20 travellers protecting the planet: the Green List 2021
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In our first-ever Green List, we're celebrating the people taking action to look after the planet, from species saviours to eco mayors.
- Grant Ellis
Cliff Kapono
THE SURFER SCIENTIST
Few are as connected to the ocean as surfers, yet even this most conscious of communities has environmental soul-searching to do. In recent years, heightened awareness of the sport’s negative ecological impact – from the toxic materials used to produce landfill-clogging surfboards and wetsuits to the run-off from surf wax and sun cream – has created a new wave of break-seeking activists. Among the A-listers putting their voices to good use, Rob Machado, Kelly Slater and Greg Long have, respectively, championed the reduction of ocean plastics, advocated against overfishing and spoken at the UN General Assembly. Another pioneer can be found in Hilo, Hawaii. Pro rider and chemist Cliff Kapono’s expertise in molecular bioscience makes him an authority on surfing’s effect on the environment. When not experimenting with sustainably made boards – the subject of his 2016 documentary Surf Wasted – or studying the health of Honoli’i’s coral reefs, he’s hitting the swell armed with swab tests for his Surfer Biome Project, a bacteria assessment of ocean users that casts a forensic eye on how we interact with marine ecosystems: ‘To me it means spending as much time learning about a place as I do playing in it.’ Ben Olsen
- James Branaman
Leah Thomas
THE INTERSECTIONAL ENVIRONMENTALIST
If anyone knows how to turn social media into a movement it’s Leah Thomas. Otherwise known as Green Girl Leah, the environmental-science-major-turned-eco-activist has been propelled into the spotlight by her viral posts exposing the racism in the majority-white professional spaces she occupied. During the 2020 resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, she outlined how social justice and intersectionality – recognising the variables of racial, religious, economic and gender equality – were key to the success of ecological efforts. ‘A lot of environmentalists pride themselves on helping the climate crisis,’ says Thomas, who is based in Southern California. ‘But when the question comes up about humans in danger, or the Black, brown and low-income people who bear the brunt of environmental injustice in the west – proximity to toxic waste sites, lead in their water – it’s like, “Whoa, why do we have to talk about race?”’ Her website provides resources on topics such as queer ecology and urban farming in low-income communities for people to better understand how environmental issues correlate to racial and socio-economic oppression. Shivani Ashoka
- Anton Corbijn / Getty Images
Bjarke Ingels
THE BIG-IDEA ARCHITECT
With buildings responsible for nearly 40 per cent of worldwide energy consumption, there’s no doubt that a change in the construction mindset is needed. There are glimmers of progress: new EU rules to ensure better-performing spaces; the UK’s Architects Climate Action Network campaigning for retrofitting existing stock; Singapore’s on-track target of greening 80 per cent of its properties by 2030. But what if environmental concerns were tackled holistically, together? That’s the joined-up thinking behind Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’s grand-scale Masterplanet concept, which argues that a sustainable human presence on earth is achievable, even with a predicted population of nearly 10 billion by 2050. Ideas include a global electrical grid to help solve the intermittent production of renewable energy and floating cities to house people displaced by rising sea levels. Of course, while billed as a blueprint for redesigning the entire planet to cut greenhouse emissions, protect resources and adapt to climate change, it’s meant to be seen as a guide, to get innovation whirring. But Ingels, who founded his practice BIG 16 years ago, is known for turning out-of-the-box ideas into reality, as evidenced by projects such as his waste-to-energy power plant topped with a dry ski slope in Copenhagen and in-progress BiodiverCity, three artificial eco islands off the shore of Malaysia’s Penang. Emma Love
- Mariana Pekin
Tica Minami
THE AMAZON SPOKESPERSON
Indigenous communities are stewards of an estimated 65 per cent of the earth’s land, hosting 80 per cent of all biodiversity. ‘They hold the fate of humanity,’ says Tica Minami. In her role as campaign director at Greenpeace Brazil, she works with indigenous people on the frontline in the fight against deforestation. ‘The Amazon is referred to as the lungs of the world, but I think of it as the beating heart that drives global weather systems,’ she says. ‘If we consider the climate emergency as the biggest threat, the health of our forests is imperative.’ Minami has been actively investigating illegal logging, agribusiness expansion and the violation of human rights since 2000. Climate-change solutions often focus on the energy sector and the use of oil versus renewables, but in Brazil, most carbon released into the atmosphere comes from the cutting of hardwood trees. ‘Indigenous people live in balance with nature; they don’t see themselves as separate from it.’ Minami urges everyone, no matter where they live, to learn from Amazonians; they’ve been confronted with the destruction of their homeland for 500 years. It is crucial to diminish this pressure, down to questioning if the food we are eating is connected with the clearing of the rainforest. What happens in the Amazon impacts the whole planet. Juliet Kinsman
- Tommaso Riva
Ronald Akili
THE GOOD-TIMES GAME-CHANGER
Pioneering hotel brands such as Soneva and Singita set the benchmark for responsible tourism with now much-emulated low-impact design and industry-leading community and conservation initiatives. Today, Indonesian entrepreneur Ronald Akili, co-founder of Bali’s Desa Potato Head, is following in their light footsteps but on a fresh path with his next-gen Good Times Do Good mantra. ‘I’ve always lived life to the full, but I now do it in a better, more responsible way; I wanted to bring that to Potato Head,’ he says. His sustainable efforts so far include using an environmentally friendly practice to process seawater as drinking water; the rattan-like ceiling in the communal areas, woven from 1.7 tonnes of old plastic bottles, and the Sustainism Lab where bedroom provisions are produced using recycled materials. The project, which opened its latest stages early last year, evolves the concept of hotel as community hub, reimagining it instead as an exciting ideas incubator. ‘There’s no need to compromise on comfort or beauty; we try to inspire through creativity with great experiences that happen to be sustainable,’ says Akili. A studio space for his new clothing line, The Wasted Collective, is in the pipeline as well as Sustainism Kids, playful art workshops with a planet-friendly twist. EL
- Daniela Spector
Harsha L’Acqua
THE HOSPITALITY HUMANITARIAN
Growing up, Harsha L’Acqua observed philanthropy first-hand – her father helped to build homes for Mother Teresa – but it wasn’t until she stumbled across the Sala Baï Hotel School in Siem Reap that she realised how to combine it with her passion: hospitality. She quit her marketing and operations role at The Fullerton Hotel in Singapore, enrolled on a master’s at Cornell University and, six years ago, founded trailblazing non-profit Saira Hospitality. Since then it has created pop-up training outfits for soon-to-open properties around the world including Bunkhouse Todos Santos, Four Seasons Costa Palmas and Habitas Namibia, plus a new permanent school at The Monastery hotel in West Virginia, upskilling locals for employment in the industry. ‘To have a positive impact, hotels need to give before they take and not overlook the talent around them,’ she says. ‘Travellers are looking for stays that connect with the community: no one wants to see a general manager from New York in the Maldives if they’ve just left Manhattan.’ EL
Olav Mosvold Larsen
THE ZERO-EMISSION AVIATION EXPERT
To say that 2020 was a bad year for the airline industry would be an understatement. But as the dialogue around a more conscious travel sector post-pandemic grows, addressing the jumbo jet in the room must be at the forefront. Progress towards greener aircraft has been slow. So far only small electric ones have got off the ground, while elsewhere the focus has switched to hydrogen power to cut emissions. Norway is a leader in transport electrification. Steering that change in its skies is Olav Mosvold Larsen, who manages carbon reduction at state airport group Avinor: ‘Our vision is that all domestic air traffic in Norway will be electrified by 2040. Aviation will then be part of the solution, not part of the problem.’ Avinor has set the example in its pledge to go fossil fuel-free, with Iceland and Sweden since committing to their own drives. ‘We are putting together an in-house project to oversee the need for new infrastructure at our airports, whether that is charging from the grid, stationary batteries or variants of hydrogen supply.’ The future of flying is clean.
- Ben Duffy
Lizzie Carr
THE ACTIVIST ADVENTURER
Harnessing the power of adventure to highlight environmental issues is a growing movement. Lewis Pugh’s long-distance swims – across the 87-mile width of the Maldives archipelago and 328 miles of English Channel from Land’s End to Dover – put the focus on warming oceans. Meanwhile, Kate Rawles cycled across South America on a self-built bamboo bicycle to raise awareness about biodiversity loss. ‘It’s a way of storytelling, of getting people talking,’ says Lizzie Carr, founder of non-profit Planet Patrol, whose own exploits over the past five years include paddleboarding the length of England’s waterways and along the Hudson River in New York state as a catalyst for conversation around plastic pollution and our throwaway culture. From the beginning, she realised the importance of collecting data as well as organising clean-ups, and so created an interactive map that anyone can add to (so far, more than 300,000 pieces of litter have been logged across 82 countries). Carr is also producing a series of impact reports where the most recent findings – 83 per cent of overall rubbish is plastic; Coca-Cola and Cadbury are among the top-polluting brands – are designed to feed into the long-term environmental commitments of the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She’s reframing epic expeditions from a feat of personal endurance to a contribution to collective eco action. EL
- Lizzie Gillett, Spanner Films
Franny Armstrong
THE AGENDA-SETTING FILM-MAKER
‘The David-and-Goliath McLibel case, in which a postman and a gardener stood up to McDonald’s in court, encompassed not just freedom of speech but healthy eating, environmental destruction and workers’ rights,’ says Franny Armstrong. Her first film, 1997’s McLibel, following the longest defamation trial in British history, was seen by more than 25 million people. While her other works – 2009’s The Age of Stupid, starring the late Pete Postlethwaite as a man living in a devastated 2055, and last year’s Pie Net Zero, a comedy short about climate change that trended globally on YouTube – have put her alongside Al Gore (An Inconvenient Truth) and director Andrew Morgan (The True Cost), whose impactful documentaries have shifted the environmental conversation. ‘To me, films are the most powerful tools for social change,’ she says. Next up, in May, is Rivercide, a live investigative piece streamed online about the state of the UK’s rivers. EL
- Ben Fink Shapiro
Adrian Grenier
THE OCEAN-DEFENDING ACTOR
Eco-conscious celebrities’ commitments to the planet range from launching clean-beauty brands (Jessica Alba’s Honest; Miranda Kerr’s Kora Organics) and championing sustainable fashion (Pharrell Williams’s Bionic Yarn) to serious campaigning – Jane Fonda was arrested five times in 2019 for her Fire Drill Friday climate-change protests in Washington DC. Firmly at the latter end of the spectrum is actor-activist Adrian Grenier, star of Entourage, UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and co-founder of non-profit Lonely Whale. His passion is the sea – and curbing the single-use plastic that pollutes it. ‘We are at a tipping point; by 2050, the ocean is expected to contain more plastic than fish,’ he says. Through Lonely Whale, Grenier has led culture-changing initiatives including NextWave Plastics, with global consumer giants such as HP and Ikea, among others, who have pledged to integrate 25,000 tonnes of ocean-bound waste plastic into their supply chains by 2025; advocating against the use of plastic straws with a viral #stopsucking challenge, and setting up 52HZ, a new business-advisory service which kicks off with the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize – up to $1 million will be awarded to whoever develops the best alternative to thin-film plastic. A lesson in the real power of pivoting your platform to change-making. EL
- Ed Alcock / eyevine
Anne Hidalgo
THE GREEN MAYOR
At the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit, more than 100 cities committed to aim for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 – including Oslo, the electric-car capital of the world; Amsterdam, with its circular-economy programme; and Paris, where socialist Anne Hidalgo has led the green charge since becoming mayor seven years ago (until 2019, she was also chair of C40 Cities, a network driving efforts on climate change). In a bid to improve urban living, she has banned cars from the centre one Sunday a month and turned two miles of the Right Bank into a pedestrian zone. These measures are just the start. Her re-election campaign last year outlined ambitious plans: transforming Paris into a 15-minute city, a series of self-sufficient hubs with all essentials within walking distance, making every street cycle-friendly by 2024 and planting 170,000 trees. ‘Given the accelerating pace of climate change, we are left with no choice but to adapt the way we live in cities – they have a leading role to play,’ she says. EL
- Matthew DeLorme / Ranchlands
Duke Phillips
THE CONSERVATION-MINDED COWBOY
‘Ranching is one of the most misunderstood industries,’ says Duke Phillips, who comes from three generations of cowboys, and now runs five farms in the wide-open prairies of the American West. Under the banner of Ranchlands, he demonstrates how responsible land management and conscious grazing can be a game-changing force for environmental rehabilitation. His 4,000 cattle and 2,000 bison perform vital soil enrichment. By rotating the animals across fenced areas, Phillips simulates the pre-pioneer regeneration process, an alternative modus operandi to the USA’s industrialised ranching ways. To aid this there’s a mission of diversification, too. At Chico Basin Ranch, south-east of Colorado Springs, and Zapata Ranch, bordering Great Sand Dunes National Park, or at one of the tented camps, guests experience first-hand how Ranchlands practises and preaches a holistic approach to nurturing the entire ecosystem. By bringing artists and musicians to host concerts and forums, Phillips’s team has been stoking interest in nature and sharing wisdom from their behind-the-scenes work. They inspire visitors to think more deeply about provenance in food-supply systems and thousands of schoolchildren take part in their wildlife initiatives. ‘We also believe ranching is the best alternative for preserving the biodiversity of American grasslands on a large scale,’ he says. JK
- Alexandrena Parker
Joost Bakker
THE FOOD-WASTE PIONEER
Nine years ago – when the term was still a truly radical prospect – Joost Bakker opened the world’s first zero-waste restaurant, Silo by Joost in Melbourne. It inspired a legion of sustainably minded chefs including Doug McMaster, who worked with Dutch-born Bakker in Australia before bringing Silo to Brighton and now London. His commitment to closing the loop has evolved into the Future Food System, a self-sustaining house that provides produce and energy. ‘Nothing is going to change unless we revolutionise our method for growing food,’ says Bakker, who has collaborated with husband-and-wife chefs Matt Stone and Jo Barrett on the project (they are in residence until April; then it will become his mother’s home). ‘This is my life’s work in one building.’ The dwelling – partly made from wheat and straw fibres – follows on from Greenhouse, his serial pop-up that was a testing ground forideas such as in-vessel worm farms and bulk-making soy milk. The system has, he hopes, the capacity to produce about 4,409lb of food per year. His vision includes oyster mushrooms cultivated in old jeans, an aquaponics set-up for breeding barramundi and a biogas digester that transforms organic waste into fuel. A bold example to learn from for future ways of living and eating. EL
- Enrique Calvo
Elizabeth Tolu Ojo
THE GRASSROOTS LEADER
Typically dominated by westerners and charities, African conservation is long overdue a shake-up. Leading the charge is 35-year-old Nigerian Elizabeth Tolu Ojo – director of operations at the ALU School of Wildlife Conservation (SOWC) in Kigali, Rwanda. Ojo’s mission is to foster an African-led conservation sector that is ‘equitable, financially sustainable and creates value for Africa’s economic development’. Boosting more local women into top jobs is part of that; in 2019, the school offered eight full MBA scholarships specifically for female conservationists. SOWC students solve problems and develop businesses – from plantain-trunk paper to smart beehives – to transform environmental preservation into an exciting, profitable industry. There are undergraduate courses and an MBA providing ‘business education that is contextualised for the African continent’, says Ojo. The school is part of the African Leadership Group, and aims to advance three million ethical, solutions-driven leaders in business and politics by 2035 – a network that can build healthy economies for Sub-Saharan Africa’s booming workforce. Heather Richardson
- John Pritchard
John Pritchard
THE VISIONARY ENTREPRENEUR
The fashion industry is cottoning onto giving back – from Toms pioneering the one-for-one business model, donating a pair of shoes for each sold, to ethical label Gandys funding children’s educational campuses. It was the former initiative, plus an article on the 1.2 billion people worldwide with poor vision who don’t have access to glasses, that sowed the seed for John Pritchard’s Pala. Launched in 2016, the brand has a simple concept: for every pair of sunglasses bought, he contributes to Vision Aid Overseas projects in Africa (calculated as four per cent of annual turnover now Pala is B Corp certified). So far, nearly £40,000 in grants has been provided to develop an eye-care centre in Zambia serving more than 750,000 people. All glasses have Italian plant-based bio-acetate frames and a recycled-plastic case made by weavers in Ghana, paid double the minimum wage. According to Pritchard, ‘We’re not here for sticking-plaster solutions; it’s important to create long-term impact by empowering people to help themselves.’ EL
- Joan Hill
Clare Dubois
THE REFORESTER
From the numerous carbon-offset companies to Tiny Forest projects, organisations are planting trees around the world like never before. As they should: a study by Swiss university ETH Zürich, published in the Science journal in 2019, suggested global tree restoration ‘as one of the most effective carbon drawdown solutions to date.’ It’s also the cheapest, at about 40p per seedling. In 2009, Clare Dubois’s life was saved by a trunk when her car skidded on an icy road near her home in Gloucestershire and almost rolled into a ravine. She took it as a sign, later founding the TreeSisters charity with her friend Bernadette Ryder. While emission-reducing schemes have come under scrutiny in recent years for being a quick fix for consumer guilt and planting the wrong saplings in the wrong place at the wrong time, TreeSisters is different. It’s something far more holistic: ethical, community-based reforestation with native trees that provides long-term benefits to ecosystems as well as the people around them. It wants to shift mindsets from consumers to restorers, reigniting our respect and love for nature, while putting women at the centre of this social change. At the end of 2020 it surpassed 15 million trees funded in 10 tropical environments, from Madagascar to India. ‘It’s tangible, it’s simple, it’s future-proof, it’s life-giving,’ says Dubois.
- Kate Peters
Dara McAnulty
THE NEW NATURE WRITER
When he scooped last year’s Wainwright Prize for UK nature writing, 16-year-old Dara McAnulty not only joined the ranks of acclaimed authors such as Robert Macfarlane and Helen Macdonald but also became the youngest-ever winner of a major British literary award. Diary of a Young Naturalist begins in the spring, in Northern Ireland where he lives, on the cusp of his 14th birthday, and reveals a connection to wildlife through the seasons. His enthusiasm for swifts and seals, for saving injured bats and watching pied wagtails, is absorbing. For McAnulty, who is autistic, the outdoors is a refuge. ‘Nature is everything!’ he says, citing the curlew as his current favourite bird. ‘Its call just ripples your insides.’ He is an active campaigner, on issues ranging from stopping whaling to biodiversity loss, with a role at the British Trust for Ornithology, and has a children’s book, Wild Child, coming out in July. ‘Writers are the wonder sharers, the thought provokers and the instigators of change. Stories are important to humans. It’s how we create pathways to understanding and leave a legacy.’ EL
- Sahul Miners
Marit Miners
THE ECO-TOURISM HERO
‘Seeing the abandoned shark-finning camp was the catalyst for action,’ recalls Swedish-born Marit Miners of her wake-up moment on Batbitim Island in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat 16 years ago. ‘I realised then that there were no sharks left underwater, and what I’d thought was an amazing diving experience was completely skewed.’ In a bid to protect this epicentre of marine biodiversity, she and her now-husband Andrew asked the local clans’ permission to build a conservation centre on the isle, securing a 164-square-mile stretch of ocean for a no-take zone that banned fishing (now the patrolled reserve is nearly twice the size of Singapore and the biomass has increased by 250 per cent over six years). Funding the efforts of the foundation is Misool, a barefoot hotel made from reclaimed wood that runs on 60 per cent renewable energy and employs locals. ‘Private enterprise and conservation can work together,’ says Miners, whose retreat paved the way for eco-tourism leaders Song Saa in Cambodia and Wa Ale, Myanmar. ‘Imagine how different the world would be if everyone protected their patch.’ EL
misool.info
Jack McLaren-Stewart
THE VEGAN HOTELIER
Veganism has never been so high on the ethical agenda – around 15 per cent of global greenhouse gases are reportedly produced by animal agriculture – but the concept of ‘vegging out’ became more literal in 2019, when 28-year-old Jack McLaren-Stewart launched 11-bedroom hotel Saorsa 1875 in Scotland’s Perthshire. Frustrated that luxury travel was slower to adopt environmentally and socially conscious methods than its fashion and restaurant counterparts, he created a space for the plant-curious, where everything – from the styling to the kitchen ingredients – is free from animal by-products. Suppliers’ human-rights records are vetted; electricity is 100 per cent renewable via Ecotricity, and staff are protected through living wages and rolling contracts. The risk of opening deep in the hunting-rich Highlands wasn’t lost on McLaren-Stewart, though. ‘Some cattle farmers turned up for dinner,’ he says. ‘It was great; they were curious about veganism and we love conversation.’ With plans to launch an on-site cookery school, he is philosophical about the future: ‘Being free of animal products shouldn’t have to be a selling point – the goal is for all hotels to be vegan.’ SA
Kate Raworth
THE RENEGADE ECONOMIST
Mainstream economics is obsessed with growth: to expand the economy and thus, it is argued, raise living standards. But what happens when social inequality is increasing and consumption has pushed the planet to breaking point? Kate Raworth’s doughnut-shaped vision – first published as an Oxfam discussion paper nine years ago, and later a 2017 bestselling book – urges us to forget growth and instead think about survival. Raworth radically redraws the system, putting people’s needs at its heart – an inner ring of ‘social foundation’, where people aren’t falling into the doughnut’s hole due to a shortage of the essentials such as food, water and housing – with growth bound by an ecological ceiling, the outer edge of the circle, beyond which there is climate change, freshwater stress and biodiversity loss. The doughnut is the safe space where there can be sustainable development. ‘It shows us that we need to create circular economies; an ecosystem of enterprise that invests in the health and education of us all,’ Raworth explains of the theory, said to have shaped the big-picture goals set at the 2012 Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Going one giant step further, she recently launched the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, a platform aimed at encouraging communities to join the likes of Cornwall Council, which uses the framework as a social and ecological compass for decision-making, and Costa Rica, which is aiming to become regenerative on a national scale, in actioning transformative change. EL
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