Social entrepreneurs stand front and central in the battle against climate change.
Not alone do they encourage us not to be part of the problem but they teach us how to be part of the solution. Often they are borne of frustration, or a desire to break through the sense of overwhelm so many of us feel.
For example, when Mick Kelly of Grow It Yourself Ireland picked up a garlic bulb at his local supermarket and, by chance, saw that it had come all the way from China, it planted something in him.
“Surely that’s something that could be grown closer to home?”, he reckoned and, despite not being a gardener, decided to see if he could grow it himself.
Discovering that he could, and with ease, sowed the seeds for GIY Ireland, a movement that would see ‘do it yourself’ growers spring up all over the country – and beyond – helping to reduce food miles and the carbon impact of what’s on our plate.
Another personal experience, the realisation that her children weren’t learning enough about climate change at school, provided the epiphany for Susan Adams to set up Education for Sustainability.
Similarly, a chance conversation about climate change with a fellow sea swimmer who asked, “but what can I do?” prompted Tara Shine and Madeleine Murray – who posed the question – to co-found Change By Degrees, to provide all of us with an answer.
Since those fateful moments, the four social entrepreneurs have gone on to develop highly successful, and growing, social enterprises that are designed to help all of us do our bit, and more, to protect the planet.
Grow It Yourself (GIY) Ireland
When GIY founder Mick Kelly discovered by chance that he could grow garlic with ease, he was so delighted that it made him want to join a gardening group.
When he couldn’t find one locally, he put a small ad in a local newspaper, in Waterford, and started one himself. Initially members met monthly in a local library, and worked on a “meitheail” basis, going to one another’s homes to help build and plant raised beds.
When he began getting calls from strangers further afield asking for help, he organised a GIY conference. Since he set up the not-for-profit company in 2008, GIY Ireland has simply thrived.
Today it employs 35 people at its Grow HQ, a 1.2-hectare (three-acre) site in Waterford city which runs courses and workshops for schools and corporates, in person and online.
It has a cafe that serves the food grown on site and recently launched an organic vegetable box subscription service. “It’s really exciting because there needs to be alternatives to the food systems we currently have,” says Kelly.
It recently took over a 5.2 hectares (13-acre) walled garden at Curraghmore Estate, which it is restoring, enabling it to grow even more.
Kelly has opened a new zero waste refill store, Larder, at Grow HQ which allows people to do their grocery shop from quality food stuffs sold without packaging.
At every step his goal is to help foster a global community of food growers to contribute to a sustainable food system.
Already active in the UK and USA, currently around one million people annually grow their own food via a GIY programme, while its TV series Grow, Cook, Eat and Food Matters have reached more than 12 million viewers worldwide on Amazon Prime and RTÉ.
By 2030 GIY Ireland aims to inspire over 100 million people to engage in food growing at home, school, work, and within their community. “We’re very ambitious to take the work we do outside of Ireland, scaling into different countries,” explains Kelly.
“The challenges of climate change and the problems in our food system are vast and urgent. So we’re bringing our work to the table in as many different places as we can, seeing ourselves as a society-scale organisation. That’s what we’re good at. Our superpower is getting people growing food at scale.”
Education for Sustainability
When her children started primary school conservation management expert Susan Adams, who previously worked with Dublin Zoo, was disappointed to discover just how little teaching time was given over to understanding climate change and the environment.
“I just want people to care about the environment and they won’t care unless they understand,” says Adams. She saw the situation as “a call to action”.
In 2017 she set about developing an eight-week environment and climate change literacy programme for primary and secondary schools, including the teacher training to deliver it. The programme results in a range of outputs, from eliminating plastic in schools to planting trees and organising clothes swaps.
To date more than 31,000 students have engaged with the programme and almost 900 teachers have been trained, safeguarding its continuation for years to come. Adams’ programme is being delivered in over 350 schools.
“We’re creating a little green army through teacher training and through the students we work with, bolstering communities and skills around sustainability and giving them the tools and skills they need to take action,” she says.
This year it is launching its Principals’ Platform, providing “a roadmap for schools to become more sustainable through the lens of curriculum, campus and community,” she says. Packed with practical information, case studies and best practice guidance, it’s a one-stop shop for principals to create a sustainable school, as well as helping them to reduce their carbon impact.
The award-winning social enterprise, which employs four people full-time, and one part-timer, relies on new products, such as Principals’ Platform, which will be offered on a subscription basis, to fund its growth.
That’s important. “A problem with not for profits is that you’re always out with the begging bowl. For me it has always been a question of how can we create an organisation that is financially sustainable, and things like the principals’ platform, and the work we do with companies, brings in passive income”, on a subscription basis, she explains.
That provides a solid footing for growth and, just as climate challenge is global, so too are her solutions. “We could sell our programmes abroad as well,” she says.
Change By Degrees
Change By Degrees was set up in 2018 by Tara Shine and Madeleine Murray after the pair met by chance.
“We were both swimming in the sea and were on the slipway getting out. I didn’t know Madeleine but she heard that I worked in sustainability and asked ‘Why on earth are we only educating kids about sustainability? Why is no one educating me because I make all the decisions in my house’. That was the start of it,” says Shine.
Two lunches and one focus group later Changes by Degrees was born.
“It’s a sustainability skills platform that empowers whole teams to be sustainability leaders,” explains Shine, who previously spent 20 years as an international climate change negotiator and adviser to governments and world leaders on environmental policy, including as special adviser to the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice.
“We figured that the best way to get at the grown-ups was through their work. And so ever since then we’ve been working with companies around sustainability,” she says.
Its courses are designed for employees at every level of an organisation, right up to senior leadership.
“It builds the human power to deliver sustainable goals at work. At the moment when you look at sustainability all the focus is on data and strategies and none is on the people – the people power, the people knowledge, the people inspiration to make it all happen. So we’re all about the human element in driving companies and organisations to be sustainable,” says Shine.
Operating initially on a consultancy basis, in the past year Changing By Degrees has developed an online tech platform for sustainability skills. “Same mission, new delivery model,” says Shine.
Today the business, which is certified ‘B Corp’, a sustainability standard, employs seven people.
Shine knows from customer feedback that people want to learn about sustainability with Changing By Degrees because “We actually make it fun and engaging”.
That’s great, she says, “because it’s the only way we can get to more and more people, and we want every professional on the planet to have sustainability skills as a superpower.”
