A trio of entrepreneurs have joined forces to ignite action on climate change-related issues in the North East of England.
Sharon Lashley, Anna-Lisa Mills and Jennifer Clair Robson have decided to pool their knowledge and experience to form a community interest company – Climate Action North East.
The three ladies have worked independently on a wide variety of climate change issues over the past ten years for a number organisations, and now plan to work together to address issues around climate change for the benefit of communities and businesses across the region.
Their first official activity is a two-day event to celebrate this year’s World Environment Day. It takes place on 10 and 11 June and will be held at the Wetland Centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear.
Sharon said: “The event is themed on connecting with nature and we’ll be providing a range of activities, talks and workshops and stalls for local businesses to showcase their wares. The Wetlands Centre is the perfect location for what is promising to be a fun and educational couple of days for adults and children alike.”
The goal of Climate Action North East is to raise funds to deliver practical support and advice for businesses and communities. This will include many activities from working with businesses to help them reduce their impact on the environment while minimising their risks to the changing climate to organising litter picking sessions with community groups.
Sharon said: “There is a huge gap in the North East at the moment in terms of providing support and advice on all aspects of climate change. We hope by combining our knowledge, skills and networks we can make a positive difference across the region.”
Each of the business women is bringing a different skill set to Climate Action North East.
Sharon, Managing Director at Climate North East, is a professional environmental practitioner and has over 20 years of experience including conservation volunteering, renewable energy and sustainability working with businesses, communities and schools to improve their green credentials. Her background working in climate change and environment began in early 2000 whilst working for a plastic packaging factory managing the ISO 14001 Environmental standard and since then she has continually built up networks, helping businesses and communities gain access to valuable knowledge and support to combat climate change.
Jennifer is the Content Director at Climate Action North East. Her background working on climate change began in 2007 as the communications director for the climate change partnership Climate North East where she fostered engagement and build understanding on a complex range of climate change-related issues with small businesses.
Anna-Lisa is the Technical Director for Climate Action North East. With over 20 years’ experience, she has undertaken extensive training in the areas of climate change and action. This has included being trained by Al Gore as a Climate Reality Leader and the World Resource Institute on the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. She has led organisations of all sizes to help them calculate, report and reduce their carbon footprint.