How profiling eight young environmental activists kickstarted a new phase of work

Last year, the pressing need for living more sustainably and addressing environmental issues came to the fore at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. World leaders gathered to try and agree on measures every country can take to limit our carbon footprint, put plans to into action, and ultimately, attempt to halt climate change. Simultaneously, Artswork began to review what we’ve already done to make a difference, and began a new chapter in our journey towards a greener future. We already have an Environmental Action Plan in place from 2020-23, and resulting from this, Kickstart ‘reporter’ Grace was commissioned to research and write about eight young environmentalists around the world who are fighting for the planet. Here, as she’s back with us temporarily for an Environmental project, she reviews the content she produced, and is excited to see how we can move forward. 

I’ve always been interested in our amazing planet, and how it sustains the many species of wildlife and us as a human race. For as long as I can remember, climate change has been an issue that kept cropping up. When I was younger, we were warned about the effects global warming could have if we didn’t make big changes. But I remember thinking something along the lines of what The Climate Pledge’s advert says now – “I’m only six, you figure it out!” But in recent years the discussion has turned to the effects that global warming are having. And don’t get me wrong – it’s easy to get bogged down in despair at what we’re seeing – the ice caps melting and penguins, polar bears etc suddenly having no home, forest fires burning and producing toxic smoke, and we can’t forget that surreal moment last year when the actual sea was on fire. But it’s not too late. We can slow these ‘phenomena’ down and reach a stage where it doesn’t worsen. It might be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. And the way we get there is through pulling together and being inspired by the amazing young people I had the pleasure of learning and writing about.  

The idea to create a series of profiles was commissioned by Contracts and Policy Manager Donna, in line with aims we’ve agreed to in our Environmental Action plan. I’d asked my manager Abi if I could create some social media content for COP26 that would be relevant to our commitments. She knew Donna was researching this topic, and after being sent a list of names, it was agreed I’d write one profile per week. We wanted to ensure our output was truly meaningful, directly related to our mission of amplifying youth voices and championing their achievements, and was diversely representative of different locations and cultural backgrounds the world over. I profiled:  

→ Dr Mya-Rose Craig, ‘Bird Girl’ – ornithologist, environmentalist, writer, diversity activist, broadcaster and speaker

→ Ella and Caitlin McEwan – campaigners against McDonalds and Burger King putting plastic toys with meals 

→ Aditya Mukarji – fighting against the use of plastic straws being used in restaurants and eateries, volunteering and creating a Facebook group. 

→ Lesein Mutunkei – pledging to plant first one, then 11 trees for every goal he scores playing football, involving young people, and speaking at an environmental festival 

→ Madison Pearl Edwards – campaigning for the conservation of the Belize Barrier Reef and blogging about her travels around Belize 

→ Jamie Margolin – activist, community organiser, public speaker and writer 

→ Emmanuela Shinta – Dayak leader, activist, environmentalist, writer and filmmaker 

We saw very encouraging engagement across our social media platforms, particularly on the first post for Dr Craig (a whopping 2,370 impressions and 207 engagements on Twitter and a reach of 599 people on Facebook.) Writing these stats got me thinking about the word engagement, and what it means in the context of social media. For Twitter, it means over 200 people clicked on the image, visited our profile, or liked, retweeted, or viewed more details about the post. And while to some that may not seem like a big number, to me it shows a lot of people were interested in Dr Craig’s work, values, and wanted to know more about her. Maybe it sparked something in them to investigate birdwatching for themselves, or maybe they pledged to do something new to help their local natural environment. Or possibly they were just inspired, and it sparked a desire to share with others what they’d read. We can’t know for sure, but it’s through small actions such as these that we start to make and see a difference in the wellbeing of our planet, and maybe return it to the point of thriving, one day.  

Look out for more content to come as we delve deeper into what we can do to act more sustainably as an organisation, and how we’ll be looking to engage with as many people as possible! Writing these profiles was a great way to segue into our new chapter of enhanced responsibility and sustainable consultation. Delving into the stories of these individuals provided us with new perspectives and increased our resolve to bring youth voice to the forefront of this part of our work, as well as our other work. From here, we’ll be transparently evaluating our existing pledges, looking to increase our efforts and embark on a new branch of our journey. You find all this here. In the meantime, you can read our Environmental Policy, and check out our socials to see what we’re posting and sharing.  

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Environmental blogs Environmental Issues kickstart young people Young people's blogs Youth Blog