Engage: How You Can Make the World a Better Place Right Now

When I speak to business people about The Nature Conservancy’s work, they often ask me, "But what can I do? I'm a very busy career person. And how can one person really make a difference, anyway?"

Good news: There is a lot you can do starting right now. Here are my thoughts on how you can very meaningfully make a difference in my field — protecting nature. But I think my advice applies equally to causes like poverty reduction, education, health initiatives, the arts and other worthy efforts.

1. Engage with good non-government organizations (NGOs)

This might seem self-serving, but it’s also true: The world's strong NGOs — from Oxfam to CARE, Doctors Without Borders to your great local charities — are amazing forces for good. They’re also a great place for you to pitch in and start helping.

Why NGOs? In my book Natures Fortune, I tell a number of very positive stories of protecting nature at scale on a win-win basis. In each case, good outcomes are achieved for the environment, the community and the economy. And in each case, three key actors make it happen: volunteer private sector players, government actors and NGOs.

Yes, the private sector is playing a growing role in social and environmental efforts — and that’s a very positive trend. But NGOs have unique advantages that make them essential to the cause. They have the science-based tools and expertise to get things done on the ground. They have deep experience in community outreach and capacity building. And they serve as the face of a cause, rallying public support and mobilizing public funding for their mission. Great NGOs are like great athletes — exquisitely trained and tuned to meet the challenges at hand with consistently creative solutions.

Unfortunately, the best NGOs are severely under-resourced relative to the opportunities they face. That's true whether they are relatively big — like TNC — or relatively small — like RARE.

You can make a difference — and not just by writing checks. While we need financial support, we also need engagement at any scale. You could join a board, or start by volunteering for a project or organizing a fund-raiser. Websites like VolunteerMatch or Crowdrise now make it very easy to find opportunities where your skills and energy could make a difference.

2. Engage your business

Say “environmentalism” to a business leader, and they may think of regulation and reduced profits.

But every business — without exception — has no-brainer win-win opportunities in the environmental field that could improve both their financial results and the benefits from nature we all depend on. Surprised?

Think of it this way. Most companies depend on nature in one form or another — on clean, flowing water; on raw materials like minerals or timber; on how marshes and dunes protect our operations from floods and storms, to name just a few. Conserving that nature to ensure its sustainability helps companies manage risks to their supply chains, keep costs down, identify new market opportunities and protect essential business assets. Likewise, employees and customers today strongly prefer companies whose values align with theirs. Smart environmental strategies are an essential way to achieve such alignment.

But these win-wins are too seldom pursued. Why? Because corporate leaders are unaware of them, tentative to act on them, or see them as lower priorities. Or they mistakenly think of environmental efforts as philanthropy or corporate social responsibility—nice to have, but separate from the company’s core business strategies.

The LinkedIn community can do a lot to change this short-sighted mindset. You are business leaders, investors, board members, advisors. Push your colleagues and staff to incorporate the environment into their business decisions. Encourage them to reach out to an NGO to find out how to do so. Engage your customers and employees in your corporate responsibility efforts.

Many NGOs also sponsor business councils. These are great forums for sharing your skills and expertise, demonstrating your corporate leadership and exchanging ideas and best practices.

Engaging your business with nature will help your bottom line, and it’s one of the most effective ways to get involved.

3. Engage as a citizen

Too often, when I spend time with members of Congress, I get the impression that they don't think their voters care about environmental issues. But I also know firsthand that communication from just a few prominent constituents on any issue makes an impression with these folks. Again, the LinkedIn community — high-achieving, well-respected and civic-minded— is the perfect group to break through our legislative lethargy and start to gain traction. And it doesn’t take a lot of investment on your part.

Environmental issues are in the news constantly — from climate change to local water pollution to land conservation proposals. Choose your issue and spend five or 15 minutes to tell your legislators what you think. An email is fine, but writing a letter or calling your legislator is better.

If you can spare an hour, by far the best thing you can do is to meet your legislator or their staff in the district office where you live. So few people actually do this that, when a real voter shows up to talk articulately about an issue they care about, it makes a huge impact. And if your legislator knows that you are talking to other voters about the issue—through social media, letters to the editor, and community groups—they see you as an influencer, and legislators are even more likely to pay attention to you.

Again, most NGOs are eager to help people make their voices heard on issues they care about. They’re usually an excellent source for information and resources for connecting with your public officials.

4. Engage the future

We face grave environmental challenges over the decades immediately ahead. But I'm optimistic. I see people rallying together — along with the private sector, governments and NGOs — to really make a difference.

But we'll only succeed if today's young people champion our initiatives as we move ahead. Recruiting them, though, will be a challenge, because young people today are less engaged with nature than ever before. Unstructured outdoor activity is down by half from the previous generation — just 30 minutes a week on average for U.S. children. Meanwhile, their weekly electronic media exposure is almost 45 hours a week.

But you can do a lot about this. You are family members, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, friends. Do whatever you can to develop in today's young people love and respect for nature. Do it for nature, but also do it for you. Spending time outdoors is fun. It’s also good for your health—both physical and mental. There is growing evidence that nature helps kids with ADHD focus better, helps adults reduce stress and promotes recovery from a wide range of diseases and physical ailments.

My final piece of advice, as I said in my last LinkedIn post, is to start now. Everyone depends on nature, from businesses, investors and governments to farmers, ranchers, students and urbanites. So when you engage, you’re not just helping get our planet quickly back on the right path — you benefit yourself and your family, too.

Mark Tercek is the president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy and author of Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive By Investing in Nature. You can follow Mark on Twitter @MarkTercek and find more of his writing on The Huffington Post.

[Image: Volunteers rebuilding an oyster reef for the 100-1000: Restore Coastal Alabama Project. The partnership aims to restore 100 miles of oyster reef and to plant and promote the growth of 1,000 acres of marsh and seagrass. ? Erika Nortemann/TNC]