Making Change Happen

Speakers cover all aspects of leading, inspiring, and motivating adaptive change to improve sustainability in business, government, the community, politics, and the media. Individuals and small groups can and do accomplish big things. The more daunting our challenges appear, the more urgently we need leaders who can inspire hope and show through their example how badly needed changes can be accomplished.

Making A Difference. Individuals and small groups can make a big difference. In fact, the recent history of environmental activism contains many examples of effective action, and these empowering presentations explain why and how people can make a difference. More >>

Activism & Civic Engagement. Citizens urging (and applying pressure to) government agencies and public officials as well as corporations and business leaders is a time honored and effective means of promoting change. Civic engagement can also mean volunteer mobilization and voluntary action to implement needed steps. See Rob Caughlan, Mark Dubois, Denis Hayes, Ric O’Barry, David Helvarg, Michel Gelobter, Rick Johnson, Dune Lankard, Diane MacEachern, Walter McGuire, Bill Shireman, Gloria Flora, Raj Patel, John Marshall Roberts, Jeff Hohensee, Duane Elgin, David Steinman, Allen Green, and Ted Smith.

Building & Leading Nonprofits. Creating and growing a nonprofit organization can make it possible to raise tax deductible donations, secure foundation funding, and administer the many practical elements of educational and advocacy campaigns. Leading such organizations in turn requires a whole package of skills. See Christine Ervin, Denis Hayes, Mark Van Putten, Huey Johnson, Rick Johnson, L. Hunter Lovins, and Bill Birchard.

Leading Change In Large Business Organizations. Large organizations of any kind aren't easy to change. They have cultures, traditions, long-established practices, entrenched bureaucracies, and a myriad of other barriers to adaptation and innovation. Leading change toward sustainability requires many skills, tools and techniques. See John Marshall Roberts, John Renesch, Bill Birchard, Bob Doppelt, David Hurst, Jack Giampalmi, Bill Shireman, L. Hunter Lovins, Rob Abbott, Linda Ferguson, and Darcy Hitchcock.

Careers That Make A Difference. Whether starting a career upon leaving school, making a mid-life career shift, starting a business, or adding a green dimension to a business already underway, your career or business decisions can make a real difference in the world. See Melissa Everett, Josh Tetrick, Natalia Allen, and Diane MacEachern.

Environmental Law. A wide range of laws governing environmental protection and related practices are on the books, and many lawyers and legal experts make it their job to see that these laws are carried out. See Mark Van Putten, Rob Verchick, Tom Turner, Richard Renner, Pete McCloskey, Wil Burns, Dotty LeMieux, and Rob Caughlan.

History of the Environmental Movement. The history of the environmental movement is profoundly inspiring and empowering. Again and again, visionary individuals and small groups have become powerful and grown large, and as this has happened, they have brought about change. See Rob Caughlan, Denis Hayes, Doug La Follette, and Tom Turner.

Politics & Sustainability. Any successful transition to sustainability will require supportive governmental policies and programs, and that in turn will require getting leaders elected at all levels and across the political spectrum who understand and will do what is needed. Once such leaders hold office, continuously lobbying and informing them is critical to keep them moving and support them in moving in helpful directions. See Rob Caughlan, Terry Tamminen, Jim DiPeso, Denis Hayes, Roger Ballentine, Pete McCloskey, Raymond Bradley, Walter McGuire, Michel Gelobter, Kate Troll, Peter Bronski, Rick Johnson, Diane MacEachern, Dotty LeMieux, and Mark Van Putten.

Leadership In Government Agencies. Large governmental agencies need inspired leadership to move ahead boldly, creatively, and rapidly in developing environmental programs and policies. Providing this leadership is a special skill. See Roger Ballentine, Christine Ervin, Gloria Flora, Terry Tamminen, Bob Doppelt, and Huey Johnson.

Motivating Businesses To Change. How can businesses be motivated to change? Prompts to change may come from the outside, from shareholders, from employees, from middle managers, from top managers, or from the Board of Directors. There are at least as many effective ways to motivate change as businesses have interests. Many approaches have been successful, and many of those are shared by our speakers. See Denis Hayes, John Marshall Roberts, Jerry Yudelson, John Renesch, and Bill Birchard.

Employee Empowerment & Change. People who work at all levels and roles in an organization can identify waste, spot opportunities for improvement, and generally participate helpfully in all kinds of ways in sustainability efforts. Mobilizing this potential requires a focused effort. See Bill Birchard, Bob Doppelt, Josh Tetrick, Melissa Everett, Pamela Gordon, Dixon de Lena, and Darcy Hitchcock.

Social Marketing. Selling behavior change for the public good isn't best approached like selling soap. Marketing experts have developed unique methods that are often much more effective than conventional techniques. See Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Nancy Lee, Annette Frahm, Diane MacEachern, Rob Caughlan, and Walter McGuire.

Green Purchasing By Government. Government can have a powerful positive impact by incorporating green standards in purchasing decisions of all kinds. See Denis Hayes and Tom Kemper.

Green Parenting. Parents, care-givers, teachers, extended family and others with roles in raising and educating kids often want to know what they can do to help kids appreciate the natural world and understand the importance of stewardship. At the same time, greening the practical elements of parenting, from cloth diapers to healthy baby food to non-toxic toys, is an important part of a green lifestyle and beneficial and healthful for kids. And to complete the picture, exposing kids to the natural world is increasingly thought by many to play an important role in healthy emotional and intellectual development. See Dan Chiras, Zoe Weil, Lynda Fassa, Michael Castleman, and Deirdre Dolan.

Women & Sustainability. Women make many choices and have many opportunities to contribute to the transition to a more sustainable world. They may also have special and especially powerful motives to make such contributions. See Diane MacEachern, Ann Goodman, and Summer Rayne Oakes.

Resolving Environmental Conflicts. In many instances of conflict over environmental issues, both sides can benefit from a reasonable resolution of their differences. Conflict often consumes resources that could be better spent actually implementing solutions to problems, and many differences are not as costly or difficult to resolve as the parties to the conflict initially believe. See Chris Maser, Gloria Flora, Dotty LeMieux, Allen Green, and Bill Shireman.

Environmental Whistleblowers & Whistleblower Protection. When a governmental agency, business, or other organization is hiding environmental misbehavior or negligence, often we depend on whistleblowers to learn the truth and force a change in behavior. These truth-tellers often pay a price, and protecting them is the way we'll get the truth out more often. See Gloria Flora, Linda Ferguson, and Richard Renner.

Send Us Your Suggestions…

We are constantly on the lookout for the best new speakers on all aspects of Making Change Happen… speakers with the most important ideas and the most dynamic presentations. We are also always open to ideas for new Making Change Happen related topics. Send us your speaker or topic suggestions here.

Related Topics Coming Soon…

We are working now on new topic pages in the areas listed below. They will be added here as they become available.

Fundraising for Environmental Nonprofits
Inspiring Hope: You Can Make A Difference
Youth & Sustainability
International Cooperation & Collaboration
Environmental Policy: Concepts & Analysis
Lobbying Government
Political Ideology & Sustainability