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Selecting my favorite comments from the most recent Common Sense Colloquy Q&As is both challenging and fun. I’m always struck by how relevant the comments from our participants are, and how much they have in common with each other. Listening, engaging others and simplifying what you say and how you say it come up as advice again and again. But what makes the series so interesting to me are the other nuggets of wisdom that may be specific, funny and/or inspiring.   The past

After nearly six years, I’m still surprised by how useful the insights shared by our Common Sense Colloquy participants are for my daily work. The inspiration and information each participant imparts is both helpful and encouraging and reminds me of what a great resource this series is for communicators.   This is my second post in our Years Five and Six in Review series and it includes responses from our sixteen participants about the best advice each participant has given

Somehow, nearly six years have passed since I started The Common Sense Colloquy series of Q&As with energy, environment and other leaders in February 2018. In that time, more than sixty leaders from a variety of backgrounds and organizations have shared their insights on common sense communications and the wisdom of their professional experience. It’s a remarkable collection of commentaries from an inspiring set of people and a reminder that common sense is a useful foundati

When people ask me about the work I do, I explain that RENEW PR is focused on energy, environment and equity and most of our work is in the public affairs arena, meaning policy and regulation and similar topics. The work this month’s guest does addresses many of these issues so it makes sense that we’d include him in the Common Sense Colloquy . Rob Gramlich is Founder and President of Grid Strategies, LLC and a frequent commenter on energy and decarbonization policy onlin

Our work on energy, environment and equity public affairs provides opportunities to work and collaborate with a number of organizations and advocates leading the way on these issues. One of those organizations is The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) . In fact, this is the second time we’ve featured C2ES in this series: we interviewed former C2ES President Bob Perciasepe in July of 2018 . This month, I’m happy to feature C2ES’s current leader, Dr. Nathaniel Keoh

"Restoring common sense to communications" often means finding the simplest way to talk about something complex or challenging. Finding a way to make the difficult discernable is the essence of clear, compelling, effective communications. Our new client the Renewable Thermal Collaborative (RTC) fits this narrative well and we’re happy to have Blaine Collison , the Executive Director of the RTC, as this month’s guest for the Common Sense Colloquy . So, what is renewable therm

With a name like RENEW PR , we are often viewed as a renewable energy-only PR firm. We aren’t, but renewables and sustainability are an important part of our work and a key area of interest and focus (particularly since we’ve worked on numerous wind and solar campaigns and client projects). So we were thrilled when our friends at The Libra Group re-introduced us to Greenwood Sustainable Infrastructure (GSI), a company we had worked with previously. GSI is led by Chief Execu

Substantively and effectively addressing climate change is a multi-layered challenge. We need to reduce and eventually eliminate emissions (which technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage will help with), and we need to remove existing or legacy emissions as well (which technologies such as carbon removal will help with). In this series, we’re trying to address climate change and other important topics in as many ways as possible. This month, we’re focusing

The Common Sense Colloquy requires a good deal of effort, but the opportunity to share the insight and perspective of the smart people we work and collaborate with is worth it. In this, the third post in our Year Four in Review series, we share my favorite comments from our twelve participants over the past year. In addition to being smart and insightful, the comments below share a few things in common: they address the value of authenticity, the importance of equity and the

Every year at this time for the past three years, we have highlighted the best of the best from our Common Sense Colloquy series: key advice and perspective on communications from a diverse group of energy, environmental and LGBTQ leaders who participated in our monthly Q&A series. In this, the second post in our three-part series marking the end of the fourth year of the Common Sense Colloquy, we’re sharing insight from twelve influential communications and advocacy leaders

Four years ago, I had an idea for a series of Q&As with interesting energy and environment leaders. In February 2018, I posted the first of what I hoped would be an ongoing series of useful conversations sharing insight on common sense conversations. Our client Marcene Mitchell set a high bar with that first interview and every person since then has demonstrated that this wasn’t just a good idea, it was an insightful one. The nearly fifty conversations we’ve had since that

Energy policy is now also climate policy. Decisions about what types of energy sources to build for the future are now inextricably linked with their impact on the planet. As this connection has become ever more obvious, interest in nuclear energy has grown. But challenges remain, to be sure. This month’s Q&A subject is Jessica Lovering , co-founder of Good Energy Collective (GEC). Jessica stepped into that breach to build the “ progressive case for nuclear energy as an e

Climate change touches everyone, everywhere. As we saw with extreme weather events last year that were likely influenced by a changing climate, the conversation about our warming planet is no longer theoretical or future-based. Climate change is now. Increasingly, the conversation about it is now as well. And groups like E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) are one reason for this dialogue. E2 is a national, nonpartisan organization of more than 11,000 business leaders across th

Climate change doesn’t recognize borders. While most of our work centers on the U.S., we understand the importance of hemispheric and global communications on issues like energy and environment. So, I was thrilled when a former colleague contacted me this summer to ask for RENEW PR ’s help with the release of a report on the future of clean energy in Mexico. I jumped at the chance and had the opportunity to bring new RENEW PR Team Member Jessica Lass into the conversation fr

As part of this ongoing monthly series , we’ve interviewed clients, colleagues and friends who boast a number of superlatives. This month, we’re adding another one: the first female head of the United States Energy Association (USEA) in its 100 year history. Our client USEA’s Sheila Hollis is the acting executive director of USEA. She was the first woman to serve as President of the Energy Bar Association, and holds the distinction of being the only person to serve as both

Over the past six and one-half years, we’ve had the pleasure and privilege of working with a number of leading energy and environmental advocacy firms on topics as varied as renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable buildings and carbon capture. One of those groups is Clean Air Task Force . Clean Air Task Force (CATF) was selected as a top global climate organization by the Founders Pledge , has been called one of “ six of the most high-impact, cost-effective, evidence

Meeting mid-century climate goals will require a wholesale shift in energy generation and use that will involve new technologies, new processes and new approaches. One such approach is the nascent advanced nuclear energy industry, which seeks to develop new, generally smaller and often-modular reactors that promise more flexibility, greater applicability in multiple types of environments and lower cost of operations. Communicating about nuclear energy has been a challenge for

As we noted earlier this week, "with the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration and the start of a new session of Congress, efforts to decarbonize the economy are getting renewed attention with announcements being made seemingly every day on new net zero pledges, new partnerships designed to boost advanced technologies and new products and services designed to help the U.S. meet mid-century climate goals." To help highlight the business perspective on these policies, we

With the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration and the start of a new session of Congress, efforts to decarbonize the economy are getting renewed attention with announcements being made seemingly every day on new net zero pledges, new partnerships designed to boost advanced technologies and new products and services designed to help the U.S. meet mid-century climate goals. Much of that attention has focused on what policies the new Administration will promote and the c

The Common Sense Colloquy is one of the things I’ve prioritized since launching it in February of 2018. It does require time and effort, but it’s always worth it. I get so much out of the insight and perspective of the people I’m fortunate enough to interview for this Q&A series. Sharing favorite comments from the participants is always the most fun part of summarizing the year we just concluded. It’s also the hardest part: what should I choose when everything that the parti