Robert Caughlan has been involved in politics, environmental activism and the media for more than forty years. He has worked for Senators Dianne Feinstein, Alan Cranston, and Jay Rockefeller as well as Assemblyman and Congressman Leo J. Ryan. Caughlan served in the Carter Administration as a special assistant to the administrator of the US EPA and worked on Carter's Solar Energy Task Force and the Global 2000 Report. Caughlan co-founded Friends of the River and was the first president of The Surfrider Foundation.
In addition to producing and directing Pete McCloskey: Leading from the Front, Caughlan co-produced Voice of the Planet, a 10-hour television series starring William Shatner and Faye Dunnaway for Turner Broadcasting. He also co-wrote, edited, and produced Future in the Cradle - The Cairo Conference on Population, which won the WAVE Award for International Documentary, and produced Solar Energy the Great Adventure, which won the Golden Eagle Award (1978) and starred Eddie Albert.