People that really engaged because it was basically from my network. At the time, I was still a student and a lot of my team were all my friends. Basically, who are all students, it was young people. And that was almost really planted the seed. I realized how great it was that young people could have this platform to engage ask questions with two different people who have such different experiences and the power of conversation that was when it really struck me. Is something that's so important for creating change?
Welcome back to the purpose, affect the podcast about purpose-driven businesses, and what we can learn about solving some of the world's biggest problems from the woman who are solving them, I am Elena Kersey, and I am on a mission to learn how we can, build better work, stronger communities, a healthier Planet. If you believe there's a better world out there waiting for us, then this podcast is for you. So I have a new top tip for dealing with Eco anxiety. If I want to feel hopeful that our future is in safe hands, then I have a conversation with somebody younger than me like Millennials gen Z. Believe that tackling climate change is an urgent priority? However, unlike older Millennials like myself, gen Z seem to have a much more holistic perspective on the climate and the impact it's going to have on nearly every aspect of Our Lives more than any other generation. Climate issues are shaping how gen Z view work in the UK health insurance company. Bupa found that 59% of gen Z's between 18 and 22 would stay longer with employers who are socially and environmentally responsible. And in Australia, young workers have left businesses, that weren't doing enough to respond to climate change. When I spoke to sonali figueres at the start of the Season she said that she believed that his more genes. He's enter the workforce and start controlling more money. We had seen a real shift in the way food was produced and also in how big businesses respond to climate change. So that's why I wanted to hear from Belinda and fellow podcaster and sustainable food. Advocate Belinda is a recent University graduate at the start of her career. With an E SG consulting firm, and she's also launched sustained apod. A youth-led podcast about green careers and has been involved in a number of food advocacy initiatives in her, native Hong Kong, as well as in the UK. Where she lives what I found. Interesting about this conversation was how blind of used sustainability I as almost a thread that needs to connect, everything we need to think about how we can rebuild everything from our food systems to our work lives, and that we need real collaboration between sectors in order to make the kind of lasting change that will safeguard all of our futures. I came away from this chat feeling really inspired and hopeful, so I hope you will too. Let us get into this chat with Belinda and the founder of sustain a pod and food sustainability Advocate. But before we do, I am going to pour myself a hug in a mug with a cup of tea bird tea. I love tea brewed tea and not just because the packaging is absolutely beautiful. Although it is or because the t is Neck and comes in biodegradable tea bags. Although, it does. But because I love the way T, bertie's founder Ashley cultural uses her business to support other businesses doing, good. Ashley partners with Brands and not-for-profits, doing good for people and Planet because she believes that, this is how you build sustainable businesses and I couldn't agree more. So if you want delicious healthy beautifully, packaged T that makes impact you can get 20% off using the code hug and a mug 20, I would recommend the earl grey and orange. It's my favorite.
If I really have to try and pin down one moment where I have this realization about how complicated. But also how tangible the problem was it would be during one of my very many volunteering trips to rural villages in China, which I have been doing you basically, we go to these Villages and the mountainous regions to fund raise and support primary school refurbishment, but we spend time with the Villagers who their primary livelihood was Being in agriculture and so on Village in particular, typing in Cantonese is typing Sue. How I first visited when I was 13 and I met this girl around my age from the village. And six years later in 2019, we Revisited the school, and I was still in touch with her and I visited her family and her farm. And basically she told me how the weather had got an extremely irregular during kind of that period of time and it was actually just after a period of quite Bad flooding, and I think seeing firsthand the impacts of climate change. They're really showed me that it's not just about the weather, it's about food insecurity, there were subsequent, cascading effects, on livelihoods, education, and more. And so, even now in my current line of work, that's, you know, more focused on corporate strategy and the private sector. I think about this girl and her family a lot because it's for so many people, it's so tangibly felt and the environmental impacts are so connected. And to the Social, and have you had your own challenges? I guess, with echoing anxiety, particularly doing what you do day in and day out. You, you're an ESG consultant for big business. We're not moving fast enough. Does it make you feel despondent? Do you feel angry? Yeah, I think all of it and I think that's the complicating part. Like it's hard to pin down one feeling for Eco anxiety because it really fluctuates. It's what I really tell all my friends and you know, family when I am feeling this way is that it's almost like the more you know, the worse. It is ignorance is really place in this case because I definitely at times especially kind of knowing how slow the progress. Address is right now, we're not moving fast enough. As you said, feel angry, feel frustrated, feel despondent. And then I also think about how many incredible people are driving so much change, how people are uniting others. I think it this kind of race to achieve Net Zero to decarbonise to build a more sustainable future unites people as much as It is causing a lot of division and polarization with how, how to actually do it or how slow we are. So I think that gives me a lot of (Hope) as well. Let us talk about the people of your generation. The amazing people of your generation who from such a young age, have such an activist approach to climate change. I am really impressed by how, you know, you're starting businesses your galvanizing communities. It seems to come over.
Very naturally to you to be able to harness the tools, a digital Tools in particular that you have at your disposal to, to make impact. So let us talk about what you have been doing. Heart-to-heart act for food, sustain, a pod when did these will begin and how did you go from 0 to 1? How did you build these communities? How did you raise so much money?
Yeah, sure. I will start with heart-to-heart. So essentially hard to Heart. Hong Kong was fundraising and An educational campaign that I started in the summer of 2020 at the peak of really, the impacts of coat. The covid pandemic in Hong Kong, where I was at the time, and there was a lot of food shortages. Around prices were really high and traditional food banks and their donors weren't able to support enough low-income families and households with temporary food alleviation. Care packages. So there was a fundraiser going on at the time. And, so I decided to work with this NGO food laying Foundation to raise that money needed to cover about 300-400 more care packages, which would lost the family for about a week or two. And I think the whole process started really organically, I just felt very powerless at that time, everything was online, you know, covid really bad. And I wanted to try and mobilize a community to support art on this. So, in terms of the key things that were able to generate awareness and Inspire action to be able to achieve this fundraiser, there're two parts. The generating awareness part. I think there's a lot of content out there on the internet that people consume. It's very, very saturated. So my Approach was to really have a clear understanding of what my target audience would be most affected by and have a clear understanding of Their preferred mediums, how they want to receive their content, what will catch their eye and then think about how can I do this creatively and package the messaging? That's not, you know, very conventional ask of, we want some money, would you be able to donate? And so, it's really around framing. The incentive, for the call to action. And that also came with why I like what would motivate them to do certain things. I am so the next part which is inspiring action and I will go into how the campaign did that after this, I think is the building, a community part is making people feel like they are amongst the crowd with a line goals and motivation. And to do that is really about being accessible online replying to messages interacting regularly and being very approachable with a target audience. And in this specific instance with the fundraiser it was a very broad target audience the broader, the better. So we really try to keep a very clear, simple messaging about who we are. And our Big Y, what is really driving us? And then in terms of the tailoring because we knew we were targeting People based in Hong Kong, we had Chinese and English content for accessibility. And then for the creative part, for inspiring action though, we were working on raising awareness about food poverty, alleviation. We decided to launch a competition for people to basically make a heart shape out of their food. Creatively. And so it was not directly related to food poverty but it was a very Hands-On way for people that allow for creativity and also in a way helped people think twice about what they're having on their Plate at a time when food poverty is such an issue in society, and we had awards for the winners that were voted for the community. So that's the community building part and also held webinars that directly allowed this community that have already been engaged through the Creativity part to engage in critically discuss the issue of food poverty with speakers from different sectors of society, and the people that really engaged because it was basically from my network. At the time, I was still a student and a lot of my team were all my friends, basically. We're all students. It was young people. And that was almost really planted the seed. I realized how great it was that young people could have this platform to engage ask questions with two different. People who have such different experiences and the power of conversation that was when it really struck me. Is something that's so important for?
Creating change. Yeah, conversation is powerful. I think, especially in helping people to think about things differently, so it was that one of the goals behind so was that one of the goals behind sustained pod?
So, sustained applaud is a youth-led podcast that basically focuses on three things which is to empower educate and connect young people. So, as such in essence, it's about educating young people about different sustainability topics and careers and sustainability through different perspectives. And then, the empowerment part is empowering them to drive environmental and social change, and then finally, connecting them to Leading sustainability professionals, entrepreneurs changemakers in a critical dialogue in the form of a podcast. And the reason why we do this Because I really want to enable them to be change makers and need impactful careers in sustainability and the story of how it came about was during the covid pandemic. Again, final year undergraduate, I was figuring out what to do afterwards and I knew I was interested in sustainability, but I wasn't really sure like what exactly that meant. So what could I apply to in terms of job opportunities? What kind of skills were needed? So I started informally reaching out to people in the field to hear their stories and get some more. Inspiration and those conversations really helped me. I really don't think I wouldn't, I would be here in this role right now. If it weren't for those conversations and all the time, I also got into listening, to podcast, as I think, a lot of people did in lockdown and a lot of them were. Also, I realized about really interesting sustainability topics, but it was very, very few that featured young people directly asking these questions with the guests on their podcast. So, especially in the Asian context as well. So that's how sustained apart was born. There's a really strong focus in sustained upon with how sustainability, intersects different sectors and industries. So like, you know, the public, the private domain Civil Society. We look for example at how Engineering in the engineering sector like what sustainability looks like in this field, and so I think there's a really key aim to try and change young people's mindsets. That sustainability is almost like a silo topic on its own but It's something that will intersect and affect so many different disciplines and definitely in their career lifetime. We're talking about high school, students University will be entering the workforce soon. Yeah, I mean sustainability is not a career path in and of itself. Every single discipline is going to need to understand how to use that discipline in a way that meets the sustainability objectives. That all businesses are going to have to adopt.
I mean, it's not just something for your head of ESG or your ESG consultant into the business. This is something that needs to be driven set and driven by the entire c-suite, what have you learned about the interconnectedness? What are you seeing also from your role now that's working? Well.
There was a lot of work on stakeholder engagement that gas on the podcast of mentioned, and is also something I do in my line of work. And that's In many ways often the most challenging component but it's the component that needs to be done the best friend. So I think doing that well, really enables an interconnectedness across different sectors and disciplines, and that's what's really needed to break down, the silos between the be it science, and the science, a Cadet Academia and then the policy, and then the markets, but also across different disciplines because I think there's a lot to learn from different. Industries and that's what really connecting the dots to me. That's what really Fosters Innovation. A more important point is that we are inherently interconnected like someone scope, three emissions is going to be someone scope one or two emissions. There's no chance of like, not in my backyard kind of mindset because B, it works with you. As a business, you will have suppliers, you will have customers. Everyone's all embedded in some way along the same value chain and everyone has different interests or drivers or levers that you can mobilize to connect as well. So a lot of it now is I think about building that channel of communication building that partnership aligning on these goals. Yeah, that's a lot of what my work is. Exposing me to as well. So far. Yeah, yeah. It's a huge shift and it's a huge shift. I think in mindsets around how We have been building businesses over the last sort of 15, 20 years, but I want to talk specifically about food because I know food and how to make our food systems, more sustainable, how to consume food. More sustainably is an area of interest in you. So, do you want to tell me a little bit about firstly, what, a sustainable food system could look like for you? Yeah, that's a, that's a massive question. I am going to try and keep this short if I could describe in three words. I would say it is one, that is Equitable resilient and regenerative. And in Hurley, that means that incorporates both the social and the environmental impact and delivers benefit for both to elaborate further on what that actually looks like. I am going to draw on the act of food act for change campaigns top, 10 actions for change which were voted by over 100,000 young people. So I am one of the thirty Young leaders from around the world that have been selected to drive the agri-food act for change campaign. That is basically aiming to bring together different stakeholders and drive that transition to a more sustainable food system and take action across all 10 of the actions for change to achieve that Vision. So what some of these actions for change include everyone being able to afford healthy and accessible food, sustainable, farming practices, that reduce Generate our soils, reducing the use of damaging chemicals to protect that diversity. Educating people about food and its impact on the planetary and human health. Reducing land, use conversion like deforestation reducing plastic pollution using and valuing local indigenous food knowledge, which needs to be done a lot more creating employment for young farmers and entrepreneurs in agriculture, supporting local Growers. Eating food production, from political dysfunction or conflicts, which is the resilience part. And also, just adding two more, which I think are also personally, very important achieving gender equality, women are so involved in food value chains often in very different ways to men. And there's such a need to empower women in this space and Grant them equal opportunities to be able to drive a more sustainable food system. And also definitely food waste bringing in something that's more circular and regenerative from start to end, really? Yeah. And can you tell me a little bit about personally, the work you have been doing with the extra food act for change campaign has been and also maybe how that's trickled down into a new Venture that I know you're starting at the moment? Yeah, for sure. So we actually are for change campaign has been very much centered on education for me at the moment, there're loads of different, youth leaders coming in from different backgrounds. Some are more activist, some have their own businesses, and that's what I love. It's the idea that young people aren't just activists, which is some, sometimes I labeled I was given to young people, but everyone's coming in from different backgrounds. Some are doing creating impact in Academia Etc. So I think there's such a broad way in which the 30 young leaders have been involved. And I have been so inspired and learning from so many others that are for example, a lot more active and advocacy. I would say my Approach has really been more focused on education. So I have been involved in webinars that have been focusing on engaging young people on explaining what is a sustainable food system and what can young people do. So that's the Peace right now in the UK, where I am based I am working on building Partnerships more with the private sector and creating these Partnerships to ensure that young people's voices about what we want in a sustainable food system are included, for example, in what retailers are planning, and their sustainability strategy, or just other players along the private sector value chain as well. This is quite early stage at the moment, but there's a lot of exciting things coming up and also last but not least. Very an issue. A topic that I am very interested in is entrepreneurship and what that can do. So really trying to create a platform through the campaign to Spotlight and Empower young entrepreneurs in the agri-food system? I was previously an ambassador for thought for food and that was a very amazing experience to be able to learn from and work alongside some very, very inspiring agritech entrepreneurs from around the world. Old kind of that leads me to what I have been doing in the UK. This is a very, very early stage idea, but it's something that I am very excited about which is a venture called conscious eats. It's a mobile app that is designed to be a platform that can connect climate and sustainability oriented consumers towards sustainable eateries in the city of London. And it really came about driven by the fact that gen Z demographic consumers. They care a lot about, you know, reducing their environmental impact when they're eating. But there's a lot of information out there is very decentralized is quite fragmented. Most people are spoke to just kind of Google where to go. If they, you know, want to support a restaurant that is adopting all sorts of sustainability measures. And so, that's kind of where the need came about. And then on the kind of restaurant end, as well. I visit a few restaurants, like locally, He's in the city, and they were doing all sorts of really cool things like donating their food leftovers like to food banks, really tackling food poverty in that way or their food was sourced from a local farm and grown in very stiff and of a ways. But there isn't really especially for these smes, like, a plot or the resources for them to amplify this. And I am just thinking, consumers would love this, you know, obviously provided, it's within their price point. When They're going out to eat. That's kind of how it came about. And yeah, so we have been part of a few pre accelerators been prototyping are our final what the app would look like. And it's would be not also been able to speak to quite a few restaurants that have been interested in joining. So really, at the stage of building that Community again, goes back to what you were saying earlier about? Just how powerful that is in my mind to really connect the dots between. Different stakeholders in the food system. So yeah that's more on the consumption side.
That's interesting. But it also speaks I think very specifically to what people of your generation really want. And I wanted to ask from your perspective, what do you want from your food choices? What do you and other young people in your generation want from the food system, which is currently not being provided?
Yeah, I agree. Very We much fully that it reflects an increasing awareness about, you know, Providence, where food comes from, how has it been sourcing, for example, like seafood. How's it been fished? And then also, the people part, like, people are involved in every part of the value chain. Have the people been treated? How's the environment been treated? If we go all the way back to farming and the impacts that, that has. So I think, in a way, what I mentioned earlier about the app for food, after change actions for change, that's a vision of what a more sustainable future would look like. And that's really the party that I myself. And also, all the young people who have been working on the campaign believe retailers, should take into account when they're designing their sustainability strategies and more importantly, implementing them.
What do you think are our best chances for achieving a more sustainable food system? Are you, are you hopeful about? This is a.
Very, very complicated issue, and we have a big challenge ahead of us. So it's going to be tough but I think I don't really have any choice but to be optimistic and hopeful because that's the motivation, right? That's the big Vision. I think the challenge comes from the fact that the food system is so multi scalar and so complex and so many different players. So it really requires that systems change, that's the complicated part. And, so I think we need three things which already also kind of touch on what I mentioned earlier in this episode which is Greater transparency in the food system. There's so many processes Upstream, that consumers are simply not aware about, and so we need to rapidly promote, education on the consumer end, which is what stem conscious eats for me. And also, we need that communication across the value chain and stay with stakeholder engagement. Second we need greater collaboration within the industry. Links to what I just said, you know, Supply. To work with manufacturer chefs to work with Farmers consumers, to make their voices, heard and expectations, like consumers to basically share what they're looking for. When they go out and eat for example with restaurants And then when you greater collaboration across sectors, disciplines and generations, we need empathy and open-mindedness to understand how the stakeholders and their agendas and interests very in a very context specific way. So I think policy markets Education, civil society Academia. They all play a role in this and need to be given platforms for Meaningful dialogue and collaboration. So that also includes young people as.
Well. Your generation are tipped to be the most disruptive generation ever. I am very interested to see the positive description that you guys will bring, but I am interested to know how Brands all kinds of Brands but particularly Legacy Brands, particularly the slower, movers of the space, how they can engage your generation in their sustainability initiatives, how they can get buy-in from your generation authentically. What are you looking for? When you make purchasing decisions? I love this question. I think young people bring in so many different perspectives and learnings, which.
Vary from based on our unique background. So young people need to be given opportunities to engage throughout from the start, to the end. Rather than just as a passive, like end consumer /user, young people are active, given it is a two-way exchange I think when and that's what engagement needs to be. And, and more importantly also offer opportunities for co-creation again, I am such a big fan of learning from, for example, Legacy Brands, and vice versa. And so, for this engagement to be effective, the power dynamics are important making young people feel like their perspectives have truly been taken into account and valued and considered rather than just more performative Act of always spoken to young people kind of thing. And also, it would be great to think about more who they're engaging with, within the young people demographic. Because it's also, Extremely diverse, our young people from more marginalized and disadvantaged backgrounds also included in meaningful ways. But in terms of the outcomes, I think accountability and transparency are vital more generally for any kind of sustainability strategy implementation as well. It's not just about what you want to do but how you will do it and how you're going to bring everyone along for the ride.
I always like to go into The lessons on this podcast and from when we first spoke I think what made me feel so hopeful about your generation and the future that we all have in your hands is the amount that you and other young Advocates like the ones you have been working with have been doing to educate to build communities and to organize around food and climate issues. But I know this hasn't been without its challenges for you. I know you have been suffering With long covid. So how have you managed to keep all of this on your?
Plate? Be honest answer. I think with the long covid is that I don't everything has been put to the back seat this year for about the past, five months while I have been facing a whole host of different symptoms. And I think it is the most frustrating thing ever to be so passionate about so many different things have so many opportunities be at work or outside of work to be engaging Community Building doing all sorts of things, I love and then having to say, now just because I feel like my body cannot keep up with me. And, so I think that's been one of the toughest experiences I have ever had really living in another city away from home and having to face this, And also, just starting a job like, six months ago. So I am still very much of the very beginning stages of my time with the company, they have been very, very understanding about my situation, which I am very grateful for. So, in this time, I think I have really just tried to refocus my attention aside from getting better and healing also, thinking about what I can do with the minimal amount of energy expended to not exhaust myself. And in many ways I think that actually is more effective because it creates more time for reflection on what's really needed. And also it's taught me the power of Delegation and these are many things, I think if I hadn't had this experience, I wouldn't have learned. So there was definitely a lot to gain from it, but It also was a very, very important reminder that as someone as a young person in this space is very, very easy to burn out. It's definitely conversation. I am having so many of my other friends that are doing so many things simultaneously as well. Now, you have to be fit to give and sometimes that does mean saying, no, it does mean resting, and to rest is to walk further. I love that quote. So I am really trying to put a positive spin on things but yeah not sugarcoating. It has been very tough to have to put a pause on everything, but I guess it just means I am going to bounce back with a little bit more of a spring in my step when I am better. But more Renewed Energy and excitement about what's coming next.
Yeah, I mean I hope that moment comes, you know, sooner than you expect and I mean I am sure it's really tough feeling, exhausted all the time, you know, having to slow down. But I also have to say if there's anything, I have learned from the conversations that I have been having with women working in this space, is that burnout is extremely common, and most women do not learn the power of saying, no, or delegation until they slam into a wall. So, I think it's awesome that you have already identified the Silver Linings, but I think Learning those things early on in your career, it will only serve you not just in your career and every part of your life. I mean, learning to say, no, I am still not good at it. But people tell me, one of the best.
Lessons. Yeah, one of my all-time favorite. I literally wrote this on my, like, whiteboard next to my monitor. When I heard, Radicchio say this was nature, never hurries for anything, it grows at its own time. And for a long time, I felt so stagnant. Like, I am just I just have to be here. I have to rest. But then I am like this is not abnormal, this is what nature does. And I have spent so much time in nature during this time it's helped me reflect a lot. Know when I am in, hi reflects a lot about what I am doing, where I am going, where can I go when I am better and it's held that space for me, basically.
Let us move on to what's next for you and what the big goals are for you and all of the work you're doing. So what would success for sustained, a pod or for the Work that you're doing particularly around food activism? Look like, what's this sort of big hairy audacious goal?
Oh again very hard to pin down like just one but I think it would be really changing perspectives through education and in doing so empowering stakeholders. You know, be it, young people, private sector. Others to empower them to unite on, on a journey to create a more sustainable food future. For, for everyone. I am my goal is to work towards more co-created approaches rooted in community because I believe at the heart of it all, it's about building relationships with each other as human beings on this planet, but also our relationship with nature. So building Partnerships is really my big hairy audacious goal this year. I see it as like building, a constellation of stars and joining the dots through that, to create impact, be it through my podcasts or through my other Ventures as well.
I love that. What an amazing goal like increasingly. I when I speak to people who are working in the impact space, the things that come up and again and about how you can create real impact is Partnerships like your partnership strategy, the network you're building, that is key to the impact you're creating snowballing. So I think that is, it's such an important goal. Good luck with it. I mean, I am sure you will I am sure, you will get there. I am amazed at all of the things you have achieved so far. So is there any way that people can support you and the work you're doing?
Yes, do like and follow sustained apart on our social media. On Instagram, we are at 15 a pod underscore gih. We're also on LinkedIn will be having will be expanding to new mediums and new formats this year and really trying to make it more of a platform rather. Then just a podcast that can break down sustainability across different Industries and geography. So when would love to work with you, explore co-creation opportunities, get in touch with me and Consciousness, which is more new Venture you can follow on Instagram as well. Conscious needs underscore London. So yeah, get in touch. That's The Power of social media, as well as enabling, enabling all of this to happen. This car. Relation to happen and just many, many more. So I am really excited about that.
Yeah, I am excited too. And I will have links to all of those in the show notes so that people can follow and get in touch. If there is a partnership opportunity. Thank you so much Belinda for this chat. Thank you for all of the work you're doing the incredible energy that you're bringing to the impact. You're creating, I am watching closely and, you know, I hope that maybe there's going to be another opportunity for us to collaborate again so yeah, I would love that. Thank you so much for having me. I have looked up to so many of the people that have spoken on your podcast and you as well for a while now and so it's such an honor to be able to speak. And yeah, I really, really love this experience. Great. Not honestly, the pleasure is all mine. Thank you so much. I am going to be keeping this podcast in my back pocket for whenever I feel a little bit anxious about the future that I am leaving for my children. So much of what Belinda spoke about in this episode touched on the importance of partnership and collaboration at all stages of the value chain, which is why next week we are going to hear from Community Builder and partnership Guru, Abby, pain, Tano, who described building Partnerships to me as her love language. Image. I would love to hear who you'd like to hear from next on the purpose effect. Send me or even better. Connect me to amazing woman building purpose, LED businesses. You can DM me on Instagram or you can send me an email. All of the ways to contact me are in the show notes and you will hear from me again next week. Bye.