Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz, SIS/BA '98, has over 20 years of experience intersecting the fields of sustainability, environmental policy, urban planning, energy, and climate change. He was elected president of the Sierra Club, the nation’s oldest and largest environmental organization, in May 2020. Cruz will give this year's Nancy Weiser Ignatius Lecture on the Environment on April 4 at SIS. He’ll also speak with SIS professor Simon Nicholson; an audience Q&A will follow their discussion.

Cruz’s address marks the sixth Nancy Weiser Ignatius Lecture on the Environment, which honors the work of SIS alumna and activist Nancy Weiser Ignatius, SIS/MA '69. The lectures feature senior policymakers and leaders in the nonprofit and private sectors who are working to improve the environment. Previous Ignatius lecturers have included environmentalist Bill McKibben and former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.

Ahead of the April 4 event, we caught up with Cruz, who gave us a preview of his remarks and offered some thoughts on the environmental movement writ large.

What do you plan to focus on in this year's Ignatius Lecture on the Environment?

I plan to address four main topics: the evolutionary process of environmentalism and the Sierra Club as an organization that centers equity and justice; the importance of intersectionality within the progressive movement; the opportunities that we have now to combat the climate crisis; and the crucial role of coalition building in meeting this challenge. 

Ben Jealous was recently announced as the new executive director of Sierra Club. Why are you excited about his selection?

As the largest national environmental grassroots organization, the Sierra Club’s stature within the movement is very relevant. It’s crucial that we lead in broadening the idea of what constitutes an inclusive environmental organization of the 21st century. It’s interesting: Ben’s environmental background isn’t as well-known as his background in civil rights, but he was instrumental in starting a climate justice program at NAACP and the Democracy and voting rights program at the Sierra Club. So, he's someone who can operate within the intersection of lines within the movement. He's a movement person who understands complex organizations, which is something we need to be sure that we're connecting again with our base, our chapters, and the local fights, and how those are connected to the national fight against climate change and environmental injustice. Ben is the right person for this moment, both within the Sierra Club and within the larger environmental movement.

Climate change is acknowledged—at least by most—as the existential threat of our time. This is an issue that's incredibly broad and far-reaching in its impacts. You have been the head of a large, chapter-based organization. How do you focus the efforts of a large organization like the Sierra Club to combat climate change in a unified way?

In the history of humanity, we have never faced something like this. There have certainly been wars and different conflicts, but even during the world wars, there were corners of the world that were disconnected from the conflicts. But with climate change, you cannot do that, right? We're all in this. The whole planet is in it. I have, of course, a lot of hope and faith in humans and in our ability to steward the planet, even though many times it doesn't look promising.

There have been efforts for a couple of decades to understand climate issues and bring up solutions, and we're finally seeing that with the Inflation Reduction Act [of 2022, which includes $369 billion to tackle climate change and brings America closer to a goal of cutting climate pollution in half from 2005 levels by 2030]. The issue is, do we still have time? Are we meeting the urgency of the challenge? We're definitely not there. Now, how do we address that?

The Inflation Reduction Act is a good example, because it provides all this funding at the national level, and it encompasses many aspects of the economy in a very comprehensive way. The big challenge now is to be sure that all that gets spent in the places where it needs to be at the local level. Right now, we see the roles of state, local governments, consumers, and corporations working in conjunction with the federal government to use this funding. I think it's actually an ideal way of how things should work between different levels of government. 

Similarly, we work like that within the Sierra Club. Sometimes we say that we're a national grassroots organization, which sounds paradoxical, but it's really our structure—our chapters and local groups—that really allow us to penetrate so many aspects of American society. We have members in most of the zip codes in the US; every state has a chapter, and every state has a few groups. That allows us to really work on national issues, but at the very local level.

Looking back on your time as an SIS student, how do you think your education at SIS impacted your career and your professional choices?

I was very interested in doing international work, and it was my history professors who gave me the impetus to pursue more social movements. But I found my path to wanting to work in the environmental movement in a film festival, curiously enough. I was talking to a former guerrilla member from Uruguay. And she was very disappointed with the way she felt that everything that her group fought for in the past had been co-opted by political egos and corruption. She said that if she were growing up in this moment, the environment would be her cause, partly because the environment is a protagonist-less movement. It’s healthy for movements when they're less about the people and more about the cause. I thought about that and decided to pursue my career in environmental advocacy.

Instead of pursuing a PhD in History, as an SIS student, I decided to apply for a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship program to continue studies in policy issues at the graduate level. Also, it was SIS professor and dean emeritus, Louis Goodman, who was instrumental in helping me find an environmentally-related internship in Brazil after graduation.  Ultimately, I think the social movement part of my career came in part from the intersectional nature of AU and how I was able to put these interests—the environment, social movements, and international affairs—together.

It’s getting very close to graduation time for the Class of ’23. If you could give one piece of advice to your younger, student self or to a current graduate, what would it be?

Be more aware of your privileges, because that not only makes you a better person but also makes you value what you have and add value to society in return. There's no such thing as a self-made person. Others—your family, your peers, and your mentors—helped you get to where you are. If you are at AU studying, you are privileged, and that means others helped you get there and lifted you up. Just be sure that you remember to lift up others. I think there is a responsibility for us to bring others along who may not have had the same opportunities we have had.