Adam Werbach

Activist, founder, producer, author. Based in San Francisco. Elected the youngest-ever National President of the Sierra Club at 23, then three decades across activism, technology, media, and business: Walmart's sustainability program, Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly, co-founder of Trove and Transparent City, Head of Digital and Unscripted TV at Kapital Entertainment.

Selected work, 1991 to present

• Transparent City (2025-Present, Civic Technology): Co-founded with Rob Goldman in 2025, Transparent City is a civic data platform that uses AI to read a city's public data, flag anomalies, and help people understand what is changing inside their government. Live in nine cities as of June 2026.
• Kapital Entertainment (2023-, Media & Entertainment): Head of Digital and Unscripted Television at Kapital Entertainment, a Paramount-backed production company. I develop and produce digital and unscripted projects for networks, streamers, and social platforms.
• Amazon Sustainable Shopping (2020-2023, Technology & Sustainability): Led Amazon's first global sustainable shopping initiative as the company's sustainability lead, designing and launching the Climate Pledge Friendly program that increased sustainable product sales by 12% according to Harvard Business Review research.
• Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (2017-2020, Media & Technology): Product manager for Full Frontal's election experiments, including the Totally Unrigged Primary, a digital primary ahead of the 2020 Iowa caucus where players joined a candidate's team and the winner took the show's PAC fund. I also appeared on air.
• This Is Not a Game: The Game (2018, Civic Technology): A live mobile trivia game built with Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and Win the Future, the political group I co-founded with Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus. It paid real cash for civics knowledge, passed a million downloads, and reached the App Store's top five before the 2018 midterms.
• Trove (2012-Present, Technology & E-commerce): Co-founded Trove (formerly Yerdle), a B2B resale platform that enables major brands including Patagonia and Lululemon to sell used products. The company has raised $122.5M in funding and operates a marketplace with over 1 million members.
• The Atlantic (2010-2015, Media & Journalism): Contributed to TheAtlantic.com, writing about sustainability, business, and environmental policy.
• This is Noise Pop (2001-2011, Documentary Film): A decade-long documentary project celebrating the San Francisco indie music scene. Featured bands including Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, and The National. Named one of Rolling Stone's 'Seven Best New Music Documentaries.'
• Strategy for Sustainability (2009, Publishing): A business strategy book published by Harvard Business Press that defines a three-pillar framework for corporate sustainability. Named a top business book by Inc. Magazine and taught at Stanford, Wharton, and Harvard.
• Walmart (2008-2010, Corporate Sustainability): Helped Walmart launch a comprehensive sustainability program with major commitments to zero waste, sustainable product sales, and renewable energy. The controversial move shifted Walmart toward becoming the largest seller of organic food and efficient light bulbs.
• Is Environmentalism Dead? (2004, Environmental Policy): A controversial 2004 speech at the Commonwealth Club of California where I argued that the environmental movement was not moving fast enough on climate change and needed to engage the mainstream, not just preach to the converted.
• Saatchi & Saatchi S (2007-2009, Corporate Strategy): Joined the executive board of Saatchi & Saatchi S (the sustainability division) after Act Now Productions was acquired. Launched major campaigns for brands like Procter & Gamble, Vestas, and Toyota Prius, and was inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Achievement.
• Act Now Productions (2001-2007, Media Production): A television production company founded in 2001 that produced the environmental investigative series 'The Thin Green Line' and worked with major artists. The company was sold to Publicis Groupe/Saatchi & Saatchi in 2007, with a logo designed by Shepard Fairey.
• The Thin Green Line (2001-2003, Television): An environmental investigative newsmagazine created for and hosted by Werbach on the Outdoor Life Network. The show featured environmental activists like Julia Butterfly Hill and covered pressing environmental issues through investigative journalism.
• SFPUC Commissioner (2003-2004, Public Service): Appointed in 2003 to San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission, overseeing the city's water, power, and sewer systems for the city and surrounding region.
• Act Now Apologize Later (1997, Publishing): A book published by Harper-Collins in 1997 during my Sierra Club presidency. It laid out new strategies for environmental activism and ways to engage younger generations in the movement.
• Sierra Club President (1996-2000, Environmental Leadership): Elected National President of the Sierra Club at age 23, making Werbach the youngest president in the organization's history. During his tenure, he lowered the average member age from 47 to 37 and protected over 1.7 million acres of wilderness.
• California Desert Protection Act (1994, Environmental Policy): As a student activist, I helped pass the California Desert Protection Act in 1994, which created Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks. I worked with Elden Hughes and helped mobilize Sierra Student Coalition members in a concentrated phone campaign aimed at Congress.
• Sierra Student Coalition (1991-1996, Youth Activism): A national network of student environmental activists I founded in 1991. It grew to 30,000 members across hundreds of high schools and colleges and became one of the most influential youth environmental movements of the 1990s. More than three decades later it still operates as a student-run organization, with chapters from California to Maine to Puerto Rico.