Today we’d like to introduce you to Root Local. They and their team shared their story with us below:
We launched Root Local to raise awareness and visibility for sustainability issues ranging from maintaining Atlanta’s tree canopy to recycling, clean air and clean water. While Atlanta boasts several organizations that address certain of these specific issues, Root Local aims to become a central organization that connects them all.
Liz Lapidus, Johanna Ellis Reisinger and Butch Whitfield ideated Root Local out of a dinner in January 2020, where they posited that small changes could make a big impact. With careers in public relations, real estate and the auto industry, they shared their own conservation hacks like turning your car off instead of idling, composting and shopping at their favorite farmer’s markets. They agreed that their individual networks wanted to do the right thing, but just didn’t know where to start. And they agreed they could educate their friends to become stewards of the environment through similar conversations that they could convene at curated dinner parties. Then the world shut down.
Over the next two years, they surveyed key constituents, developed a strategic plan, hired an executive director and embarked on a branding campaign. Root Local intends to influence the future of Atlanta’s natural resources, uplift organizations doing the day-to-day work, and connect community members to services.
With so many options available to engage in conservation work, Root Local aimed to reduce decision fatigue by clarifying and organizing stakeholders. Root Local recognized a need to connect all the groups working in the field and ensure all communities are included in the conversation.
After extensive surveying with stakeholders, the Root Local founders homed in on the specific environmental concerns relating to metro Atlanta. The organization is spending the next three years creating a foundation for collective impact, including:
– Convening the environmental nonprofits, government agencies, community members, businesses, schools, community groups and philanthropists.
– Identifying priorities and opportunities with the group, as environmental needs will change over time.
– Educating communities on impact and engagement strategies and connecting them with organizations doing direct service environmental impact work.
Through this work, Root Local will raise visibility for conservation-focused mindsets and support direct service organizations with education services provided to the local communities. The organization will also connect environmental sectors to each other to speak with one voice, one vision and measure the collective impact. This connected agenda will allow all groups to better tell their stories to local communities and communities outside the region.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
With a wealth of organizations doing good work in the environmental sector, Root Local acts as a backbone to create the space for community members, experts, researchers, and business leaders to meet and collaborate on shared goals. Our role is to help organize, maintain, and promote shared metrics of the collective impact initiatives and plans. We host events that engage our members with learning about each local community’s different environmental sectors. As well we promote collaboration and share how the community can support their mission. Our role is to champion collaborative ideas, share ideas presented on the global platform, and to find ways to connect and support the network that exists already. The biggest challenge is to bring all these different voices together to champion a shared message.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Root Local?
Root Local’s mission is to uplift community voices and engage in deeper sector discussion to ensure a more sustainable future through shared goals and performance metrics so that it can support data-driven decisions. We provide a network for individuals and organizations to engage deeper in conservation work. With the core values of collaboration, transparency, accountability, and inclusion, we envision a future where metro Atlantans know their environmental footprint and are empowered to make a global impact on a local scale. By spearheading collective environmental impact, we focus on understanding the scope, scale, and overall goals of five environmental sectors:
Food Systems
Travel & Transportation
Air & Water Quality Management
Canopy & Land Management
Sustainable Buildings, Products, and Practices
Within these sectors, Root Local is to understand the array of organizations providing services and to convene them together to better collaborate and support each other.
As the backbone organization, we invest the time to understand the goals of each organization and how they impact these five sectors. There is a high burnout rate among our environmental leaders. Because of this, we lose significant progress in our conservation efforts and being leaders in the emerging sustainable and circular economies. Ultimately, the lack of a collective environmental impact plan leads to distrust and environmental inaction from our community members and leaders. This significant role helps to break down silos and champions collaboration to progress conservation initiatives throughout the metro area.
To break through the silos, Root Local built a Pollinator Network, a collective of engaged individuals working to build a stronger community around reducing our environmental footprint. Currently, there are over 160 members of the Pollinator Network. This collective is composed of experts in the field, individuals seeking a more active role in their communities, and recent graduates wanting to build their professional networks. Our members attend monthly events spotlighting an organization, initiatives, or program within five sectors. Since our launch in April 2022, Root Local has hosted and co-led over 50 community events. The goal in 2023 is for each sector to participate or host 12 events, totaling 60 touchpoints for members to interact with the sector. Each event theme is focused on supporting the shift in working collectively on issues.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
We aim to raise awareness for sustainability on a local level. Atlanta has so many strong environmental groups doing great work. It’s hard to know where to tap in to make a meaningful impact. We want to create compelling conversations, informative tours and connectivity so that everyone finds their way.
Contact Info:
- Website: rootlocal.org
- Instagram: rootlocal404
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RootLocal404
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/root-local/
