What you'll learn
- Explain the mission and vision of the Changemakers Program in your own words
- Describe what "participatory innovation" and "Fair Tech" mean
- Name the five core values and what they look like in practice
A different way to build technology
Most environmental health technology is built for communities — designed by experts, shipped to users, and rarely shaped by the people it most affects. PollutionProfile Changemakers exist to flip that model. We build environmental health technology WITH communities, treating the people closest to a problem as collaborators rather than passive users.
This is what we mean by participatory innovation: individuals contribute ideas, lived experiences, and feedback that directly guide responsible product development and environmental health education. A parent who notices a gap in how air quality is explained, a student who runs a campus workshop, a designer who spots an accessibility barrier — each is doing the work of a Changemaker.
Vision and mission
Our vision is a community-informed environmental health platform that empowers individuals everywhere to help shape how environmental data is understood, communicated, and applied for the public good. Our mission is to cultivate a global network of innovators, advocates, students, professionals, and community leaders who collaborate to improve environmental health through education, responsible technology, community-centered design, and shared knowledge.
Fair Tech
Just as the Fair Trade movement rebalanced agricultural supply chains to protect local producers, Changemakers are building a movement for Fair Tech — technology whose value flows back to the communities that generate the underlying data. You will go deeper on this in Module 5, but hold onto the core idea now: data about a community should serve that community.
Our core values
- •Integrity — represent our mission with honesty and professionalism.
- •Inclusivity — create space for diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences.
- •Curiosity — keep a mindset of continuous learning and exploration.
- •Collaborative problem-solving — work across disciplines to drive meaningful change.
- •Community stewardship — ensure technology serves the communities it impacts.
How participation works
There are no quotas, required weekly hours, or performance targets. Most Changemakers engage 1–3 hours a week on the opportunities that fit their interests. What matters is thoughtful engagement, curiosity, and a willingness to learn from others.
Key takeaways
- Changemakers build technology WITH communities, not just for them — that is participatory innovation.
- Fair Tech means the value created from community data should flow back to those communities.
- The program runs on five values: integrity, inclusivity, curiosity, collaborative problem-solving, and community stewardship.
Knowledge check
Pick an answer to see whether it's right and why. This is for your own learning — it isn't graded.
1. What best describes "participatory innovation"?
2. The idea of "Fair Tech" is modeled on which movement?
Apply it
In two or three sentences, describe a moment in your own life when you saw an environmental or health issue that the "experts" seemed to miss. What did your vantage point let you see?
Keep your notes — together they become the start of your Changemaker portfolio.