Our News

Every Pride Month of the past few years has felt unlike any other in recent memory. With so much happening so fast, and attacks and assaults on LGBTQ people ramping up in the courts, in statehouses and on the streets, it makes sense that many of us are tired, depressed, fearful, and fed-up. Fortunately, there are many LGBTQ people and allies working to push back and make the world a better place for all of us. One such group of LGBTQ people and allies is PFLAG National . Fou

These are tough times. With so much hate, division and fear in our society and the continued impacts of the health, racial justice and economic pandemics affecting many of us, it can be hard to find or feel joy. So, what better time to ask our friend Patrice Tanaka to participate in the Common Sense Colloquy ? Patrice is the Founder & Chief Joy Officer of Joyful Planet, LLC , a “ Business & Life Strategy Consultancy” to help individuals and organizations discover and activel

Celebrating, honoring and acknowledging Pride Month is more important this year than ever (and it should be celebrated all year, not just during one month). The expected Supreme Court ruling that will undermine the right to bodily autonomy and privacy is just the latest assault on communities like ours. Legislators in statehouses and city halls across the country are ramping up their attacks on the LGBTQ community, and they are being particularly virulent towards transgender

The role of institutional investors in climate change mitigation is not always well understood, despite a great deal of attention being paid to the impact of such investments in driving business changes designed to help address the global threat of a changing climate. At the same time, diversity, equity and inclusion decisions are increasingly important to investment considerations and are now contemplated in concert with climate and related topics. Fortunately, we have a fri

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 NCAA Tournament rankings aren’t the only national rankings making news this month (although we are certainly excited to see Texas Tech ranked #3 in the Western Region of the NCAA Tournament!). Last week, we had the distinct pleasure – and surprise – of learning that we’ve been ranked as the #2 Public Affairs firm in the country on the Clutch 2022 B2B Leaders chart . As a DC-based public affairs firm working with clients across the country, we think any ranking is a good

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

Today, we are celebrating our seventh anniversary in business. On this day in 2015, I hit “publish” on our website and “send” on an email announcing the debut of RENEW PR , a new public relations firm in Washington, D.C. focused on “restoring common sense to communications.” So what have the last seven years been like for us? The late, great jazz musician Joe Sample inspired this post with this composition “ Seven Years of Good Luck ” from his 1989 album Spellbound . We’ve wo

As a founding member of The Change Agencies , the first (and only) national network of independently owned and operated multicultural and LGBTQ PR firms, I am always interested in learning about new initiatives to increase diversity and representation in our industry. In November, I participated in the first-ever Native American PR roundtable event sponsored by the Museum of Public Relations . During this event, I was delighted to learn about the launch of the Indigenous Peo

One of the reasons I founded RENEW PR was my interest in working with good people on good things. Nowhere is that more in evidence than with the RENEW PR Team , the group of experienced, independent communications professionals I partner with to help clients across the country and across the world. It’s a fantastic collection of smart, funny, creative and wildly talented people and I’m thankful every day for the opportunity to work with them. So, it’s exciting to expand our

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

What does one say about being inducted into a Hall of Fame in recognition of their work? Thank you, of course, but for what and to whom? This summer, my friend Shonali Burke told me she intended to nominate me for the Public Relations Society of America National Capital Chapter Hall of Fame . This is an honor reserved for public relations professionals who have been working in DC for at least 10 years and in our industry for at least 30 years. After having the conversation ab

National Parks have been part of my life for almost as long as I can remember. I was born in DC and lived within a mile of Rock Creek National Park for most of my childhood. I spent summers visiting National Parks with my family and some of my fondest memories are of hiking the Grand Canyon National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park . Indeed, my passion for nature and the environment is part of the reason I’ve focused my career on climate and related communications effor

One of the reasons I founded RENEW PR was my interest in working with good people on good things. Nowhere is that truer than with the RENEW PR Team , the group of experienced, independent communications professionals I partner with to help clients across the country and across the world. It’s a fantastic collection of smart, funny, creative and wildly talented people and I’m thankful every day for the opportunity to work with them. So, it’s very exciting to be adding to our

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

One of the many careers I considered as a young child was landscape architecture. It just seemed cool and I thought it would be a lot of fun. But then, other career paths seemed more exciting, and I moved on. So it’s great fun for me now to have the opportunity to talk about landscape architecture again, but this time with the leader of the landscape architecture industry’s professional organization. Landscape architecture is relevant to health, infrastructure and environment