Resource Type: Evaluation & Measuring Progress

From June 2018-May 2019, PennEnvironment conducted a test on how personal phone contact (when layered on top of email and SMS contact) affects volunteer recruitment rates with the goal of maximizing staff time efficiency. In particular, they were interested in finding their organization’s break-even point in which their traditional model of personal phone contacts (which is effective, though time-consuming) is matched by digital-only contact (which yields participation, though at lower rates). With a subject pool of 37794 individuals drawn from inactive past supporters and newly recruited volunteers, which were then randomly selected into one of the two experimental groups, PennEnvironment found that the base rate for volunteer sign-ups from electronic contact was 0.002 shifts per contact sent. Layering in phone contact increased this rate to 0.3 additional shifts per call.

In November 2018, residents of Portland, Oregon, made history by passing The Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), a breakthrough initiative that will raise an estimated $44-$61 million annually to support local clean energy and economic justice initiatives. The fund passed with 65 percent of the vote and support from a long list of local businesses and community organizations, including faith leaders, labor unions, and more. This Executive Summary captures toplines on what the campaign learned about what it takes to win.

82% of respondents said that the US government should do at least a moderate amount about global warming—an all-time high for public opinion on the issue. 70% of respondents (across all categories) believe that the US government, governments in other countries, businesses, or average people should do more to deal with climate change. 75% of respondents said they had personally observed effects of global warming. 64% of respondents said that world temperatures had been higher during the past three years than before—an all-time high and a 10 percentage point increase from 2018. 43% of respondents said that weather patterns in the county where they lived were more unstable during the last three years than before that.

The environmental movement must find ways of representing the hopes and aspirations not only of our traditional base, not only of our actual, quite diverse electoral base, but also of Indigenous and Black diaspora communities and communities of color already on our side, whom we have so far been unable to serve effectively.  In this spirit, the Green Leadership Trust offers the following guidance to align the performance of our leader towards equity and inclusion aimed at building the power we need to win.

As the founding Director of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (a non-profit) transitions out of leadership, he shares reflections and resources related to cultural strategy and responding to the question, how might we build creative people-power to respond to the social and ecological crises of our times and to advance practices, narratives, and policies for a more liberatory world?

This case study summarizes some of the key points from NY Renews’ evidence-based approach to winning the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act, pulling from interviews with organizers and advocates, coalition documents, and news coverage.

While partisanship remains the predominant dividing line in many views of climate and the environment, there are meaningful differences within party coalitions. Republicans and Republican leaners who describe their political views as moderate or liberal (roughly a third of all Republicans and leaners) are much more likely than conservative Republicans to see local impacts of climate change, support policies to address it and say the federal government is doing too little in areas of environmental protection. Further, younger generations and women in the GOP tend to be more critical of government action on the environment than their older and male counterparts. Republican women also are more supportive of polices aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change than GOP men.             

     
Review of research on the equity implications of a clean energy transition (how such a transition could negatively impact some groups and communities), and ‘just transition’ policies meant to abate those effects. The literature suggests that energy and climate policies and programs must specifically embed equity and social justice within climate change mitigation goals and emphasize commitments to job training and economic development to support those folks adversely affected by the transition away from fossil fuels to new, renewable sources of energy. (As Climate Justice Alliance phrases it, “Transition is inevitable. Justice is not.”)    

For Republicans, belief in global warming per se is less of a sticking point (most think it’s happening, including 47% of conservative Republicans), whereas accepting that it’s human caused remains less common (only 30% of conservative Republicans). This report provides an analysis of public opinion data about the views of Democratic, Independent, and Republican voters registered on global warming, climate and energy policies, and personal collective action. Results show that the majority of registered voters believe that global warming is real (75%) and caused by human action (61%).