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Permanently moving from busy Bristol to beautiful Cornwall, West Country activist Amy has actively campaigned for awareness of plastic pollution, ocean recovery, water quality and our ocean and climate. Her work with Surfers Against Sewage as Head of Campaigns and Policy is one of her latest journeys in what has been 10 years of work in the environmental sector. GoInspire was excited to hear more about Amy and her career.
GI: When did you start working in the environmental sector? What drew you there?
AS: I’ve been working in the environmental sector for over 15 years now, starting out working with the Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team, then working in Environmental Service in Local Government, before spending 7 years as an Environmental Consultant in Bristol. I’ve known I wanted to work in the sector since university really. I did an unusual joint degree in Psychology with Geography through which I really gained an understanding of the environmental and biodiversity crisis we are facing but also the importance of the environment to our health and well-being. That led me to do a Masters at the Centre for Alternative Technology which really cemented my passion for the environment and desire to do something worthwhile with my career to protect it. I’ve now got my dream job leading the Campaigns & Policy Team at Surfers Against Sewage. I’ve been a lover of the Ocean since I can remember so being able to campaign to protect and restore it is humbling.
GI: How do you get into this sort of field of work? What would you recommend to something trying to find careers that also balance out with environmentalism?
AS: I think its important that you want to work in the sector, particularly when it comes to environmental campaigning – its hard work and can often be disheartening so you really need to have a passion for what you do. The beauty about working in this sector is that its not like law or medicine where you need a specific degree. So many people I work with have come from a huge range of backgrounds and have studied different things from Environmental Science to English, from Politics to Photography. You don’t necessarily need a degree either. However, experience in the sector is really helpful and I would recommend getting lots of it along the way. Whether that’s volunteering for a charity, getting internships, joining a campaign group and getting involved in campaign actions. Anything that allows you to develop your passion and key skills that are really useful such as project management, writing skills, data analysis etc.
GI: What do you believe makes your work, and Surfers Against Sewage so impactful?
AS: I think it’s the fact that we are a grass roots campaign organisation. We started 30 years ago as a bunch of surfers that were sick of getting sick from sewage in the sea. It was this raw passion that really cut through back then and led to huge changes in legislation around water quality. We are now more than surfers and campaign on more than sewage. We are passionate about the health of the ocean and really believe in what we are doing and stand for. We could not have the impact we have without our huge network of supporters who that we refer to as ‘ocean activists’ who are so vital to our work. They are the ones cleaning beaches, collecting evidence that’s invaluable in demanding change, joining our protects, writing to their MP’s demanding action. They are the tidal wave that create the change we need to protect and restore the ocean. It’s essential to us that we are open and authentic, telling it how it is and sticking to our grass routes heritage. We’re also not afraid to be daring in our campaigning to get our message across!
GI: What challenges do you have to overcome in your work today, and in the past?
AS: The biggest challenge anyone working in this sector has to overcome is the stark day to day reality of what is happening to the environment. We truly are facing an environmental and biodiversity crisis which, to be honest, is getting worse. Sometimes this can feel overwhelming and like a huge uphill struggle with no-one listening. But the climate crisis is not a ‘fix or fail’ crisis. The scale of the crisis is wholly dependent how much effort we put into addressing it. Every change, every campaign win no matter how big or small, will make a difference. As a campaigner, we know that the majority of time, we might not achieve what we set out to, but we have to celebrate the things we do achieve as it really does have an impact.
GI: How did you negotiate this work throughout the pandemic - and do you think more people were able to get involved?
AS: The pandemic has shown us just how much the natural world means to us. We’ve seen just how much our mental health suffers when we can’t dive into the ocean or wander through woodlands. I think this has helped environmental organisations like Surfers Against Sewage as people have been connecting more with the natural world and want to protect it. Of course, the pandemic was hard in so many ways. We went from being around our colleagues every day, thriving off each other’s ideas and inspiration, to fully remote working with no opportunity to interact which make it difficult to develop creative campaigns. We also had to find new ways for people to get involved with our work and take actions – we couldn’t go out and beach clean! So we had to get smart with digital campaigning and actions. For example our brand audit in 2020 went fully digital with people recording branded packing pollution they found when doing their daily exercise. We then utilised social media to put pressure on those bands by tagging them in pictures. This really worked – we had so many companies respond to us to let us know the changes they were planning to make to reduce their pollution – although we were far from impressed with many plans!
GI: Do you think environmental activism, and environmental careers are hard to get into? What could someone face - and did you ever encounter any problems going into it yourself?
AS: The environmental sector is a popular sector to work in and it can feel difficult to break into, particularly environmental activism. It might not be a career that you can get into straight away but look to try and get jobs that will give you some of those vital skills that you’ll need for campaigning. Also, it can be really helpful to bring expertise to a campaigning role. For example, my years as a consultant gave me a huge amount of knowledge and experience in the waste and recycling industry which has been really useful to Surfers Against Sewage in its work around plastic pollution. Always look for opportunities to get a foot in the door at junior positions as there are often opportunities to progress once you’ve got a bit of experience. On several occasions I have had to take the risk of moving ‘sideways’ or ‘down’ the career ladder to ultimately progress into the job I’ve wanted to do – that’s what I did in order to join Surfers Against Sewage actually!
GI: What, in your career, do you want people to notice? What impacts do you think you make/can create?
AS: Ultimately, I want to make change that helps protect and restore the environment. I want the things I work on to actually make a difference. Sounds a bit cliché I guess but I have had jobs in the environmental sector where the things I work on don’t really go anywhere or I don’t really get to see the impact of my work. One of my proudest achievements at Surfers Against Sewage so far has been our #EndSewagePollution campaign that last year resulted in the government making a very public U-turn on amendments to the Environment Act last year resulting in much more ambitious legislation related to sewage pollution being adopted and skyrocketed the issue into the public consciousness. I really believe that the work we are doing at SAS is really helping to restore the health of the Ocean.
GI: Tell us a bit more about the West Country and Cornwall - how has home helped your journey with environmentalism?
AS: I grew up in the West Country and, though I lived in Bristol, I’ve always had a really strong connection to the sea. I spent much of my summer holidays growing up by the sea in Cornwall and Devon. We spent most days messing about on the water and I really loved sailing. When I left school I became a sailing instructor, teaching sailing on the Isles of Scilly during university holiday. I’m so lucky to have grown up in the West Country and to now live in Cornwall. It’s a really beautiful part of the world with two very different coastlines. The rolling hills and calm estuary waters of the south Cornish cost contrast to the dramatic rugged cliffs and crashing waves of the north coast. Its my love of the ocean that has led me to do what I do and its so integral to SAS’s heritage too. SAS is still based in Cornwall, with our office based on the cliffs above St Agnes overlooking the sea – a daily reminder of why we do what we do!
GI: Can you tell us about any upcoming projects that you are working on?
AS: We always have a lot going on at SAS across all the team from our ongoing Million Mile Clean programme, our education work, growing our Plastic Free Community movement and of course our fundraising. In the Campaigns & Policy Team that I lead, we have a number of campaigns we are working on that we’ll be launching in the coming months. Next week, we’ll be in Parliament running a drop in session for MPs about River Bathing Waters, tying in with our petition calling for 200 river bathing waters by 2030. We’ll talking to MPs about how they can support community groups in their constituency in applying for bathing waters designations as well as supporting demands on government to improve water quality legislation and targets. We’ll also be launching the results of our 2022 Brand Audit soon, naming and shaming the top companies responsible for packaging pollution found in our rivers, on our streets and in the sea. These results have come from data submitted to us by thousands of volunteers who have been out cleaning up their local beaches, river banks and parks over the last year…true people power!
Thank you Amy from the Go Inspire team. It was great to meet you in London!
To see more information about Surfers Against Sewage visit: https://www.sas.org.uk/
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