Menu

Rotary

Jason & Ekoshower

Project Teaser: Jason Ringelstetter on Saving Water with Every Shower

What if your shower could save water automatically? Jason Ringelstetter introduces EKO Shower, a product in development that turns water off when you step away and warms up your shower before use. Designed to work with your existing showerhead or wand, the battery-powered device aims to reduce water waste, energy use, and household costs. With a working prototype and two U.S. patents, the team is preparing for manufacturing and exploring partnerships to bring this everyday conservation tool to market.

Presented October 8, 2026.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

Barry Rassin WordPress with wikipedia Dorian & Mangrove planting Commons pix

Rising Tides, Rising to the Occasion: Rotary’s Climate Reckoning with Barry Rassin

At the largest event of Earth Talks Giving Season, former Rotary International President Barry Rassin brought the climate crisis home, connecting rising seas, stronger disasters, polluted water, and damaged ecosystems with something Rotary knows how to do: organize people to solve difficult problems.

For Barry Rassin, rising seas are not an abstraction on a chart. He can see the change from the road near his home in The Bahamas.

That firsthand perspective gave unusual weight to Rising Tides, Rising to the Occasion: Rotary’s Climate Reckoning, the featured presentation at the biggest event of Earth Talks Giving Season on October 1, 2026. Rassin challenged Rotarians to understand the scale of environmental change while refusing to stop at the problem. His larger message was about capacity: Rotary already has people, partnerships, grants, local knowledge, and experience responding when communities are in crisis.

Emcee Wade Nomura guided the international gathering and subsequent question-and-answer session, connecting Rassin’s message to the larger mission of the Earth Talks Foundation and Earth Network Rotary Club.

The result was not simply a presentation about climate change. It was a conversation about what a global service organization can do next.

Climate Change Becomes Real When It Reaches Home

Rassin began with water.

Across the world, he said, communities face shrinking or polluted lakes and rivers, drought, fires, rising seas, coastal flooding, and increasingly difficult questions about how people will live when the natural systems they depend upon change. He cited examples from the Aral Sea and Lake Chad to the Great Salt Lake, Ganges River, Pacific island nations, and low-lying coastal communities.

But the presentation became especially personal when he turned to The Bahamas.

Key Takeaways

  • Rising seas turn climate science into an immediate human, economic, and public-health challenge.
  • Rotary’s disaster experience offers a foundation for stronger climate resilience and recovery.
  • Environmental projects can grow through grants, scientific expertise, business relationships, and community partnerships.
  • Rotaractors, young Rotary service leaders, should help lead environmental programs, not simply serve as project volunteers.
  • Local action becomes more powerful when Rotary’s global network connects people, knowledge, and resources.

Rassin lives in a nation of hundreds of islands, much of it only slightly above sea level. On his regular drive into Nassau, he passes Saunders Beach, where boulders were placed years ago to protect the shoreline from erosion. During a recent king tide, he said, roughly 80 percent of those boulders were underwater.

For him, that made sea-level rise visible.

The consequences extend well beyond disappearing beaches. Rassin described saltwater contamination of freshwater supplies, coral damage from hotter ocean water, flooding, displacement, and the extraordinary vulnerability of island communities.

He also connected environmental change to human health and livelihoods. When freshwater becomes contaminated, reefs decline, fisheries suffer, or communities repeatedly flood, the environmental problem becomes a public-health, food-security, economic, and humanitarian problem as well.

Leadership Starts by Making the Problem Personal

Rassin brought an unusual combination of experience to the conversation. He served as President of Rotary International in 2018–2019, leading and motivating a global network of tens of thousands of Rotary and Rotaract clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. He later served as Chair of The Rotary Foundation in 2023–2024, after previous service as a Rotary International director, Foundation trustee and vice-chair, and District 7020 governor.

His career outside Rotary adds another dimension. Rassin spent 38 years with Doctors Hospital Health System in Nassau, retiring as president after helping grow the organization from 11 employees to approximately 600. The hospital became the first in the region to receive international accreditation. He was also the first Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives in The Bahamas.

His humanitarian work includes helping found HANWASH, the Haiti National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy, an ambitious, long-term effort designed to expand access to safe water and sanitation across Haiti.

Those experiences matter because Rassin has seen both large institutions and devastated communities from the inside. He has managed organizations, mobilized volunteers, worked across borders, and participated in recovery after major disasters.

The environmental challenge, he argued, now requires Rotary to bring those same capabilities to another global problem.

Disaster Response Shows What Organized Service Can Accomplish

Few parts of Rassin’s presentation were more powerful than his account of Hurricane Dorian, which devastated parts of The Bahamas in 2019.

He described the enormous storm surge, the destruction in Abaco and Grand Bahama, and the human consequences behind disaster statistics. In one particularly painful story, a friend clung to a coconut tree during the storm while trying unsuccessfully to hold onto his wife as the water swept her away.

“Happening in our environment loses lives. It isn’t just about the destruction of the property. People are losing lives,” Rassin said.

The disaster also demonstrated what an international service network can do after catastrophe.

Rotary members mobilized assistance, sent supplies, helped provide emergency drinking water, supported schools and communities, and assisted with longer-term economic recovery. Rassin said Rotary has spent more than $7 million on post-Dorian work in Abaco and Freeport, while Rotarians in Florida helped send more than 250 tons of supplies.

In Freeport, Rotary-supported projects went beyond immediate relief. After boats were washed inland, Rotary helped fishermen repair vessels and obtain new engines so they could return to work, provide protein for residents, and begin rebuilding the local economy.

“That’s what Rotary does. We get together, we help each other,” Rassin said.

Recovery, he emphasized, also means recognizing psychological trauma. Food, water, shelter, and infrastructure are essential, but communities emerging from catastrophe may also need mental-health support for years afterward.

“That's what Rotary does. We get together; we help each other.” Barry Rassin

That experience offers an important lesson for climate resilience. Communities need emergency response, but they also need preparation, stronger systems, restored livelihoods, safe water, functioning schools, and partnerships capable of staying after international attention moves elsewhere.

Rotary Already Has Tools for Environmental Action

Rassin’s presentation did not end with disaster. It moved toward possibility.

Rotary officially recognizes supporting the environment as an area of focus, opening opportunities for clubs and districts to develop projects and seek global grants. Yet Rassin noted that environmental projects remain comparatively underused within that grant structure.

The opportunity, he suggested, is to connect Rotary’s existing strengths with environmental needs.

He pointed to mangrove restoration that can help protect coastlines and marine life. He described Rotary-supported work involving reefs, water systems, river cleanup, disaster response, and partnerships with scientists and environmental organizations.

One example captured his optimism particularly well. After hearing about the possibility of pumping colder deep-ocean water toward shallower reefs stressed by heat, Rassin contacted a Rotarian known for innovative thinking. Within a day, conversations with scientists had begun about whether the idea could be tested.

“I’ve always found when Rotary dreams about something, we make it happen,” Rassin said. “So I’m a dreamer.”

The point was not that every experimental idea will succeed. It was that Rotary can provide something environmental solutions often need: people willing to convene experts, test possibilities, raise resources, and translate an idea into a project.

“I've always found when Rotary dreams about something, we make it happen.” Barry Rassin

Rassin also stressed partnership. Governments, environmental organizations, universities, scientists, businesses, communities, Rotary districts, and clubs each bring different capabilities. During the Q&A, he encouraged Rotary districts and zones to engage companies rather than waiting for Rotary International to initiate every relationship.

“We talk to ourselves,” he observed, arguing that Rotary should talk much more with the corporate world about what can be accomplished together.

The Next Generation Should Lead, Not Just Help

The question-and-answer session broadened the conversation from projects to participation.

Rassin urged clubs to listen more closely to Rotaractors and other younger leaders who bring environmental knowledge, creativity, urgency, and different ways of thinking.

His point went beyond recruiting young people to carry out projects designed by others. He called for sharing leadership itself.

“I’d like to see every Rotary Club turn to their Rotaract Clubs and ask them and listen to them about what they think we should be doing for our environment,” Rassin said. “Let’s use our Rotaractors, absolutely. And not as workers, but as leaders.”

That shift could be consequential. Environmental challenges will unfold over decades, meaning many of the people who will live longest with decisions made today are precisely those who should have a meaningful role in shaping the response.

Rassin also encouraged clubs to recognize opportunities close to home, from pollinator protection and plastic reduction to partnerships with local industries and larger environmental projects. A club does not have to begin with a multimillion-dollar initiative. It can begin by understanding a problem, building expertise, finding partners, and then growing.

The same principle applies to Earth Talks itself: knowledge becomes more valuable when people connect it to action. During the event, Nomura highlighted efforts including pollinator habitats, plant-rich food choices, renewable energy, river cleanup, and projects designed to help communities adapt to climate change.

He also announced that Giving Season supporters had already brought the organization to 89 percent of its fundraising goal for the coming 12 months, helping sustain educational programming, connections, and practical environmental action.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Rassin’s challenge to Rotary was ambitious, but it was not abstract.

Start locally. Clubs can identify an environmental problem their community actually experiences, whether that is water quality, plastics, habitat loss, pollinator decline, coastal resilience, waste, or disaster preparedness.

Then build partnerships. Rotary does not need to become the scientific expert on every issue. It can bring scientists, governments, businesses, nonprofits, young leaders, and communities to the same table, then use its organizational experience to help turn expertise into action.

Think beyond emergency relief. Disaster response remains essential, but resilience also means safe water, restored livelihoods, functioning schools, healthy ecosystems, mental-health support, and preparation before the next emergency arrives.

Use Rotary’s financial infrastructure. Environmental projects can make use of district and global grants, and successful local initiatives can sometimes grow into larger programs. Rassin’s experience with HANWASH demonstrates both the difficulty and potential of moving from a project measured in thousands of dollars to an initiative measured in millions.

Most importantly, widen the circle of leadership. Invite Rotaractors and young people to design and lead environmental programs rather than simply asking them to volunteer.

The climate challenge is enormous. Rassin’s message was that Rotary’s response can also grow.

That is the deeper meaning of rising to the occasion: not assuming one club, one donor, or one project can solve a planetary problem, but recognizing what becomes possible when millions of people act through trusted networks, shared knowledge, and sustained partnerships.

About This Earth Talk

Presenter: Barry Rassin, O.D., F.A.C.H.E., M.B.A., C.Dir.
Barry Rassin served as President of Rotary International in 2018–2019 and Chair of The Rotary Foundation in 2023–2024. A longtime member of the Rotary Club of East Nassau, he has served Rotary in numerous senior leadership roles. He retired as president of Doctors Hospital Health System in Nassau after a 38-year career and is a founder of HANWASH, the Haiti National Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy. His humanitarian honors include The Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award and Rotary International’s Service Above Self Award.

Emcee: Wade Nomura
Wade Nomura is a Past District Governor, Rotary International President’s Representative, and Rotary Foundation Cadre leader. He has helped review more than 200 humanitarian projects and participated in more than 50 international Rotary missions. An experienced international speaker who has worked directly with Barry Rassin, Nomura brought his knowledge of Rotary service, humanitarian projects, and storytelling to his role as emcee for this special Giving Season event.

Date presented: October 1, 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link
📖 Read the Blog: Link

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Kendrick-Hands Green Event Project Teaser

Project Teaser: Karen Kendrick-Hands with the Green Events Handbook

Karen Kendrick-Hands introduces the Green Events Handbook, a practical resource for making Rotary gatherings more environmentally responsible. She highlights approachable ways to reduce an event’s footprint—from minimizing waste and choosing local, plant-forward food to considering travel, venues, paper use, and carbon emissions. Drawing on her experience as a co-founder of ESRAG, Karen offers event planners concrete ideas they can apply to meetings and events of any size.

Presented September 24, 2026.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

Link to the Green Events Handbook

Robyn and Chilliwack Rotary

Climate Action that Inspires and Attracts with Robyn Curtis

The Rotary Club of Chilliwack started its Climate Change Action Group with just 10 concerned members. Five years later, its practical, welcoming approach is creating local and global projects, new partnerships, and an unexpected pathway into Rotary.

Climate action can feel overwhelming when the problem is global but the people ready to help are working at the community level. For Robyn Curtis, Chair of the Rotary Club of Chilliwack’s Climate Change Action Group (CCAG), the answer was not to wait for the perfect project. It was simply to begin.

Curtis joined Rotary after looking for a place to contribute to climate work. When Rotary made protecting the environment its seventh area of focus, she saw an opportunity. With Dr. Tim Cooper and a small group of fellow Rotarians, she helped launch CCAG in 2021.

The group began with 10 people who shared a concern about climate change but were not yet sure what they could accomplish. Today, nearly 150 people are on its distribution list, and its projects stretch from schools and farms in British Columbia to communities in Uganda.

Start Somewhere, Then Build

CCAG deliberately concentrates on climate change mitigation, actions that reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions. But its projects show how broad that mission can become.

Members have helped Chilliwack plant 17,000 heat-resistant trees, established a climate-related university scholarship, developed elementary-school educational resources, supported youth-created climate videos, and found homes for 200,000 surplus red cedar seedlings that otherwise

Key Takeaways

  • Start with willing people and achievable projects rather than waiting for a perfect climate strategy.
  • Opening climate projects to nonmembers can strengthen community participation and attract future Rotary members.
  • Partnerships with schools, governments, businesses, and experts can multiply a volunteer group’s impact.
  • Climate projects can generate unexpected benefits in education, health, livelihoods and community relationships.
  • A “climate conscience” can embed sustainability into everyday organizational decisions.

The group also created a carbon compensation program for Rotary-related travel, organizes public education about heat pumps, supports solar energy projects, writes educational articles, and participates in municipal and regional advisory discussions.

Instead of requiring every idea to be invented from scratch, Curtis encourages other Rotary clubs to borrow what works. Her playful version of “R&D” is “Rob and Duplicate,” an invitation to adapt successful projects to local circumstances and improve them.

Open the Door Before Asking People to Join

One of CCAG’s most consequential decisions was also one of its simplest: people do not need to be Rotarians to participate. Only about a quarter of the group’s members are Rotarians, Curtis said, and that openness has turned climate action into a recruitment pathway.

“We actually discovered it’s become one of the strongest recruitment tools for our club,” Curtis said. People may initially come because they are looking for somewhere to work on climate solutions. Once involved, they discover Rotary’s wider service mission and some ultimately join the club.

That model changes the traditional sequence. Instead of asking someone to become a member before participating, CCAG gives people a meaningful way to contribute first. It also welcomes those for whom formal Rotary membership may be a barrier.

“It’s become one of the strongest recruitment tools for our club.” Robyn Curtis

The approach recently earned the club an innovative membership award in its district. More importantly, it shows how environmental service can connect organizations with people actively looking for practical ways to contribute.

Climate Projects Create Unexpected Ripples

Some of CCAG’s most powerful results were not part of the original plan. The group’s climate fairs, for example, combined public education, a trade show, speakers, and a career fair. Vendors helped fund the events, allowing proceeds to support a project in Uganda involving reforestation, cleaner-burning Lorena cookstoves and community education.

Curtis described additional benefits reported by the group’s Ugandan partner, including changes in household responsibilities as cleaner cooking reduced the time required to gather fuel. A visit to Chilliwack’s recycling depot also helped inspire a recycling initiative in Masindi, Uganda.

“This wasn’t even part of the project; it’s just planting the seed,” Curtis said.

The experience illustrates a broader lesson: bringing people together around one environmental challenge can create relationships that lead to solutions elsewhere. Climate projects can become platforms for education, health, livelihoods, community participation and new partnerships.

CCAG has seen similar effects at home. Its growing presence has led to invitations to participate in planning conversations where Rotary had not traditionally been represented, including transportation and zero-emission mobility discussions.

Build a Climate Conscience Into Everyday Decisions

CCAG is now looking ahead to more youth education, solar guidance, electric-vehicle education, agricultural innovation and professional engagement. One project connects Simon Fraser University’s work on agrivoltaics, combining agriculture with solar generation, with local farmers and Indigenous communities. Another helped connect farms with a pilot program recycling agricultural plastics.

Curtis believes Rotary’s greatest strengths include relationships and the ability to connect people with complementary skills. In the presentation’s Q&A, she also suggested a broader principle for organizations trying to respond to climate change: develop a “climate conscience.”

“Whatever we’re doing, we think about how the climate conscience is thinking about how we do it,” she said.

That could mean reducing disposable materials at conferences, avoiding unnecessary travel, reconsidering purchasing choices, or simply asking whether an existing project could be delivered with a smaller footprint.

“Whatever we’re doing, we think about how the climate conscience is thinking about how we do it.” Robyn Curtis

For Curtis, this is not about making climate action compete with other service priorities. It is about weaving environmental awareness into work already underway, so that many small decisions begin moving in the same direction.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

The Chilliwack experience offers a replicable model for clubs and community organizations that want to act but are unsure where to start.

Begin with willing people rather than a perfect strategy. Bring scientists and technical specialists to the table, but also invite educators, communicators, farmers, businesspeople, and community connectors. Curtis emphasized during the discussion that climate groups benefit when people with different skills can “put their fingerprints” on projects.

Make participation accessible. Allowing nonmembers to join a project can expand capacity while introducing new people to the organization’s broader mission. Partnerships with schools, libraries, governments, universities, businesses and community organizations can extend that reach even further.

And think beyond standalone environmental projects. A climate conscience can apply to conferences, education, transportation, buildings, food, purchasing, and existing service programs.

Perhaps most importantly, do not underestimate collective action. Curtis closed by pointing to the next generation and the future she hopes they will inherit. With Rotary’s global reach, she argued, modest contributions can add up.

The Chilliwack story suggests that meaningful climate action does not always begin with a grand plan. Sometimes it begins with a few people saying, “We have to start somewhere.”

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Robyn Curtis holds a degree in Biology from the University of Victoria and a Commercial Pilot’s License. She has spent 25 years in aviation and now works as a consultant, primarily supporting airports. A Rotary Club of Chilliwack member since 2018, she chairs its Climate Change Action Group.

Presented: September 24, 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link
📖 Read the Blog: LINK
🌱 Learn more / Project links: Rotary Club of Chilliwack Climate Change Action Group

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Davidson

Project Teaser: Ben Davidson introduces Shark Pond: Entrepreneurship, Education, and Environmental Action

Ben Nelson, 2026-27 President of the Global Service e-club, Rotary District 5400, introduces Shark Pond, a virtual Rotary service project that combines entrepreneurship with practical environmental and community solutions. Inspired by Shark Tank—but designed to be friendly, collaborative, and fun—Shark Pond gives aspiring entrepreneurs in underserved African communities an opportunity to develop and pitch environmentally focused business ideas.

Ben also previews upcoming entrepreneur training that will be part of a Rotary International Global Grant in Malawi. The project will train and certify local solar installation entrepreneurs to install solar systems, helping build local expertise while expanding access to renewable energy.

Another component will train and support local seamstresses in producing school uniforms for girls that can expand as they grow, as well as reusable sanitary pads. These locally made products are designed to help girls remain in school while reducing waste and creating opportunities for local entrepreneurs. The project connects two important approaches to addressing climate change—expanding solar energy and supporting girls’ education—with sustainable economic development.

For Rotary leaders looking for service projects that bring together environmental sustainability, entrepreneurship, education, and community-led solutions, Ben’s Project Teaser offers ideas worth exploring and potentially bringing to their own clubs.

Presented September 17, 2026.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

Project Resources: Global Service eClub

Ben Nelson, Vice President of Human Resources and Training at Idaho Central Credit Union and a District 5400 Rotary Club president, introduces Shark Pond, a virtual Rotary service project that combines entrepreneurship with practical environmental and community solutions. Inspired by Shark Tank—but designed to be friendly, collaborative, and fun—Shark Pond gives aspiring entrepreneurs in underserved African communities an opportunity to develop and pitch environmentally focused business ideas.

Ben also previews upcoming entrepreneur training that will be part of a Rotary International Global Grant in Malawi. The project will train and certify local solar installation entrepreneurs to install solar systems, helping build local expertise while expanding access to renewable energy.

Another component will train and support local seamstresses in producing school uniforms for girls that can expand as they grow, as well as reusable sanitary pads. These locally made products are designed to help girls remain in school while reducing waste and creating opportunities for local entrepreneurs. The project connects two important approaches to addressing climate change—expanding solar energy and supporting girls’ education—with sustainable economic development.

For Rotary leaders looking for service projects that bring together environmental sustainability, entrepreneurship, education, and community-led solutions, Ben’s Project Teaser offers ideas worth exploring and potentially bringing to their own clubs.

Presented September 17, 2026.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

Project Resources: Global Service eClub

Steve WordPress Hero Image

Climate Action Without Borders with Steve Bender

Climate solutions do not stop at national borders and neither should collaboration. Sustainability leader Steve Bender argues that connecting existing organizations, young leaders, and practical projects can turn environmental ambition into action.

Climate change can feel impossibly large. Steve Bender approaches it from another direction: find people already doing good work, connect them with others who can strengthen it, and make successful ideas easier to share.

That philosophy ran throughout Bender’s September 17 Earth Talk, Climate Action Without Borders. Rather than focusing on a single environmental problem, he described a network of initiatives spanning climate education, river restoration, pollinator protection, marine conservation, reforestation, and community resilience.

The projects are diverse, but the organizing idea is remarkably consistent. Bender wants organizations to collaborate instead of duplicating one another’s efforts, and he wants Rotary members to use their international networks to help good ideas travel.

The result is a model of climate action built less around creating new institutions and more around connecting the ones that already exist.

Start by strengthening what already works

One of Bender’s central messages was that solving environmental problems does not always require starting another nonprofit or inventing another program.

Instead, he looks for organizations already doing effective work in areas such as water, pollinators, and climate education, then searches for ways several groups can work together. His aim is to “lift each other all up together.”

Key Takeaways

  • Climate action grows faster when organizations collaborate instead of duplicating successful programs.
  • Give young people ownership by asking what environmental projects they want to create.
  • Rivers, wildlife, and ecosystems cross borders, so effective solutions often must too.
  • Connecting environmental, social and economic benefits can make community projects stronger.
  • Sharing successful projects helps attract partners and makes proven ideas easier to replicate.

That approach is visible in Growing Green Leaders, a six-month climate education and innovation challenge designed to turn free, ready-built educational material into local climate action. Schools, Rotary clubs, partner organizations, and students can all participate, with projects progressing from education and training to implementation and an Earth Day showcase.

The broader lesson extends beyond any one program. Networks can provide something individual organizations often lack: access to expertise, audiences, volunteers and partners in other communities.

Give young people ownership, not just invitations

Growing Green Leaders also addresses another challenge Bender sees repeatedly within Rotary: engaging younger generations. His advice is to begin by listening. As he put it, “We have two ears and one mouth; we should use them proportionally.” Instead of approaching young people with a finished program and asking them to join, he encouraged Rotary members to ask what young people themselves would like to develop.

Participation in Growing Green Leaders can range from one student to a classroom, an Interact club or a Rotaract group, and Bender emphasized that the program is free and accessible online. But the larger opportunity is not simply to create more environmental activities for younger people. It is to give them a meaningful role in deciding what those activities should become.

That change, from recruitment to partnership, can create genuine ownership. It also recognizes that leadership develops through doing. Students who identify problems, design projects, communicate their ideas, and work with community partners are practicing skills that can extend well beyond a single environmental initiative.

“We have two ears and one mouth, we should use them proportionally.” Steve Bender

For Rotary and other established organizations, this requires a willingness to make room for ideas they did not originate. Listening first can turn environmental projects into a bridge between generations and give emerging leaders a reason to stay involved.

Follow environmental problems across borders

Bender’s projects illustrate why environmental action cannot be confined by political boundaries. Speaking about the expansion of his work from the Tijuana River to the broader Alluvium Project, he explained, “The more we talk about it, and the more people we can get engaged, the better we can do.” The goal is to bring more communities and organizations into problems that cannot be solved from one side of a border.

The same principle is visible in Pollinators Without Borders. Protecting monarch butterflies, for example, means thinking about their habitat across their migratory range. Bender described visiting monarch habitat in Mexico and learning about local vulnerability to wildfire, including limited firefighting capacity.

That led to a practical partnership. Bender helped connect people from the area with firefighter training in Ensenada and began working toward securing appropriate firefighting equipment. The logic was straightforward: planting milkweed and restoring habitat elsewhere cannot fully protect a migratory species if crucial habitat along its journey remains vulnerable.

“The more we talk about it, and the more people we can get engaged, the better we can do.” Steve Bender

These examples show what “without borders” can mean in practice. A river carries pollution downstream. Migratory wildlife crosses countries. Forest health can affect species thousands of kilometers away. Environmental problems move through ecological systems rather than political maps, so durable solutions often require relationships that cross those boundaries too.

Make successful projects easier to see and replicate

Bender also sees communication as part of environmental action. Through 100 Projects in 100 Countries, he described an effort to showcase environmental initiatives and help participants communicate their work. “The whole point is we’re just trying to showcase everybody, all the fine work,” he said while encouraging participants to submit their projects.

Visibility can do more than provide recognition. It can introduce project leaders to Rotary clubs, technical expertise, potential partners and new audiences. Bender described helping selected organizations improve presentations, make introductions and build relationships that could strengthen their work.

The range of projects he highlighted shows how broad those connections can become. One example involves Vermont students raising money to travel to the Bahamas, become certified scuba divers, and learn coral restoration. Another is an “ice in a box” concept Bender designed after hearing from fishing communities that traveled hours to obtain ice needed to protect their catch.

In that project, Bender agreed to design a solar-powered system to make ice from desalinated water on one condition: fishermen would pay for their ice, and children in the village would receive clean, safe water at no charge. The idea shows how an environmental project can be strengthened by adding community benefits.

That combination of visibility and integrated design can help promising ideas travel. When communities can see what others are doing and understand how environmental, social, and economic benefits fit together, they have a stronger starting point for adapting successful approaches to their own needs.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Bender’s presentation offers a practical framework for community organizations that want to expand their environmental impact without having to build everything themselves.

First, look for partners before creating something new. Another organization may already have the curriculum, technical expertise or community relationships a project needs.

Second, invite younger people to co-design the work. Asking “What would you like to develop with us?” creates a different relationship than asking someone to join a predetermined activity.

Third, think beyond the immediate project boundary. A pollinator garden may connect to habitat hundreds of kilometers away. A river cleanup may require upstream partnerships. Marine restoration may intersect with education, livelihoods, and waste management.

Fourth, communicate successful work. Sharing a project is not merely promotion; it can help other communities learn from it, adapt it, and find collaborators.

Perhaps most importantly, Bender’s examples suggest that people do not have to solve climate change alone to make meaningful progress. They can find one useful role, connect it with the work of others and build from there.

Climate action without borders is ultimately climate action through relationships.

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Steve Bender
Steve Bender is Chairman of the United States Green Chamber of Commerce, CEO of Sea 2 Sky Solutions and Global Head of Strategic Partnerships at EarthX. A longtime sustainability strategist and partnership builder, he also served as Director for Western North America with the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group.

Date presented: September 17, 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: link
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: link
📖 Read the Blog: link

🌱 Learn more / Project links:
Growing Green Leaders — growinggreenleaders.org
The Mangrove Project — themangroveproject.org
47817 Project Navigator — 47817.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Teaser, Dawn Byford on Plate & Planet Project

Project Teaser: Dawn Byford on Plate & Planet Ambassador Program

Dawn Byford introduces the Plate & Planet Ambassador Program, an initiative that invites Rotarians, Rotaractors, and community members worldwide to explore how plant-rich eating can support healthier lives, a healthier planet, food security, and positive peace. Drawing on her background in plant-based cooking and nutrition and her experience with the Plant Rich Diet Task Force, Dawn highlights how something as everyday as the food on our plates connects with many of Rotary’s areas of focus, as well as the Pillars of Peace and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Ambassador Program is welcoming and flexible—participants do not need to be plant-based experts or 100% plant-based eaters. Ambassadors can participate at whatever level works for them, learning and experimenting with plant-rich foods, sharing ideas with others, and inspiring change through their own example.

Participants also gain access to a global community, inspiring speakers, cooking demonstrations, quarterly meetings, recipes and resources, and project ideas they can bring to Rotary clubs and local communities. The emphasis is not on perfection or doing everything, but on helping many people take practical steps that collectively can make a difference.

For leaders looking for an approachable project that brings together health, sustainability, fellowship, education, and community action, Dawn’s Project Teaser offers a useful introduction to the Plate & Planet vision and its growing Ambassador community.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

Plate and Planet Project Resources:

1 Million Table WordPress Header

1 Million Tables for the Planet: How One Meal Can Build Hope with Debra Alexander

Food is something we choose every day—and those choices connect climate, water and community. 1 Million Tables for the Planet turns a shared plant-based meal into a simple, visible way to take action together.

From Climate Anxiety to Everyday Action

For many people, climate change can feel too large and complicated to influence. Debra Alexander understands that feeling. Years ago, learning about rising greenhouse gas emissions left her frightened rather than empowered. She describes her journey as moving from “eco-anxiety to eco-action.”

One turning point came when she learned more about the carbon cycle. Carbon itself, she realized, is not the enemy: it is fundamental to life. The problem arises when human activity puts too much carbon into the atmosphere.

Another breakthrough was discovering the importance of food. Alexander learned that food systems are responsible for a significant share of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, with animal-based foods accounting for much of food’s climate footprint. That insight changed her understanding of what individuals could actually do.

The question became less about solving climate change alone and more about finding an accessible place to begin.

Family and Food

Alexander remembered something her grandmother said shortly before she died.

It was Thanksgiving just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Alexander, who eats plant-based because of an autoimmune condition, had filled her plate with pecans, chickpeas, beetroot and colorful vegetables. When her grandmother paused to comment on the meal, Alexander braced herself for a familiar question: Where was the protein?

Instead, her grandmother surprised her. She observed that people were eating much more meat than they had in the past.

The comment carried particular weight because of the life her grandmother had lived. Raised on an agricultural farm in western Kansas, she had been a teenager during the Dust Bowl. Alexander remembered her stories about the family garden and how it helped sustain them through those difficult years. Her grandmother understood where food came from and had remained deeply conscious of how much people consume.

Key Takeaways

  • Food choices connect climate action, water conservation, and everyday life.
  • One plant-based meal offers a simple, accessible starting point.
  • Moderation connects generations of practical stewardship with today’s environmental challenges.
  • Visible collective action can help people feel less powerless and alone.
  • Rotary clubs can turn shared meals into practical environmental action.

Alexander told the Earth Talks audience that U.S. per-capita meat consumption had increased substantially over the past century. For her, her grandmother’s observation captured something the statistics alone could not: an older understanding of nature’s rhythms and food as a resource not to be taken for granted. Meat had once been something special—a Sunday supper rather than something expected at every meal.

That memory leads naturally to another family connection. Alexander spent much of her adult life in Colorado’s Summit County, near the headwaters of the Colorado River system. She recalled her late father, Ralph Hubbell, a devoted Rotarian who loved the outdoors but would not have described himself as an environmentalist. Climate terminology might not have reached him, she said, but water would have.

The Colorado River supports more than 40 million people as well as millions of acres of farmland. Alexander described how water from the river is transported into dry agricultural areas, including California’s Imperial Valley, where crops such as alfalfa and hay are grown for cattle.

That connection offers another way to think about dinner: food has a water footprint as well as a carbon footprint. Alexander’s message was not that everyone must stop eating meat. Instead, she returned to a value her grandmother embodied—temperance, or moderation.

When resources are precious, eating with greater awareness can be part of caring for them.

One Meal Can Bridge the Gap Between Concern and Action

Alexander identified three barriers that often keep people from acting on climate change: knowledge, efficacy, and perception. People may not know where their choices can make a difference. They may doubt that an individual action matters. And they may underestimate how many other people are also concerned.

Her answer is deliberately small. Alexander suggests, “One climate-friendly, plant-based meal. No judgment or guilt, just one meal, and then see what it adds up to when enough people join in.”

That idea became 1 Million Tables for the Planet, which Alexander and Marla Felcher created after meeting at a conference in October 2025 and connecting over a plant-based meal.

Participants register a table, share a plant-based meal, and add their action to a live global map. An impact calculator estimates the environmental savings and adds them to the collective total. The model makes action meaningful, visible, and measurable.

“One climate-friendly, plant-based meal. No judgment or guilt, just one meal, and then see what it adds up to when enough people join in.” Debra Alexander

By the time of the Earth Talk, Alexander reported approximately 7,000 registered tables and 42,000 participants, with the initiative reaching more than 160 countries. The project’s calculator estimated that those meals had collectively saved about four million liters of water.

“The meal was never the destination; it’s simply the starting point.” — Debra Alexander

What began as a simple concept has also produced stories of connection: a church community in the Philippines preparing Indigenous foods in plant-based ways, a schoolchild taking the idea home to his parents, breakfasts in Bangladesh, a girls’ boarding school in Tanzania, and participation from communities across continents.

Each table is different. The action connecting them is the same.

Exercising the “Hope Muscle”

The deeper purpose of 1 Million Tables is not simply to count meals. It is to help people experience themselves as participants in change rather than spectators to an overwhelming problem.

Alexander compared this process to building a muscle. Someone who has not exercised for a long time does not begin with the heaviest weight in the gym. In the same way, climate engagement does not always need to begin with a sweeping lifestyle transformation. “It’s exercising our hope muscle. Muscles get stronger when we use them.”

A person can do something manageable, see that it mattered, and discover that other people are doing it too.

The live map addresses isolation by making collective action visible. The calculator addresses powerlessness by translating one meal into measurable impact. And the meal itself addresses the knowledge gap by giving people an immediate place to start.

That same principle makes Rotary a natural setting for the initiative. Shared meals are already part of club culture, and local actions routinely spread through Rotary’s international network.

“It’s exercising our hope muscle. Muscles get stronger when we use them.” Debra Alexander

Through a partnership with the Plate and Planet Project, Rotarians can register plant-based shared meals on a dedicated 1 Million Tables page. Alexander encouraged clubs to consider meatless meetings, register each participating table, and then invite other clubs, schools, workplaces and restaurants to join.

The approach does not demand perfection or prescribe one diet for everyone. Instead, it creates an invitation: try one meal, share it with others, measure the result and see where that experience leads.

That makes the dining table more than a place to eat. It becomes a place to practice hope.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

The strength of 1 Million Tables lies in its low barrier to entry. Climate action can often seem to require specialized knowledge, major lifestyle changes or political agreement. A shared meal requires none of those things.

Individuals can begin by making one familiar meal plant-based and inviting family, friends or colleagues to share it. Rotary clubs and other organizations can offer plant-based choices at meetings or designate a regular gathering as a meatless meeting. Schools, workplaces, faith communities and restaurants can also organize tables and register their participation.

Just as important is the social dimension. Seeing other people participate can challenge the assumption that environmental concern is unusual or isolating. A visible action can start conversations without relying on guilt or confrontation.

Alexander’s memories of her grandmother and father add another dimension to that invitation. Environmental stewardship does not have to begin with climate terminology. It can begin with values families have understood for generations: knowing where food comes from, respecting water, avoiding waste, and practicing moderation.

One meal will not solve climate change or water scarcity. But one meal can demonstrate that personal choices have consequences—and that individual actions can become collective ones.

The invitation is intentionally achievable: choose a table, choose a meal, invite someone to join you and begin.

About This Earth Talk

Speakers: Debra Alexander and Marla Felcher

Debra Alexander is the founder of the Plant Powered Pledge and co-creator of 1 Million Tables for the Planet. Her work connects plant-based eating with personal health, environmental stewardship, and community action. Her late father, Ralph Hubbell, was a devoted Rotarian in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Marla Felcher is a former marketing professor at Northwestern University and the Harvard Kennedy School, a freelance investigative journalist whose work has appeared in Mother Jones, The Atlantic and Slate, and an NGO co-founder. She is the founder of the 10-Day Greener Plate Challenge and writes about the connection between food and climate change.

Alexander and Felcher met at a conference in October 2025. Over a plant-based meal, they decided to create 1 Million Tables for the Planet, bringing people together around climate-friendly food and collective action.

Presented: 10 September 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link
📖 Read the Blog: Link
🌱 Learn more / Project:

🌱 Rotary participation:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patrick van Veen and Jane Goodall Institute

Inspired by Jane Goodall, Youth Engagement in Science & Conservation with Patrick van Veen

Patrick van Veen reflects on what made Jane Goodall such an enduring influence on young people—and why her approach to science, conservation and local action still offers a practical model for creating change.

Jane Goodall changed how the world understood chimpanzees. But according to behavioral biologist Patrick van Veen, her influence went far beyond her scientific discoveries.

Van Veen worked with the Jane Goodall Institute for nearly two decades, including five years as Global Chair, and traveled with Goodall, visited conservation projects and saw firsthand how she connected with young people.

In his Earth Talk, van Veen used personal photographs and memories to explore a deceptively simple question: Why was Jane Goodall so successful at inspiring young people?

His answer was not simply her scientific stature. Goodall remained curious, unconventional and willing to challenge accepted ways of doing things. She also connected conservation to people’s everyday lives.

Most importantly, she offered young people something that can be difficult to find amid today’s enormous environmental challenges: a meaningful place to begin.

A Scientist Who Looked Beyond the Data

Goodall arrived in what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, at age 26, to observe wild chimpanzees. Her research would transform primatology.

Van Veen emphasized that Goodall’s gift was not simply observation. She understood the significance of what she saw.

Key Takeaways

  • Jane Goodall inspired young people by combining scientific curiosity with practical opportunities to act.
  • Effective conservation addresses the needs of people, wildlife and ecosystems together.
  • Roots & Shoots gives young people freedom to create solutions for their own communities.
  • Small, achievable actions can build confidence, skills and lifelong environmental engagement.
  • Hope becomes meaningful when people can see a practical way to contribute.

When a chimpanzee used plant material to fish for termites, for example, Goodall recognized that the behavior challenged prevailing ideas about tool use. She also broke convention by giving chimpanzees names rather than treating them only as numbered research subjects.

For van Veen, there is a lesson here for today’s young scientists. Data matter, but science also requires curiosity: noticing what does not fit neatly into the expected categories.

He recalled Goodall’s preference for recording observations on paper, where she could make drawings and side notes about behaviors outside the formal research checklist. Those seemingly small observations could lead somewhere important.

Science, in other words, begins not only with collecting information, but with paying attention.

Conservation Has to Include People

Goodall’s work eventually forced her to look beyond the chimpanzees themselves.

By 1986, she had become increasingly concerned about habitat loss and the pressures facing communities surrounding chimpanzee habitat. She concluded that research alone was not enough and began devoting much more of her life to conservation and advocacy.

That shift led to an approach that van Veen repeatedly emphasized: lasting conservation cannot succeed by treating people and wildlife as competing interests.

Around Gombe, communities need food, income, education, water and places to live. Chimpanzees need forests and connected habitat. Protecting one while ignoring the needs of the other is unlikely to create a lasting solution.

The Jane Goodall Institute’s community-centered conservation work therefore combined environmental restoration with practical support for local communities. Projects included tree nurseries, sustainable livelihoods, education, safe water systems, honey production and community land-use planning.

The underlying principle was straightforward: conservation works better when local people are partners in shaping their own future.

That thinking also helped provide the foundation for Goodall’s work with young people.

Young People Need the Freedom to Make a Difference

Van Veen remembered Goodall as someone who never entirely lost the spirit of a teenager. Even late in life, he said, she remained a little rebellious—willing to question convention and encourage others to choose a different path.

As he put it, Goodall taught young people and adults that “you can make a difference. And that’s your choice.”

Her message was not that individuals must solve the world’s environmental problems. It was that everyone can make a difference.

That philosophy became especially visible through Roots & Shoots, which began in Tanzania in 1991 after a small group of teenagers approached Goodall with concerns about problems in their communities. The program grew around action for three interconnected areas: people, animals and the environment.

Importantly, young people were not handed a rigid global program telling them exactly what to do. They were encouraged to identify problems around them and create their own responses.

A project could mean planting trees, protecting animals or improving a neighborhood. What mattered was engagement—the experience of seeing a problem and discovering that you could do something about it.

“You can make a difference.” Patrick van Veen

That freedom helped Roots & Shoots grow into an international grassroots movement. Van Veen described young people organizing conservation campaigns, supporting tree nurseries, cleaning beaches, helping animals and developing projects within communities and refugee settlements.

The scale of the environmental challenge may be global. The starting point does not have to be.

That sense of agency may be one of Goodall’s most important lessons for environmental education. People are more likely to remain engaged when they can see a connection between their actions and the world around them.

Hope Becomes Powerful When It Turns Into Action

Goodall understood that our everyday choices have consequences far beyond our immediate surroundings. Van Veen noted that the products people buy, the transportation they use and the way they live can affect ecosystems and communities thousands of kilometers away.

But Goodall did not leave young people with that overwhelming global responsibility.

Van Veen recalled that she gave them a different instruction: “Do small things.” Build a bee hotel. Collect litter from the street. Prepare a meal for someone who is alone. Start somewhere close enough that you can act.

This was not a dismissal of large environmental problems. It was a strategy for building participation.

Small actions teach skills, create relationships and give people evidence that change is possible. One local project can inspire another. A young person who plants trees, cleans a beach or helps an animal today may become tomorrow’s scientist, conservationist, community leader or engaged citizen.

“Do small things.” Patrick van Veen, recalling Jane Goodall's message

Goodall’s own life reinforced the same principle. Van Veen remembered her reusing coffee filters, keeping clothes for years and reminding him to put a lid on a pot to save energy. She did not simply tell people how they ought to live; she tried to live according to the values she advocated.

The point is not that a bee hotel or one reused coffee filter will solve climate change or biodiversity loss. The point is that action changes the person taking it—and can begin changing a community around them.

Conservation Needs Hope and Perspective

For van Veen, Goodall’s legacy was ultimately larger than chimpanzee research, conservation programs or even Roots & Shoots.

Near the end of his presentation, he returned to the quality he believed made her so compelling to generations of young people: “She brought hope and perspective to young people.”

That hope was grounded in action rather than wishful thinking.

Goodall saw damaged landscapes, threatened chimpanzee populations, poverty and enormous pressures on natural resources. Yet her response was to look for ways people could participate in solutions.

That meant listening to communities. It meant helping young people develop their own projects. It meant recognizing that protecting wildlife requires attention to human well-being. And it meant continuing to believe that individual choices matter even when no single individual can solve the whole problem.

“She brought hope and perspective to young people.” Patrick van Veen

This may be especially important for today’s young people, who encounter environmental crises through an almost constant stream of news and social media. Information alone does not necessarily create engagement. Without a pathway to action, it can create helplessness instead.

Goodall offered another path: understand the problem, find something within reach and begin.

Hope, in this sense, is not passive optimism. It is the belief that action remains worthwhile—and that people working together can change what happens next.

Practical Takeaways & Implications

Goodall’s approach offers useful lessons not only for conservation organizations, but also for educators, nonprofits, Rotary clubs and anyone trying to engage young people in environmental action.

Start with agency rather than anxiety. Environmental problems are enormous, but people need an achievable first step. Give young people opportunities to identify something they care about and help them act on it.

Connect people, animals and the environment. Conservation is strongest when human needs are part of the solution rather than treated as separate from nature.

Encourage observation and curiosity. Goodall’s scientific legacy reminds us that discoveries can begin with noticing something unexpected.

Make solutions local and practical. A tree nursery, wildlife project, community cleanup or neighborhood initiative may appear small, but these projects build experience and confidence.

Finally, model the behavior you hope to inspire. Goodall’s influence came partly from the consistency between her public message and her daily choices.

Her legacy suggests that the goal of environmental education should not be to convince young people that saving the planet rests on their shoulders. It should help them discover that they have a role to play—and that their contribution, joined with those of others, matters.

About This Earth Talk

Speaker: Patrick van Veen is a behavioral biologist, founder of Ape Management, speaker and author whose work translates insights from biology into practical knowledge for organizations, education and society. He joined the board of the Jane Goodall Institute Netherlands in 2008 and later served for five years as Global Chair of the Jane Goodall Institute. He remains affiliated with the Institute as a senior advisor and advises two chimpanzee sanctuaries in Africa.

Date presented: 27 August 2026

🎥 Watch on YouTube: Link 
🎧 Listen as a Podcast: Link 
📖 Read the Blog: Link

🌱 Learn more / Project links: 

  • Jane Goodall Institute
  • Roots & Shoots
  • Ten Trusts: What We Must Do To Care for the Animals We Love. Available through your favorite bookstore
  • Jane Goodall at 90: Celebrating an Astonishing Lifetime of Science, Advocacy, Humanism, Hope and Peace.   Available through your favorite bookstore
  • Love in Their Hearts: A Celebration of Animal Emotions and Guide to Compassionate Action by Marc Bekoff and Jeff Campbell. Available through your favorite bookstore
  • Every Elephant Has a Name, by Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff, available February 2027 through your favorite bookstore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WordPress Header

Project Teaser: Sebastián Bello on Resilience Colombia, Disaster Relief Platform

Sebastián Bello presents Resilience Colombia, a mobile platform designed to centralize earthquake-related emergency needs and help international donors understand how their contributions can translate into specific relief resources. The pilot combines a needs database, multi-currency calculator, and project dashboard, with plans to improve donation transparency and connect verified needs with targeted support. Bello brings a civil and environmental engineering background, project-management experience, and an analytical approach to developing the concept.

Watch the Project Teaser recording: [link]

Load More