Green PR

PRSA-LA

Green PR – a half-day, in-person seminar for communicators.

RAND Corporation

A half-day seminar of speakers and panels describing the latest thinking, strategies and issues facing companies and organizations in communicating their sustainability efforts, compliance with a growing number of regulations, responding to consumer demands for more sustainability products or operations, how to answer accusations of “greenwashing” or respond to allegations of “woke capitalism” and more. Our opening session is with David Fenton, founder of Fenton Communications, one of PR Week’s 100 most influential PR people, and considered a pioneer in social-cause public relations. Attendees will get a copy of his recent book – “The Activist’s Media Handbook.” Our luncheon speaker is Magali (Maggie) Delmas, Professor of Management at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA Anderson School of Management, a foremost expert on corporate sustainability reporting. Maggie and her colleagues have recently released a “Transparency Index” into corporate sustainability. Pricing:Early bird rate: PRSALA members $200. Nonmembers $275Regular rate: PRSALA members $275. Nonmembers $345. PRSSA Students $25 Lunch session only: PRSALA members $50. Nonmembers $65. PRSSA Students $15. Speakers are:

David-FentonDavid Fenton, named “one of the 100 most influential P.R. people” by PR Week and “the Robin Hood of public relations” by The National Journal, founded Fenton in 1982 to create communications campaigns for the environment, public health and human rights. For more than five decades he has pioneered the use of PR, social media and advertising techniques for social change. Fenton started his career as a photojournalist in the late 1960s – his book Shots: An American Photographer’s Journal was published in 2005. He was formerly director of public relations at Rolling Stone magazine and co-producer of the No-Nukes concerts in 1979 at Madison Square Garden with Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and other artists. He has also helped create JStreet, Climate Nexus, the Death Penalty Information Center, and Families for a Future. He sold Fenton a few years ago to work on climate change full time. 

Magali Delmas is a Professor of Management at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and the Anderson School of Management. She is the director of the UCLA Center for Corporate Environmental Performance and the Center for Impact@Anderson. She was the President of the Alliance for Research in Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) from 2014 to 2017, an organization that serves as a vehicle for advancing rigorous academic research on corporate sustainability issues. Her research interests are primarily in the areas of Business strategy and Corporate Sustainability. Magali Delmas has written more than 90 articles, book chapters and case studies on business and the natural environment. She is the recipient of the Academy of Management/Organization and the Natural Environment Distinguished Scholar Award. She works on developing effective information strategies to promote conservation behavior and the development of green markets. Here is a short video of her recent work on green consumers, and a link to her recent book: The Green Bundle: Pairing the Market with the Planet published at Stanford Press. 

Eliza Ruggiero provides ongoing strategic communications and investor relations counsel to clients during special situations, including mergers and acquisitions, business transformations, shareholder activism defense and proxy contests. Eliza brings an analytical approach to her work, helping clients across a range of industries assess and develop stakeholder communications programs that effectively build and protect value.
In addition to her special situations work, Eliza is passionate about advising clients on the implementation of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) communications and disclosure programs. Eliza brings extensive experience advising clients on the development of ESG reports, assessing ESG ratings and rankings, helping clients enhance ESG disclosure, implementing reporting frameworks and supporting constructive engagement with shareholders on ESG issues and proposals. (https://abernathy.h-advisors.global/portrait/eliza-ruggiero/)

Erik Olvera is an accomplished communications strategist with more than 20 years of experience working with several of the nation’s leading environmental, LGBTQ, racial justice and voting rights organizations. He currently serves as Fenton’s Chief of Issue Advocacy, providing organizations focused on advocacy, politics and social justice with communications strategy and support to achieve their goals through campaigns that increase awareness, shape public discourse and build loyalty with new audiences. Prior to joining Fenton, he served as the Chief Communications Officer at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), where he oversaw all aspects of the racial justice organization’s legal and public policy communications. While there, he provided strategic guidance as the organization looked toward its future and led several projects to deepen the legacy organization’s work with the communities that it serves. Before SPLC, he was the head of communications for environmentalist Tom Steyer’s GOTV and political organizations, where he helped develop the Need to Impeach movement. He previously served as the Senior Director of Communications for Earthjustice, where he was responsible for shaping discourse for the organization’s legal and public policy work. The Regis University alumnus also spent several years leading communications for the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), where he worked on a wide range of LGBTQ legislation and legal cases. Some of his work at NCLR includes designing the Born Perfect public education campaign to end conversion therapy on minors nationwide and developing the communications plan that helped lead to the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court marriage equality victory. (https://fenton.com/expert/erik-olvera/)

Erin Curtis, Vice President, Fiona Hutton &amp; Associates
Issue Areas: Water and Natural Resources, Climate, Air Quality, Renewable Energy, Environmental Regulations, Public Lands, Higher Education, Federal, State &amp; Local Government
Expertise: Strategic Media Engagement, Reputation Management, Message Development, Crisis Communications, Policy Development &amp; Advocacy, Stakeholder Engagement, Issue Campaigns, Event Planning
Recognition: Associated Press – local journalism awards; National Council for Marketing &amp; Public Relations District Communicator of the Year
Affiliations: California Public Information Officials; PRSA California Capital Chapter; Phi Delta Kappa; California Community Colleges Public Relations Association (former); Association of California Community College Administrators (former); National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (former); National Institute for Leadership Development (Leaders 2004)


Aurora Winslade serves as Edison International’s director of Sustainability where she is responsible for the company’s sustainability strategy, goals and programs, publication of the annual sustainability report, sustainability disclosures, and serving as a key sustainability spokesperson for one of the nation’s largest all electric utilities that is helping lead the transformation of the electric industry towards a clean energy future. She previously was the director of the Office of Sustainability at Stanford University, where she led the effort to advance operational sustainability across the university, realize the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 and zero waste by 2030, and launched the Living Lab Fellowship Program for Sustainability in collaboration with Doerr School of Sustainability. Prior to Stanford, Aurora was the director of Sustainability at Swarthmore College, where she built and led the Office of Sustainability and launched new programs such as “To Zero by Thirty-Five: Swarthmore’s Carbon-Free Future Plan to Eliminate Swarthmore’s Carbon Emissions by 2035”; the college’s zero waste program; the award-winning Carbon Charge program; and the President’s Sustainability Research Fellowship program. Previously, she has built, led, and redesigned sustainability and energy programs for the University of Hawaii System, Hawaii Energy, and the University of California Santa Cruz. She also co-founded and teaches in an international certificate program in “Social Entrepreneurship and Leading Change” with the Bard College Sustainable MBA program, where she has been an instructor in the #1-Ranked Green MBA program in the U.S. (according to Princeton Review) since 2017. Aurora holds an MBA from Duke University and a Bachelor of Arts, Agriculture, Ecology &amp; Political Economy from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dr. Howard Botts is CoreLogic’s Chief Scientist and Executive leader of the Science and Analytics team. Dr. Botts leads climate change and natural hazard science, data science, and geo-spatial professionals who generate and maintain solutions for the insurance, real estate, capital markets, mortgage, banking, and energy industries. With more than 30 years of experience in geo-spatial modeling, Dr. Botts is a recognized expert in developing natural hazard risk solutions and his work has been published extensively. He frequently presents to business and professional organizations on a variety of topics, climate change impacts on the real estate ecosystem, natural hazard risk, and weather forensics. Dr. Botts earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts degree in geography from California State University at Northridge and received a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.Who should attend: This session is designed for any and all communications professionals – from public relations, investor relations and marketing -- at all levels, including executives.

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Green PR

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Green PR

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