The Leahy Center for Lake Champlain is a science center located on the Burlington, Vermont waterfront. TCG supported the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in their endeavor to convene the “Best of the Best” in innovative education and solutions to promote the importance of water, increase awareness about water stewardship, and stimulate behavior changes that will improve the state of water across the Lake Champlain watershed. The 2013 Leahy Center Environmental Summit was aimed to inspire interest in water and spark innovative action to cultivate individual and community-wide change in the Lake Champlain region and beyond. The summit was the first in a series to honor the environmental legacy of Senator Patrick Leahy and create new cross-sector collaborative groups who will generate on-going work to improve water stewardship in the Lake Champlain watershed.

The design of the two-day summit was intended to be a working session to engage a select number of attendees representing the natural environment, built environment, funders, businesses, education, public health, art, and community organizers.

To support the 2013 Leahy Center Environmental Summit, our team conducted research to identify summit participants and further develop the opportunity areas to be discussed during the summit. We looked for shining examples of key behaviors and projects that contribute to water stewardship that would help to inform the dialogue of the 2013 Leahy Center Environmental Summit. During this process of pre-summit discovery, we proactively engaged and educated participants and other stakeholders about the goals of this initiative to ensure its success. Following the summit, our team provided strategic support for post-summit implementation, including the development of planning actions and recommendations.