As the climate crisis looms before us, we find ourselves searching for community, care, and ways to make a change towards a more sustainable world. Faith values can help restore the tender balance between the human and natural worlds and develop intricate, healthy community relationships. This April on United in Action: Dialogue at the Tzu Chi Center, we explored the role faith plays in transforming our world, both on a global and a local level.
Watch our Earth Day episode, as we examine climate change and how faith-based action can combat it with Andrew Schwartz, Director of Sustainability and Global Affairs at the Center for Earth Ethics, and Evan Raskin, US Earth Day National Campaign Manager.
Andrew, director of sustainability and global affairs, leads the Center for Earth Ethics’ (CEE) programs, such as the 2021 Faith + Food Coalition Dialogue series, that bring together voices from around the world to further environmental and climate justice. He has nearly a decade of experience working with community leaders and government officials to create multilateral coalitions and support environmental movements.
Before joining CEE, Andrew worked as interim executive director of Bend 2030, a coalition of diverse stakeholders in Bend, Oregon, co-director of the Micah Challenge USA, an advocacy group focused on ending extreme poverty, and program manager of the Climate Reality Project, founded by Al Gore to influence national and international environmental policy on climate change.
Evan has been inspired by the natural world his whole life, ever since he learned how to walk in the halls of a natural history museum. He graduated from American University with a degree in environmental science, where he organized community river cleanups throughout the DC area. Before joining EARTHDAY.ORG in 2019, he worked with the British Embassy to develop a plan to eliminate single-use plastics from their U.S. operations.
He now serves as the National Campaign Manager for Earth Day Network. Outside of his environmental interests, Evan is a recording artist who loves creating a variety of music with the 9 types of instruments he plays. Even within music, Evan has found space for sustainability, founding Planetary Pick Co., an organization that makes upcycled guitar picks out of old gift cards/hotel keys/etc to raise funds for artists impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
