Community Climate Solutions

September 24 2026

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

September 17 2026

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