Joey Solomon

Pop Sustainability, New York, NY

This summer I interned at Pop Sustainability, a non-profit organization based in New York City. Pop Sustainability’s primary mission is to take the idea of global sustainability -- environmental, economic, and social -- into mainstream and popular culture. They aim to do this by hosting local events, organizing challenges on college campuses, and organizing larger events that attract the attention of mass media outlets, and ultimately reach a broader audience. Unlike the Sierra Club or Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), Pop Sustainability does not conduct any specific activity that helps the environment, but instead attempts to reach individuals and encourage them to think and act in a manner that contributes to increased sustainability. Their efforts range from helping a specific charity to encouraging people to make a better effort to recycle, or to simply change their buying practices in order to support only those companies that conduct business in a sustainable manner. The specific audiences of Pop Sustainability are generations X and Y, the demographic with the largest buying power and influence in today’s society. Ultimately, Pop Sustainability aims to make contributing to a sustainable planet the “cool” thing to do.
My internship responsibilities included editing communication and presentation materials such as the web site, business overview kit, brochures, and other literature that are presented to the general public and to specific organizations. I also assisted in creating and producing special events that were intended to draw current activists together, as well as other events designed to reach out to the general public and to mobilize new activists. Finally, I helped develop new organizational partnerships in order to form mutually beneficial relationships that would help both organizations increase the number of people they could reach without increasing the use of financial resources being used.
With respect to completing my original objectives, I feel that I was for the most part successful. Undoubtedly, I learned a tremendous amount about the way an NGO operates and attempts to gain influence. During my internship at Pop Sustainability this summer I learned an incredible amount about activism, running a non-profit organization, and helping an organization and its ideas connect with new people. The Pop approach to activism is very interesting and pragmatic. It reinforced my own thoughts that people do not appreciate having ideas thrown in their faces. Instead, successful activists should attempt to relate to the audience they are trying to reach and convey the message through forums the audience is comfortable using to receive information. This was reinforced by sitting in on meetings with top P.R. people, and fashion designers during the planning of a plastics recycling event that will be co-sponsored by the City of New York. I also learned that there is an incredible amount of “behind the scenes” work that goes into running a non-profit organization. Fundraising is crucially important, as everything in today’s world requires money to do, and using that money wisely is obviously very important. Coordinating with other organizations is also important. Partnerships allow an organization to use its available resources in the most efficient way.
Finally, I learned that an organization must make direct connections with new people who are already interested in being active, in addition to the more passive audience one encounters at an event such as the plastics recycling campaign. These connections were established through events that I helped organize, such as The Building Blocks of Sustainability. These events serve two purposes by educating people on the specific subject matter and educating them about Pop Sustainability. Overall, interning at Pop was definitely an eye-opening experience, and I feel that I learned invaluable tools about pragmatic, realistic activism for our modern media-driven society.
There were also some downsides to my internship experience, however, as I set out wishing to learn more about specific theories related to resource mobilization and social movement. While I did learn much about the practical side of running an NGO, I feel that I didn’t learn quite enough about the theory behind it all, and this was what I had originally intended to do. It may also be too early to tell whether or not this internship truly prepared me for the senior project that lies ahead of me. Although I didn’t learn specifically about theory, I feel that when studying it, many of the what I learned through hands on experience will probably gain a whole new meaning in the context of the theory, and the converse will probably apply as well.
For my senior integrative project I wish to complete a one-semester independent study on the social movement theory and resource mobilization theory. First, I wish to learn what it is that generally motivates individuals to action. Is it the “not in my backyard” type attitudes, or guilt that their own lives are being lived too selfishly, or the belief that participating in movements will help them gain social status, or just the simple desire to do good in the world? I want to learn which of these inspires the greatest motivation in individuals to mobilize, and furthermore, how this knowledge can be exploited to help social and environmental movements. Next, I wish to learn the basic concepts behind these theories in order to gain a better understanding of how resources are mobilized and critical mass is achieved in movements.
I also want to explore the role that popular culture and mass media play in helping and/or hindering social movements. Currently our culture emphasizes consumerism, and our media encourages this. Culture and media are both powerful tools, however. If they can make a new boy band or new shoe style into a national craze over night, it seems that the same tools could be used to turn sustainability and eco-consciousness into ideas that are part of popular culture.