Projects/SDGs
Active Projects/Opportunities
We are supporting Grounded, a non-profit led by Julia Jackson, developing the new Grounded Business Council and integrating partners into influencer campaigns that support green job training (Clean Energy Freedom) and grassroots conservation projects (Global Rewilding Challenge).
We supported the development of the Grounded Summit, which was unfortunately cancelled just two weeks from the event date in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Prior to the shutdown, we recruited a network of over a dozen partners ranging from enterprise brands Bank of the West, Salesforce and Alaska Airlines to challengers including Impossible, Just Foods, Miyoko’s, and Equator Coffee.
Post-Covid, Grounded has continued as an online platform as the founder works to address environmental justice issues among indigenous groups that are most vulnerable to climate change. Their award-winning Climate Academy served as a bridge to the work they are now leading to drive climate engagement among younger audiences.
Terraformation
Terraformation is an innovative start-up, blending the best of nature-based solutions with technology that accelerates and scales seed gathering and distribution. One of the primary blockages to the massive reforestation work that needs to be done is a lack of seeds – hence Terraformation’s seed bank strategy and the need for sponsors and other funders to help build and deploy 1,000 banks in 2022-23.
But that’s just the start – to plant one trillion trees in this decade, we need two trillion seeds as well as the infrastructure and technologies to support local communities that need to plant and manage the new forests. Terraformation is positioned to work with an ecosystem of partner NGO’s government agencies and corporations to take reforestation to a new and necessary level.
Oak View Group/
Climate Pledge Arena/Impossible Foods
We facilitated a revolutionary partnership that positions Impossible’s plant-based meat products as the official burger of the new Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Working on behalf of Oak View Group we accessed our sustainability-oriented relationships to identify Impossible as a possible partner and the upstart sector leader saw the vision and stepped up to become a major partner of the new Amazon-led venue.
Check back for more information about this groundbreaking partnership and for what it means for the future of sports and entertainment concessions.
Green Collective
The Green Collective is a consortium of organizations dedicated to helping small and medium-sized businesses reduce their environmental impact while saving money and forming new networks. The Collective is comprised of the California Green Business Network, the US Green Chamber of Commerce, Green Business Engagement National Network (GBEEN) and Green Wave, who’s founder Dr. Glenn Hallem facilitated the formation of the group.
We are now working with major brands to establish a corporate partner network in support of small business greening throughout the US and beyond. Sponsors will align with a major multi-state effort to exponentially increase the number of green business certifications, aiming to reduce GHG emissions from participants by up to 50%.
Players for the Planet
We support this group of Major League Baseball players in their attempt to develop partnerships in support of their various environmental initiatives. Players for the Planet consists of dozens of MLB players, led by former outfielder Chris Dickerson, joined together by the shared concern for the environment and its impact on underserved communities.
PFTP programs include tree planting with One Tree Planted; e-waste collection and device refurbishment; beach clean-up and environmental education in the Dominican Republic; and linkage to programs led by the Players Alliance.
Recent Successes
Blue Shield of CA Theater @ YBCA
We developed the naming rights partnership for this iconic venue at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a progressive San Francisco arts venue and organization that serves as a leader in elevating the status of artists and diverse voices in the Bay Area region and beyond. The innovative naming partnership aligns Blue Shield’s approach to holistic health with the artful programming of YBCA, its artists and tenants. Celebrating the “Art of Health”, the blue-hued venue is now well-branded with Blue Shield’s name and imagery to create a stunning view at the corner of Third and Mission in San Francisco’s SOMA district.
YBCA has made news throughout the Covid period as the organization became the leading advocate for generating financial support for artists during the downturn.
PG&E Public Affairs/Community Relations
Over twelve years of full-service sponsorship management services, we developed and activated dozens of innovative partnerships, most of which involved sustainability and community engagement programming.
We advanced sustainability practices with dozens of organizations, including the SF Giants, Golden State Warriors, Outside Lands Music Festival, CA Academy of Sciences, the new Exploratorium, Oakland A’s, Sacramento Rivercats, California State Fair, Mill Valley Film Festival, and many other events and venues. Please contact us for more about our award-winning work with PG&E.
SF Giants Sustainability (via PG&E)
Our initial charge at PG&E was to help the utility enhance a multi-year partnership with the Giants; we helped the brand play a critical role with the Giants venue and operations greening, adding solar, LED lighting, and extensive energy efficiency measures. This work led to LEED Silver certification of AT&T (now Oracle) Park; a dozen MLB Green Glove Awards; a popular Green Glove Stadium Tour; innovative Green Garlic Fries stands; and an extensive array of activations that involved large groups of community stakeholders, youth, students and partner organizations.
Given that years before we facilitated the Pacific Bell Park naming rights partnership, this work with PG&E allowed us to have a meaningful impact on the ballpark’s improvement over time.
Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary
We created a program and ecosystem of partners for the iconic structure’s milestone anniversary. Besides a major civic celebration, the program included refurbishment of trails, new interpretive signage, and a new visitor’s center, all promoting conservation of the Presidio, Crissy Field, Land’s End and Headlands areas. Kevin and his team helped the Conservancy realize their dream and, in less than a year, generated $4 million in sponsorship and $2 million in in-kind media support. Major sponsors included Genentech, Wells Fargo, HP, Kaiser Permanente, and Odwalla, as well as NBC, the Chronicle and Cumulous Broadcasting. The results were a real blast—one of the largest fireworks celebrations the Bay has seen and an epic celebration worthy of the iconic structure.
Community Engagement Programs
Golden State Warriors (via PG&E)
The focus here was also on community building including basketball court renovation, school painting, community center enhancements and other public service events with dozens of volunteers and help from players. PG&E was the lead sponsor for Hoops 4 Kids which generated a $500k+ per year for the Warriors Community Foundation and involved hosting hundreds of kids and families from underserved groups at Warriors games throughout their championship era. In 2017, we were awarded with the sponsor activation of the year for the combined social impact programs we developed and ran, beating major brands such as Kia, Pepsi and American Express with a much smaller budget.
Oakland A’s
Given the unique circumstances in Oakland and at the A’s old, county-owned stadium, our strategy here was built around supporting community with ballpark and community center renovations, on-field clinics with A’s players and coaches for little leaguers and underserved kids. We also led tree planting and community clean-up programs with players and non-profit partners, bringing social impact messaging back to the stadium and running enriching content through various team media channels.
Green History
Sonoma Raceway
Accelerating Sustainable Performance
After deciding to implement eco-friendly and energy-saving infrastructure improvements and showcase new green performance technologies, Sonoma Raceway (then Infineon Raceway) turned to us to develop a partnership program that would help fund the desired improvements.
In conjunction with the Sonoma Raceway team, Bartram developed the Accelerating Sustainable Performance program, which resulted in the installation of a new solar system that provides over 40% of the track’s energy needs; a new solar-powered LED board near the venue entrance; a range of energy efficiency measures; use of the track for alternative fuel testing; and a number of other recycling and consumer education measures.
Sponsors recruited included Panasonic, PG&E, Amyris Fuels, Yokohama and Safety-Kleen. The program also resulted in a summit hosted at the race track featuring key industry experts, thought leaders and green racing technology demonstrations. The Sonoma Raceway program informed sustainability efforts at other race tracks and by racing organizations including NASCAR.
Green Sports Alliance
We supported this industry-leading organization with partner development for its 2018 summit in Atlanta. Dozens of brands sponsored the gathering which brought hundreds of sports sustainability leaders together to drive new partnerships and the application of new technologies at sports venues throughout the world.
Clorox Company/Brita Beach Clean-Up
One of the first major corporate sponsorships for national beach and waterway clean-up efforts involved tens of thousands of volunteers, each of whom received a free Brita pitcher through retail partners. We sought to convert thousands of people from bottled water to the more sustainable option of Brita filter pitchers. This was a plastic eradication program that took place well before there was widespread awareness of the issue.
Social Alliance Marketing
Kevin’s collaboration with Jeff Klein involved partnership consulting work with cutting edge cultural programmers at various NGOs including the Esalen Institute in Big Sur; Institute of Noetic Sciences; and National Geographic, for which we developed Caravan, a cultural education program at the height of tensions with Iraq and the middle east.
West Coast Green
Managed partnerships for seminal green building event in San Francisco, working in support of an event that brought together thought leaders such as Al Gore, Jerry Brown, Steve Wozniak, David Suzuki, Hunter Lovins, Van Jones, Ray Anderson and Erin Brokovich.
Economic Development/Naming Rights 1995-2004
Cisco Systems NetAid
A series of three concerts featuring many of the period’s most prominent musicians, gathering in NY, London and Geneva to call attention to the United Nations’ Development Program’s anti-poverty efforts. Bono and Quincy Jones came on to serve as executive producers and curators of the musical acts to perform on what would become the most viewed streamed activity in history to that date.
Pacific Bell Park
For over 20 years, Oracle Park, the current name of the San Francisco Giants has been considered one of the premier sports facilities in America. It’s such a natural location and a mecca for baseball fans from throughout the country. It’s hard to recall that, at one time, it was another controversial San Francisco ballpark proposal with naysayers predicting its demise. Until one company answered the call to become the naming partner.
Pacific Bell Park was the original name of the venue located in the China Basin area of SF and the partnership is still considered one of the seminal naming rights deals of the 1990s. Kevin launched his work in naming rights with this innovative deal that led to the first privately financed ballpark in the country and a new model for sports teams and communities alike. The work was cutting-edge at the time as there were no models from which to build such an ambitious partnership.
With Pacific Bell taking a big risk, given a host of civic and economic challenges inherent in the stadium building plan, the brand had to receive a substantial amount of value in return for its $50 million commitment. The result was a 24-year agreement that has evolved over the years but has lived on to keep the original partnership intact, albeit under different corporate names – Pac Bell, SBC and AT&T.
Save Mart Center @ Fresno State
Following our work developing the naming rights partnership between Pacific Bell and the San Francisco Giants, we were contracted by leadership at CSU-Fresno (Fresno State) to help develop a new on-campus basketball arena. Our work funded a sizable portion of the Save Mart Center, following the design and development of a $40 million, 20-year deal involving Pepsi and Save Mart Supermarkets. The Save Mart Center is now in its second decade of serving the thriving Fresno/Central Valley market as the state of the art arena for sports, concerts, conferences and more.
In order to generate this level of funding in a mid-sized market (it was long a record amount for a university naming deal) we had to generate substantial value for the partners involved. This included campus-wide beverage rights; ticket sales rights for Save Mart; naming and extensive branding; and the rights to bring QSR partners to the original arena design. The program was created in a form that would allow for growth and evolution over time and has continued to serve the university well.
This work led to additional collegiate consulting including an arena expansion project at UC Riverside and the development of the Mondavi Center at UC Davis, which served to transform the gateway to that campus. Our approach to integrated sponsorship supports the creation of these powerful partnerships and can be applied to a wide range of university and institutional projects.
Wells Fargo Theaters
Kevin facilitated a partnership between Wells Fargo and the Sacramento performing arts organization that produces the historic Music Circus series and other live shows in the capitol city, resulting in the Wells Fargo Pavilion. The new venue breathed life into the long-running musical series providing a more comfortable air-conditioned environment in downtown Sacramento.
Building on the success of this venture, Wells Fargo retained Kevin to seek other opportunities for naming community theaters, leading to the Wells Fargo Theater for the Arts in Santa Rosa at the Luther Burbank Center; and the Wells Fargo Theater at the Children’s Discovery Museum in Sausalito. The theater naming strategy resulted in Wells Fargo deepening their community relationships while engaging with donors, boards and civic leaders.
Internet Home Alliance
At the start of the new millennium, a small group of corporate innovators came together to develop a cohesive approach to the burgeoning “Internet Lifestyle”, driven by the propagation of broadband and the desire of many brands to jump on the online bandwagon. Led by Sears, Cisco, General Motors, Panasonic, HP, Best Buy, Motorola, Honeywell and dozens of other brands, the Alliance brought companies together that had a shared stake in the development of a coordinated approach to the digital revolution.
Kevin contracted with the Alliance for its start-up and first year of activity, helping to organize the alliance, recruit new members, develop complementary partners and consult leadership on marketing, events and partnerships. Bartram played an executive consulting role and helped develop programs that brought the Alliance to life, including a series of programs on the Bob Vila Home Again show that highlighted member products and platforms in an interconnected form. We also managed Alliance trade show presence including two major activations at CES.