Ben Richards (26), United Kingdom

Background: Communications Consultant, Financial Services. Since his experience at the College, Ben has been promoted to Corporate Social Responsibility Communicator with particular responsibility for rolling out a company-wide Climate Change communications plan to 12,000 employees.

The Campaign: Ben worked on a communication campaign to raise awareness on climate change solutions. The campaign centred around a pledge card to encourage consumers to cut carbon emissions in the home, from walking instead of driving to washing clothes at 30° instead of 40°.

Ben attended Green Festivals, including Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common and organised a series of lectures to share his Arctic experience. Ben was interviewed live on national TV on ITV Lunchtime News, and on regional TV on the South Today programme. He was also interviewed for his local newspapers.

Target: The target was 500, and Ben recruited 2,200!

Ben Shares His Experience:
Q. What was the most important lesson you learnt at the College?
Ben: That you can’t change everything yourself but that every small contribution counts. Lots of small campaigns are needed to create the massive swathes of change we need to see if climate chaos is going to be avoided.

Q. How are you using those skills now?
Ben: As a result of my participation in the college, I’m now working as part of the corporate responsibility committee of the large financial services group I work for. I’m currently using the knowledge gained from the college to develop a communications campaign on climate change. Also I’ve been asked by local media for my opinions on climate change to support national and local stories on the subject - which proves to me that the media training worked!

Q. What advice would you give to others?
Ben: Empathy and flexibility are the two most important things you need to create change. By empathy I mean trying to understand what motivates different people to make change, and then being flexible enough to have a range of messages, anecdotes and illustrations to appeal to these different people. For example some people are motivated by the issue of species loss, while other less altruistic people are just worried about what they might lose as a consequence of climate change. Whatever your audience, try to meet them where they’re at!

Click here to read Ben’s 2006 Blog