Date: 11/11/2021

To: NOAA Executives

From: Simon Penso

Subject: Ideas Requested to Promote Ocean Conservation Awareness

RE: 11/9 Email

Action Required: Submit Ideas to Me by 11/31

Distribution: To be distributed at the discretion of upper-level management

As you may have read in my email on 11/9, NOAA has undertaken an initiative to promote
awareness of ocean conservation. We feel that this transitional time in our nation is an ideal
moment to raise awareness of a unifying topic that affects each and every one of us in this
country. As I mentioned in my prior email, some ideas have already been committed to, such as
increased physical presence by NOAA employees at beaches and the beginning of numerous
marketing campaigns. While this is a good start, we need more ideas for promoting ocean
conservation efforts. I want to allow you the opportunity to send me some ideas of your own.

As I mentioned, this initiative will be our primary focus over the next several years, and we
would appreciate the valuable insight of NOAA employees who we know are already passionate
about saving the world’s oceans. No idea is too small; we want to hear from as many of you as
possible. Our end goal, of course, is to reduce pollution and the harming effects that humans
have on the oceans, thereby saving countless wildlife and making the oceans a healthier place
overall.

Measuring the Impact of Your Ideas

Once we begin to put ideas into action, we want to be able to track their impacts. We expect a
significant increase in traffic to the NOAA website once advertising campaigns and other ideas
are put into practice. On the landing page of our site, we plan to prominently display a survey to
visitors asking them why they were prompted to visit our site. We will provide a list of options
(e.g., television ad, research, speaking with a NOAA representative, other ideas that you may
propose) and compile data regarding the most effective traffic driver to our site. We will maintain
a dashboard or chart on our internal company intranet available to our employees. The most
popular employee-submitted traffic drivers will receive some sort of reward for their contribution
as well as full credit for coming up with the method of raising awareness.

We also have plans to display dashboards and graphs that provide visual evidence of the issues
caused by ocean pollution. By locating these visual aids in high-traffic areas of our website, we
hope to raise awareness and drive change. I have included an example chart that might be displayed
on the site and invite you to send me recommendations about what sort of graphics you think
would be most helpful.
 Courtesy of @MWCMarine on Twitter

We Believe in You!

We believe that you, the NOAA employees, are the best source of ideas for facilitating awareness
of the issues plaguing our oceans. We would like you to focus raising awareness on water pollution,
particularly as caused by large corporations, the impact of plastics on the oceans, and the impacts
of human activity on marine life. While these are relatively broad categories, you are welcome to
narrow your scope as far as you deem fit.

Conclusion and Recommendations

General interest in ocean pollution tends to grow and fade on an almost cyclical basis. Our aim is
to keep the awareness of ocean conservation high at all times. Ideally, we want this topic to be a
staple in the weekly news cycle, since it is such a serious subject that tends to be underdiscussed.
As an organization, we try to highlight positive developments when it comes to the relationship
between humans and the oceans. However, delivering this news to a larger audience would
almost certainly bring about positive change in a timely manner. Our oceans and coasts are
vitally important ecosystems for a plethora of reasons, and our highest priority is to inform
people of how we can keep them safe.
I want to offer a few suggestions that may help drive brainstorming processes for your ideas.
First and foremost, I recommend participating in some sort of ocean cleanup event if you have
not done so. These events may provide some sort of perspective on how big of an issue ocean
pollution truly is. It is my hope that an event like this will inspire you. I also recommend simply
talking with your coworkers to understand their passions for the ocean. Passionate people find
creative solutions, and I believe that all of you are capable of doing this.

As far as next steps go, I’d ask that you submit these ideas to me by the end of the month. We are
aiming to start pushing these campaigns at the start of the new calendar year. Please consider my
ideas above and work together to come up with creative ideas to help us spread the message that
our organization is committed to sharing.

I believe that closing the communication gap regarding ocean health is an important first step to
solving the issues that plague our oceans. People must be made aware of the problem if they are
to contribute to the solution. At NOAA, we are incredibly passionate about our oceans. Our
dream is to create a zero-pollution society, and people will be more willing to shift towards that
way of living if they know the drastic effects that human pollution has on our oceans. So, I once
again implore you, help us save the oceans by coming up with an idea to promote awareness of
ocean health. It is in all our best interests.