, she wanted to start a demonstration garden. She got involved with North Brooklyn Mutual Aid and now the McCarren Demo Garden has been in operation for a year and a half, and they're teaching people to connect with the land, thinking about where produce comes from, and hosting all of these workshops. They're donating food and doing really amazing things in their community. 

The last thing that's inspiring me is making space to think about things that are not work. I'm somebody who has historically burned very hot, and certainly when you start working on environmental issues it’s very easy to feel a constant pressure to keep working because of how important the work is. But you're not going to do your best work if you are not taking care of yourself as well. For me, it was stopping a bit earlier in the day, and setting boundaries around my hours. Work hard, but rest harder. It's crucial.

Madeleine: This kind of work has to be sustainable. In a perfect world, this work is fulfilling and is something that you actually enjoy doing, too. I know that that's not accessible to everybody. But the idea of self preservation and joy must be a critical part of this work. 

Raine: I very much agree. Being in New York, there is such a culture here of hustle. But joy, rest, and self-care are just as important, if not more important.

Madeleine: Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. This has been so wonderful. Was there anything that we didn't ask that you wanted to speak to? 

Raine:  For New York City folks, the Skip the Stuff law takes effect at the beginning of August, which is amazing. You can go to www.nyc.gov/skipthestuff to learn more.

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