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Eco Hero: Wolfgang Weinmann

Richard Lemmer | 18.05.12

Wolfgang Weinmann is Head of Impact and Sustainability at Cafedirect. He joined Cafédirect in 2005 and, prior to his present role, was the Head of the Producer Partnership Programme, the company’s unique social return initiative for and with producer partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America.  He sets the strategic direction for the company and with a background within the sustainable development field, from humanitarian aid interventions, project design and management to senior consultancy assignments, he’s the right guy for the job.

When not thinking deep strategic thoughts, Wolfgang is happiest when travelling and exploring new cultures … he’s on a constant quest to learn from and experiment new frontiers.

What inspires you?

The multitude of people who are innovators and leaders to drive change for a more sustainable & fair world. There are so many fabulous unsung heroes out there who day-in, day-out truly make a difference, and not just in the environmental arena, but around human, political & economic rights, press freedom, as well as social justice, inclusive & responsible business etc. We here in the UK easily forget that many of these people put themselves and their families at risk for being change leaders because of the repressive and violent societies they live in. That's really admirable and true conviction.

If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you'd change?

To reactivate the Sustainable Development Commission so bluntly abolished last year, but upgrade it to have real incidence and impact across all government departmemnts. Not that I think sustainability is the sole responsibility of governments. We need all sectors of society involved. However, governments are vital to really place sustainability high on the political agenda and take everyone on the journey. Governments still struggle to place sustainable development at the heart of what they do, hence we need a body like SDC with committed, passionate sustainability professionals to change attitudes.

What is your personal mission?

Well, don't consider myself a missionary ... but I would like to be a responsible citizen, demonstrating via my personal and professional actions that we can do things differently for the benefit of society and future generations. We owe it to them, hence balancing short term with long term is crucial

What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Glass always half-full. My wife constantly reminds me of that - so important in our type of work around sustainability and international development, given the massive challenges, and often setbacks, we encounter. Hence the importance of stressing the achievements that have been made over past decades and build upon them to further push the boundaries towards tangible impacts for people and planet.

What's your favourite book or film of late?

I really enjoyed The Tree of Life , written and directed by Terrence Malick ...very intriguing film indeed.

What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?

So much has to happen unfortunately as problems are increasing ... but I would like to see the power of collective action around environmental and social challenges work its miracles. It has been proven many times that when families, communities, businesses, civil societies, governments, and nations pool their resources and willpower under a common objective, then change is possible.

What is the best meal you've had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?

Definitely at my birthday party in El Salvador / Central America with around 20 friends and family who all helped with cooking a delicious feast: a seven-course meal made from fresh, local ingredients and enjoyed al fresco with lots of non-local wine.

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Eco Hero - Orsola de Castro

Greta Jonyniate | 29.02.12

It's important to make clothes that take into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry. We love Ruth Styles' recent article in the Ecologist about meeting the designer and Estethica founder - Orsola de Castro for a chat about upcycling, showcasing new green talent and why eco-design has earned its place at the top table of British fashion.

She might not have the instant name recognition enjoyed by Livia Firth but Orsola de Castro has done as much, if not more, than the queen of the green carpet, to raise the profile of the UK’s eco designers. What’s more, as the brains behind the British Fashion Council’s Estethica initiative, she’s helped champion young green design talent, all while working on her own label, From Somewhere. But de Castro’s work doesn’t stop there. From Somewhere is known for its collaborations, most famously with Tesco (when the label created a dress made from pre-consumer waste for the supermarket’s Florence and Fred brand) but more recently with swimwear giant, Speedo. Now, de Castro has launched Reclaim to Wear, which she describes as ‘the collaborative arm of my label’ which has just started working with up and coming Central St Martins talent following a successful collection designed with Livia Firth. So is this the future of eco design in action?

‘We [Reclaim to Wear] started with a series of collaborations and Central Saint Martins is the first that we're doing within education,’ says de Castro, in her Italian accented English. ‘It has proved so successful that we're hoping to make it an annual appointment for Estethica. Reclaim to Wear is really a way of showing our knowledge and taking it to another level and to as many people as possible, whether it's to students, the high street, established designers, young designers, and so to do it with Central Saint Martins as part of their autumn theme project was an incredible opportunity for us and the creativity has been amazing. The results are wonderful.’ Like de Castro’s From Somewhere label, Reclaim to Wear works mostly with pre-consumer waste, or to put it in layman’s terms, leftover textile offcuts. I wonder how sustainable upcycling really is for a label, because, surely, if you work with offcuts, you lose consistency, which can be a real issue for the consumer. Not surprisingly, de Castro doesn’t agree, and says that it can work – no matter what sort of scale you’re dealing with.

‘No, that's not true, that's not true,’ she exclaims, getting slightly agitated. ‘Unfortunately this is still embargoed but we are doing a Reclaim to Wear project with a giant of the high street and that will use a completely different principle. It depends on what you're working with. I mean if you're working with liability stock you can achieve any amounts of reproduce-ability. The collection that we did with Livia Firth (launched under the Reclaim to Wear banner and sold on Yoox.com) that was also fully reproducible. So it's a designer choice whether you want to make it reproducible or unique, and entirely [depends] on where you're going to sell it. So, as I said, it's perfectly commercial. It makes a lot of sense. It saves a lot of money as well as water and energy to have good housekeeping in terms of your textile use. ‘

‘So, then,’ I ask, ‘if it's cheaper and the quality is good, why don't more designers do it?’ ‘Because it's a question of signature. It's a little more time consuming and the cutting is different. But it's also very much of a signature and in the industry most young designers do it now. It's not rocket science, or it's not being done or it's forgotten, people have forgotten how to do it on a natural level. But it's only really in the last 25 years since over-consumption has created such a massive problem - the textile industry generally has operated a very successful system of recycling itself. Upcycling is a novelty; in the sense there is no chemical of other industrial intervention in terms of recycling and shredding and all of that. So upcycling is relatively new. And more and more people are doing it and more and more students want to learn in such schools, so as I said it's a relatively new technique that will become more and more commercially viable in the future.’

De Castro has raised another interesting point: that of what’s in store for eco fashion over the next 20 years. Should it stay niche? Should green fashion become the mainstream? Is that even possible? And most importantly, are we seeing a real shift in consumer attitudes towards fashion, or is this just another trend? De Castro is optimistic. ‘I think particularly at a time like this when people just don't have the money to go and spend on an extra t-shirt, it becomes very interesting. People are thinking about the community price of what five t-shirts would have cost and [instead] are buying just one, which they know is the one that they want. So not only are people beginning to re-engage emotionally with what they're buying because they're buying better, they're buying because they want to rather than because they can, which is a very, very different attitude.’ This, she believes, will have positive results for the greener end of the fashion spectrum. ‘Upcycling is very powerful because it speaks - you will recognise something is upcycled - so it has the same value as a slogan t shirt in terms of what you actually want to say about yourself. It’s very intriguing to the younger generation - kids coming out of colleges are absolutely hell-bent in using upcycling as part of their collection. We're seeing that more and more in more and more colleges and young designers. And of course as you know, we have Christopher Raeburn, who is green and an upcycler, being named the Emerging Talent for Menswear at the 2011 British Fashion Awards. That has a profound impact on the way that young people see upcycling.’

Raeburn, whose career highlights include being the first designer to be awarded both men’s and womenswear NEWGEN sponsorship and winning the Ethical Fashion Forum’s INNOVATION competition in 2009, is at the forefront of the wave of green talent that has emerged over the last decade, and de Castro doesn’t see the flow abating any time soon. In part, of course, that’s down to her and the platform for green talent that Estethica has provided. So is she proud of what her initiative has achieved? ‘It [eco design] is very cool right now and I do believe that Estethica has very much changed the stakes in terms of eco-fashion, so I'm very proud and delighted to have been a part of this,’ she smiles.

‘I also believe that it is the responsibility of the industry to change and I am also very much a believer that the uncool, kind of hippy-dippy image of eco-fashion was on the way out before it started, because inevitably, you have to look at the full industry to see what fashion is. When Estethica started in 2006, it was a little bit Holland & Baratts circa 1989, and it was obvious that it was going to change.’ Obvious to who though? Wouldn't you say eco fashion still has a whiff of homespun about it as far as many consumers are concerned? According to de Castro, the homespun hemp perception of eco-fashion has been consigned to the history books. ‘I don't think the people in any way, shape or form associate it with hippy-dippy any longer,’ she argues. ‘I think it's much more cutting edge and I think it has earned its place in the fashion industry for good.’

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The heart of banking

Greta Jonyniate | 24.02.12

It’s time to rethink the role of banks in society, says Bevis Watts (Head of Business Banking, Triodos Bank).

The combination of a push of activists occupying streets across the globe, and the pull of an ever worsening economy, is brewing up the perfect storm for banking. With liquidity pricing at its highest since the fall of Lehman Brothers, it could well get a lot worse. But despite this, the fundamental role of banks in society still isn’t receiving the attention it deserves.

Perhaps as a society we’ve become so blind to banking’s potential for good, that while we express frustration at the unacceptable behaviour of banks, we can’t actually imagine them doing anything else. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The role of banks is no longer an academic exercise, but a timely and fundamental question.

Picture society as a human body. If money is its lifeblood, then banks should act as society’s heart – determining where that blood is required and pumping it across. If the heart is healthy, the body will be able to access the resources it needs to remain healthy. But without a conscious approach to the flow of money, the malaise in the society will feedback to the banks and infect them. The financial crisis has proven that when the banks fail, the whole of society suffers. And as the very organisations that brought the economy to its knees, it’s morally and practically right that banks take an active role in helping to build it back up again.

So what should the future of banking look like? We believe that banks and money should act as enablers of positive change, but it feels as if the financial sector has lost its way in terms of purpose and potential. We need to see the industry focusing more on the real economy and supporting its future, rather than operating with a primary mission of delivering short-term shareholder returns.

Research commissioned by Triodos shows that five in six people believe their bank should play a role in helping society. Two thirds (64%) wanted to see more investment in communities. Just 3% of savers feel banks are transparent about what happens to their savings once deposited. We can guess why. At present, only a fraction of the money lent and invested by the main banks is used to bring about positive change. Clearly the banks’ customers do not think this is good enough. It’s a call to action for policymakers, shareholders, and bank executives: they have to ensure the banking sector gives more back to society, rather than just taking.

A compelling alternative to banking as we know it is a shift towards smaller banks, and more of them. It’s a model that could help banks to deliver benefits to society while limiting the financial sector’s potential to harm it.

These smaller banks could operate on a human scale. They could specialise, and pass expertise onto their customers. The more focused they can remain on the direct impacts of the finance they provide, the more emphasis they can place on its environmental and social advantages.

The Global Alliance for Banking on Values is an independent network of banks which aims to use finance to deliver sustainable development for people, communities and the environment. It demonstrates how a new model made up of smaller, interconnected banks can work. While they serve very different communities, from urban San Francisco to rural Mongolia, they learn from each other, sharing ideas on long-term sustainable thinking, new forms of ownership and economic cooperation.

Crucially, scaled-down banks would be small enough to fail. One of the cruellest ironies of the financial crisis has been that banks – which often act as judge, jury and executioner for struggling businesses – have not been forced to play by their own rules. Arguably, smaller banks would not benefit from the economies of scale enjoyed by today’s banking behemoths. But, while it’s questionable whether these savings are passed on to the consumer, there’s no doubt that the cost of their failure has been.

The banking industry owes an awful lot to society. A little open heart surgery is exactly what it needs to start making repayments.

This article was first published in Green Futures magazine, January 2012, and on Move Your Money website, February 2012. 

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Eco Hero - Kurt Jewson

Greta Jonyniate | 21.02.12

Kurt Jewson is one of the co-founders of Frugi, an organic and ethical children’s clothing brand. Frugi began in 2004 under the name Cut4Cloth, which Kurt co-created with his wife Lucy after realising that it was incredibly difficult to find clothes to fit over their son's cloth nappy bottom. For a few years they specialised in organic baby clothes to fit cloth nappies, but as the range expanded they decided to rebrand under a new name, Frugi, which means 'Fruits of the Earth' in Latin.

What inspires you?

What inspires me now, and maybe always has done, is people who put two fingers up to convention and plough on regardless of the barriers when they have a belief in themselves and what they are doing. Without coming across a a great big softie my wife, Lucy, is quite inspirational. Frugi is her baby, and I am in awe of her ability to see and cut through the bull shit and get to the heart of the matter in a nanosecond.

What makes you angry?

Bad customer service makes me fume. At Frugi we have always strived to be the best in everything that we do. The best designs, the best organic cotton, the best manufacturers the best..everything. If you don't strive to be the best, then what's the point? Go work for BT and sit back and relax.

If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you'd change?

I would help schools to teach children about money, investments, business, savings and its role in making the world go around. It is all around you when you leave school, but no-one has a clue really. I don't have a clue! All I know that you shouldn't spend more than you earn, or have the ability to repay. I'd maybe then do something regarding sustainable energy..but that's two things...oops!

Can individuals really make a difference?

Of course. Passionate, intelligent driven individuals can inspire and show the way. The crowd will follow, eventually, and their detractors will move on.

What is your personal mission?

To prove to the world that businesses can start, grow and be successful whilst also being ethical. The two are not mutually exclusive. I would also like to be a proficient Pasty maker, but my efforts so far have been..well..middling at best.

What’s more urgent: changing things from the inside or starting a revolution on the outside?

Well, they both have a place. With regard to business, what we are doing at Frugi is trying to change things from the inside. We are not evangelical hippies about the place, proclaiming that all business is bad and that money is the route of all evil. We live in the real world. However, if the real world can be made as devoid of greed, vested interests and suits as possible then that's a good thing. ( ridding the world of tie dyed t-shirts and sandals is quite urgent )

What is the best meal you’ve had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?

The best meal that I've ever had, despite everyone thinking that I live exclusively on Cornish Pasties ( which I sort of actually do ) consisted of fresh French bread, cheeses and chutneys. The ingredients came from an organic farm shop in Somerset (as did the wagon load of cider that we had with it) and was eaten by myself, my wife Lucy and my best friend Jamie and his wife Liz.

Can you describe a typical work day? (ie. what you do within that day and who you have potential to influence etc)

My day starts with getting the kids fed, dressed, teeth cleaned and ready for school. Then it's the cat, chickens and goldfish followed by a cup of tea in bed for Mrs. J. ( she's a night person )!
After dropping the kids at school it's into the Frugi 'today' department to crack on with getting orders out of the door as swiftly as possible ( did I mention I'm fanatical about customer service? ). I tend to spend a good portion of any day answering questions and steering people to make decisions. One of my favourite questions to pose to someone facing a customer service decision is to ask, "if you were that customer, what would you like to happen now?" it sort of makes the decision process much easier.

How do you define success?

Sometimes I quite literally punch the air and say, "Yes!" when I see Frugi influencing others to take the ethical route. I don't think that we are successful yet, because we haven't finished our mission...we are just beginning to appear on the radar and gain an audience.

What’s the best advice anyone’s ever given you?

"if it don't feel right, you don't have to do it. Just leave a message on the phone and tell them to screw it!" John Lennon "keep 'er 'ard" my dad.

What’s your favourite book or film of late?

Reading Andy Kershaw's, 'no off switch' and really enjoying it. Again, someone who has a passion for what they do and making a career out of their passion.

What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?

Crikey, that's a biggie. If we can persuade business that being an ethical business is what consumers demand, and persuade consumers that buying ethical is the only choice then businesses will have a vested interest in being green. It's getting there, I have hope.
 

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ECO HERO: ROB ELLIOTT

Greta Jonyniate | 23.11.11

A quiet observer of life, Rob Elliott is nevertheless ardently committed to promoting a way of living that reconnects us to the natural world, our unique and precious support. Communicating mainly through his writing and informal talks, he has published two books, The Food Maze and How To Eat (Like There’s No Tomorrow). His more general observations are posted on his blog Food Life and All That. The B&B he runs with his partner, Sally, has a strong educational element, leading by example to endorse localised economies as one effective answer to the hugely destructive global industrial food system, the biggest contributor to carbon emissions.

1. What inspires you?

What inspires me is the person who is prepared to stand up and say, “No, this is not how it is meant to be, and I will not accept it.” Where I am seeing this most frequently today is amongst the younger people – that is to say, anyone under the age of about 40. This fearless generation, who took on the challenges of skateboarding, snowboarding, hip-hop and street dance and made them into art forms, is the frontline of a new renaissance, not simply facing up to authoritarianism but calling for a radical rethink of how the human species conducts itself.

2. What makes you angry?

In considering this question, it was difficult to decide which makes me angrier: the deceit with which this modern world is imbued, or the gullibility of those who accept the deceit as truth. I settled for the former, in the belief that trust is one of our fundamental human default instincts, built up from the earliest days of human cooperation. Thus I conclude that it is deceit that makes me angry, particularly when such deceit is perpetrated by governments, corporations, banks or religious authority motivated by greed and self-interest. Deceit of this nature has taken us to war, undermined our health, destabilised societies, robbed us of most of the attributes that define a decent human being, ravaged nature and exploited, despoiled and polluted the planet to the point of collapse.

3. If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you’d change?

If I were Prime Minister, I would respect the ethos of democracy. The first thing I would change would be the way government is funded, in order to put people before profit and deliver the transformation urgently required to return society to equilibrium. In order to escape from the shackles of the corporatocracy, I would find the courage to tax banks and corporations, close the tax haven loopholes and channel the money thus raised into generating an economy based on social prosperity without corporate growth – beginning with food. I would make it clear that changing the way we produce food in order to deliver fresh, seasonal, uncontaminated and unadulterated real food would be the bedrock for all the other positive changes we need in society.

4. Can individuals really make a difference?

As someone once said, “If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” It is folly to think one voice will not be heard. Throw a small pebble into a pond and you see the splash and ripples. Keep throwing pebbles one by one and the ripples join up. So it is with us. I might be one voice of change, but if one other person open to change accepts what I say, we become two voices. Two voices will become many voices. Before long, you can’t hear your own voice for the din, and you find yourself occupying a patch of ground outside St Paul’s with a few hundred others. Individuals always make a difference, because they talk to other individuals who also want to make a difference. A new journey begins with a single step, and change begins with a single voice.

5. What is your personal mission?

I dislike the word ‘mission,’ as it has evangelical associations that I personally find uncomfortable. I am certainly not here to impose my views on other people. If there is one thing that motivates me, however, it is the pursuit of truth. Since being tested for food intolerances some years ago, I began to find out about the truth behind the global food industry, prompting my first book, The Food Maze. This was written from a personal viewpoint in order to create something of a ‘primer’ for those in confusion about food issues. My deliberate attempt to create something accessible and non-academic has worked, in that I receive a lot of positive feedback from readers who claim that the book has changed their relationship with food for the better. The task I have now set myself, if I can put it like that, is to do everything I can to disseminate the truths I have learned to as many people as possible because, in understanding the truth, we can uncover the lies we are told about everything from climate change to what we should feed our pets. By the time I reach the end of my days, I hope I will have added something positive to the change that I believe will happen in that time.

6. What’s more urgent: changing things from the inside, or starting a revolution on the outside?

The problem with revolution is that it almost invariably goes wrong, replacing one reviled ideology with another. Revolutions need leaders, and leaders all too easily slip under the narcotic influence of power. For lasting and meaningful change, a renaissance is required, and this can come only from the inside, from the soul of a society.

7. What’s the best meal you’ve had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?

I have been fortunate in having been brought up in a family environment in which food was a central theme, and I have thus enjoyed many memorable family meals. There is, however, one meal that stands out in my memory. In 2001, I was on holiday in Kraków with my partner, Sally, and my Polish mother. This was only the second time my mother had been in her old home town since the end of World War II, and the only time I had been there with her. Two years after an acrimonious divorce, it was with a deep sense of contentment that I explored this ancient capital city with my mother and my new partner. On our first day there, we had lunch in a modest family-run restaurant offering traditional Polish dishes just like my mother used to cook when I was growing up. It was, quite simply, a meal I will never forget.

8. Can you describe a typical work day?

I run a B&B with Sally, and so a typical work day usually involves looking after guests. Thus our day might start around 7.00am, when we get up to begin preparations for breakfast. There are a number of elements to this as regards what is put on the tables (e.g. freshly baked bread, fresh butter, fruit, milk and preserves), which Sally takes care of, while I take care of the cooked breakfast. We eat after our breakfast duties are over and we have said goodbye to any guests leaving that morning, which is usually between 10.00 and 10.30. After that, there may be rooms to change, linen to wash and dry or shopping to get, all of which Sally and I treat as joint chores.
Once I have time to myself, I will check the computer for new enquiries or any other emails I need to deal with, many of which will be ongoing conversations with people or organisations with whom I am in communication. On a good day, I will perhaps have time to write a blog posting for our blog www.foodandlife.co.uk or add something to a new book I am trying to find the time to write. I do my best to spend some time on Twitter, as this is also a way of talking to some interesting people.
Around 6.30 to 7.00, I will reappear in the kitchen to prepare an evening meal for the two of us. Once we sit down to eat, we can switch off for a while. If there is something worthwhile on TV (e.g. a stimulating documentary, or Doc Martin!), we will watch that. Alternatively, I might go back to the computer if I am in the mood to write. Currently, I am taking time out to watch the BBC News, as I am fascinated by the present speed of change and, after that, I will read and research until about 11.30, then off to bed.

9. How do you define success?

In tackling this slippery issue, one thing is certain: success cannot truly be measured using the false flags of received wisdom. It is ‘so last-century’ to believe that personal success should be measured in terms of material gain or career progress, and that national success can only be measured by Gross Domestic Product. True success is far more elusive, but I would say that a successful person is one who makes a positive contribution to the lives of others whilst maintaining a set of principles that leaves that person unwilling to conduct their own lives in a way that causes harm to others, to other creatures and to the natural world that ultimately protects us all.

10. What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you?

The best advice I have ever received came not from my father, mentor, favourite teacher or best friend, but from a snippet of graffiti written on the inside wall of a public toilet in Anglesey. Some wit had started the ball rolling by putting up a quotation from the classics, and the idea had caught on, so the wall was covered in quotations from Shakespeare, lines from Keats and Walter Scott, pithy aphorisms and Buddhist philosophy. Amongst these was the following exhortation: “Trust no one, question everything.” I have lived by that maxim ever since.

11. What’s your favourite book or film of late?

If I had been asked which book or film has made the greatest impression on me in my life, the answer would be relatively easy, but to choose something that has become a recent favourite is trickier. However, there is one book that confirmed for me, in clarity and depth of detail, most of the suspicions I have long harboured about our modern world, and that is The Great Turning, by David Korten. Its subtitle, From Empire to Earth Community, says it all. This is a book that spells out what is wrong with the world as we know it, the myths and fables that have kept us locked into belief systems that divide us, but it is full of optimism too, as it frames for us the stories we might have been told, those that will now help to bring us together and back into the fold of nature.

12. What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?

Having spent five years researching the questions of climate change, peak oil, resource depletion and the impact of humanity on all of the above, I have come to understand that, once again, what we are told is cloaked in disinformation and half truths. More importantly, I now understand that our globalised industrial food system is profit-motivated just like any other industrial system. Its impact is phenomenal, however, because of its sheer size.
It sucks in everything from the manufacture of machinery, artificial fertilisers and pesticides to the growing of monoculture cash crops, to the processing of those cash crops into artificial foodstuffs, to the retailing of those artificial products in giant big box retailers. It takes in along the way, fuel to run the machinery and the transport systems, to say nothing of all the heating, lighting, chilling and air conditioning in the warehouses and retail outlets, the generation of waste and the processes involved in dealing with that waste. Altogether, this system is generating something like 60% of our carbon emissions.
So, what I would most like to see is a change in the way we produce our food worldwide. It is time to dispel the myth of ‘feeding the world’ and replace it with the understanding that we must all regain the right to feed ourselves, by growing nutritionally efficacious foods in small-scale, truly sustainable ways. Changing the way we feed ourselves is the one thing that each of us can do without hardship, and it will make the biggest contribution to protecting the planet.

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ECO HERO: TRISTRAM STUART

Greta Jonyniate | 17.11.11

Tristram Stuart, organiser of Feeding the 5000 event, award-winning campaigner and author Facts and figures on Waste – the issue in UK and globally, top tips to avoid waste and solutions.

1. What inspires you?

The Uighur people in western China: they live in a land of scarce resources and waste practically nothing.

2. What makes you angry?

Chopping down the Amazon rainforest to grow crops to feed livestock to create more food which is then wasted.

3. If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you'd change?

I would seek an international agreement on halting the destruction of virgin forests.

4. Can individuals really make a difference?

Yes! When I was ten I wrote to McDonald's complaining about the CFCs in their packaging. A month later I got a letter back saying they were changing their policy. Obviously a total coincidence but it gave me the delusion that individuals can create change and I still suffer from that.

5. What is your personal mission?

Between now and tomorrow at 2pm, feeding 5000 people in Trafalgar Square on food that would otherwise have been wasted.

6. What's more urgent: changing things from the inside or starting a revolution on the outside?

I believe that you can do both. Tomorrow at Feeding the 5000 an arrary of people and organisations of every political stripe, from revolutionary environmentalists to businesses interested in improving efficiency will be united on one issue: that food waste is an injustice and must be tackled.

7. What is the best meal you've had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?

 In 2009, when we last put on this event I got a text at 8.30 in the morning just as I was walking into a live broadcast with the Today programme. It was from my brothers who had gone to collect the curry for Feeding the 5000, telling me how delicious it was. They were right. It was a wonderful hot meal cooked by volunteers, made entirely from food that normally would have gone to waste, and eaten by five thousand members of the public. Tomorrow lunchtime we are doing the same thing again.

8. Can you describe a typical work day? (ie. what you do within that day and who you have potential to influence etc).

Typical doesn't exist. At the beginning of this week I was picking cabbages, the week before I was discussing food waste policy at Number 10, next week I am in Barcelona for a conference as part of the European Week of Waste Reduction which Feeding the 5000 is launching here in the UK tomorrow.

9. How do you define success?

In 2009, when I watched hungry people walk into the food tent in Trafalgar Square, and come out with a big smile on their face, that was the most satisfying thing ever.

10. What's the best advice anyone's ever given you?

The Uighur man who pointed at three grains of rice at the bottom of my bowl and asked 'Clean?' showed me that our society should be capable, as Uighur society is, of regarding food waste as unacceptable.

11. What's your favourite book or film of late?

David Attenborough's film on insects in the BBC series Trials of Life. His film demonstrated the sustainable hunting practices of ant colonies: which divide up their territory so as not to deplete their resource base. Humans still haven't worked out how to do that.

12. What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?

 A global land management agreement so that we stop depleting resources unnecessarily. The first thing we should do is to stop trashing the land to grow food that no-one eats.

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ECO HERO: JAMES SUTTON

Greta Jonyniate | 10.11.11

James Sutton is the founder of the revolutionary non-profit organisation pioneering the bloomtrigger project; a simple, affordable and creative way for people to protect rainforest. Bloomtrigger is a social enterprise developing a new visual model of online fundraising to enable individuals, businesses and primary school children to help protect their own part of the rainforest. The bloomtrigger project works in partnership with the CREES foundation a charity empowering forestry communities in the Peruvian Amazon to sustainably manage their forest land. Ultimately the bloomtrigger project aims to protect 1 million hectares of the rainforest worldwide.

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climate change, deforestation, reforestation

ECO HERO: TREWIN RESTORICK

Greta Jonyniate | 03.10.11

Trewin Restorick is the CEO of independent environmental charity Global Action Plan, which he founded in 1993. The charity runs programmes to reduce carbon emissions, energy consumption and waste with businesses, schools, community organisations and households. Global Action Plan has won a range of awards including the 2008 Ashden Award for sustainable energy for its employee behaviour change programmes and was recently shortlisted for Creating the Future Award and Third Sector Awards.

What inspires you?

I have a mind that I can’t switch off, a fundamental stubbornness and a weird desire to constantly try new things. All of these characteristics are fueled by meeting people and hearing what sustainability challenges they are facing and then trying to help them overcome them. I am constantly inspired by seeing what people and organizations have achieved to live more sustainably. The most recent example is the Litre of Light initiative in the Philippines http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14967535

What makes you angry?

Arrogance. Particularly arrogant leaders who don’t seem to care about the environmental, social or financial impact of their decisions. Be it bankers who seem totally oblivious to the devastation they have caused, political leaders focused purely on short-term electoral gain or, on a more prosaic level, the people who have destroyed my beloved home football team Plymouth Argyle. As a cyclist what makes me angry is BMW drivers who seem genetically programmed to try and kill me.

If you were Prime Minister what would be the first thing you would change?

Everything. Fundamentally I would wish to redefine the purpose of Government. I would kick out the all-consuming, short-term, narrow economic view of the world that oozes from the Treasury and create a new vision for what a prosperous UK would look like. This would be built around an economy that is low carbon and zero waste. That offers people work that is fulfilling. That creates strong resilient local communities. That narrows what I think are unacceptable levels of financial inequity. That gives young people more of a say in their future and that totally redefines the notion of wealth to incorporate skills, biodiversity, resource value and social cohesion as well as financial measures.

Can individuals really make a difference

The only way to answer this is with the quotation from Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." This holds true even though the awful band Nickelback stole the quotation for one of their lyrics. Time and again I have been amazed by what committed individuals can achieve in their community. For example we recently worked with a Sudanese volunteer in Croydon called Adam Yasir. He started the Great Green Hope campaign at Croydon College through our Greenprint 2020 initiative. Operating under the slogan ‘Tomorrow’s climate is today’s challenge,’ he has helped transform the college and has been shortlisted for ‘Volunteer of the Year’ http://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/Climate-Squads-Adam-saved-more-than-10-per-cent-at-college

What is your personal mission?

I don’t have anything as grand as a personal mission. Each day I try to do whatever I can to help Global Action Plan do more and do better – it’s as simple as that.

What’s more urgent: changing things from the inside or starting a revolution on the outside?

Are they mutually exclusive? I don think they are. If you don’t change yourself then any calls for revolution are hypocritical. Remember ‘two jags’ John Prescott urging people to use their cars less. It had all the authenticity of ham flavoured cheese spread.

What is the best meal you’ve had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?

Is it completely cheesy to say my wedding reception? We spent a lot of time ensuring that the food was local and seasonal and checking out the credentials of the supplier. The meal itself was a joyful celebration surrounded by friends and family and the food was fantastic. As part of the day we asked everybody to send us their favourite recipe and turned these into a cookbook which we gave to all the guests. Food is a really important part of my life and it seemed the right thing to do to offer a gift celebrating the best recipes of friends and family.

Can you describe a typical work day?

A typical work day is a juggling act between what I would like to do and what I need to do. The bit I like is getting out, meeting and talking to people. Last week we organised the London launch of Al Gore’s Climate Reality initiative which involved getting 200 people together to watch and discuss the new slideshow. I gave a presentation at the Business for Environment Summit on sustainable consumer goods - we held two discussion groups with a host of organisations to discuss how to implement more sustainable transport policies and I sat through a five hour DEFRA Civil Society board meeting. The need to do stuff revolves around running the charity which is focused on the constant and ever growing challenging of paying the wage bills, and working with the Management Team to ensure that we have an organisation capable of truly making an impact.

How do you define success?

Personally, success for me is seeing Global Action Plan achieve significant change. Seeing people within the organsiation flourish. Proving to myself that living more sustainably is rewarding, and hoping that my obsession with work doesn’t make me a completely useless husband and dad.

What is the best advice anybody ever gave you?

I had a somewhat maverick boss in my first ever job who told me ‘Also do what you believe to be right.’ Easy to say, hard to do.

What is your favourite book or film of late

I have recently finished ‘Just Kids’ the autobiography of Patti Smith. I loved its brutal honesty as she describes her relationship with artist Robert Mapplethorpe and her personal journey which has resulted in her being one of pop’s iconic figures.

What would you like to most happen to protect the planet

An overwhelming acceptance that the climate scientists are right and that we need to change our economy to hit carbon reduction targets.
 

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Stopping bad things and starting good ones

Greta Jonyniate | 21.09.11

We love Bill Mckibben’s article “Stopping bad things and starting good ones” published on the Grist this week. It is good to hear from the founder of 350.org himself about why Moving Planet project is so important and what it’s trying to achieve. Saturday’s events promise to be a colourful and creative display involving hundreds of thousands of people all around the world saying no to fossil fuels and calling on their leaders to take immediate steps to transition towards clean energy. 

Stopping bad things and starting good ones

Sometimes the world asks different things of you.

A couple of weeks ago, many of us heeded the planet’s call to block a bad thing: the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta down to the Gulf of Mexico. All in all, 1,253 of us ended up in jail, and many more helped in other ways. That fight’s not over yet, not by a long shot. (You can keep up with developments at tarsandsaction.org).

But we’ve all got another side too, one that wants to start good things. Which is why I’m looking forward so much to Sept. 24 and Moving Planet day. All around the country and the world, people are concentrating on the kind of future we can build as we put fossil fuels in the rearview mirror.

Or, in this case, as we get rid of the rearview mirror altogether. Because Sept. 24 is largely about transportation—about all the other ways we can move our bodies and our stuff if we begin to leave the car behind.

People will be skateboarding and kayaking and marching, and most of all, they’ll be biking. In Indonesia, people will be cycling (and ferrying) for 350 hours from Bali to Bandung, collecting petitions for climate action along the way. In Sao Paolo, Brazil, thousands will march and rally for better public transportation and bike lanes. From Cairo to Quito, from Dhaka to Denver, millions of people will pound the pavement in every corner of the world, demanding action on climate change. And they’ll have three things in mind:

First, that bikes and such are a key part of the solutions we need. We know that 40 percent of commuters in Copenhagen go by bike. (In fact, there was a recent article about bike congestion in the city—now that’s a problem to have!) We’ve got to remind ourselves that simply because we’re used to getting around one way, that’s not the only way. For many Westerners, there’s a psychological unwillingess to even think about life past the car. Maybe you can’t do everything by bike, but once you start thinking differently, then buses and trains and so forth seem more plausible.

Second, in the rest of the world the psychological problem is sometimes a little different. In poor countries, bikes have been stigmatized and cars glamorized. Before everyone else follows us down the same blind path to climate ruin (and suburban sprawl), we need to peel some of that glamour off the car and stick it on the bike. The bike is one of the few tools used by rich and poor alike, and that means this is a great chance to show solidarity with the people hit hardest by climate change, to show them that they’re doing a great job already of building the solutions we all need.

And third: Bikes are fun. So are skateboards and canoes and feet and all the other ways we can move, together. And that together is vital: If you’ve never ridden a bike in a big crowd of other people, you’ve never felt the fun of being part of what feels like some powerful, galloping animal, slithering around corners and powering up hills.

Sometimes we’ve got to stop things, and sometimes we’ve got to start things. On Sept. 24, we’re moving into high gear, pushing the planet out of neutral. It’s going to be beautiful.

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ECO HERO: ELISABETH WINKLER

Greta Jonyniate | 14.09.11

Elisabeth Winkler is a journalist and green publicist. For eight years, editor of the Soil Association magazine, she campaigns for local organic solutions on her Real Food Lover blog - shortlisted for the 2009 Guild of Food Writers Awards. She co-wrote Make More of Squashes, and Make More of Beans and Peas, and is part of the No Tesco in Stokes Croft campaign in Bristol, currently morphing into the Stokes Croft people's supermarket. Elisabeth's blog Real Food Lover

What inspires you?

People. I love it when people express their wild and cooperative side. I love their inconsistencies.

What makes you angry?

Waste of natural resources including ingenuity. Given the right conditions everyone has something to contribute. I hate throwing things away and plastic bags depress me. We need to make things last and pass them on.

If you were Prime Minister, what would be the first thing you'd change?

Planning laws. Currently, it’s hard for councils to say no to corporate development. Corporates can afford appeals; councils cannot. The Localism bill will weaken the law even more. I agree with the National Trust’s latest campaign: planning is for people, not profit.

Can individuals really make a difference?
Always. An act of kindness is revolutionary.

What is your personal mission?

We can live a greener, fairer and more secure life. Let’s make it happen. Now.

What’s more urgent: changing things from the inside or starting a revolution on the outside?

Good question: both. Engaged Buddhism is a model for inner awareness and outside action.

What is the best meal you’ve had in your life? Cooked by whom? Eaten with whom?

I love eating in company and I am always grateful to be fed. I am intrigued by the new generation of raw food. I am a throw-it-together cook - fast cooking with real food. I want to spend my pennies on local organic produce: for health, community, respect for the animals and soil - and taste. If we get food right, we get a lot right.

Can you describe a typical work day? (ie. what you do within that day and who you have potential to influence etc)

Morning starts with addiction: coffee and computer. Working from home means I can work at my own pace, and cook. I love working at night. I promote organic food businesses and green charities. Work is my passion - I can only work for something I believe in. Any communication can be influential: email, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, a phone call - a random meeting in the street.

How do you define success?

Enough to live well and living your dream. Learning from others and sharing skills.

What’s the best advice anyone’s ever given you?

Breathe out through the mouth, in through the nose, slowly. Relaxing helps you cope with pain. Also applies to emotional pain.

What’s your favourite book or film of late?

Novels are companions, and a counterpoint to computers. I am reading D.H. Lawrence’s last novel, the Plumed Serpent, for the first time. Mexico, 1920s, an indigenous uprising against centuries of colonialism.

What would you most like to happen to protect the planet?

Balance. There is enough to go round. Forget oil wars - invest in renewable energy. Create green jobs for life. Balance.
 

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