Phil Radford

Power Shift

In 2001, Radford founded Power Shift, a non-governmental organization dedicated to driving sustainable energy market breakthroughs and building the grassroots base to stop global warming.

As executive director of Power Shift,

Greenpeace USA

In 2009, at the age of 33, Radford was promoted from grassroots director to become the youngest executive director ever of Greenpeace. During his tenure at Greenpeace USA, Radford collaborated with over 100 corporations to improve their environmental practices, increasing the organization's net income by 80%; growing the organization's grassroots and canvass programs;

Influencing corporations

Radford has been part of initiatives to influence corporations including the Global Climate Coalition, Citigroup, Kimberley-Clark, Asia Pulp and Paper, and the tech industry. During Radford's tenure at Greenpeace, his theory of change shifted from viewing governments as arbitrators between public and private interests on environmental issues, to believing that engagement with companies first could lead to better policy. Through his career, he has worked with large companies to change their practices and become allies in pushing for improvements. Examples include Greenpeace campaigns that convinced Apple Inc. and other tech companies to shift to 100% sustainable energy and lobby utilities and regulators to make that possible. In 2004, Citigroup agreed to offer and promote EEMs for residential wind, energy efficiency, and solar installations that would make sustainable energy affordable for millions of Americans.

Asia Pulp and Paper From 2010 to 2013, Radford managed the Greenpeace team that persuaded more than 100 U.S. companies to cancel their contracts with Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) convincing APP to focus on deforestation in Southeast Asia. In February 2013, Asia Pulp and Paper announced a conservation policy protecting Indonesian rainforests.

Tech industry On April 21, 2011, Greenpeace released a report highlighting data centers, which consumed up to 2% of all global electricity and this amount was projected to increase. Radford stated "we are concerned that this new explosion in electricity use could lock us into old, polluting energy sources instead of the clean energy available today." Business Insider reported that after Greenpeace USA campaigns, "tech giants like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Salesforce have promised to power their data centers with renewable energy, a pledge that led Duke Energy, the nation's largest power utility and one of the most flagrant emitters of CO2, to begin providing clean energy to win their business."

U.S. supermarkets Radford led a Greenpeace campaign to convince supermarket chains to stop selling threatened fish, adopt sustainable seafood policies, and lobby for policies such as marine reserves to protect the oceans. Walmart, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Safeway Inc., Wegmans, Target, Harris Teeter, Meijer, and Kroger implemented sustainable seafood purchasing policies to begin selling sustainable seafood. Trader Joe's, Aldi, Costco, Target Corporation, and A&P reduced the threatened fish that they sell; Whole Foods, Safeway Inc., Trader Joe's, Walmart, and Hy-Vee introduced sustainably caught canned tuna; and Wegmans, Whole Foods, Safeway Inc., Target, and Trader Joe's have lobbied for strong ocean policies.