2019

Honolulu, HI, United States                                 SEE OTHER BIOS HERE
Age: 17

Dyson is working to #beatplasticpollution, one straw, one school at a time.

Tell us about yourself!

I am the founder of Project O.C.E.A.N. Hawaiʻi, which is my personal initiative to tackle the issue of plastic pollution here in Hawaiʻi. Through this project, I regularly visit classrooms and community events to do presentations on why plastic pollution is a problem as well as some of the solutions around it. The presentations involve a lot of interactive activities to get the audience engaged. For example, with one activity I give each audience member a rubber band. They hook the rubber band on their thumb and cross it over to their pinky, and then have to get it off without using their free hand. This is supposed to resemble a turtle trying to get unentangled from, say, a fishing net.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

Living in Hawaiʻi, I grew up completely surrounded by the ocean, and I came to love it as my second home. The ocean was a place where I could snorkel, spearfish, and bodyboard, and it provided all the adventure, relaxation, and excitement I could have asked for. Eventually, I started to notice that there was something else mixed in with the schools of fish and mounds of coral – it was plastics. But every time I saw a piece of plastic in the water, I ignored it, thinking to myself, “it’s only a chip wrapper, nothing important.”

This went on for a while. Then, when I was 16, I attended the Ocean Heroes Bootcamp (OHBC). At this event, I got to learn about why plastic pollution is a problem and meet youth who were actively tackling this issue. I was inspired, to say the least. I had no idea that, as a kid, I could make a difference, and the youth at OHBC showed me that I can make a positive difference to #beatplasticpollution. That was the spark that inspired me to start my own project to save the ocean that I grew up in. But while OHBC sparked my interest, my love of the ocean was the kindling that allowed those sparks to become something greater.

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

One of the earliest things I learned when I got involved with environmental education is to go for every opportunity that you can, even if you think it out of your reach. Nobody will get everything they want (I definitely have not), but if you are dedicated and do your best, you will get the opportunities that fit you best. Securing a $860 grant, mentoring youth who are passionate about beating plastic pollution, and presenting five times in one day on a neighboring Hawaiian island were all opportunities I doubted I could reach. However, in the end, with dedication and perseverance, I managed it. If you have a plan to bring about positive change in your community, go for it! The sky isn't the limit; shoot for the stars!

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

There are two things that keep me hopeful for the future.

First of all, there is hope. I have hope that we will come together and solve our environmental issues effectively. Maybe it will not all happen in one day, but it will happen. This hope is what allows us to take action, and action to protect our Earth is what we need.

Second, the movement is growing. Fueled by hope and action, the movement to change the way we treat our environment is happening. As the saying goes, “many hands make light work.”

What pro-environmental behavior do you think would make a big impact if everyone in the world started doing it?

Get involved in your government. Seriously. Civic engagement is a huge part of getting your community’s voice heard and making change happen. Civic engagement includes not just voting. Call your senator to tell them about an issue you care about, turn up to a hearing to give your thoughts on a bill, and follow through to make sure the people in office who represent you are doing their job. If everyone in this world got civically involved, the results would literally impact everything, not just the environment, by allowing everyone’s voice to be heard. This is how democracies work!

 

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St. Joseph, MN, United States                                            SEE OTHER BIOS HERE
Age: 29

Corrie works in the classroom and community to inspire and equip young people to build climate justice.

Tell us about yourself!

I am an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University where I teach Energy and Society, Gender & Environment, Climate Action Workshop, and Global Climate Policy. In Global Climate Policy, I take students to the Conference of the Parties (COP – the United Nations climate negotiations) each year! I hold a PhD in Sociology from the University of California Santa Barbara with an Interdepartmental Emphasis in Environment and Society, and I specialize in the intersection of energy extraction, climate justice, and grassroots organizing. My research examines how communities work together to resist fossil fuels, and I have lived with activists resisting natural gas in Idaho, participated in grassroots efforts to ban fracking in California, and interviewed youth activists at the United Nations climate summit. I am beginning a new project to investigate how Native and non-Native organizations collaborate to resist the Line 3 tar sands pipeline proposed for Minnesota. As a graduate student, I was a leader in the activist group 350 Santa Barbara, and as a professor I work to inspire my students to become activists and connect them with local climate justice organizations.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

As a senior in college, I participated in the Oxfam America Change Leader Initiative and started an Oxfam student club on my campus. Our campaign focused on women, agriculture, and climate change—themes that I first explored in my sociology courses with my feminist sociologist mentor, Professor Leontina Hormel, and while studying abroad in Ecuador. Our club partnered with Wild Idaho Rising Tide activists to alert our community to huge trucks, known as megaloads, slated to go through our town. The trucks carried machinery used to process tar sands—the most carbon intensive oil on the planet, whose extraction decimates First Nations homelands and boreal forest. I was amazed by the destruction of the tar sands and by the callousness of politicians who enable its extraction. This inspired me to dedicate my graduate studies to climate justice.

While pursuing my PhD in 2012, my scholar activist mentor, Professor John Foran, connected me with 350 Santa Barbara. As a core member of the group, I helped lead an effort to ban extreme energy extraction in our county. In one month, a horizontally organized (non-hierarchical) group of hundreds of volunteers gathered over 20,000 hand-written signatures from voters who wanted our initiative on the ballot. It was the most inspiring experience in my life—proving that people have the power to make change.

As a professor, I now have the privilege to spend hours each week sharing my passion for climate justice activism with young people who are leading our future.

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

Share your passion and encourage action! Action is the antidote to despair and environmental education can be quite depressing. Therefore, help your community develop the skills to work together and then practice those skills. Help them find other change-makers, develop relationships, value and prioritize diversity, communicate effectively and empathetically, and engage in long term strategic planning. And, don’t forget to have fun doing it!

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

As someone who grew up in the western shadow of the Teton Range of the Rocky Mountains, I know what it is to enjoy a healthy and beautiful environment. I have the privilege to call Teton Valley home. Spending time in beautiful places like this and simultaneously engaging and mobilizing new participants in climate justice activism–especially activism led by women and youth—gives me hope. Recently, I am most inspired by the work of Greta Thunberg, Climate Strike, my own students who are demanding climate justice at our school, and by people everywhere who are resisting pipelines and fossil fuels. I like to remember Rebecca Solnit’s definition of hope, from her book Hope in the Dark: “Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act.”

What pro-environmental behavior do you think would make a big impact if everyone in the world started doing it?

Activism! If everyone started organizing with their neighbors, coworkers, and school mates to engage in direct action for what we need, we could make change happen fast. Organizing is about relationships, strategic thinking, and big visions of justice. Direct action can be meeting with people in power, marching in the streets, beauty, fun, and using our bodies to disrupt capitalism—a root cause of climate change and social injustice. Again, this is what we need––it is not radical. As youth climate justice activist Anjali Appadurai has pointed out, what is radical is to change the chemical composition of the atmosphere, understand that our emissions hurt humans and the more-than-human world, and then to continue the very practices that cause the problem! Fortunately, I think more and more young people in the world today are figuring this out and taking our lives into our own hands. Join us!

 

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Chicago, IL, United States                                          SEE OTHER BIOS HERE 
Age: 30

Beatriz is a youth advocate encouraging and supporting underrepresented students along their journey in becoming environmental stewards.

Tell us about yourself!

My passion stems from working to change the narrative that surrounds the environmental field, which is limited to the history of traditional conservation, so that it better reflects and serves marginalized communities.

My current role at the Chicago Botanic Garden, managing the Science Career Continuum, consists of leading three summer out-of-school-time programs that focus on plant science and STEM. I work specifically with 6th-12th grade Chicago Public School students who are curious about learning more about the environment. The program focuses on college readiness and developing critical thinking skills. Students conduct scientific research while exploring the intersection of the environment and social justice.

Throughout my academic and professional career, I have worked as a youth advocate in the environmental field. For 10 years, I have worked for pathway programs that help alleviate barriers for underrepresented youth in the environmental field. Marginalized youth live through racial and class inequity in their learning and living environments, while also navigating ageism. I have particularly focused on developing leaders of color by redefining what it means to be a professional in the environmental field.

Overall, I believe there is a lot of value in teaching environmental education through cultural institutions. As a kid growing up in Chicago I didn’t have access to green space but had the opportunities to explore museums and similar cultural institutions. These experiences have been my most valued learning opportunities about nature and the environment.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

My first job outside of the customer service industry was working in a community garden in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. The experience at first was overwhelming and intimidating. I took the job having no previous experience gardening and limited knowledge of native Midwest plants.

Throughout that summer, I not only learned about plants but also about what it meant to be part of a community. I learned about what having access to green space through participatory community collaboration could look like. It was the first time I learned about environmental justice and the importance of having those directly affected by environmental issues at the decision-making table.

After this internship, I made the commitment to work at the intersection of environmental justice and EE. The path wasn’t clear, and I often found that there wasn’t EE curriculum that addressed how marginalized communities are disproportionately affected by their environments. With the help of mentors, professors, and environmental professionals with similar goals, I began to create a collaborative platform for curriculum building. Through my work, I try to highlight and bring visibility to community organizations that are committed to raising awareness of environmental injustices.

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

To all of those who work in EE with young people: youth deserve to feel valued, respected, and safe in the spaces where they learn, including the outdoors. In order to reach the most vulnerable communities through EE, we need to have culturally relevant environmental education practices where we take into consideration students’ safety and prior outdoor/environmental experiences.

This includes having honest conversations, amongst ourselves, about how we uphold systems of oppression in our work, in order to acknowledge the work that still needs to be done around racial equity in EE.

And especially for leaders of color, celebrate every day. Celebrate existing in every space in this world.

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

All of the students I have worked with and mentored since I started working in EE keep me hopeful for the future. They are AMAZING!

Who do you look up to as inspiration for your work?

I have the great privilege of belonging to a strong network of Latinas working in the conservation and environmental fields in Chicago. We uplift and support each other professionally and personally, and at this time in my life they are all my biggest inspiration. I am constantly inspired and amazed by their resiliency, passion, and humility. These mujeres give me the space to be myself and are a constant reminder that the Latinx community most definitely deserves to have a place in the environmental field.

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Colombo, Sri Lanka                            
Age: 28

Anoka is "Growin' Money" with mangroves and inspiring communities through hands-on learning to protect and conserve our threatened ecosystems.

Tell us about yourself!

At the age of 13 and after surviving the 2004 tsunami, I co-founded the eco-social enterprise, Growin’ Money, to conserve the mangroves in Sri Lanka. Since then, we have planted over 60,000 mangroves, and we are currently educating youth and women across Sri Lanka on community leadership, environmental conservation, eco-tourism, organic farming, and eco-entrepreneurship. Having worked with over 20,000 youth and women, I personally realized that even with a 99% literacy rate, our communities do not have financial literacy and therefore don’t understand the long-term implications of negative environmental actions. By crunching the numbers, we are able to show them what a great investment it is for them and their communities to “invest” in environmental and species conservation.

While educating and volunteering, I have been able to work with the UN, British Council, and other bodies in the corporate, public, and civil sectors in research and environmental sustainability. This experience has greatly helped me understand diverse perspectives, and has enabled me and my team to create messaging and educational material that best resonates with the community members we engage with. I am also a scholar in the University of Cambridge’s Social Innovation program, where I am learning effective ways of engaging with communities via visualization to breakdown complex concepts.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

I have always wanted to save animals, and in fact my original career goal was to become a veterinarian to treat animals for free and create a haven for stray dogs in Sri Lanka. However, the lack of public knowledge and empathy for animals, as well as surviving the tsunami and clearly understanding how important the environment is for our existence, all inspired me greatly to become an educator.

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

Look at the big picture, work with mentors, and engage community leaders. The latter has worked particularly well for us in engaging older community members in more traditional communities, where they look up to the community leaders and as a result work more respectfully with us.

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

I am hopeful for the future because of people at organizations such as NAAEE and peers in the EE 30 Under 30 community who inspire, educate, and motivate both the young and old to work together for environmental conservation and education. With efforts like this, people collaborate more and these actions go so much further.

What pro-environmental behavior do you think would make a big impact if everyone in the world started doing it?

Creating awareness through education. The majority of people wouldn’t know how many animals are going extinct because of human actions, or how many plastic bottles end up in water sources and ultimately in our food. There are children who do not know how to interact with an animal with empathy and kindness. All this can change through education and awareness to make children and adults both more enlightened and compassionate.

 

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Boston, MA, United States / Spain

2020 EE 30 Under 30 Changemaker Grant Project
Circular Cities Week 2020

The Circular Economy Club (CEC) will host its second annual Circular Cities Week in October 2020 across 140 cities with the objectives of 1) educating citizens about the circular economy model and how to build a circular city that promotes economic development, social inclusion and ends with the concept of waste and environmental impact; and 2) creating an open-source report of challenges, opportunities, and next steps for all participating cities that city officials can use to pursue local circular strategies. The condensed time frame of "Circular Cities Week" encourages a sense of urgency and purpose designed to help stakeholders learn about the circular economy model and identify opportunities, challenges, and next steps for supporting circularity at the city level.

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EE 30 Under 30 Biography
Anna founded the Circular Economy Club, a vast international network of professionals and educators working to adopt the circular economy in cities and universities worldwide.

Tell us about yourself!

I am the Founder and CEO of the Circular Economy Club (CEC), the largest international hub in the circular economy field with over 4,000 members and 240 CEC local organizers who bring the club to their cities worldwide. I am also a PhD Marketing Student at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University, where I am researching the role of the consumer within a circular economy model. For this work, I received a Fellowship from LaCaixa Foundation, which was handed by the King of Spain.

As recognition for my role in bolstering the circular economy movement internationally, I received the Ibero-American Youth Award in 2018, which was given by the Prime Minister of Spain. I was also a Finalist for the United Nations Champions of the Earth, the United Nations SDG Awards in 2018, the Global Game Changers 2018 and the 2018 edie Sustainability Leaders Awards. Previously, I was the Government & Industry Affairs Coordinator at the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) in London, and worked at the Communications and Publications Department of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in Madrid. Both organizations are the leading institutions propelling environmental and social sustainability in the tourism sector.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

In 2012, I was in a research group at the University of Alicante in Spain where I learned about the concept of the “circular economy.” The circular economy is an alternative to the linear economy in which we live in, where we currently take resources, produce, consume, and waste. The circular economy model posits that all materials should go back into the cycle, avoiding leakages that damage the environment, through donating, reselling, and recycling.

When I found out about the circular economy model, it was clear to me that this was a model that was supporting both environmental protection and economic growth. It was then that I finally had the knowledge of an economic model that could convince both companies and consumers to embrace fully sustainable practices.

I started the CEC as an online resource for everyone to learn about the circular economy model, which grew to become the non-profit that it is now. I started to give seminars and talks about circularity, and I am now completing my doctoral studies on this topic

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

To believe in the powerful tool of “decentralization.” A movement is decentralized by nature. What I learned, is that if you want to instill positive environmental change in the world, you can do it successfully if you generate a decentralized movement. The centralized organizations of the past, where all team members have to be selected by the same core team, and where all resources come from the same body, are a bottle-neck if their aim is bringing about positive change in communities.

A more effective way is decentralizing the organization so that small teams worldwide can join your mission and make it grow in their own locations. At the CEC, we started by doing events and workshops in London with a core team of three people. We launched the CEC Organizers program which allows anyone to voluntarily open up a CEC chapter in their city, and in only 2 years we have grown to having 240 CEC chapters worldwide with active teams and workshops propelling change in hundreds of cities and educational institutions.

Opening up your brand and organization to others can help your vision expand worldwide. You will use your resources much more efficiently, and you will be motivated by those active and professional supporters worldwide.

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

What fuels my motivation is being surrounded by other people who are looking for the same change in our educational institutions and the world in general. The circular economy community is a group of people that is eager to share their vision with anyone and is capable of convincing others through an environmental, but also an economic, list of arguments.

I am most motivated when I start a project with a team that I can see going beyond what we’ve done so far. I am also motivated when we do global events – decentralized events that takes place in multiple cities at the same time. This year, for example, CEC will celebrate its inaugural "Circular Cities Week" global event (Oct. 28-Nov. 3, 2019). The goal is to push, with a united voice, for the design and implementation of circular economy strategies in cities worldwide. During this week, CEC City Organizers in more than 100 cities will organize workshops to identify opportunities and next steps to encourage implementation of the circular economy in their cities. This process will include bringing in stakeholders from city governments, private and nonprofit sectors, and academia—and providing a multi-stakeholder call to action. This effort will coincide with the United Nations World Cities Day on Oct. 31.

What pro-environmental behavior do you think would make a big impact if everyone in the world started doing it?

Stop using packaging. If we all decided to only use reusable products and stop using disposable packaging, we would be able to cut out waste and the CO2 emissions generated from producing disposable materials (most of which are plastic).

 

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Toledo, OH, United States                                      SEE OTHER BIOS HERE
Age: 27

Alex is a film and media maker creating educational films on wildlife and conservation to inspire change.

Tell us about yourself!

Early on, I knew I wanted to have a career working with wildlife. However, as I went through school, I realized that math and sciences weren’t my strongest subjects. Instead, I gravitated more towards arts and media. I didn’t know how that would translate into a career until I watched Planet Earth for the first time in high school and realized that wildlife filmmaking is a real career that people have. From there I was hooked. I finally knew how I wanted to use my skills, to create films and photos that hopefully inspired people to conserve and explore the natural world around them.

I co-founded a media production company, Running Wild Media, which focuses on creating educational media content for different conservation organizations, wildlife groups, and zoological institutions. My hope with this company is that we can create engaging content that can make a positive impact for wildlife, but also educate children on environmental science, who may be having the same experience I did in school but just haven’t found a way to engage with the content yet.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

While I always have had a love for wildlife, it wasn’t until I started to realize what was happening to environments around the world that I really felt the motivation to act. I don’t know if I would call it passion or obsession, but I live to try and inspire positive change in people’s impact on the environment. The opportunity we have today to reach millions of people through video, photos, or social media is so powerful, and my goal is to learn as much as I can about environmental education and effective communication to motivate change.

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

Really take a deep look at how people are learning and consuming content. Sometimes, we need to adapt how we’re educating and meet people where they are. It could inspire them in the classroom, or inspire them on Youtube or Instagram where they like to spend their time. But also, don’t be afraid to inject your story into the content you create. It will make your content relatable and hopefully people will connect with you on a personal level and believe more in your message.

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

This is a really tough question. Not only is the conservation world rarely positive, but also the media and film industry is very tough to exist in when trying to pave your own path through it. I think it’s the moments between the exhaustion from filming and editing for months straight, when you finally release a project you’ve been working on and someone tells you they’ve connected with it. It’s those moments that inspire me to keep going. It could be one hundred people or just one person, it doesn’t matter. The exponential impact of inspiring one individual can be huge.

There’s just so much potential to reach people in today’s world and inspire positive action. That’s what keeps me hopeful.

If you had to live in one place for the rest of your life, where would it be?

Yellowstone!

 

Guatemala City, Guatemala

2020 EE 30 Under 30 Changemaker Grant Project
Reconnecting children from coastal communities for mangrove forest conservation in the Guatemalan Pacific

Implemented through Semillas del Océano, the project will reconnect children from schools along the Guatemalan Pacific coast with local mangroves, to ignite their curiosity about the environment and community conservation actions. Through environmental education and a citizen science program, students will be empowered to collect their own data and share conservation messages with their own communities. Using both the mangrove and an educational laboratory, activities will center around raising awareness, making observations, experimentation and analysis, and student empowerment.

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EE 30 Under 30 Biography
Alerick is sowing the seeds of marine conservation through environmental education in Guatemala.

Tell us about yourself!

I was born in a small village in northern Guatemala, surrounded by rivers and mountains. Although kilometers away from the ocean, I was always connected to it through documentaries and movies such as those on Discovery Channel and, of course, Finding Nemo! My attraction to marine life took me to study Aquaculture at the State University of San Carlos (which is was closest career to marine biology), and, ironically, I didn’t meet the ocean until I was 17. Realizing how much we were destroying the ocean, I decided to found the nonprofit organization Semillas del Océano (SDO, “Seeds of the Ocean” in English) when I was 24, which focuses on using education, science, and community action to promote the sustainable use of the ocean and its marine life.

I am the current CEO of SDO, and in the past three years we’ve been able to implement programs that focus on the reduction of marine debris, where we teach children, youth and teachers how to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. These programs have included building a school classroom with "eco-bricks" (plastic bottles filled with non-recyclable plastic), the installation of exchange stores where students can bring recyclable materials and exchange them for food, beach and river cleanups, and training “replicators of change” (trained teachers who have the opportunity to learn about community mapping and the method to plan environmental campaigns).

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

At first, none of us would think that we will become champions for the environment. Nonetheless, it is not until you realize how the people you’ve reached through environmental education have changed, that you understand the huge impact that you have had on them and the environment.

I was inspired to become an environmental education because I truly believe that education is the key to change people and to have a better and more sustainable future. I enjoy spending time creating new projects and programs that bring knowledge, perceptions, and positive attitudes about topics that otherwise my audience will never be able to understand or care about.

But, beyond that, it is the opportunity to touch people’s lives and be a source of inspiration for them, so that they can ignite their own environmentalist passion!

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

Never give up! You’ll find that a lot of people don’t think of education as a way to create a real and positive impact in people, often because they want immediate results or don’t see education as the science that it is. Nonetheless, we now know that through evaluation methods, we can prove real change in our audiences. I recommend always looking for methods to evaluate the impact of your programs, and opportunities to innovate! Take examples from amazing educators all around the globe, and adapt their ideas to your own context.

Finally, don’t forget what Baba Dioum said: “In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.” This is our job!

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

There is nothing more inspirational to me than seeing people taking action towards nature as a result of environmental education! For me, education transcends to action. Every time someone takes action to protect or benefit nature, I feel motivated and inspired to continue with my work.

What pro-environmental behavior do you think would make a big impact if everyone in the world started doing it?

Reducing overconsumption. 

I believe that pollution caused by solid waste is due to our overconsumption. We demand a lot of products but don’t think about what happens to them after we use them. Because of this, a lot of these materials end up in natural places such as rives and the oceans, killing animals and polluting ecosystems.

If we could stop our overconsumption and promote reusing, we would reduce our impact and save many species from extinction. Not to mention, we would also have a better and more sustainable way of living – one that coexists in harmony with our environment. 

 

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2021 EE 30 Under 30 Changemaker Grant Project
Empower Rural Women Leaders for Climate Action

Rural populations and most particularly women in rural India have greater vulnerability to the impacts of environmental degradation and climate change. They also have different perspectives, concerns, and ideas for change. For environmental sustainability and to develop climate resilience, this project aims to train elected women leaders at the grassroots level with knowledge about and tools to address prevailing environmental concerns, to equip them to make informed decisions for their communities and even integrate climate actions into the annual plans of the local government where these women are leaders.

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EE 30 Under 30 Biography

Kolkata, India                                          
Age: 29

Ajay is a passionate youth leader on a mission to educate the masses about air pollution, climate change, and sustainability.

Tell us about yourself!

I currently lead Kolkata Clean Air, a citizen- and community-led initiative that works to address the issue of air pollution in Kolkata. In a very short time span, Kolkata Clean Air has become a leading initiative for environmental action in the city and now engages a network of over 30 organizations and thousands of citizens. My role involves community awareness and education through various forms of engagement such as events, workshops, campaigns, theater, and more. My role also involves visiting schools and colleges to deliver sessions on climate change and sustainability. I am also a member of the Global Shapers Community (an initiative of the World Economic Forum) and am a trained Climate Reality Leader.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?

Over the past few years, I realized the link between the environment, poverty, and severe health issues. I strongly believe addressing climate change is the most important thing we can do, and education will play a very key role as this is a fight we cannot win alone. We all win or lose together. Education is the only way to build more awareness and imbibe a sense of consciousness amongst everyone to be more responsible in their daily actions and it impact on the planet.

What advice would you give to the next generation of leaders that are looking to bring about positive change in their communities through EE?

Never lose an opportunity to build awareness and educate people and don’t focus on the scary, negative images of climate change. We need to build hope and enable people with tools and solutions to be part of the change. Everyone cares, we just need to involve them.

What keeps you motivated, inspired, or hopeful for the future?

We live in a world where we have built technology and solutions that have the possibility to bring about change at a scale that was never before possible. The young people today have a strong drive to seek purpose and meaning in their lives. I feel optimistic, in spite of all the science telling us we have reached a point of no return. Talking to young people in schools and colleges during my presentations gives me hope that they will commit to take action. I believe our future is in safe hands.

What pro-environmental behavior do you think would make a big impact if everyone in the world started doing it?

I strongly believe that we need to not just teach people specific ideas or actions, but rather establish awareness about our connections with the environment and how strongly we coexist. We need everyone to consciously, with every breath, remember that every breath is a transaction with a tree outside. What we exhale they inhale, and what we inhale comes from them. People need to be conscious about their daily actions and their impact on the planet. Don’t make everyone pay for your choice – what you choose for yourself is your business, but you have no right to make everyone pay for the consequences.

 It is very powerful when we all collectively realize the impact of our actions, and then specific actions for the environment become more feasible.

 

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Ottawa, ON, Canada                                            SEE OTHER BIOS HERE
Age: 29

Adam leads a national environmental education network in Canada, connecting people and creating curriculum on climate change and sustainability. 

Tell us about yourself!

I currently am the Chair of the Canadian Network for Environmental Education & Communication (EECOM), Canada’s national network of environmental learning. As a Board Director for the last three years, I have helped with our annual conferences, awards, communications, and strategic planning. One of the most exciting initiatives I am currently involved in is discussions on integrating Reconciliation within our organization, as well as the broader EE community in Canada.

In my day job I am a Youth Program Specialist with Scouts Canada. I started my career there leading STEM and environmental programming, and now head a program promoting the Sustainable Development Goals across our membership. I work alongside many volunteers, environmental non-profits, and other partners who are helping us explore how to fight climate change, reduce inequality, and eradicate poverty through domestic and international Scouting. Before joining the Scouts, I worked at the Canada Science & Technology Museum and created a series of lesson plans on climate change adaptation and mitigation, as well as some energy literacy projects.

I have witnessed a lot of great programming, curriculum, and organizations taking up environmental education within the K-12 and nonformal education systems. I worked across Canada looking at sustainability practices in schools during my Master’s research at the Sustainability & Education Policy Network in Saskatchewan. I also have taught environmental education in elementary classrooms and for university student teachers, and led groups of international students through Canada’s Rocky Mountains the last ten years.

What inspired you to become a champion for environmental education?