An Interview With Penny Bauder
The first step is finding the right people who want to help. It is different between a non-profit and a for-profit. For the nonprofit it is finding people who’d be willing to spend time to help but also have the knowledge and capabilities to do so. It is friends and contacts who could believe in the mission and take the time to be involved.
As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mark Bernstein.
Mark Bernstein is an innovative leader in value-based sustainability, a sustainability executive and management consultant. He influences strategic partnerships and shapes responsible leadership for scalable change through leveraging issues in management, economics, policy and technology. He is currently the CEO of Earthshot.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I grew up in the Long Island suburbs of NYC. Traditional middle class upbringing, basically normal for the time and place — a bit boring I suppose. Though we spent time in Manhattan and enjoyed the big city and since my parents were teachers we spent the summers traveling. We say lots of the US, in a car. A very 60’s and early 70’s thing to do.
But there was a bit of a twist. My dad was very passionate about inequities and problems in the world, and I was growing up during tumultuous times — from civil rights to the Vietnam war — and so he took us out on marches for civil rights and against the war. This past year when we were marching for George Floyd, I kept thinking — I was doing this 50 years ago and back then I did not think I’d need to be doing it again 50 years later. So I became passionate about social issues and it continued to this day.
You are currently leading a social impact organization that is making a difference for our planet. Can you tell us a bit about what you and your organization are trying to change in our world today?
Earthshot™ is a non-profit changing the narrative on climate change to inspire people to take an active role in combatting climate change through compelling immersive experiences and video games offering a powerful, positive, cleantech message.
Climate messaging has a problem. Almost 50% of U.S. adults don’t think climate change will impact them personally. We’ve mostly messaged about the threats of climate change, and while that has influenced some people, over the last decade the percent of Americans who say that climate change is human caused has only increased from 50 to 60%. That is clearly not good enough. For years we’ve been saying that we needed to shift away from communicating fear and threats to something else. But here we are today, with even more dire headlines like “It’s too late” and “We’re 60 years too late.” The fact is that while the headlines are ‘correct’ they are proving not to be the best way to motivate change. Yes, we need urgency, but we also need hope.
We will have a uniquely effective messaging platform: cleantech is cool and exciting! Evoking a level of excitement akin to the ‘moonshot’ — the Apollo mission’s race to the moon — a new generation of dreamers, inventors, and everyone else — are subtly recruited to help save spaceship Earth.
Our games and experiences will be fun and engaging for all different players. From a time-machine immersive experience, to racing games, role-playing and third person shooter games, gamers will want to play for fun, but then for the planet too. While participating in the mission, individual competitive gamers will come to realize they can take action to solve climate change — and this will empower them to do more. The current approach is not working it’s time for something completely different.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
As the Vietnam war came to an end, I needed to put my activism to work on something else. A good friend of our family was involved in environmental issues and as I learned more, I found a passion in saving the planet. Nature meant a lot to me, outdoor spaces and wildlife. We lived not too far from Teddy Roosevelt’s house and we visited multiple times — and the passion he showed for nature and the starting of the national parks really inspired me. So environment was the thing. I studied the issues and have been working on solving environmental problems throughout my career. The first news reports on climate change emerged during heat waves in 1988 and I realized then this was something big and solving the climate problem has been my passion ever since
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. They don’t get up and just do it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and do it? What was that final trigger?
For Earthshot there was not a specific aha moment. My cofounder, Bob Wyman, reached out and said he wanted to see if I would work on something with him to try and reshape people’s thinking about climate change. We had lunch and were going over ideas and almost simultaneously we hit on the idea that if showed people how cool cleantech was — we could change people’s minds. Then when we sat with Rob Legato, triple academy award winner for visual effects (a few small movies you might have heard of like Titanic) he said what if we used visual effects to immerse people in saving the planed — the Led light build went off and we said — using visual effects and put people in a game that has them saving their town from climate change. We can wow people with visuals and engage them in finding solutions. And here we are today.
Many people don’t know the steps to take to start a new organization. But you did. What are some of the things or steps you took to get your project started?
The first step is finding the right people who want to help. It is different between a non-profit and a for-profit. For the nonprofit it is finding people who’d be willing to spend time to help but also have the knowledge and capabilities to do so. It is friends and contacts who could believe in the mission and take the time to be involved. So we built a board who could align with our mission, we engaged a variety of folks who understood what we could achieve,
Then it was getting people together to brainstorm to help shape the vision. Getting as many people as possible, to share as many thoughts as possible, was so important on getting us going.
Funny enough — finding the name also helped. I hadn’t given it that much thought, but the visioning brainstorm session that ultimate led to the name Earthshot was huge for us. We are invoking the excitement of the mission to go to the moon, with the mission to save the Earth — it really helped motivate and engage others.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
Too many to count. ☺
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson or take away you learned from that?
Too many to count. ☺
None of us can be successful without some help along the way. Did you have mentors or cheerleaders who helped you to succeed? Can you tell us a story about their influence?
Long before Earthshot, was a person who shaped my path to get here. I was graduating with my masters and thought I’d become a math teacher, like my father before me. A friend of the family, Stephen Feldman was just starting a PhD program focused on energy and environmental policy at the University of Pennsylvania and he convinced me to come. It helped I had a passion for the environment and he was someone I knew, trusted and admired. He was a mentor and friend and helped shape my thinking and vision for how we can protect the planet and continue to develop economically at the same time. He created my passion for helping people around the world and with his guidance I did work on Asia and Africa. I would not be where I am today with him. He passed away much too young, while I was working for him, and I think about him today as we now try to reshape the narrative on climate
Are there three things the community, society, or politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
Number 1: Talk about the opportunities we all have that can impact the environment — show off the cool stuff — the easy stuff we can do. Look at how cool electric vehicles are; all the great things new LED lights can do, the great tasting alternative proteins. And it needs to come from the ground up. We need social media influencers to get on board with this, we need politicians to get on board. To these things because they are cool fun and exciting — oh and yeah they help the planet too.
Number 2: Government funded research and policy is still important and vital for the future of solving these problems — but we need to focus more on how we can get the solutions in the hands of the average person. Solar should not just be for the wealthy. We are making progress but these better and more efficient technologies need to not just trickle down to the average person — it needs to be a waterfall. More subsidies and awareness to make it happen
Number 3: Get Gen Zrs to lead the charge and bring everyone else with them
How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?
Most things that help make a business more efficient and helps to reduce cost are more sustainable today. True 20 years that wasn’t always the case. We were selling things like solar and more efficient lighting that was expensive so companies investing in them were doing it more for the environment than for profits. But that has all changed. The costs of almost all the technologies are cheaper than the alternatives. The best business decisions today are the most sustainable.
The simplest example is lighting. For any commercial business lighting is essential. The cost of new LED lighting has dropped in price so much that any commercial enterprise choosing to upgrade their lighting gets paid back on their investment in 6 months or less and then you are essentially making money on the 20 year life of those light bulbs. And in fact today, Energy Service Companies (ESCO) will come in and do the lighting retrofits for you, at no cost to you and you start saving money immediately. Some of you savings goes to pay the ESCO — but your operating costs go down from day 1. One of the best examples of this was the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park. They had lots of lightbulbs that needed to be on all the time but to keep the historical nature, they had to keep using old Edison style light bulbs. Inefficient and hot. Because the park is pretty remote — they paid a lot for electricity. Some new LED lightbulbs came on the market that looked like old lightbulbs but used 90% less energy and did not get hot. The savings on electricity costs helped fund other important initiatives.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1. Engage a good PR team: Without good PR, you’ll be missing maybe opportunities.
2. Understand social media: Being social media savvy is crucial especially when you want to get the word out of what you’re doing.
3. Understand Gen Z: Understanding how Gen Zs work and engage with content is important as they’re the leaders of tomorrow.
4. Engage with a good digital design team: Having a good digital team is important as you scale
5. Enjoy your work: If you don’t enjoy what you do, finding success is a not as easy.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Well, first I am not young though I think I am, and I talk to young people all the time about this. And I don’t always have the right thing to say — but I tell them that they are the future. They have the technology, tools and knowledge to impact the future unlike any other generation in the past. And the fact is that they know it and I just want to encourage them to continue to use information they have to change the future.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Too many to count. 😉
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I’m a big fan of Elon Musk for all he has done with brining clean energy to the car industry.
How can or readers follow you online?
Twitter @markabernstein
Thank you for your time, and your excellent insights! We wish you continued success.
Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Mark Bernstein of Earthshot Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.