Olivia Ries is a 16 year old change-maker who is committed to inspiring her peers (and adults) to stand up and make a difference. Olivia is also the co-founder (along with her brother Carter) of One More Generation (OMG) which is a nonprofit they founded back in 2009 in an effort to help clean up our environment and save endangered species for at least One More Generation… and beyond.

Since starting OMG, Olivia now travels around the world sharing their work from their Environmental Conservation, Animal Conservation and Youth Empowerment divisions. She is listed as an International Speaker on the US State Departments Speaker Roaster and has already traveled to South Africa twice, Vietnam, Coast Rica and is scheduled to speak at the UN/GRASP Conference in Jakarta soon.

Olivia is the co-author of their award winning Plastic and Recycling Awareness Curriculum which teaches students how to deal with the issue of plastic pollution and more importantly, teaches students how to immediately start being the solution.

The UN recently published a report stating that ‘Plastic Pollution’ is now considered one of the largest threats to humans and animals globally. Based on those finding, Olivia and her brother created their annual nationwide “One Less Straw Pledge Campaign” which educates people on the sheer number of plastic straws used everyday and encourages them to ‘say no’ to using a useless plastic straw and to get restaurants to participate as well.

Olivia has now set her sights on addressing the impacts of climate change and reaching out to youth around the world to get them involved with standing up and making a difference. She realizes that their is no “Planet B’ and it is going to take each and everyone of use working together to solve the problem. Olivia has always avoided eating meat but as she learned that the meat industry contributes about half of the carbon/methane in the atmosphere, she actively challenges families to reduce their meat consumption at least one or two days of the week.

Olivia has also partnered with the team at United Sun Systems and is encouraging families and businesses to switch to solar or other renewable energy sources. Quote from Olivia:
“I realize that being part of the POP Movement is going to be one of the most important decisions I make in my life and I am so honored to be part of this amazing team. I end every speaking engagement asking audiences to ‘do one thing today, that will make a difference for tomorrow’ and to remember, ‘anybody can make a difference… if we can, you can too’.