November 21, 2024 • 15 mins
Jennifer Lawson, CEO & President of Keep America Beautiful | CEOs You Should Know
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Professionals spend nearly half the work week on written communication,
so focus is important. With Grammarly as your AI writing partner,
focus and quickly get through work with relevant, real time suggestions,
and it works across five hundred thousand apps and websites,
so you can sound more confident and persuasive wherever you write.
Ninety three percent of professionals report that grammarly helps them
(00:21):
get more work done. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly
dot com slash podcast. That's grammarly dot com slash podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, hello, I'm here with Jenny Lawson, President and CEO
of Keep America Beautiful on our next edition of CEOs
you should Know.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Welcome Jenny, Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's nice to have you here at our iHeart headquarters
and what we'd like to do today's just kind of
talk to you and learn a little bit more about
yourself and keep America Beautiful. Can you tell us with
Keep America Beautiful right now and twenty twenty four, maybe
it's a couple of things you're most proud of that
you've accomplished this year.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Sure, So, Keep America Beautiful is a seventy one year
old brand. Wow and I think I am always grateful
and odd when you can make a brand that old
relevant in more modern times.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
And so this year, I.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Am particularly excited about our launch of the Greatest American Cleanup,
which is an invitation to everyone across the country to
help clean in green cities from coast to coast ahead
of our country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. So we
launched that this year, and we've just gotten a ton
of support and interest from mayors and lieutenant governors and
(01:41):
others pledging to help us.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Make this happen.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
To individuals who are pledging to pick up two hundred
and fifty pieces of litter, which is the key to helping.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Clean it all up, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And I would think that you probably are onboarding new
fans of your brand, children and Generation Alpha and Z
and millennials, keeping that brand really relevant with different audiences
that are out there. With paying homage to the audience
that you know you've developed over the seventy.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
One year time frame.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Your journey's been a very diverse one, you know, from
community development to leading social corporate change and initiatives.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Walk us through your journey.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And what led you to wanting to lead a CEO
for Keep America Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, thank you. I started in advertising, so.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I in that journey, you know, worked on a bunch
of accounts back in the day. Some of those will
date me right away, which is I worked on bringing
Ikea to to the US and some other what we're
then regional advertising partners. And from there I started to
(02:57):
get interested in the provono work at the at the
agency and probono gives you an opportunity to see where
businesses sort of meet the community, right because you're investing
and engaging in activities with nonprofits and other partners that
are important to the corporate client that you represent. And
from there, my career really was at that intersection of
(03:20):
how does community and the business community and their employees
really come together to do important work in community. So
from there I went to the Nature Conservancy, the p Center,
and Global Climate Change which is now C Twoes Points
of Light, and each of those were at that seam
of where does business meet community and what is that
(03:44):
experience like engaging volunteers and employee volunteers working for the environment.
When I was at the Nature Conservancy, and so when
the opportunity came up at Keep America Beautiful. I had
all the volunteering that is core to what Keep America
Beautiful was about, and then that experience with the environment
and engaging communities along that scene once again. And so
(04:06):
it was a natural because it also started with advertising.
So was this chance to bring my career together when
the opportunity came in front of me. You know, you
have a moment, I said, Ah.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
This is the moment.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Of course, this is exactly what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
That's wonderful, that's wonderful. This is CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
We're here with Jenny Laws and president CEO of Keep
America Beautiful. So before Keep America Beautiful, I want to
expand on something that you just said. You led civic
innovation efforts at Points of Light, working with companies on
their social change goals. How can corporations today collaborate more
effectively with nonprofits like Keep America Beautiful to make a
(04:45):
real difference in sustainability in community engagement.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, I think that it's a great time for that
kind of work. As companies look for more ways to
be innovative. Nonprofits are terrific test beds for new ideas.
So I think if you think about a nonprofit, especially
a scale nonprofit like Keep America Beautiful some of the
big ones, they have the capacity to help test new
(05:13):
ideas in local communities.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
They also have this amazing.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Ability to really help employees get grounded in their own
community and gain that sense of purpose by understanding how
the company lives and shows up and values the communities
where it does business. So people feel connected at work
(05:38):
and connected to their communities as well. Those partnerships that
link business, nonprofits and the needs of employees together, that's
the sweet spot. And I would say that's one of
the biggest lessons I learned and we talked about in
my times at points of life.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I think that leads me to a follow up
question as well. You know, how does Keep America beautifuls
work inspire people not just to take ownership of their
local environment, but to feel empowered to make larger societal changes.
So the work that you're doing and how you're inspiring people,
do you feel like that lends itself going further and
folks wanting to be engaged in their communities and making
(06:15):
societal changes.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Absolutely, so, the model for change of Keep America Beautiful
is really focused on engaging stakeholders in community from the beginning.
So we don't come in saying we're here to show
you what to do. We come into a community and
we have seven hundred and fifty affiliates around the country,
so that's a lot of communities, and we say what
(06:38):
needs to happen with you here, and we take people
on an exploration, some research, talking to stakeholders to figure
out what needs to be done, and then help them
engage individuals and getting that work done at the local level.
That opportunity allows people to take action. So if you
(06:59):
feel a helpless again with climate change, we we have
opportunities to say, listen, we know that increased stormwater is
going to put more plastics into waterways because of stormwater runoff.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Why don't you.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Help us get plastic out of the waterways. Come out
and help us pick up litter. This is a way
you can help to address the challenges of climate change.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Right right? How does how does?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How does an organization or a business within a community
learn more about you? What's the best way for them
to get engaged with community with Keep America Beautiful? Is
it through their corporate community affairs department? That would create
a discussion. How does that How does that happen?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, there's two ways. We take calls and emails at
KAB dot org. Kab dot org and uh, you know,
I think internal to a company, sure, your sustainability team,
you your CSR team, your social impact team, even through
HR and employee engagement. If you have one of these
(08:07):
platforms like Benevity, working through Benevity, one of those platforms,
you can find our opportunities.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Again, we're here with Jenny Lawson, President CEO Keep America
Beautiful on this edition of CEOs You Should Know, And Jenny,
I wanted to ask another question. You mentioned the importance
of creating lasting change through education and action. Can you
share a story where Keep America Beautiful's efforts have had
a visible and tangible impact in a particular community, something
(08:37):
you're super proud of. One of those moments that will
go down I guess as one of the best moments
with your time so far at Keep America Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
So, as I mentioned, we have seven hundred and fifty
affiliates around the amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It's amazing, right, that's much organization.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Yeah, So we'll start with the beginning So one of
our first to film Eliot's.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Was keep making Bib Beautiful and make them Bib Georgia.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So, Macon Georgia and.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Carolyn Clayton, who is our leader there almost since the
beginning of Keep American Beautiful. So she started more than
fifty years ago to bring that community together and advocate
for Originally what was planting tulips, and to date they
have planted I think it's three hundred thousand trees wow
(09:30):
around Macon, Georgia Wo. So it's absolutely beautiful cherry trees
that are stunning, and they have instilled a sense of
pride in that community and they get tons of people
out to pick up litter, to clean up their parks
and to really build community pride all the way up
to the largest affiliate in our network, which is Keep
(09:53):
Indianapolis Beautiful. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful did a really important study
with the University of Mission Again a couple of years
ago where they found that when you move something from
a brown space to a green space, a little park
in a neighborhood, it has impacts on all sorts of things, heat, islands,
(10:14):
all those things, but it also has impacts on gun violence.
Twelve reduction in gun violence and assault in communities where
people are caring for the parks and the green spaces
in their communities.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's huge.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
You know, in the course of the conversation around an
issue like gun violence, you don't expect plant more trees
to be one in a solution.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And that's just an anneapolis that's having that effectory.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Where we did the study, we assume that it would
play out, you know, to some.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Degree in other communities across the country.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I have another question, with your experience driving initiatives like Listen, Learn,
and Act to end racism, how do you see social
justice and environmental issues intersecting in the communities that keep
America beautiful serves? And how do these two areas inform
each other in your work?
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Sure, so much of the way that lack of equity
has played out over the years has been in the
environmental space. So the environmental justice movement is focused on
very importantly resolving those differences. So lower income communities, less
(11:40):
diverse communities have more green spaces. So wherever there's higher income,
less diversity, there's more investment in green spaces in parts.
And so in the environmental justice movement, we focus on
solving for that, on bringing more solutions for environmental degradation.
If these lots in neighbor hoods were used for factories
(12:02):
and things that have left pollutants or continue to pollute,
how do you address that with investments in green spaces.
And a community needs to improve the environment, improve the
quality of the air, the land, the water in their neighborhoods.
That is the essence of environmental justice.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Right, excellent, are the seven hundred communities or chapters? Are
there any target areas that you're not in that you're
looking to expand two thousand?
Speaker 4 (12:34):
What a great question we would love to hear from
the Northwest. Right back to Georgia that Carolyn Clayton. She
is a powerhouse of a woman who is now well
into her nineties. Carolyn recruited sixty eight affiliates in Georgia alone,
So that's a concentration.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
We get out to Montana and Wyoming and that number
goes way down.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I think because for the longest time, those are.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Pretty underpopulated compared to Georgia and the East Coast communities
who were handling their waste management issues and their beautification
issues on their own. But they're growing too, right, so
we would love to see more folks, and you can
reach us at kab dot org from the Northwest, and that.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Is kab dot org.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
I want to ask you another question looking ahead, now
that we know where we need to grow Keep America Beautiful,
what are some of the key goals and initiatives that
Keep America Beautiful is focused on, not just for twenty
twenty five but a three to five year plan. US CEO,
what would you like to see happen? What's top of the.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Of the radar.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yeah, so we have been known historically for the iconic
advertising for Mother Nature.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
So environmental advertising.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
I think we'd all agree to that yet.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Is historically what we've been known for.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Yeah, those seven hundred and fifty affiliates came along after
the advertizing and they're the core of how we get
work done.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
So in the next three.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
To five years, we want to come back to being
that iconic advertiser. So I think being a promoter of
Mother Nature and how people can help in this moment
is really high on our list of what we hope
to accomplish in the next three to five years. We
think that this greatest American cleanup campaign is a great
(14:25):
way to reintroduce that work to the American people.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I'm sure you will accomplish that and much more because
you have done a fabulous job with.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Keep America Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I'm here with Jenny Lawson and we're chatting about Keep
America Beautiful? And Jenny, is there anything that we didn't
talk about today that you know you'd like our new
friends from the Northwest that we're going to invite to
be part of Keep America People, or your hard working
chapters like in Georgia that you talked about. Is there
anything that we should be covering that we hadn't talked
(14:58):
about yet today?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I think I would like to remind everyone that whether
there's a KAB chapter in your neighborhood or not, there
are things you can do. So this campaign invites everyone
in America to pick up two hundred and fifty pieces
of litter now two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Two hundred
and fifty pieces of litter a little bit of a fabrication,
(15:23):
but the reality is that if you picked up, if
every American picked up one hundred and fifty two pieces
of litter, we would pick it all up right now.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
One hundred and fifty two pieces.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Doesn't seem crazy, right. We think we can do that.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
So my request is kab dot org sign up and
pledge to do that.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
If every American could do that, we would pick up.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
All the litter.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, especially as you're raising awareness with parents and educators
and community leaders, they need to take charge and get
folks involved by signing up a kabt work well, Jenny,
it's been a pleasure having you on CEOs. You should
know today Jenny Lawson. Everyone president CEO Keep America Beautiful
(16:09):
doing great things and you can learn a lot more
about Keep America Beautiful at kb dot org.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Thank you, Thanks Al
Professionals spend nearly half the work week on written communication,
so focus is important. With Grammarly as your AI writing partner,
focus and quickly get through work with relevant, real time suggestions,
and it works across five hundred thousand apps and websites,
so you can sound more confident and persuasive wherever you write.
Ninety three percent of professionals report that grammarly helps them
(00:21):
get more work done. Download Grammarly for free at grammarly
dot com slash podcast. That's grammarly dot com slash podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, hello, I'm here with Jenny Lawson, President and CEO
of Keep America Beautiful on our next edition of CEOs
you should Know.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Welcome Jenny, Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
It's nice to have you here at our iHeart headquarters
and what we'd like to do today's just kind of
talk to you and learn a little bit more about
yourself and keep America Beautiful. Can you tell us with
Keep America Beautiful right now and twenty twenty four, maybe
it's a couple of things you're most proud of that
you've accomplished this year.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Sure, So, Keep America Beautiful is a seventy one year
old brand. Wow and I think I am always grateful
and odd when you can make a brand that old
relevant in more modern times.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
And so this year, I.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Am particularly excited about our launch of the Greatest American Cleanup,
which is an invitation to everyone across the country to
help clean in green cities from coast to coast ahead
of our country's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. So we
launched that this year, and we've just gotten a ton
of support and interest from mayors and lieutenant governors and
(01:41):
others pledging to help us.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Make this happen.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
To individuals who are pledging to pick up two hundred
and fifty pieces of litter, which is the key to helping.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Clean it all up, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And I would think that you probably are onboarding new
fans of your brand, children and Generation Alpha and Z
and millennials, keeping that brand really relevant with different audiences
that are out there. With paying homage to the audience
that you know you've developed over the seventy.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
One year time frame.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Your journey's been a very diverse one, you know, from
community development to leading social corporate change and initiatives.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Walk us through your journey.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
And what led you to wanting to lead a CEO
for Keep America Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, thank you. I started in advertising, so.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
I in that journey, you know, worked on a bunch
of accounts back in the day. Some of those will
date me right away, which is I worked on bringing
Ikea to to the US and some other what we're
then regional advertising partners. And from there I started to
(02:57):
get interested in the provono work at the at the
agency and probono gives you an opportunity to see where
businesses sort of meet the community, right because you're investing
and engaging in activities with nonprofits and other partners that
are important to the corporate client that you represent. And
from there, my career really was at that intersection of
(03:20):
how does community and the business community and their employees
really come together to do important work in community. So
from there I went to the Nature Conservancy, the p Center,
and Global Climate Change which is now C Twoes Points
of Light, and each of those were at that seam
of where does business meet community and what is that
(03:44):
experience like engaging volunteers and employee volunteers working for the environment.
When I was at the Nature Conservancy, and so when
the opportunity came up at Keep America Beautiful. I had
all the volunteering that is core to what Keep America
Beautiful was about, and then that experience with the environment
and engaging communities along that scene once again. And so
(04:06):
it was a natural because it also started with advertising.
So was this chance to bring my career together when
the opportunity came in front of me. You know, you
have a moment, I said, Ah.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
This is the moment.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Of course, this is exactly what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
That's wonderful, that's wonderful. This is CEOs you should know.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
We're here with Jenny Laws and president CEO of Keep
America Beautiful. So before Keep America Beautiful, I want to
expand on something that you just said. You led civic
innovation efforts at Points of Light, working with companies on
their social change goals. How can corporations today collaborate more
effectively with nonprofits like Keep America Beautiful to make a
(04:45):
real difference in sustainability in community engagement.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, I think that it's a great time for that
kind of work. As companies look for more ways to
be innovative. Nonprofits are terrific test beds for new ideas.
So I think if you think about a nonprofit, especially
a scale nonprofit like Keep America Beautiful some of the
big ones, they have the capacity to help test new
(05:13):
ideas in local communities.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
They also have this amazing.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Ability to really help employees get grounded in their own
community and gain that sense of purpose by understanding how
the company lives and shows up and values the communities
where it does business. So people feel connected at work
(05:38):
and connected to their communities as well. Those partnerships that
link business, nonprofits and the needs of employees together, that's
the sweet spot. And I would say that's one of
the biggest lessons I learned and we talked about in
my times at points of life.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, I think that leads me to a follow up
question as well. You know, how does Keep America beautifuls
work inspire people not just to take ownership of their
local environment, but to feel empowered to make larger societal changes.
So the work that you're doing and how you're inspiring people,
do you feel like that lends itself going further and
folks wanting to be engaged in their communities and making
(06:15):
societal changes.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Absolutely, so, the model for change of Keep America Beautiful
is really focused on engaging stakeholders in community from the beginning.
So we don't come in saying we're here to show
you what to do. We come into a community and
we have seven hundred and fifty affiliates around the country,
so that's a lot of communities, and we say what
(06:38):
needs to happen with you here, and we take people
on an exploration, some research, talking to stakeholders to figure
out what needs to be done, and then help them
engage individuals and getting that work done at the local level.
That opportunity allows people to take action. So if you
(06:59):
feel a helpless again with climate change, we we have
opportunities to say, listen, we know that increased stormwater is
going to put more plastics into waterways because of stormwater runoff.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Why don't you.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Help us get plastic out of the waterways. Come out
and help us pick up litter. This is a way
you can help to address the challenges of climate change.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
Right right? How does how does?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
How does an organization or a business within a community
learn more about you? What's the best way for them
to get engaged with community with Keep America Beautiful? Is
it through their corporate community affairs department? That would create
a discussion. How does that How does that happen?
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, there's two ways. We take calls and emails at
KAB dot org. Kab dot org and uh, you know,
I think internal to a company, sure, your sustainability team,
you your CSR team, your social impact team, even through
HR and employee engagement. If you have one of these
(08:07):
platforms like Benevity, working through Benevity, one of those platforms,
you can find our opportunities.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Again, we're here with Jenny Lawson, President CEO Keep America
Beautiful on this edition of CEOs You Should Know, And Jenny,
I wanted to ask another question. You mentioned the importance
of creating lasting change through education and action. Can you
share a story where Keep America Beautiful's efforts have had
a visible and tangible impact in a particular community, something
(08:37):
you're super proud of. One of those moments that will
go down I guess as one of the best moments
with your time so far at Keep America Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
So, as I mentioned, we have seven hundred and fifty
affiliates around the amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It's amazing, right, that's much organization.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Yeah, So we'll start with the beginning So one of
our first to film Eliot's.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Was keep making Bib Beautiful and make them Bib Georgia.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
So, Macon Georgia and.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Carolyn Clayton, who is our leader there almost since the
beginning of Keep American Beautiful. So she started more than
fifty years ago to bring that community together and advocate
for Originally what was planting tulips, and to date they
have planted I think it's three hundred thousand trees wow
(09:30):
around Macon, Georgia Wo. So it's absolutely beautiful cherry trees
that are stunning, and they have instilled a sense of
pride in that community and they get tons of people
out to pick up litter, to clean up their parks
and to really build community pride all the way up
to the largest affiliate in our network, which is Keep
(09:53):
Indianapolis Beautiful. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful did a really important study
with the University of Mission Again a couple of years
ago where they found that when you move something from
a brown space to a green space, a little park
in a neighborhood, it has impacts on all sorts of things, heat, islands,
(10:14):
all those things, but it also has impacts on gun violence.
Twelve reduction in gun violence and assault in communities where
people are caring for the parks and the green spaces
in their communities.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
That's huge.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
You know, in the course of the conversation around an
issue like gun violence, you don't expect plant more trees
to be one in a solution.
Speaker 5 (10:42):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And that's just an anneapolis that's having that effectory.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
Where we did the study, we assume that it would
play out, you know, to some.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Degree in other communities across the country.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I have another question, with your experience driving initiatives like Listen, Learn,
and Act to end racism, how do you see social
justice and environmental issues intersecting in the communities that keep
America beautiful serves? And how do these two areas inform
each other in your work?
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Sure, so much of the way that lack of equity
has played out over the years has been in the
environmental space. So the environmental justice movement is focused on
very importantly resolving those differences. So lower income communities, less
(11:40):
diverse communities have more green spaces. So wherever there's higher income,
less diversity, there's more investment in green spaces in parts.
And so in the environmental justice movement, we focus on
solving for that, on bringing more solutions for environmental degradation.
If these lots in neighbor hoods were used for factories
(12:02):
and things that have left pollutants or continue to pollute,
how do you address that with investments in green spaces.
And a community needs to improve the environment, improve the
quality of the air, the land, the water in their neighborhoods.
That is the essence of environmental justice.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Right, excellent, are the seven hundred communities or chapters? Are
there any target areas that you're not in that you're
looking to expand two thousand?
Speaker 4 (12:34):
What a great question we would love to hear from
the Northwest. Right back to Georgia that Carolyn Clayton. She
is a powerhouse of a woman who is now well
into her nineties. Carolyn recruited sixty eight affiliates in Georgia alone,
So that's a concentration.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
We get out to Montana and Wyoming and that number
goes way down.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
I think because for the longest time, those are.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Pretty underpopulated compared to Georgia and the East Coast communities
who were handling their waste management issues and their beautification
issues on their own. But they're growing too, right, so
we would love to see more folks, and you can
reach us at kab dot org from the Northwest, and that.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Is kab dot org.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
I want to ask you another question looking ahead, now
that we know where we need to grow Keep America Beautiful,
what are some of the key goals and initiatives that
Keep America Beautiful is focused on, not just for twenty
twenty five but a three to five year plan. US CEO,
what would you like to see happen? What's top of the.
Speaker 5 (13:39):
Of the radar.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Yeah, so we have been known historically for the iconic
advertising for Mother Nature.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
So environmental advertising.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
I think we'd all agree to that yet.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Is historically what we've been known for.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Yeah, those seven hundred and fifty affiliates came along after
the advertizing and they're the core of how we get
work done.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
So in the next three.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
To five years, we want to come back to being
that iconic advertiser. So I think being a promoter of
Mother Nature and how people can help in this moment
is really high on our list of what we hope
to accomplish in the next three to five years. We
think that this greatest American cleanup campaign is a great
(14:25):
way to reintroduce that work to the American people.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I'm sure you will accomplish that and much more because
you have done a fabulous job with.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Keep America Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I'm here with Jenny Lawson and we're chatting about Keep
America Beautiful? And Jenny, is there anything that we didn't
talk about today that you know you'd like our new
friends from the Northwest that we're going to invite to
be part of Keep America People, or your hard working
chapters like in Georgia that you talked about. Is there
anything that we should be covering that we hadn't talked
(14:58):
about yet today?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I think I would like to remind everyone that whether
there's a KAB chapter in your neighborhood or not, there
are things you can do. So this campaign invites everyone
in America to pick up two hundred and fifty pieces
of litter now two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Two hundred
and fifty pieces of litter a little bit of a fabrication,
(15:23):
but the reality is that if you picked up, if
every American picked up one hundred and fifty two pieces
of litter, we would pick it all up right now.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
One hundred and fifty two pieces.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Doesn't seem crazy, right. We think we can do that.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
So my request is kab dot org sign up and
pledge to do that.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
If every American could do that, we would pick up.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
All the litter.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, especially as you're raising awareness with parents and educators
and community leaders, they need to take charge and get
folks involved by signing up a kabt work well, Jenny,
it's been a pleasure having you on CEOs. You should
know today Jenny Lawson. Everyone president CEO Keep America Beautiful
(16:09):
doing great things and you can learn a lot more
about Keep America Beautiful at kb dot org.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Thank you, Thanks Al
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