Professional
Development
Upcoming Courses
Course Overviews
Institute on Teaching Social Action
August 15 & 16, 2026
CSU Spur Campus
Denver Colorado
$60.00 with conference registration
$100.00 without conference registration
A sustainable future requires social action.
Are your students prepared?
Today, many college courses teach about democracy and change, but few courses provide students the opportunity to learn by doing them. The Colorado '26 Institute meets this need by providing faculty the necessary training to teach social action.
We are inviting you to apply to the Colorado '26 Institute on Teaching Social Action in Denver on August 15-16, 2026. This Institute is hosted by the National Sustainability Society as a pre-conference workshop ahead of its 3rd Annual Conference.
Faculty from all disciplines are encouraged to apply; however, we want to restrict participation to those faculty who are committed to implementing this experiential social action course model in the 18 months following the Institute.
The trainers for the Colorado '26 Institute are:
Dr. Gretchen Sneegas, University of Washington
Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton, Professor Emeritus from San José State University, who developed a social action course in 2006, and has taught it 30 times.
Creating Sustainability Content that Inspires Action
August 16, 2026 | 2 - 5 PM
CSU Spur Campus
Denver Colorado
$60.00 with conference registration
$100.00 without conference registration
Learn to tell environmental and social stories that move people
Ready to tell environmental and social stories that move people? In this lively, hands-on workshop, you’ll discover practical, easy-to-implement strategies—and practice them with your peers—so you can rally more people around your causes.
Learn to tell unforgettable sustainability stories at this one-day, in-person workshop.
Guided by Right On agency founder and communications expert Kim Grob, you’ll learn to:
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Avoid common communications pitfalls like jargon, polarizing language, and “stock sustainability” imagery.
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Balance emotional and rational appeals to tell stories that are human, specific, and supported by the right data.
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Discover proven strategies that inspire action, from audience-centric messaging to concrete calls to action.
Equipped with these new insights, and the practical tactics to put them to use, you can make a lasting mark on your audience—building awareness, building loyalty, and building impact.
“Great mix of theory and practical application. The workshop focuses on hard-won lessons that can only come from decades of professional storytelling experience.”
—Joe Staples, Prowess Consulting
About the Facilitator
Kim Grob
MFA, Co-Founder and Creative Services Partner, Right On
Kim guides organizations to their most human, compelling, and effective sustainability stories. As co-founder and creative services partner at Right On, a sustainability content strategy and marketing agency, Kim has led storytelling for clients such as Adobe, Salesforce, ServiceNow, University of Utah, Del Monte, and Tillamook.
Carbon Finance
Bootcamp
August 16, 2026 | 9 AM - 5 PM
CSU Spur Campus
Denver Colorado
$350.00 with conference registration
$500.00 without conference registration
Carbon finance is one of the most complex and consequential intersections of climate, money, and policy today.
NSS is hosting a one-day Carbon Finance Bootcamp designed to give sustainability and climate leaders a serious, practical grounding in:
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GHG accounting & carbon markets
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Offsets, insets & carbon removal
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Science-Based Targets
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Career & investment opportunities
Whether you're a land manager, investor, consultant, or government official, this bootcamp was built for you.
About the Facilitator
Lauren Gifford, Phd.
Senior Advisor, Climate Philanthropy and Investing at Project Drawdown
Lauren Gifford is a climate strategy leader and carbon governance expert working at the intersection of climate science, finance, governance, and justice. As Senior Advisor for Climate Philanthropy and Investing at Project Drawdown, she guides philanthropies, investors, and institutions in aligning capital with science-based, high-integrity, and equitable climate strategies.
A nationally recognized climate communicator, Lauren regularly serves as a subject matter expert in interviews with major media, including the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Washington Post, TIME, the New York Times, and others.
Lauren holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Colorado Boulder, an MA in Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College, and a BA in Communications from American University.