SSDN's Social Marketing Campaigns webinar, feature Laurel Creech (City of Nashville) and Tobin Freid (Durham City and County), has been rescheduled for
Thursday, October 17th at 11 am EST. Join us for a discussion of innovative social marketing campaigns. Laurel will discuss the
Mayor's Workplace Challenge and the
Mayor’s Neighborhood Challenge, two campaigns to get workplaces and neighborhoods to be more involved in the community, increase their environmental responsibility, and promote a healthy lifestyle. Tobin will discuss
Charge Ahead Durham,
a social marketing program encouraging Durhamites to take small steps in their everyday lives to improve the environment. The project is focused on energy, water, waste, and nature.
RSVP by replying to this email to reserve your spot.
This month, we interview Tobin Freid, Sustainability Manager for Durham City and County in Durham, NC.
What are you working on right now that you are most excited about?
I'm excited about two projects right now. One is our new social marketing campaign, Charge Ahead Durham. I am excited about it because it is the first time all the departments in the city and county that do environmental work have coordinated together on a program like this. It is also the first big marketing campaign that I have done to the community. I think it's going to be fun and can have a big impact!
The second project I'm excited about is a tree initiative that looks at planting and maintaining trees, including training citizens on how to take care of trees. Trees are awesome and they do so much for the community. They have so many benefits - environmental, economic, and social. This project can help so many city and county departments make headway towards our goals. It's a unifying project. Plus, it has the potential to improve our environment is so many ways.
What do you want to know from others in SSDN? What provocative questions do you have for your colleagues around the Southeast?
What's the best way to market a program to the general public to get people interested and participating? Answer here.
What success have you had related to tree projects? Answer here.
What led you to this work?
My whole life lead me to this work! ! I have always felt a very strong sense of obligation to protect the environment and to care about creatures that can’t speak for themselves. I was interested in environmental issues as a child and both my parents are strong environmentalists. My mother did animal rehabilitation from our home so I was always surrounded by animals that had been injured and needed our help. In high school, I created an environmental club at school, which was no easy task in conservative Orange County, CA.
I followed my passion and eventually got three degrees in environmental subject areas from three different universities (UC Santa Cruz, Tufts University, and Duke University). For a while I thought I would work at the international level, but after spending some time in an internship with the Council of Governments, I realized how important and fulfilling it is to work in local government. The impact is not as far-reaching, but it is more evident and tangible, and that's very gratifying. I love that I meet people all the time – at the farmer’s market, at my child’s school, at the store – that have benefited from the programs I run. And I like knowing that my work makes my adopted hometown a cleaner and healthier place for my kids to grow up.
