Scaling Our Impact With Jeremy Casebeer!

Show Notes

Transcript – Scaling ‘Our Impact’ With Jeremy Casebeer!

Jeremy Casebeer is a Professional Beach Volleyball Player and Host of ‘Our Impact’ Podcast, working to accelerate climate solutions and protect our oceans.

In this episode, we chat about Jeremy’s journey to becoming an Impact Athlete, how others could use their platforms for good, and his podcast Our Impact.

Tune in to the full episode by clicking the links above!

Jeremy Casebeer’s Story

Growing Up

Jeremy grew up in the foothills of Santa Barbara, which allowed him to connect to the outdoors through hiking, surfing, and camping as he was growing up. In high school, he had an AP Environmental Science teacher who helped explain the current state of the climate to Jeremy and how pressing it was, and the possibilities and solutions for change. This opened his eyes, so he went on to study to Environmental Studies and Political Science at UCLA.

Although he was interested in sustainable development and non profit work, he took a hard turn to follow the opportunity of a lifetime to play beach volleyball professionally. This allowed him to tour the world while doing something he loved.

The turning point

The turning point for Jeremy was when he went to a Jack Johnson Concert in Santa Barabara and saw how sustainable it was. There was aluminum cups, no single use plastic, locally sourced food, bio diesel generators – a shocking difference from traditional events.

Since the nature of beach volleyball tournaments were similar in setup – Jeremy brought the idea to the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) and they loved it! But they needed someone to help navigate the process.

“I ended up going back to UCLA to get a certificate of sustainability. And basically, ever since I’ve been focused on three questions, what is my impact? What can I do about it? And how can I help scale positive outcomes and solutions?”

Scaling his Impact

Asking those three questions made him look at his own carbon footprint and was blown away. He decided to get his own house in order.

“I spent half the year in Rio de Janeiro where I family and half the year traveling throughout the US to compete. So obviously, that’s a massive impact. So I started off saying my personal carbon footprint, started off saying my plastic footprint, and then changing my diet. And but even if I had this feeling that even if I live “a perfectly sustainable life,” which doesn’t really exist. I’m still just one person. But I’m connected to a ton of athletes in through the sport of volleyball and have an opportunity to talk with brands and nonprofits. So I started looking outside, what else can I do?”

 

This curiosity brought Jeremy to start working with nonprofits that were doing good work but didn’t have the traditional budget to work with professional athletes. He became an ambassador for Parley for the Oceans and Forest Stewardship Council for sustainable forests.

Brand partnerships

He also began to see his role as a professional athlete and the duties that came with it as an opportunity to work with brands that aligned with his values.

“You can work with brands that are aligned with your values that take transparent action that have third party certifications, like B Corp 1%, for the planet climate neutral, and work with them in a meaningful way tell cool stories, you know, find brands and products that you actually like that you would actually spend your own money on that you would promote to your friends and family not just slinging a discount code on social media.”

Because of these values, Jeremy has been able to work with impactful brands and even follow his other passions of nature and photography.

Making a tangible difference

Beach cleanups

Jeremy has continued to work with the AVP to see what he can do to help make tour operations more sustainable and share his message with other teammates and fans.

He has been involved in beach cleanups with the fans and has seen a fantastic response.

“Obviously living in training at the beach, it’s all right in our face. And it’s very clear and tangible what the problem is, and that we need to do something about it. So I think providing athletes, fans, sponsors, leagues teams, and just the broader sports community in general, an opportunity to get involved and like an on ramp to take action is huge. That’s what people want. People want that sense of community and people want to feel like they’re really having a tangible difference.”

impact athletes and fans

Jeremy also wants to make sure athletes of all ages and levels have the tools they need to become impact athletes. But that extends to fans as well.

“It comes down to those three questions, what is your impact? What can you do about it? And how can you help scale positive outcomes and solutions? So everyone has different interests. And I think it’s really important just to see what you’re most passionate about. Is it ocean plastic and ocean health? Is it forest? Is it the mountains? Is it equal opportunity? Is it access to clean and healthy food?

 

There’s so many issues. But the interesting thing is, it all really ties back to climate in one way or another. So go deep in what you’re most interested in, and then see who you can support. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel from scratch. There’s so many good nonprofits. And now there’s so many different businesses that are also giving back.”

Jeremy’s advice

Jeremy suggests getting started today if you want to start reducing your impact.

“See what you can do yourself individual actions at home, see what you can do in your community, what nonprofits or organizations you can support. And just talking about is massively powerful.”

Jeremy quotes Katharine Hayhoe, leading climate scientist.

“Climate change, she says, the most impactful thing you can do is just speak about it, because not that many people speak about it. And if you don’t speak about it, why would you care about it? If you don’t care about it? Why would you change? So that’s the first step is speaking about it, even though it doesn’t feel like as impactful. But just simply showing people that you care about it is a massive first step you can take.”

Jeremy suggests a few resources:

• • Project Drawdown Youtube Series
  • Paul Hawkins Book Regeneration
  • How to Save the Planet Podcast
  • Hometown: Earth (this podcast!)
  • Our Impact with Jeremy Casebeer 

Our Impact with Jeremy Casebeer

Jeremy’s new podcast, our impact, focuses on connecting with other professional athletes, businesses, and nonprofits who share the same values.

“I’m starting to connect the dots. I’m still learning more every day. So getting to talk to all these amazing business leaders, nonprofit leaders, athletes, researchers, it’s just, I feel a little selfish, because I’m kind of scratching my own itch and curiosity. These are the conversations that we need to start having more of and highlight what people are already doing. And how, if you want to, and if you have the inclination, you can help support.”

 

It’s so important for everyone to kind of dive in and tell their own stories and explore similar connected ideas from different perspectives.”

New episodes of Our Impact with Jeremy Casebeer drop on Thursdays. To connect with the show, you can visit Our Impact with Jeremy Casebeer on the Bleav podcast network or tune in anywhere you listen to podcasts!