Welcome, readers! In this edition of The Village Visionary, I speak with Ian Monahan, Philanthropy & Marketing Manager of I Love A Clean San Diego. This organization has been restoring and enhancing the beautiful environs of San Diego County for over six decades, as well as educating people about conservation and sustainability! Ian and I had a lovely chat that I think will be inspiring to anyone who desires to go green. Read on!

Tell us a little bit about what the organization is and does.

 Well, I Love A Clean San Diego is now in its 65th year of serving San Diego County, and it’s one of the, if not the, long-running environmental nonprofits in the region. And what I Love A Clean San Diego is all about, it really got started to combat litter in San Diego. And that has evolved over the years now to serving as not only producing large clean up events like Coastal Cleanup Day, but also serving as an education resource. So we get out to hundreds of schools every year to teach students about conservation, environmental best practices, and we also are a volunteer catalyst. For instance, Coastal Cleanup Day will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,500 volunteers county-wide. Over a calendar year, with all the events we do, it’s tens of thousands of volunteers...annually.

The other portion of it is, we also do run programs. So, for instance, we run wastefreesd.org, which is the go-to for people who are interested in recycling but not quite sure where to do it for certain items, or how to better recycle certain items, or even find particular recycling locations or waste management locations. So, we do a lot of education around that program for the County of San Diego. That’s what I Love A Clean San Diego does in general.

It was founded years ago. Really it was a grassroots effort. A group of people got together and were looking to do something about the waste problem in the region. And it just started from a grassroots organization and eventually grew over the years to become come an environmental organization that was focused on reducing waste and increasing recycling and then, ultimately, education about conservation and reducing what we consume overall.

 Well, you guys must have had a pretty powerful influence because I think San Diego is very clean, relatively speaking, compared to a bunch of other major cities. I think it’s beautiful and I love that there’s this effort happening. Are there any other organizations like yours around here?

 No. In fact, there’s very few of them, relatively speaking. For instance, Coastal Cleanup Day will likely be very close to the largest effort in California, across the board. It’s the volunteerism aspect. We run civic engagement programs, so it’s not only education but it’s putting the action behind it. And really, I think one of the biggest takeaways, just like you said you love how beautiful San Diego is, it’s tapping that civic pride to get people out to engage in their communities and do something for [them]. And when people do volunteer, one of the things that we hear is, “Oh, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know there was so much that could be done.” Aside from just picking up litter, there’s also beautification projects that we do as well. So, it’s enhancing and it’s restoring.

 Speaking of people not knowing, is there one thing overall that you wish people knew, or did not misunderstand?

 I think we are hearing it almost on a daily basis, but: plastic. It does not biodegrade. There’s a stat that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. It starts inland. Yeah, sure, we see it on the beaches and stuff like that, but it starts inland, and it just continually breaks down into smaller and smaller and smaller pieces, until the point where you almost can’t see it. But that turns into what appears to be a food source for marine life that eat it and eventually it poisons them. So, it just, it doesn’t go away. And in our cleanups, we find it in its various forms. We find it in its whole form, for instance, a plastic bottle, and then we find it in its fragmented form which is even harder to find but it’s broken down, and in many cases, that can be the most damaging, because at that point it’s harder to capture. So, number one is, we’ve got to cut out our plastic consumption, period. And number two, we’ve got to dispose of it effectively, meaning, it’s got to find its way into the recycling bin. And if we’re not sure if it’s recyclable, it’s getting to the point where it’s almost like, don’t buy it. It’s infecting everything. Even, I think it was last week, there was a study about nanoplastics that The Scripps Institute of Oceanography just released, and it just, it doesn’t go away. They’re even finding it now complete in the food source from marine life and then into human bodies that are consuming the marine life. So, it sounds like a lot of people, many organizations, are beating the drum when it comes to plastics. But, single use plastics just have absolutely no place in our life anymore; even though it’s there, we’ve got to cut it out.

 I completely agree. I’m actually really excited, because this week I actually got my first box of plant-based trash bags and some loofah sponges. It’s so overwhelming because we’re used to, if we need something, we buy it. If something doesn’t work quite right, or it’s old, we just throw it away…it’s so culturally embedded in our brain, but, I think there is a shift happening. But I hope it’s not too late for the next generation.

 It really does come down to, we’re faced with a decision every time we walk into a store. And I’ve just gotta ask myself, “Do I really need or want this?” And, “What am I gonna do with it if I do purchase it?” And when it comes to plastics, we really do have to get that serious about it because if we don’t, that stat that I just gave to you is going to become a reality, and that’s a shocker.

 Does I Love A Clean San Diego have any sort of strategic mission to address that even more? What are your goals? What’s next for you guys?

What’s next is...well, you know, our vision is a litter free and zero waste San Diego, and that seems pretty ambitious. And when I say San Diego, I mean San Diego County. And that’s how bold a number of cities are getting with their climate action plans. What’s next for us is increased awareness about how to live a waste free or zero waste lifestyle, to help better align the community with many of the climate action goals that are happening around the region, and really, to extend and grow our education opportunities. We go into a number of businesses and a number of schools each year to share what we learn from our cleanups and put it into real actionable lifestyle changes. And they’re really small. It doesn’t need to be overwhelming. And it’s also progress, it’s not perfection right away. I think sometimes folks can feel a bit overwhelmed with certain environmental regulations, or do this and don’t do that…our perspective is, we’re going to give you a number of different tools, and you start where you feel you can start in a small way, and then let it grow from there.

But there are really simple, small steps that we provide through our education resources that we take into classrooms and businesses that really do help people start these grassroots efforts, in their own companies even. And demonstrate also a real cost savings at the end of the day. We’ve had stories of employees who have done unofficial waste audits on their companies and found out that they were literally throwing money away that they could’ve turned around and reinvested into the company. There’s neat things like that happening, and it all starts with just planting a small seed and letting it grow from there.

 Do you ever go the political route?

 At the moment our emphasis is on action, community action. When it makes sense, we may get involved in some level of advocacy. I will tell you, though, that many elected officials are engaged and involved in our organization regionally, which is a great sign because they are engaged in the information and they also see what happens when a large group of people get together and actually conduct a cleanup or an educational symposium. In that regard, we are engaged with the elected officials and the political environment.

I think that our goal is to educate people through action so that they can look at what decisions they can make in their own lives, and what message do they want to deliver to their elected officials about what they’re experiencing in their own communities. In a lot of ways, these events provide them with the evidence…because they went out themselves and they saw firsthand what things like, for instance, single use plastics, are doing. So, we feel our impact is through the action.

 Speaking on a more general level about nonprofits or being a mission-based organization, what advice do you have to other people trying to start a nonprofit or get their message out there, of how to connect or engage the community with your story, your mission? What have you seen work?

 Oh, wow. That’s a pretty big question. I honestly can’t serve as an expert on starting a nonprofit. What I can say from working for two nonprofits directly and then also working in the public space with nonprofits, is the vision and the mission have got to be focused, and in some cases, bold. It’s not unlike running a business. The strategy has to be focused, the mission of the organization has to be focused, so that those people who would otherwise engage with you from a philanthropic standpoint or volunteer standpoint understand clearly what the nonprofit is bringing, either to the community, [or] to a lifestyle. And I think that’s one area where I Love A Clean San Diego excels. Certainly, we are one of the most effective catalysts around volunteer engagement when it comes to environmental issues.

 Do you have a specific success story you want to share?

 Well, I think, number one, a nonprofit that’s able to successfully survive for 65 years is one heck of a success story. Nonprofits exist through a blend of financial resources, and certainly this one in particular has been able to maintain the support of donors over that time because it continually delivers the results. And that’s no small task. To go [for] over six decades of varying economic climates, etc., and still be around, is a pretty outstanding achievement.

 What’s your secret?

 I think it does come down to the results. When a group’s able to mobilize thousands of volunteers in one day, and then do hundreds of smaller volunteer events around the county that are much more focused in targeting a specific community, and on top of that, have successful outreach to hundreds of classrooms and businesses a year and be able to demonstrate that breadth of impact, I do think people acknowledge the impact of that reach.

 What do you think is something about running a nonprofit that most people don’t realize?

 Well, number one, I think when anybody gets into a healthy nonprofit they see employees who are living the mission. I think that’s one of the benefits to working for a nonprofit. You kind of go home at the end of the day with a sense of satisfaction, knowing that you’re working toward something greater than just yourself, or just a bottom line. But a nonprofit is a business at the end of the day, and there is a bottom line, and nonprofits are not immune to shortfalls. They’re not immune to many of the other things that a for-profit business would be in. In fact, I think a nonprofit has to hold itself to a higher standard because of public reporting. So it comes with an additional level of transparency that may not otherwise be required in the private sector, and that can come with additional challenges. However, I think that when a nonprofit is healthy and the employees are backing the mission, those hurdles, they don’t seem unsurmountable. They just are what we need to do to survive and continue being effective in the mission. At least for me, I’ve known about this organization for years before I even got here, and certainly I do get that sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, that I’m contributing to something bigger than just the bottom line.

I think it also aligns just with my lifestyle. I learn a lot being around here. I thought I lived a generally sustainable lifestyle to begin with but I know there’s more I can do. I’m a surfer and when I’m out there and a plastic bag is floating off, I pick it up and stick it inside my wetsuit until I’m done with my session. What I do here at work affects my community. You even said so yourself at the top of this that you think San Diego is a beautiful place. I do, too. San Diego is my adopted home, but I live here now, it’s home, and I’m very proud of it. I don’t want to leave. So, in that regard, I gotta keep it clean.

 What would you say to someone who wanted to have that sense of accomplishment that you get at work, but doesn’t have quite as inspiring a job? Any words of advice?

Yes. There are so many things that people can do at their place of work. For instance, our education team suggests starting a green team at your business. And we would be more than happy to show you how to do that. And that’s something where you can bring your personal lifestyle into work and create a small community within your business that brings a little more meaning to what you may be doing. That’s one of the small ways that I was talking about earlier in the interview. People can do these things that don’t necessarily take a lot of effort [and] at the end of the day, engages you and your fellow employees and your colleagues into something else that, in some cases, can actually benefit the company…especially around green practices at work.

 For more information, people should go to…

 Cleansd.org. That’s where it’s at.

Well there you have it, readers! We can all make an effort, however small, to respect our environment and live with intention to be good stewards of it, wherever we live. And if you live in San Diego County, be sure to check out all that I Love A Clean San Diego is doing for our community here!

If you like the images accompanying this story and would like to explore how visual storytelling could help your organization share the heart of its mission, please visit my website, www.soulvoyagerstudios.com, or send me an email at soulvoyagerstudios@gmail.com. To receive regular content regarding visual storytelling and inspiring ways to make a difference in this world, subscribe to my newsletter below!