Strategic Resources

United Nations

UN Environmental Programme/One Planet Network/Stockholm Environment Institute Report: Reducing Plastics Pollution: Campaigns That Work

This report answers the questions: What can people designing campaigns to tackle plastic pollution learn from moments and campaigns that have worked – and those that haven’t? How can campaigns be crafted to drive the shifts in consumer behaviour [my emphasis] needed to address plastic waste?

The report is a data-driven look at many campaigns around the world to see what worked and what didn’t in terms of changing behavior. It could be very helpful in the design and execution of campaigns around other issues as well.

Colin Woodard

Full disclosure, so far I have only read this fascinating article in Politico based on Woodard’s book. From what I have seen, this could become a Bible for designing effective regional strategies. Having lived in a number of these regions, I feel that the political class has completely missed the deep-rooted cultural differences that underlie the more visible political differences.

Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter, Harvard Business School

It’s rare to see such a sharp analysis of the structural problems of our political system. The authors’ agenda is not progressive per se, but that said, we agree on certain aspects of their analysis and solutions. They ask the right kinds of strategic questions.

For example, they support ranked choice voting and independent nonpartisan redistricting, and they understand why ballot initiatives are so important to doing end runs around the two-party duopoly. Anyone who truly wants a more representative and functional democracy should support these solutions, even if it could give more voice to one’s opponents as well as one’s self.