This session brings together environmental psychologists, sociologists, landscape architects, religious scholars, environmental authors and ecologists seeking to improve understanding of the conditions under which people are motivated to be stewards of their communities and the broader world. This symposium directly addresses one of the key challenges facing ESA’s earth stewardship initiative: Why do people fail to behave as responsible environmental stewards, and how can they be motivated to do so? Our first invited speaker will address the drivers of over-consumption and conditions leading to restrained resource use. Our second speaker explores the relationship of human behavior to social norms and how an understanding of this relationship can foster more sustainable behavior. Our third speaker will address ways in which ecologists and other “stewardship experts” can convey their message in ways that are most likely to motivate environmental citizenship. The fourth speaker will address how a sense of place and of environmental citizenship can be fostered and sustained in a rapidly urbanizing world. Our fifth speaker addresses ways in which faith-based organizations and ecologists have worked together to pursue environmental stewardship. Our sixth invited speaker is an environmental author who will speak on how to communicate effectively with the general public about environmental issues and stewardship. Our 7th speaker is an environmental psychologist who addresses the process of planning and rapidly transitioning to more sustainable behavior. Our final speaker is an anthropologist who will speak on how ecosystem concepts are used by different constituencies and how this understanding can be used to motivate different groups in different ways. As a unit, this symposium is intended to broaden the understanding of ecologists of the processes that motivate the human perceptions and behavior that influence environmental stewardship.