The Time is Now
THE NEED:
The Oregon Environmental Council had several key pieces of legislation around climate change that had the potential to impact not only the state, but influence all future environmental policies around the country. We needed to overcome strong opposition, which included a $2 million campaign funded by Big Oil, and receive bipartisan support from elected officials throughout Oregon.
OBJECTIVES:
Our main objective was to pass the Clean Fuels Program with support from Democrats and Republicans alike during the 2015 legislative season. We also wanted to recruit grassroots support from communities of color, young activists, partner organizations, and business owners.
TACTICS:
In order to achieve the objectives, the following tactics were used:
Hold community events and strategic meetings to write bills with full support from key allies, including the Coalition of Communities of Color, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, the Latino Network, the NAACP, Oregon Wild, and more.
Write Op-Eds on local, regional, and national publications, including the Oregonian, the Portland Tribune, and Huffington Post Green.
Recruit and train a board of millennial community leaders to host conversation-driven events across the country.
Host multiple lobby days and lead efforts for the People’s Climate March.
Recruit signatories from businesses and corporations for a Business Climate Declaration to illustrate the state business community’s strong support for taking action to address climate change at the state and regional level.
RESULTS:
Published multiple Op-Eds and essays on behalf of our executive staff, board of directors, volunteers, and partners in media publications which reached over 2 million readers.
Recruited over 80 companies to sign the Oregon Business Climate Declaration, including Nike, the Port of Portland, Skansa, Cambia Health, and many more.
Helped fully develop the Emerging Leaders Board, working and advisory board to Oregon Environmental Council. Through this program, we produced Op-Eds from community leaders, signature fundraising events, and community programs to serve diverse communities.
Won the support of every nearly environmental and social justice organization in the state of Oregon.
Produced “The Time is Now,” a short film narrated by award-winning author, Cheryl Strayed (Wild)
Passed the historic Clean Fuels Program with bipartisan support.
Increased donors and volunteers by 150% during the campaign.
Led the largest environmental march in Oregon’s history
The Time is Now
A short film, narrated by Cheryl Strayed
The People’s Climate March
In September, 2014, we helped lead the largest environmental rally in the history of Oregon. It was held in solidarity with over 1,500 organizations, including many international and national unions, churches, schools and community and environmental justice organization across the country. Over 600,000 people marched around the world, bringing important attention and support to critical environmental legislation.
Recruiting businesses to get business done.
We held multiple strategic events to recruit the state’s largest employers to put pressure on the legislature.
Making change sustainable.
After passing the historic Clean Fuels Program, we created an appreciation campaign to thank our champions at the state legislature and hosted private gathering with Governor Kate Brown as well as multiple state senators. The generated goodwill helped create enthusiasm for our future bills.