Intro:
Welcome to the eighty sixth episode of the WonderSpace podcast, which is a creative expression of a charity called Panapur. My name is Steve Cole, and since September 2020, I have asked the same six questions to over 80 people from around the world. Questions that orbit around wonder and stories of hopefulness. This week's Wonderspace comes from the Blue Earth Summit in Bristol in The UK, where this week hundreds of makers and mavericks, founders and activists, adventurers and investors came together with a collective desire to see business as a force for good in protecting our planet and all people. At Wonderspace, we are all about finding stories of hopefulness.

Intro:
It is our belief that there are so many benefits to starting events and meetings with what is good, what is working, and what is hopeful, as a way of preparing the ground for conversations around crisis and emergency. So with this in mind, I spent the afternoon at Blue Earth asking people to share their stories of hopefulness about a person, business, or nonprofit doing amazing things for the world. There was only one rule: You could not talk about your own idea or organization. So sit back and enjoy this twenty minute fix of hopefulness from the Blue Earth Summit, and think about the person or organization you would like to promote as your story of hopefulness.

Speaker 1:
So my name is Lindley Lewis. I'm one of the founders of the Blue Earth Summit. And I think my story of hopefulness, I've got three kids of my own, and we're trying to change the narrative around how business can create impact. And my hope is that the future that they the future world that they get bought up in still has nature, still has environment, still have has playgrounds that they can enjoy, still has oceans full of fish and wildlife and marine life and the playground that we've all been able to enjoy. We wanna make sure that business can preserve that for the future and give them a nice place to live and bring out their own children.

Speaker 2:
Joanne Sumudra from Dry Robe. Another story of hope is surf is not street children. I watch what they do daily, and that lifts my spirits up quite a lot when I see their posts essentially and read their stories and watch what they're doing. Just looking after the kids, giving them a bigger aspiration for life.

Speaker 3:
I'm Rob. I'm here from Blue Health Surf at the Blue Earth Summit. And my story about an organization that brings hopefulness is there's a a group down in Cornwall called Man Down, and they're a mental health group that are just run by volunteers of men getting together and talking about stuff, you know. Suicide prevention, you know, men have got the, you know, the biggest risk of suicide. So they get together and it's just a a safe space where guys can get together and just have a chat, you know, about whatever's on their mind and find a place where you can be honest.

Speaker 3:
And for me, speaking truth is like part of the micro, like, heals the macro. So the idea of just finding a safe place where you can go and have a chat with other men, it's quite unusual. It's kinda lost in our culture, really, if you think about, you know, the indigenous tribes. They always got together, all the men that had a good old yarn. So, yeah, it's it's really changes lives, and they've got a brilliant app that allows men to go surfing together, go out in nature, go walking, just do stuff together, and not have that sense of, like, being alone.

Speaker 3:
And I think that's part of the macro problem is we all feel alone a lot.

Speaker 4:
Hi. My name is, Anna Blackman, and I work for an I'm a coach, an organization called Anahata Coaching. And I just want to sort of make a shout out to the Well-being Project, which is an extraordinary organization that is basically bridging the divide between social impact and inner well-being. So investing in people's inner well-being through very deep mindfulness based practices, which then bring outer change in really aligned impactful ways.

Speaker 5:
My name is Chris. I'm from an agency called Epoch. I guess my story of hopefulness from the day is is the example that Patagonia set really, the the management of returning all profits back to, you know, good causes and the and the the charity rather than plowing it straight to shareholders' bank balances. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 5:
It's a good one.

Speaker 6:
So my name's Sally Bennett, and my organization is Minty Green Limited. Last year and this year, I had the pleasure of working with Dot Project, who was set up by which was set up by two women. It's a Southwest based tech for good initiative that is supporting and helping charities become more digitally capable. And they've be doing amazing work. So charities can focus their efforts and resources on frontline, rather than having to be bogged down with all of the digital admin that they need to, also think about as well.

Speaker 7:
Hi. My name is Andy Hawkins from Business On Purpose. I'm a b corp consultant, and my story of hopefulness is around ecology. They're a company that plant trees and do other carbon offsetting projects around the world, but they've helped me and a whole bunch of my clients to, offset their carbon footprints, which helps you not just to offset it, but to understand more so that you live a more carbon friendly lifestyle. So having companies like Ecology around to help us become more conscious of what's happening and be able to do something about it is filling me with hope.

Speaker 7:
Thank you, Ecology.

Speaker 8:
My name is Nisha Bevan, and I'm cocreator and colead of the Black Seeds Network. And, my story of hopefulness, is lots and lots of inspiration from black to nature. They do incredible work. They take young people from visibly minority ethnic backgrounds, and they take them out into nature and foster a love and connection of with the natural world. And it's really inspiring to see what they do, and they tailor the needs of their programs to communities.

Speaker 8:
So, yeah, I think I feel very hopeful about the diversity of the main so called mainstream environmental sector with organizations like that working so hard.

Speaker 9:
My name's Helena Craig, and I'm from Black to Nature. And I want to shout out about Maya Rose Craig who goes by the name of Bird Girl. She's an amazing young activist, anti racist activist within the nature and environmental sector. She's out there. She's really challenging those big organizations for equal access to nature.

Speaker 10:
Hi there. I'm Jules. I work at Renewable UK. I'm really happy to be at the Blue Earth Summit today. But my story of hope is I recently went on a beautiful retreat in the North Of Scotland.

Speaker 10:
And it was called Realise Earth, and it was run by people that had realized that actually in order to make a difference, you need to change make behavioral change. So we spent seven days in nature and with people that are working within, like, large organizations, trying to make a change in their own way. I think the fact that they're doing these retreats and having such an impact on people who will then go on to make inspire others, I think is definitely a positive and inspiring thing for me.

Speaker 11:
So my name is Mark Shearer. I'm an organizer my organization is ActionFunder. And my story of hopefulness is, the thousands of nonprofits taking place at a grassroots level across The UK. And as we're in Bristol, one is the Square Food Foundation, which, enables, underprivileged families to come and learn how to cook, and they deliver their own food, cooking workshops, but also, meal packs that go out. They're brilliant.

Speaker 12:
Hi. My name is Pip from, Want to Walk Barking Dog Media charity, and my story of Hopefulness is about an amazing guy called, Temi Latif from a organization called My Choice, who's, really turned his life around from being in trouble and, but then discovered cycling and, very naively thought that, oh, no. I'll do. I'll cycle back to Nigeria where I'm originally from. And, he's just told us this incredible story about what he's doing through cycling and other things in London with people who are, often the other side of the lines, a bit marginalized, a bit out of it.

Speaker 12:
And he's using his skills and what he's learned and what he's done through cycling to reengage these people and give them a wider choice of what the possibilities are for their life. Absolutely incredible guy. Big shout out to Temi and, My Choice.

Speaker 13:
My name is Emma. I'm a environmental science communicator, and my story for hopefulness is Project Seagrass and their amazing work to restore the seabeds in The UK and around the world and their community engagement.

Speaker 14:
My name is Bonnie Middleton. I work at TYF Adventure as a coordinator for the community, and I'm inspired and hopeful for the amazing work happening in Bristol around diversity and inclusion in the outdoor space. So there's amazing group called Color at Bristol who do great work at trying to change the space of the climbing world by increasing diversity in the space.

Speaker 15:
Lorenzo Corchie from Earthly. Story of hope and fullness is an amazing woman called Angela Mead who's working with kelp and seagrasses in Cornwall and just developing the most incredible project to sequester tons of c o two and help with biodiversity. And congratulations. Keep up the great work, Angela.

Speaker 16:
Hi. I'm I'm Will Tucker from The Last Ride Project, and my inspirational story is the Circle Supply Company who are revolutionizing the ski apparel market and making it go from from a very heavy carbon problem to hopefully a very small one and building sustainable business whilst they're doing it.

Speaker 17:
David Nettleton, and, I'm working with Innovate UK Edge as a as a business coach, and, there's an organization called, it's Lottie and Connor from biochar, Earthly Biochar. They're doing some research to see if if putting biochar around the base of the trees helps to, kinda curtail the ash dieback, which I think is a really interesting project, and good luck to them.

Speaker 18:
I'm Catherine Moore from Komoot, and my story of for hopefulness is, a brand that's developed compostable wrappers for snacks. And as we all know, snacks are the most important thing about being outdoors. So no more loads and loads and loads of plastic after a ride or a hike, that sort of thing. And, yeah, that's Outdoor Provisions in, the North Of UK. So

Speaker 8:
my name's Kate. I work for a cons agency called Forster Communications. And I spoke to this chap the other day who is a filmmaker, lives in Walthamstowe, and they are trying to they're trying to fund this project to for their whole street to get renewable energy solar panels on their roofs. And that's not just the people who own their homes. It's the ones in the council estate.

Speaker 8:
It's the people who are renters. And it's this huge bureaucratic job to kind of jump through all these hoops. And they're now linked up with schools in the area that are getting solar panels installed for free, community a a youth group. He's making it work, and I'm really inspired by this as, a prototype model.

Speaker 19:
K. My name is Phil Webb. I'm from Chasing the Sun Film. My story of hopefulness is, we're a company called Bespoke Biking. We're based in Winchester, run by Heather and her team.

Speaker 19:
And they're essentially all about trying to get people on their bikes in an everyday sort of situation. They work with young people. They hire bikes. They fix bikes. They're a not for profit.

Speaker 19:
They're very much involved in making the bicycle an everyday means of transport.

Speaker 20:
Alright, my name is Emmanuel Ameyao. I'm the communications officer for the Youth Climate Council Ghana. And I want to make a big shout out to the local conference of youth, Alkwai Ghana. It's a network of young climate activists who are trying to amplify youth voices and make sure that the perspectives and views of young people are included in global climate policy. And I think it's a very fantastic, concept.

Speaker 20:
And we hope that in the coming years, more young people can make key inputs in global climate policies and make sure that the young people are also on the climate decision making table, influencing policy, and all policies are youth inclusive. And so a big thumbs up to Khoi Ghana team and I hope that they're going to continue to work hard, fight hard to make sure that the global youth makes that input in national policies here.

Speaker 21:
Alright. So my name is Michael Long, and I'm the editorial director at Sports Pro. A organization that I have has given me hope and I find quite inspiring is Surfers Against Sewage, not only because of what was said by their outgoing CEO on stage earlier, But the work they're doing to pressure certain organizations, water companies, etcetera, to improve the quality of our seas and rivers is is fantastic and pretty inspiring. And and how they put across their their message, their purpose, etcetera is, yeah, think is awesome. And as someone who lives very close to the river, why on the border of England and Wales, you know, I want my one year old son to grow up and be able to swim in the river like I have done growing up.

Speaker 21:
And so any organization that's working to protect that river in particular certainly has my backing, and I and I I think can can inspire hope in in myself and everyone in my local community to for a better future.

Speaker 22:
I'm Joe Dale. I'm senior marketing manager at The Wave. My story of hopefulness is a project called Africa on the ball. It's a not for profit. It's based around football in a third world community in Zambia, in developing Zambia.

Speaker 22:
And that football team is not only excellent football team, but it reinvests its time and energy into developing the local community of where the players of that team have developed, and it uses football as a tool for development and social change within their communities.

Speaker 23:
So my name's Lucy Cooper, and I work for the London Cycling Campaign, as partnerships manager. And my story of hopefulness is I live in Whitstable in Kent and do lots of cold water sea swimming, and SOS Whitstable have been doing some amazing work, campaigning for to for South southeastern waters to stop putting sewage in the sea. So I'm hopeful that things will change soon.

Speaker 24:
Yeah. I I love this. This is okay. Yeah. My name is Lauren Stafford.

Speaker 24:
I work over at Finisterre. Great to be at the Blue Earth Summit, second year running. My story of hope or my person behind the hope is probably Hugo Tackholm. You know? Long long time friend and advocate for the oceans and, you know, fourteen years at the helm of SAS, followed by god knows how many more years now with Oceana.

Speaker 24:
You know? What an incredible journey he's been on. His energy and his his hope has been unwavering, and I think that's something to something to lean on and and also something to to take into our own kind of work at Finisterre. So, yeah, Hugo, dime a dozen and absolute hero.

Speaker 25:
My name is Molly. I come from FutureLeap. We help companies transition to net zero by providing spaces, networking opportunities, finance all around the eco sectors, especially SMEs. And I think one of the most inspirational organizations out there at the moment is Serpent Sewage. I saw their CEO speak recently, and it's amazing to see how activism is actually playing a well role in the kind

Speaker 8:
of corporate

Speaker 25:
transition. So, yeah, that's probably what I have to say.

Speaker 26:
So I'm Nick Reese. I work for The Wave in Bristol. And my story of hopefulness is the North Devon Surf Reserve guys. There's about five of them behind it who are all volunteers, and they've got together to go through the lengthy administration of protecting area in North Devon and have got, yeah, the North Devon stretch, I think it's about

Speaker 21:
12 miles or something or something like

Speaker 26:
that, of coastline that is now protected under the world's surf reserves. And that shows what a group of people who are passionate about a something that is important to them can do by coming together for a common goal and creating positive impact through that.

Speaker 27:
So my name's Nikki, and I'm part of the Antarctic Fire Angels. And my story of hopefulness is the firefighters charity who do amazing work for, both mental and physical well-being of firefighters and the fire community as a whole. So protecting the generations of firefighters to come really and looking after the ones who have been.

Speaker 28:
So my name is Sally Burt Jones, and I'm a sustainability consultant. My company is Eleven twenty two. And my story of hope for the future, has just come from a talk I've just listened to here at Blue Earth Summit, with a lady called Inca Creswell, who is a marine photographer and an environmentalist and is doing amazing things around the world, helping small local communities rebuild and regenerate the oceans.

Speaker 29:
Hi. My name is Jamie Harris. I am a bee leader and sustainability consultant. My company is Forge, and the team at Project Seagrass, they're based in Solon, are just fantastic. They're huge advocates for the local biodiversity and are actively encouraging local companies to, engage with not just funding their projects, but actually creating awareness and educating young children in the importance of local seagrass communities.

Speaker 30:
So hi, everyone. My name is Adam Roots. I'm the founder and CEO of Matter. My story of hopefulness, I'm really, really excited about Will and the the ocean bottle project. I think these guys are doing some really amazing things about educating people about some of the huge issues with plastic waste, but also making it really achievable for people to be able to do something.

Speaker 30:
It's about

Speaker 3:
yeah.

Speaker 31:
Hi. I'm Grace, and I work for Komoot. And my hopefulness story is Trash Free Trails and the amazing work that they are doing. Dom from Trash Free Trails is super passionate, and he cares about people and the planet and making a big difference, cleaning our trails and our environment, and also educating and inspiring children for the future so that they know how to look after their environment.

Speaker 32:
Hannah Mogg from T Mill. My story of hopefulness is Chris Bertish, who is, an activist and supports a number of charities across the world. He pushes himself to the absolute limits in terms of the work that he does. He paddleboarded across the Atlantic Ocean recently to raise money for charity, and it really gives an insight of actually what the extent of what people can be doing and not how we could be pushing ourselves to support other businesses too.

Speaker 33:
My name is Kyle Fraser. I work at FlexiHex, and we I start up focusing on removing single use plastics by using sustainable honeycomb packaging. My story for hopefulness goes out to Mossy Earth who are a project who focus on planting trees to offset carbon. So in our early years of growth, we offset some of our revenues to Mossi Earth, and we're really thankful for that. And as we continue to grow, we hope that they come on the journey with us.

Speaker 34:
My name is Robin Maxwell. I'm the CEO of Farnam Capital. My story of hopefulness is a company in London called Lone Design Club who are bringing sustainable fashion to a high street near you in pop up stores which are empty because of the significant problems that the COVID pandemic has caused for high streets, and they're working with landlords to basically bring new fashion, sustainable fashion to the to to the high street for the first time.

Speaker 35:
My I'm Ollie Hicks, from the Row the World expedition. And I think if we're following another expedition, we should be supporting Chris Bertish and all the, great work he's doing around, pushing the boundaries, pushing frontiers, and trying to get other people into ocean conservation.

Speaker 36:
My name is Bronwyn. I'm from Finisterre, and my story of hopefulness is seeing the increased representation and diversity here today, in particular, the green and black ambassadors from Bristol and hearing the amazing speech from, boots and beards and, the outdoor project, etcetera. So that was really great to see.

Speaker 37:
My name is Ellen Jones. I'm the founder of Jennifer's Coffee. My hope for the future is that Tessa Wernink continues to change the world through her attitude and her level of hope and honesty and transparency about supply chains and the things that we need to take action on now.

Speaker 38:
My name is Rin. I'm here in in Bristol. This is where I'm from, and I want to give a shout out to my amazing friend, Adam. So Adam runs an awesome company called Matter. He's an ex Dyson engineer, and he has invented this incredible product that attaches to washing machines and takes out all the microplastics from our laundry, which is obviously a massive, massive problem.

Speaker 38:
And he's actually tonight launching, his consumer facing product, Gulp. And I'm just so proud of him because he's really put his money where his mouth is, and he is making a massive difference. And it's just going to change, the environment. It's gonna be great.

Speaker 39:
Stephanie Briggs from Spring PR. And my story of hopefulness is or my inspiration is a company called Paramo. Paramo make outdoor clothing, but a lot most of the most of the clothing is made by, women taken off the streets in Colombia, given a fair wage, trained to make the, jackets. The money goes into providing food for their kids and schooling, and it's a truly sustainable company. They have their own waterproofing, system based on animal fur, and it's just a brilliant company.

Speaker 40:
So my name is Gulid Mohamed, and I'm from, the Green Black Ambassador. And I think the person who is beautiful and loving and sending amazing energy from Bristol and all across The UK is Nisha. By creating such a large network of sustainable black role models from ethnic diverse backgrounds and allowing them to come into every space and be the them their best selves in those spaces.

Speaker 41:
Okay. I'm Harry Milburn. I have run my own design agency, called Burn Design, and I've just had a really great chat, with the guy from Trash Free Miles. Feel really excited, after speaking to him about sort of going on passionate bike riders. I feel passionate sort of about going out, thinking about the litter down there, and seeing if I can work with him and some other projects.

Speaker 42:
I'm Tessa Wernink. I live in The Netherlands, and I'm the founder of the Undercover Activist, which is a hub for positive workplace activism. And my story of hope is Efraim Hart, who is a gynecologist at a hospital in The Netherlands, and he's against the, his his whole education that you cannot be an advocate or an activist in the medical health care. He's going against that, and he's bringing gender equality into all of his work. And you'd think it was a really unlikely candidate to put menopause and, like, female equality in in in in medicine, like, at the heart of what he does.

Speaker 42:
But he's sticking up for it, and he's speaking out on it. And he's in the words of what we say is that his activism is love made visible.

Speaker 43:
I'm Cara De Los Reyes, and I'm a fellow of the Bio Leadership Project. I also run Terra Lupa. And my hope for the future is story storytellers, like, yeah, like yourself. And I recently joined a kind of folktale storytelling session here in Bristol. And I just feel like folktales, you know, the more we listen to them, the more we'll reconnect with ourselves as nature.

Speaker 43:
So I feel really hopeful that storytelling is is is having a really great comeback. And I'd love to give a shout out to a friend, Sam Crosby, who is who's just restart started this initiative called Recalling Fire. And he's getting people around the campfire sharing stories. Simple as that.

Speaker 44:
Okay. My name is Tanya. I work for the European Outdoor Conservation Association. Just come down from Kendall today to have a look around, and I'm really inspired by the Blue Earth Summit. That that's my story of hopefulness for today.

Speaker 44:
Thank you.

Intro:
To find out more about the Blue Earth Summit, go to blueearthsummit.com. What is your story of hopefulness that's not your own? About a person, business or nonprofit who are doing amazing things for the world? We would love you to consider recording yourself in under thirty seconds, sharing your story on your phone through your video or your voice memo or recorder app. You can then simply upload the recording to the link on our website, ourwonder.space, and we will look to include them in future episodes.

Intro:
I want to thank the Blue Earth team for organizing such a great event. Let's continue to share wonder and stories of hopefulness that are not just our own. We need them like never before. Thanks for listening.