Hello! I'm Katie. I'm an environmental engineer and climate action designer.
I'm the author of the books How to Save the World: How to Make Changing the World the Greatest Game We've Ever Played and Zerowastify: Your Complete Tutorial to the Art of Zero Waste Living.
I design apps, dashboards, and campaigns that sharply tap into people's motivational core, applying techniques used in game design and behavioral science to environmental action. I study The Journal of Environmental Psychology and interview authors of academic journals for my podcast to help me put the evidence-based social science to work. You can see some of my designs here.
I've advised organizations including UNEP, NASA JPL, Google, The U.S. State Department, University of California, The European Commission, Dassault Systemes, Institute for the Future, Magic Leap, Stanford University, and many impact startups on environmental behavior design.
I'm the co-founder of Energy Lollipop and Urban Canopy in San Francisco — startups that are devoted to bringing down the peak CO2 released by the electricity grid. You should install this Chrome extension we just launched that show's the California grid emissions in real-time.
As a big fan of biophilic architecture and ecotopia futures, I host a group called The Imagine Project to encourage the practice of imagining a greener world. I also gave a TEDx talk in 2020 and spoke at the UN General Assembly in 2021 on the role of creativity, optimism, and imagination in environmental change.
If you'd like to learn how to use gamification for environmental action, you might enjoy my monthly Gamify the Planet training I provide for my Patreon supporters or join my Fitbit for the Planet video hangouts.
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @katiepatrick, Instagram @katiepatrickhello, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and Linkedin for new ideas I post regularly.
The best way to start working with me or get advice on your project is to book a 90 minute Idea Storming session.
You and I probably have a lot in common
You want to wake up every morning tingling with excitement to get to work on fascinating project that is making a difference on a cause you really care about.
You want to be implementing the latest technology and learning exciting new things from within your projects.
But it's likely that’s not quite what’s going on if you work for most NGOs, government departments, or universities.. It’s actually pretty rare to see this full picture in action.
You’re often stuck under a bureaucracy that feels impossible to shift, yet you know it must be possible to make change happen if we just got a few things right.
I used to be like this too – until the lightning bolt finally hit me.
As an environmental engineer with 20 years experience in environmental change, founding a multi-million dollar environmental media company, and living the Silicon Valley #hackerlife (yes, just like the TV show), I really believe I've cracked a critical part of the code of social change.
I help environmental and climate professionals how to:
> Use better measurement driven systems and disclosure of data to underpin an upward spiral of positive change.
> Make change fun using gamification techniques that tap into people's motivational core.
> Unlock the door to your audience's psyche by using behavior-change techniques that work to drive motivation to change.
> Turn your stakeholders into cheerleaders for your cause using the power of good story telling.
Since I learned all these techniques, I actually now do live the world changer's dream. I work on some of the world’s most interesting projects. I get to meet some of the world’s most interesting people. I get paid to do what I love - and I actually shift the numbers on issues I care about. I can help you make saving the world the greatest game we've every played.
Get an in-house lesson with Katie to learn how to apply game design and behavioral psychology techniques for environmental change. Book it >>
I've hosted workshops and guest lectures on environmental behavior and gamification design at universities around the world, UNEP, Google, and the European Commission.
I was invited to give a short presentation at the United Nations General Assembly 2021 about the power of environmental imagination. Watch the video here.
Katie Patrick is an Australian-American environmental engineer and climate action designer. She's author of the books How to Save the World and Zerowastify and hosts a podcast where she investigates the academic research in environmental psychology.
Katie specializes in the design of getting people to change. She applies gamification and behavioral science in a way that dramatically increases the adoption of environmental programs and has worked with organizations including UNEP, NASA JPL, Stanford University, U.S. State Department, Google, University of California, Magic Leap, and the Institute for the Future.
Katie started UrbanCanopy.io, a map-based application that uses satellite imaging of urban heat islands and vegetation cover to encourage urban greening and cooling initiatives. She is also the co-founder of Energy Lollipop, a Chrome extension and outdoor screen project that shows the electric grid's CO2 emissions in real-time.
She was CEO of the VC-funded green-lifestyle magazine Green Pages Australia and was appointed environmental brand ambassador by the Ogilvy Earth advertising agency for Volkswagen, Lipton Tea and Wolfblass Wines.
She has served on the board of Australia’s national eco label, Good Environmental Choice Australia, and won the Cosmopolitan Woman of the Year Award for entrepreneurship. After graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a B.Eng in Environmental Engineering, she worked as an environmental design engineer for building engineers WSP in Sydney on some of the world’s first platinum-LEED-certified commercial buildings.
Katie lives in Silicon Valley with her young daughter, Anastasia.