The Environmental Leadership Collaborative (ELC) aims to create a vibrant network connecting groups that provide fellowships, leadership training, career development, and other experiential opportunities for environmental activists and professionals from many different backgrounds. On a broader level, the ELC hopes to draw increased attention to the training and career development needs of environmental professionals and activists, and articulate new ways for the environmental movement to meet these needs.

The goals of the ELC are to:

• Connect environmental leadership organizations, and their staff, to spur substantial dialogue about the challenges of implementing environmental leadership programs, share lessons learned, and support nascent collaborations.
  
  
• Collect information on existing environmental leadership development programs, increase attention to environmental training and career development needs, and identify new ways for the environmental movement to meet these needs.
  
  
• Create a hub for information, dialogue, and action on environmental leadership that serves participating organizations, funders of environmental and leadership initiatives, and the broader environmental community.

History
The ELC was created in 2001 with the participation of thirteen leadership training and development organizations. Its early work focused on introducing participants to one another, learning about the specialized work of each program, and identifying key areas for potential collaboration.

Since then, the Collaborative has grown to eighteen member organizations that participate in annual meetings, share resources and information through conference calls, and collaborate on projects related to environmental leadership development. Each year, ELC members participate in a two-day annual meeting and connect on an ongoing basis via conference calls on specific leadership topics and operational aspects of leadership programming. The ELC has effectively spurred joint efforts among its organizations, including bi-lateral collaborations and ad-hoc endeavors of larger numbers of participants. In 2002, the ELC expanded its work to include joint marketing of its various leadership programs.

The ELC continues to recruit participation from additional environmental leadership development organizations and increase broader awareness of the need for leadership development in the environmental field. For more information about becoming an ELC member, please email info@enviroleader.org .