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Ep 14. Kirsty Schneeberger MBE, CEO Synchronicity Earth: Going forward to Better
82 Plays4 years ago
“COVID-19 has been this reset moment... it has really forced us to pause, to take a breath and to re-evaluate... what do we want to leave behind after the pandemic and what do we want to take forward.”
Kirsty Schneeberger was CEO of Synchronicity Earth between December 2019 and March 2021, helping to steer the organisation through some of the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Synchronicity Earth is a biodiversity and conservation funder. Its vision is to create a world where all life is valued, celebrated and flourishing.
In this episode we explore how planetary health and human health are interconnected and how the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a great ‘re-set’. We talk about climate change, climate leadership and bio-cultural diversity. Kirsty reveals her personal experiences as a youth activist, determined to save the planet.
We discuss the importance of carving out space and time to focus on our personal well-being and the role nature plays in this. Kirsty holds that emotional resilience and nourishing oneself is the key to effective leadership.
Recorded February 2021.
Guest Biography
Kirsty Schneeberger was CEO of Synchronicity Earth between December 2019 and March 2021, helping to steer the organisation through some of the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that Kirsty was the Head of Strategic Partnerships at the environmental law organisation ClientEarth.
Kirsty’s experience ranges from working on the Paris climate process resulting in the Paris Agreement, coordinating environment and development stakeholder engagement for the Rio +20 summit, managing a climate portfolio at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and leading the youth engagement programme for the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Kirsty is a qualified lawyer and holds the roles of Chair of the UK Environmental Law Association, and Trustee of the Environmental Law Foundation. Born in Zimbabwe, Kirsty spent her formative years surrounded by nature and has spent her career striving to conserve the environment and address climate change. She was awarded an MBE in 2010 for services to environmental conservation.
Links
https://www.synchronicityearth.org/
‘The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review
Kirsty Schneeberger was CEO of Synchronicity Earth between December 2019 and March 2021, helping to steer the organisation through some of the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Synchronicity Earth is a biodiversity and conservation funder. Its vision is to create a world where all life is valued, celebrated and flourishing.
In this episode we explore how planetary health and human health are interconnected and how the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a great ‘re-set’. We talk about climate change, climate leadership and bio-cultural diversity. Kirsty reveals her personal experiences as a youth activist, determined to save the planet.
We discuss the importance of carving out space and time to focus on our personal well-being and the role nature plays in this. Kirsty holds that emotional resilience and nourishing oneself is the key to effective leadership.
Recorded February 2021.
Guest Biography
Kirsty Schneeberger was CEO of Synchronicity Earth between December 2019 and March 2021, helping to steer the organisation through some of the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to that Kirsty was the Head of Strategic Partnerships at the environmental law organisation ClientEarth.
Kirsty’s experience ranges from working on the Paris climate process resulting in the Paris Agreement, coordinating environment and development stakeholder engagement for the Rio +20 summit, managing a climate portfolio at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), and leading the youth engagement programme for the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Kirsty is a qualified lawyer and holds the roles of Chair of the UK Environmental Law Association, and Trustee of the Environmental Law Foundation. Born in Zimbabwe, Kirsty spent her formative years surrounded by nature and has spent her career striving to conserve the environment and address climate change. She was awarded an MBE in 2010 for services to environmental conservation.
Links
https://www.synchronicityearth.org/
‘The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review
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Transcript
COVID-19: A Societal Reset
00:00:00
Speaker
COVID-19 has really turned our lives upside down and we're all experiencing this in all sorts of different ways but I think it's also been and many people are really seeing it as this reset moment. It has really forced us to pause, to take a breath and to re-evaluate, to take the time to think
00:00:21
Speaker
what has been working in our lives and what hasn't been working in our lives and how do we want to live our lives going forward if we really are going to reset the way that our economies are driven, the way that we interact in society, the intergenerational issues that this has brought up and what do we want it to look like and how do we want to not just go back to normal. I think it's been really interesting seeing how the narrative has changed from
00:00:46
Speaker
March 2020, oh goodness, how are we going to go back to normal to know what we want to do now is go forward to better and what does that better look like?
Season 2 Launch: Charity CEO Podcast
00:01:06
Speaker
Welcome to Season 2 of the Charity CEO Podcast, the podcast for charity leaders by charity leaders. This is the show that gets beneath the surface of issues, engaging in meaningful and inspirational conversations with leaders from across the sector.
00:01:22
Speaker
I'm the Rio Connor and each episode I will be interviewing a charity leader who will share with us their insights, knowledge and topical expertise on challenges facing our sector in these turbulent times. This show is for everyone who cares about the important work of charities.
Meet Kirsty Schneeberger: Planetary Health Advocate
00:01:39
Speaker
Kirsty Schneeberger is the chief executive of Synchronicity Earth, an organization that funds biodiversity and conservation programs. Its vision is to create a planet in which all life is valued, celebrated, and flourishing. In this episode, we explore how planetary health and human health are interconnected and how the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a rude awakening and as a reset for us both as a species and as a society.
00:02:08
Speaker
We also talk about climate change, climate leadership, and Kirsty's own experiences as a youth activist long before anyone knew the name Greta Thunberg. I hope you enjoyed the show.
00:02:22
Speaker
Hi Kirsty, welcome to
Leadership & Climate Activism: Kirsty's Journey
00:02:24
Speaker
the show. It's so lovely to have you here today. Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's really lovely to see you and really lovely to be recording. Fantastic. So the show starts with an ice break around, as you know, of some get to know your questions. And if you're ready, we can dive straight in. Yeah, I hope you do. Thank you. So question one, what was your first job? Oh, my first job. Well, my first ever sort of
00:02:47
Speaker
income earner rather than grown-up job. I was a pot washer in my local restaurant so we lived at a small village and gosh I must have been in the mid teens and the local restaurant advertised for someone to be a kitchen hand to go in so I spent my Friday nights and Saturday nights
00:03:06
Speaker
scrubbing big pots and pans, which I think I'm sure there were some lessons learned in there about elbow grease and hard work. And I certainly learned some interesting language from the chefs who were working in the kitchen. Yeah, I think that was my my first ever income and some great life lessons there.
Kirsty's Pastimes: Holidays and Dramas
00:03:26
Speaker
Question two, what would you say is your professional superpower? Oh,
00:03:33
Speaker
I know what I'd like my sort of personal superpower to be, and that would be to have the ability in real life to do a Control-Z mechanism. Do you know on the keyboard when you do like a bit of snoring, you're quickly error correct. But you know, but there'd be certain parameters around it. You'd only have about 30 seconds or something because it's those moments, you know, of like, oh, I've just locked my keys in the door and now I'm, oh, 30 seconds Control-Z door. Oh, I sent the email without the attachment or whatever.
00:04:02
Speaker
But in terms of my professional superpower, I think, I don't really know if it's a superpower, but something I like to do or bring to my work is just have a bit of fun. You know, I'm kind of a firm believer that if we are happy and if we're fun, we're going to be relaxed and in a comfortable place, which I think then enables us to do our best work. So trying to bring fun to the team, trying to bring
00:04:28
Speaker
a bit of fun to what I do certainly helps me and it's over the last year really I think help the team connect over Zoom and just find that element of fun in what we do. And talking about fun and relaxation the next question is if you could go on holiday anywhere in the world right now without worrying about coronavirus just ignore that it ever happened where would you like to go?
00:04:52
Speaker
I think I would like to, oh it's difficult as well because I have to factor in the carbon footprint, I think I'd like to go to the mountains, I think I'd like to go to the Swiss or the French Alps to just be out there in the mountains because I think
00:05:09
Speaker
I love hiking. I love being outdoors. I love being
Historical Fascinations: Interviews & Podcasts
00:05:12
Speaker
in nature. This time of year, obviously lots of snow. I know the lifts are closed, but in a magic world where that doesn't happen, you'd have access to the lifts and so on. But really just to be in the mountains and feel, in a strange way, grounded by their majesty and they're quite humbling to just stand there in the mountains and really feel that sense of
00:05:32
Speaker
space and perspective and I think after being stuck in quite the small confines of whatever it is, one mile radius around my house and running the same
00:05:44
Speaker
track runs along the fields, the same muddy runs. I think if you see me on Strava, I'm doing the same loops. I've got my 5K loop and then my 10K loop and gosh, I'd quite like some variety there. So yeah, so I think probably to be up in the mountains and feeling that fresh mountaineer. This time last year, I was actually in Fiji. I was attending a Tony Robbins life mastery event and Fiji is really a place where time stands still and it's such a wonderful experience. I'd love to be back there by
00:06:14
Speaker
now yeah i'm sure that was beautiful it was incredible but moving on with our icebreaker what has been your favorite tv show during lockdown oh i got it a bit more into sort of well you know i don't have a tv i'm watching it through my laptop which lockdown lockdown one two or three i'm a great fan of period dramas
00:06:36
Speaker
So I have rewatched all the adaptations of any Jane Austen novel out there. So some of the older versions, some of the more modern versions, so the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer L, the more modern
00:06:53
Speaker
I think it's Joe Wright directed that version of it, the sense of sensibilities, the older and the newer version of Emma and various others. So I really got into the period dramas in the earlier lockdowns and then I have to confess, most recently it's been Bridgette. I was going to ask you that. Yes.
00:07:12
Speaker
You know, which I think just takes the period drama to a whole other level. Absolutely. I kind of miss the initial craze of it, I think. Did it come out towards the end of last year, the middle of last year? I don't know. And it was really this more recent post-New Year sort of being in lockdown that I discovered it quite happily so. And it's been quite fun talking to the team about it. In our Friday quiz, I think there was one quiz where we had it Bridget in themed, which was quite fun. Fantastic.
00:07:40
Speaker
I love that. So our final icebreaker question. If you had the opportunity to interview anyone in the world dead or alive, who would it be and what one question would you like to ask them?
00:07:52
Speaker
In addition to watching period dramas in lockdown, I also got into some podcasts and it's wonderful that I'm here recording this podcast with you. And one of them is a podcast about histories, historical figures and historical places of interest. And it's called You're Dead to Me. And it's quite funny because they bring on an historian and a comedian to talk about the historical figures and the historical places. So you get a bit of fun along with some of the historical facts and the history.
00:08:19
Speaker
One that I listened to last year that really fascinated me was of Eleanor of Aquitaine. So, Eleanor of Aquitaine, born in the early 1100s, the daughter of the Duke of Aquitaine, so when she inherited at 15, which is quite unusual then for a girl for a woman to inherit,
00:08:37
Speaker
She was one of the most powerful landowners in France. She had a fascinating life. She married the King of France. She then got bored of him, annulled that marriage, married the King of England. So I think it was Louis XII and Henry II. She had eight, nine, maybe ten children, I can't remember.
00:08:54
Speaker
She ran crusades, she led crusades all across Europe and lived to the ripe old age of 82. And I think I was listening to this in the middle of maybe lockdown one or coming into lockdown two and just thinking, you know, I thought this was a difficult year.
00:09:09
Speaker
just think about what Eleanor of Aquitaine has been achieving, and it really sort of inspired me to dig deep and think, you know, there have been great women throughout history who have achieved great things, so have that as your inspiration. I guess my one question to her would be, where did you get the energy from? How did you manage to sustain yourself?
00:09:32
Speaker
she could have changed anything, because she really was an influential player in European history at the time, and as a consequence of her life and her actions, you know, it set the tone for European history for many centuries after that, you know, if she could have changed anything, what would it have been? If she hadn't ever left Aquitaine, hadn't moved to Paris, hadn't moved to the King of France, you know, what would have been
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, it'd be fascinating to talk to her. I can definitely see how period history is a theme with you, but you're absolutely right in terms of it just looking back and it gives us a perspective on our lives today and some of the struggles that we're going to today actually don't compare to what has come
Synchronicity Earth: Conservation Focus
00:10:12
Speaker
before.
00:10:12
Speaker
Kirsty, you are the chief executive of Synchronicity Earth, a biodiversity and conservation funder. I know your strap line for the organisation is bringing conservation to life. Kirsty, please go ahead and bring your organisation to life for us now. Tell us about its vision and mission. I joined Synchronicity Earth just at the end of 2019, so I've been in post every year now, but the organisation was founded
00:10:40
Speaker
by some very inspirational and generous philanthropists, Adam and Jessica Swaden, and they founded it over 11 years ago. So it's been going for 11, I think this is our 12th year now, and I'm just, I feel so privileged to be a part of this organization, to have joined it at this point.
00:10:58
Speaker
And we, yes, we look at bringing conservation to life and we are essentially a biodiversity conservation funder and our vision is an earth where all life is valued, where it's celebrated and where it's flourishing. There's a big emphasis on this idea around flourishing and our mission is to address overlooked and underfunded conservation challenges for globally threatened species and ecosystems.
00:11:22
Speaker
So what drives us and where we're trying to channel funding to in terms of biodiversity and conservation is those areas that really are a bit neglected. If you say biodiversity or conservation you'll think of this big charismatic species that get a lot of attention and as a consequence they get a lot of the funding. But there are really important other species that might not be as charismatic although we dearly love them and we do think they have their own charisma.
00:11:48
Speaker
might not be as charismatic or well known and as a consequence there isn't really enough funding that is channeled towards their conservation, restoration or regeneration. So we have a team of super smart scientists who are conservation experts, biodiversity experts who identify those areas, those species, those ecosystems, those geographical regions where
00:12:11
Speaker
we need to channel more funding to conserve and protect the biodiversity in the region and we have a number of programs through which we do this so the team have identified the most either critically threatened or under threat or damaged or in need of funding areas and they include amphibians,
00:12:31
Speaker
So this is frogs and salamanders and maybe we can talk a bit more in detail about each of the programs but amphibians. So the Asian species program focuses on threatened species in the Asia region.
00:12:43
Speaker
We have a program that channels funding to the Congo Basin. The Congo Basin is a region of extraordinary biological and cultural diversity. And it's home to the second largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon rainforest. And it doesn't get enough attention. So we put funding out to the Congo Basin, as well as focusing on freshwater species, freshwater conservation. This is an area that
00:13:09
Speaker
You know, I think a lot of people maybe just think about rivers as being something quite physical, you know, the water running through the river, but not perhaps recognizing that there is such a diversity of life that exists in those freshwater ecosystems and they are severely and significantly under threat. Another area is what we call our high and deep seas.
00:13:30
Speaker
program although that is evolving to become a marine program so that is the area in the oceans that is beyond the jurisdiction of of any country and as a consequence there aren't really that many laws protecting them and as a consequence activities can occur in these areas of the high end deep seas that are quite damaging and destructive to the ecosystem.
00:13:49
Speaker
a new programme that we just brought on last year that we just established last year is called Flourishing Diversity and it's about recognising that in addition to biodiversity, the diversity of species within an ecosystem, there is biocultural diversity that is very important and that is about supporting Indigenous people in their existence, their dual existence with nature and the relationship that they have with nature and how
00:14:14
Speaker
one informs the other and as a consequence there is this healthy flourishing relationship with nature in those communities but we are supporting a number of communities in their efforts to protect their rights around their natural environment and their land. So yeah so the organisation is very much focused on bringing those areas to life and making sure that more funding is flowing out to support them and the efforts of those organisations, those local and community organisations on the ground that are doing
00:14:44
Speaker
such excellent work. I love how you describe that in terms of the ethos of all life is valued and really supporting the flourishing of not just biodiversity, but biocultural diversity as you spoke about there.
COVID-19: Highlighting Biodiversity Importance
00:15:00
Speaker
Why is this work important? Last year, so we're recording this in February 2021. So 2020 was a year that brought to the fore this issue that our relationship with nature is broken.
00:15:14
Speaker
I think seeing the pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic really wreak the havoc that it has. It has turned our economies, our societies, and our way of life completely upside down. That is a consequence of our unhealthy relationship with nature and how our actions that are, I've mentioned it before, destroying or damaging our natural environment ecosystems and habitats, reducing the amount of diversity that there is in species,
00:15:43
Speaker
in ecosystems that is putting pressure on nature, that is putting pressure on a natural environment that is making species more susceptible to diseases, not just COVID, think of bird flu, think of SARS. And as a consequence, you know, that that creates this pressure cooker, a dynamic or situation where what we like to think of are
00:16:03
Speaker
planetary immune system, so the health of our planet is really coming under threat as well. And it's important, the work that we do, not just to protect and conserve the species in and of themselves and as an objective in its own right, as important as that is, but also because it all contributes to enhancing our planetary health, enhancing the health of our ecosystems, which means that we will have a healthier relationship with our natural world and we will ourselves be healthier.
00:16:32
Speaker
And we hopefully if we continue to do the work that we support at Synchronicity Earth and scale it up and obviously we have a mission to increase the amount of funding that the philanthropic funding that goes goes out to these kinds of projects that we can prevent future pandemics in diseases like the ones that we've seen.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah so it's important right now when we think about it in that context but for years and years and years as well we've we've also known that biodiversity loss is a serious and significant issue as is climate change. I don't know maybe we can talk about it in a minute why this is such an important year for biodiversity and climate change and
00:17:09
Speaker
and it just really has come to a head last year in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that helps us to recognise and appreciate quite how important this work is. It's really interesting to think about how biodiversity, nature conservation and human health are all interconnected and Kirsty I would
Climate Agreements & 2020's Environmental Awareness
00:17:29
Speaker
I'd actually like to go a bit more into the wider global context here, and if you could talk to that, because one of the first things that President Joe Biden did after taking office was, of course, sign the US back into the Paris Climate Agreement. And this November, the UK is hosting the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26. Why are these events significant? So give us a picture of the wider global context.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, so we're coming into six years, well it's just five years after the famous Paris negotiations that secured the Paris Agreement. So you mentioned there that rather happily the President Biden has put the US back into the Paris Agreement. Welcome back USA. It's very exciting after unfortunately the predecessor US President removed the US from the Paris Agreement.
00:18:19
Speaker
And that in 2015, the Paris negotiations again was such a seminal moment where the governments of the world came together to recognise just how important a problem climate change is.
00:18:34
Speaker
equally just how important solving that problem is and that it will take collective efforts to do it. And so the role of the UN in that process is to convene the negotiations, of course we understand this, and to really kind of capture that collective spirit and that collective will to want to do not just bare minimum but even go beyond what we can, what we need to do in terms of
00:18:58
Speaker
reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and investing in a more renewable future. And so 2015 was a really important turning point or moment that set the tone of the last few years, the last five years where we've seen countries make net zero commitments. The UK was actually the first
00:19:18
Speaker
country to have a climate change act. But that predated the Paris negotiations. That was in 2008. But subsequently, we have seen so many other countries adopt their own laws around climate change and make these net zero commitments. So we have seen this tide turn where governments and these important global players are recognizing that they must take action and they are talking and demonstrating, talking about how they'll do it and demonstrating how they can do it.
00:19:45
Speaker
And you mentioned also this year that the UK is playing host to, you said, COP26, so very simply that means Conference of the Parties, it's an acronym, Conference of all of those parties who will gather together, hopefully in person, let's see, it was delayed because last year, obviously the pandemic meant that we couldn't have
00:20:03
Speaker
a big gathering like that. It's going to be hosted in Glasgow in person, although I'm sure there'll be some innovative technology that means that it will be also virtually interactive as well. And it's a really important moment for the UK in terms of our leadership on the global stage.
00:20:19
Speaker
and demonstrating that we are taking this issue seriously and demonstrating that we can play a leading role in bringing countries together to ramp up those targets. This is an important year to increase the existing targets to show that there is more ambition and get some of those higher targets written down. So that's an important moment for us. It is interesting, some of those Synchronicity Earth trustees and I were involved in a campaign just at the end of last year called She for Climate
00:20:47
Speaker
that is calling for more gender balance in the leadership team of COP26 because unfortunately we have seen that it has been quite male dominated and we recognise that climate change is an issue that affects us all and if we're talking about climate leadership and proper representation we need to make sure that we do have
00:21:05
Speaker
you know, gender balance in our leadership team. So that's also something that we were involved in towards the end of last year. And then this year in terms of biodiversity, so there's an UN conference on biodiversity that is going to be taking place in May, it's set to be in May, and that similarly will be about setting
00:21:23
Speaker
global targets around reducing the the damage and destruction to ecosystems that we talked about before and showing a much more positive vision of how we would like to interact with our natural world and in making sure that we are enhancing biodiversity. So many thought that last year was going to be the super year for climate and biodiversity. The pandemic changed that in terms of the conferences but actually it probably was a super year in other respects you know as I already talked about because
00:21:51
Speaker
It really put this issue front and centre in everybody's minds, not just those who are following the UN processes. So it really is a big year. And in the context of that, our work and the work of our partners who are actually doing the conservation work on the ground is more relevant and important than ever.
00:22:10
Speaker
Thinking a bit more about climate change and climate leadership, as you talked about there, and all of the links between planetary health and human health, and of course, how the pandemic has really brought all of this, you know, front and centre for everybody. Do you think the pandemic has created the impetus for lasting systemic change? And can you share some examples of this that you might have seen?
Pandemic as a Reset: A Better Future?
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, so COVID-19 has really turned our lives upside down. And we're all experiencing this in all sorts of different ways. But I think it's also been, and many people are really seeing it as this reset moment. It has really forced us to pause, to take a breath, and to reevaluate, to take the time to think
00:22:57
Speaker
what has been working in our lives and what hasn't been working in our lives and how do we want to live our lives going forward? So when the pandemic sort of hit and we moved into lockdown and we were doing remote working at Synchronous T. Earth, we started doing a weekly thing called Philosophy Corner. So we would pick a topic that someone in the team wanted to explore a bit more in detail related to our work, but perhaps taking a bit more of a philosophical slant on it.
00:23:24
Speaker
and have an hour or an hour and a half to really discuss this and in one of our philosophy corners the question that we asked ourselves was what do we want to leave behind after the pandemic and what do we want to take forward with us and I think if we extrapolate you know to the rest of the world having the opportunity to to do that kind of thinking
00:23:46
Speaker
That really is going to be one of the most important things that comes out of the pandemic. If we really are going to reset the way that our economies are driven, the way that we interact in society, the intergenerational issues that this has brought up, what do we want it to look like and how do we want to not just go back to normal? I think it's been really interesting seeing how the narrative has changed from
00:24:08
Speaker
March 2020, oh goodness how are we going to go back to normal to know what we want to do now is go forward to better and what does that better look like? So we at Synchronicity Earth have been have been thinking a lot about what our commitment to forward to better is and how do we as an organization want to embody that?
00:24:28
Speaker
you know we have very strong values as we've already talked about and a strong ethos about doing good in the world through the funding and the support that we're offering to our partners but also we as a core team here in the UK, what can we do? So we started last year in addition to Philosophy Corner having a reading week.
00:24:48
Speaker
twice a year so we had two reading weeks last year and I think we're going to keep that going. We are going to carve out space and time in our busy busy busy calendars to actually just take a week you know the days in the week to to read to catch up on all of those articles that we might have bookmarked to all those journal journal articles and and interesting books that we just haven't really made the time or don't often make the time to read
00:25:14
Speaker
So I think that that's something that we've been doing as an organization and as a core team. And I'm really looking forward to keeping up with that. But then looking more globally than that,
00:25:25
Speaker
I think we are going to, as I talked about before, have to really re-evaluate our relationship and interaction with nature.
Engaging with Nature During COVID
00:25:35
Speaker
It's really interesting to see how much more perhaps people are taking the time to go outdoors, to have their one hour for exercise, to really notice that right now the snowdrops are coming up or the crocuses are coming up and that's a different birdsong. What does that mean?
00:25:52
Speaker
And that can only be a good thing that we are enjoying spending time in nature rather than, and just to go for a walk rather than rushing around and rushing to the next meeting and rushing to the next engagement. So I think this perhaps will be a positive thing that comes out of last year, but also recognizing, as I've said, that by undermining
00:26:16
Speaker
the immune system of our planet by really undermining nature's ability to restore and regenerate itself, or us to help along with this, then we really are making it more and more difficult for us to have that healthy relationship with nature. Last week, there was a big report published called the Descriptor Review that
00:26:40
Speaker
is an investigation or report into how the financial system can better integrate biodiversity within itself so if we're thinking about systemic change that needs to happen when we're thinking about our economic system and the financial system that drives that the dynamic and the relationship between
00:27:01
Speaker
Using biodiversity as a resource and understanding its value, you know, its inherent value as well as its economic value, perhaps to our economies. It's going to be really important if we're thinking about shifting our financial and economic system. We saw this happen with climate change quite some years ago where.
00:27:19
Speaker
carbon disclosure became a very important issue. If you're thinking about your balance books, if you're thinking about your practices as a corporate or a business, what is your carbon footprint? And are you disclosing this to your investors so that they know what the risks associated with that are? So in terms of climate change, I think the last few years that has really picked up and now we're moving into thinking about the biodiversity metrics and the biodiversity data that is available to us and that we need to have available to us in order to
00:27:48
Speaker
go forward to better, as I would say. So I haven't read all of it yet, but the descriptor review is a recent example where a lot of deep thinking has gone into this particular issue. And I think we're going to start to see a lot more of that and also then the application of what that means in practice. And again, I think that will certainly go some way to putting us on a much better trajectory to having the kind of economy that we really want to see that will help us have a flourishing, biodiverse world.
00:28:17
Speaker
Is this review available for public consumption? If some of our listeners want to know a bit more and read the review, where could they go to find it? Yes, it is. It's publicly available. It's called The Economics of Biodiversity, the Dasgupta Review. It was commissioned by the British government and it is an open publication and it is available. You could perhaps put a link somewhere or your listeners could just search for it. We will put a link in the show notes. Thank you very much.
00:28:47
Speaker
I completely agree with you in terms of the past year really being a reset on so many different levels, for us as a human race in some ways, for climate, for populations across the world.
Governmental Learnings from COVID
00:29:04
Speaker
And my favorite hope is that we really do learn from this experience and we take those learnings forward. I mean, it feels a little bit like we're trapped in never ending lockdowns at the moment.
00:29:16
Speaker
And it's really interesting that one hopes governments of the world actually do put some of these learnings in place now, not necessarily further down the line when it may be potentially too late. So on that note, what more would you like to see from government and policymakers? You know, you talked there about, are we just going to kick this issue down the road? Or actually, are we going to deal with it now? And in many ways, that's what makes
00:29:43
Speaker
both the issue about biodiversity, loss and climate change, such an intergenerational issue. It's about the current generation of policymakers making decisions that not just affect you and I, your listeners and those of us who are around today put multiple generations to come, future generations. We're starting to see
00:30:07
Speaker
that being understood a lot more in our policies and in our laws where we will hear about how will this affect and impact on future generations. But I think we can do much more about that. How can we really integrate an understanding of what is going to be the best world that we can leave to future generations who are going to inherit that.
00:30:28
Speaker
You know, it's an old adage and it's been said so many times, but we are here not just to exist as present generations, but also to make sure that that we bequeath to future generations is sustainable and is healthy and is beautiful and flourishing. So I think an integration of young people's perspectives and future generations into policymaking, that's something that I was involved in many, many, many years ago when I was quite a bit younger than I am now.
00:30:58
Speaker
It's just been interesting to see how the debate has moved on and how this concept of future generations has really been brought into various parliaments, not just here in the UK, which is the one that I know the best, but also globally, this concept of making sure that we are making decisions today that are going to bring a positive impact to the future rather than
00:31:20
Speaker
rather than the opposite. So I think definitely seeing a bit more of that. In terms of other powerful players, as it were, so looking beyond governments, because I think we really recognise now that these are issues and problems that we can't just rely on governments.
00:31:37
Speaker
to fix but actually all of us have a role to play and one of the areas that we focus on at Synchronous to Earth is to increase the amount of philanthropic funding that can flow out to those projects that are really making a tangible difference on the ground. Those locally led and community driven projects that are
00:31:58
Speaker
conserving species on the ground that are enhancing the biodiversity of ecosystems. It's a well-known data point that of all the philanthropic money that is donated, charitable donations that are made, only about four to five percent of it goes to the environment. You can think of various other charitable interests that of course rightly so get
00:32:18
Speaker
philanthropic money for all of their good work and their efforts. But in terms of the environment, it's such a crucial aspect of our life. And surely we can do better than that. So not only are we increasing our funding and synchronous to the earth, but we try and encourage other potential donors and those who are in a privileged position who can very generously and very kindly donate their money.
00:32:42
Speaker
to channel it towards those environmental projects that we believe are making difference and that can do real good. I'm glad you mentioned that about your work in your younger years as a youth activist because that was something that I wanted to ask you about. So tell us a bit more about your personal background and how you first get into this area of work.
From Science Enthusiast to Climate Activist
00:33:03
Speaker
When I was at school, I was a bit of a science nerd. I had a chemistry set in my bedroom and I loved science at school and spending time in the labs. And actually, I wanted to be a scientist. That's what I wanted to be. And in, I think, my final year at school, I learned about climate change and I learned about global warming.
00:33:19
Speaker
as we probably talked about it then, learned about climate change, global warming, and thought, goodness, that is quite a big issue. I'd like to make a difference. And so that, I think, really gave me my North Star, the direction that I wanted to go in in terms of my career. I didn't quite know if that meant I was going to be a scientist, go into, become a philosopher, go into politics, go into law, even though I studied these subjects ultimately at university and have throughout my career
00:33:47
Speaker
been involved in politics, been involved in legal efforts to try and protect and improve the environment. I wasn't quite sure but I knew that that's what I wanted to dedicate my life to. I got involved in the youth climate campaigning my younger days when two people had set up something called the UK Youth Climate Coalition
00:34:10
Speaker
inspired by the vast numbers of young people who were campaigning, who were advocating for this point that I was just making earlier, that there were young people who were going to inherit the state of the planet and so they were calling on the grown-ups, you know, the decision makers to make sure they left a healthy planet for them.
00:34:30
Speaker
I think the first example of a young person, a youth campaigner doing this, was someone called Seven Suzuki. In the early 90s, in 1992, there was a big UN conference called the Rio conference on sustainable development, or perhaps it was the environment and development, and Seven Suzuki got up on stage and gave a speech to the UN, to the delegates there at the UN, and essentially was saying, I'm 12 years old and you're the grown-ups and
00:34:58
Speaker
Surely you can do better than this, I'm paraphrasing, you know, wildly. She really had that key message, which was, you have all of the power and the authority to make things better. So please, can you do that and employ into them? So throughout the 90s and in the early, what do we call them now, noughties, you had this groups of young people who would go to the UN, who would advocate for their right to a healthy and happy future rather than
00:35:23
Speaker
won the bleak picture that was being painted by the science and data. And I hear that you were one of these young people who went in front of the UN. Well, yes. So we were a delegation to the UN and we had an opportunity to make a speech in the UN, the climate change negotiations. Gosh, it's going back some years. And we collectively and collaboratively wrote the speech between us. There were representatives from all countries all over the world. And the message that we wanted to give was,
00:35:53
Speaker
Hi, we're the ones that are going to inherit this mess. Can you please think about us so that you make the better decisions? Yes, I had an opportunity to give that speech, and we had this slightly cheeky tongue-in-cheek campaign. So the message that we used was, how old will you be in 2050? Because we're talking about climate change targets, net zero by 2050, or whatever percentage of greenhouse gas emissions. That's quite dry, and it can be quite sterile to think about it in those terms. But if you can say something quirky like,
00:36:22
Speaker
how old will you be in 2050? It gets people thinking, you know, it gets people thinking about that intergenerational responsibility that they have. That was a lot of fun. I talked about myself being about having fun whilst doing this kind of work. And from there, there was this continuation of young people going to the UN. And, you know, it's a really proud moment when I see that young people are still going to the UN and giving speeches. And I'm sure that those in the early 90s who were doing similar things think
00:36:49
Speaker
think the same and just to really get that voice of young people out there is absolutely crucial. They not only need to be heard but also have a seat at the table being involved in the decision making, being involved in helping sculpt and craft the future that they are going to hear it. And so it's amazing to see obviously what Greta Thunberg has done in the last couple of years.
00:37:10
Speaker
What a powerful individual who has used her voice in such an incredible way to get this message across and just look at the wave of momentum that was created behind her. It's quite impressive to see all that she has achieved. Yes, it's pretty fantastic indeed.
00:37:29
Speaker
But Kirsty, I'd like to talk a bit more about some of the things that you touched upon there in terms of net zero, etc.
Ecosystem Regeneration vs. Tree Planting
00:37:37
Speaker
So there is research that shows that it is 50% more effective to restore an existing forest or ecosystem that has been degraded than it is to plant new trees. So how does research such as that factor into things like net zero commitments?
00:37:54
Speaker
Yeah, so something that we're doing at Synchronous TF, we have had, and I didn't mention in the introduction, we have had something called a regeneration program for a number of years, which has been focusing on supporting, so funding and supporting projects around the world that are doing exactly as you described, regenerating land. We have all sorts of choices and options available to us about how we want to
00:38:23
Speaker
enhance the biodiversity and diversity of our ecosystems and one of the ways that is a really important and powerful way of doing this is regenerating ancient and existing ecosystems as it were rather than
00:38:37
Speaker
clearing space to plant a monoculture of trees, which we've seen isn't as effective as just regenerating the existing ecosystems that we have. So our regeneration program is being supporting projects in Ecuador and Malaysian Borneo that are doing fantastic work regenerating their forests and their land
00:38:56
Speaker
integrating species conservation with some tree planting, but also protection of the existing habitats there. And we're really seeing the very impressive results that that has had over the last few years. And when we think about net zero, so everybody is focused now on making a net zero commitment and meeting their net zero targets. And of course, climate change is about reducing the carbon emissions or the greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere. Absolutely right.
00:39:25
Speaker
But there's another side to the equation as well. So we think about gases out, but we also need to think about gases that can be absorbed. We know that trees absorb carbon, but also a healthy, biodiverse and flourishing ecosystem can absorb a lot more of that carbon. So if we can restore that land, if we can regenerate it to enable it to absorb much more of those gases,
00:39:48
Speaker
that's going to have a really powerful and positive impact on achieving our net zero targets. So it's one of the areas that we are developing this year and I'm quite excited about it because it's building on work that Synchronicity Earth has been doing but it's also really bringing together those twin issues of biodiversity and climate change because we see those as two sides of the same coin.
00:40:11
Speaker
If we're going to tackle climate change, we need to make sure that we are restoring and regenerating our biodiverse ecosystems in order to do this. So there are plenty of actors out there who are making their commitments and who I think are probably
00:40:27
Speaker
you know thinking about it in terms of how do they reduce their carbon footprint which is very important talking perhaps about offsetting their carbon which only goes so far we need to really reduce the destructive behavior that we're doing rather than just sort of offset against it and actually invest
00:40:45
Speaker
time or finances into those kinds of projects that I've talked about before and so that's what we'll be developing with our regeneration program. We actually call it the more than carbon program because whilst carbon is important you also have these other benefits of having a more biodiversity ecosystem which means you have a healthier range of species and it's just beautiful. It's really utterly magical to see the
00:41:09
Speaker
vast and wide range of species that exist in these beautiful habitats and ecosystems. And so it's not just about absorbing the carbon, it's also about our mission, making sure that we have flourishing biodiverse life on Earth.
00:41:27
Speaker
It's such a fascinating area of work because it really does touch the life of every single person and indeed every single species on the planet. So it's really interesting to hear all of the work that you're doing at Synchronicity Earth. Kirsty, looking back at your own leadership journey, what advice would you give to yourself on day one of first becoming a CEO?
CEO Challenges & Emotional Resilience
00:41:52
Speaker
I can still very clearly remember day one it was a little bit like first day of school you know thinking goodness quite nervous quite excited and certainly taking on the position that I did just before so three months before the pandemic hit and we moved into lockdown so I was fortunate enough to have three months to work with the team in an office and to get to know them and to get to know my board of trustees and and have that
00:42:19
Speaker
face-to-face interaction, in-person interaction. Goodness, that seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? I know. I've spoken to so many CEOs who actually started their role during lockdown, which is, I'm sure, incredibly difficult. Yeah, so I was really very fortunate to have that time in the office with the team beforehand before we moved to virtual and remote working.
00:42:42
Speaker
And so I think day one, I had my 100 day plan and I had thought about all the different areas that I was going to focus on and there was going to be this internal something or other and then something a bit external there. And of course day one, it just goes out the window anyway, but still an important exercise to have done. The lesson for the whole of last year, I think, that I really take away from the year is the importance of emotional resilience.
00:43:10
Speaker
And it's perhaps not something that is usually talked about when you're thinking about the management dynamic, or the oversight dynamic, or whatever the other functions of being a leader, or CEA might be. But I really found last year that we need to be able to nourish ourselves to ensure that that emotional reservoir
00:43:34
Speaker
that emotional store of energy is constantly topped up rather than just drained and depleted over time, which I think is perhaps a little bit in my personal experience of what had happened. Everything was new, not just the crisis management of a global pandemic that the world had not quite seen before, but also being new to the role.
00:43:57
Speaker
And I think by the end of the year, I realized that perhaps that was an area that I hadn't paid enough attention to. And so I did a lot of reflecting over the break, over the December and New Year break on, well, how can I do that? How can I nourish myself so that I can bring my best self to work every day?
00:44:15
Speaker
because it's difficult to do that on Zoom, be excited and charismatic and bring that element of fun when you're just on a screen. And my team is fantastically motivated and they have just been absolutely astounding these last 12 months and creative and dynamic and agile in the face of all sorts of challenges. And that has been such a wonderful thing to be part of and such a privilege to be part of that team.
00:44:40
Speaker
But I definitely recognize that towards the end of the year, I was just needing a little bit of a rest. And so how do we go from having these high intensive action to burnout cycles or exhaustion cycles? And actually, how do we do the nourishing throughout the year? So things like making sure you're going for a walk in nature. I'm a runner, I already mentioned it.
00:45:01
Speaker
eating well, reading books, watching period dramas. I think this is definitely a crucial component to building my emotional resilience. When in doubt, what would Jane Austen do? What would Jane Austen say, I think has been part of it. But then also encouraging that in my team as well. So other things that we did last year is focus on our wellbeing.
00:45:27
Speaker
What does that even mean? You know, it's a bit of a buzzword. Katie, let's focus on your well-being. What does that mean? So we had someone lead some mindfulness sessions.
00:45:36
Speaker
it was very important to me to encourage the team to take breaks because it brings a whole different level of exhaustion just sort of sat on the computer and a screen. You don't get any of that downtime of like walking between meetings, that space, you know, that space between the day-to-day stuff that we do. I have a little fold up bike in London and I'm quite used to going from one meeting to another, zipping around London on my bike and that 15, 20, 30 minute slot of time is
00:46:05
Speaker
is really quite important and when we just sat at our desk watching the screen you don't have that so it was really important to me to encourage the team if it's the middle of the day if it's the middle of the afternoon and that's the time when you need to go for a walk or a cycle or a run you must do that don't just try and squeeze it in at the beginning of the day especially now when the day's a bit darker and it's a bit gloomier actually
00:46:27
Speaker
help you to manage your own energy to keep yourself you know in a happy and like I said right at the beginning a happy and comfortable state and yeah so I think that was a long-winded answer. My first day I would have perhaps just given slip myself a little note that said don't forget about the importance of your your emotional flourishing actually because resilience
00:46:51
Speaker
Yes, that's important, but flourishing, emotional flourishing capacity and nourishing yourself. Take care of you so that you can then bring your best self to work every single day.
00:47:05
Speaker
I think it's Deepak Chopra who talks about meditation being the space between the thoughts and just taking that sort of a step further in terms of what you said, it's really important to find that space and find that time in between all of our busy tasks and rushing around to really nourish ourselves, nourish our teams and nourish the planet more widely. Yeah.
00:47:30
Speaker
Yeah absolutely I like that the space between the thoughts and in perhaps 2020 you know is this is the space between two completely different paradigms of our lives in a way you know it's it's that liminal space or that chrysalis transformational moment where we go from caterpillar to butterfly and I think if we can emerge from from this
COVID-19: A Transformational Moment
00:47:55
Speaker
taking all of that learning with us, really being conscious about what we want to take forward. What does it look like to create a better life and a better future for all? Then I think we'll be going some way to achieving that butterfly. I love those reflections that you just shared there. Kirsty, we've come to the end of our podcast now. So what is one thing that you would like listeners to take away from this conversation?
Appreciating Natural Diversity
00:48:24
Speaker
that the natural world, shown to us by so many of these wonderful and magnificent documentaries and, you know, television shows that we've seen popping up over the last couple of years, the natural world is precious and magical and beautiful and wonderful and we should really celebrate that.
00:48:48
Speaker
And the thing that makes it beautiful and magical and precious and wonderful is its diversity. It's not just the same tree when we look out of our garden. It's not just the same bird that we hear singing in our garden. It's not just the same, if you're living near a river or the sea, it's not just the same fish that you see over and over again. You see this beautiful and varied
00:49:09
Speaker
abundance of different kinds of animals and plants and flowers and that is aesthetically beautiful but it's also really important to how we live our lives and how we will continue to live our lives and so perhaps everybody can just take a moment to reflect the next time they go on their lockdown walk if they're still in lockdown or if we're in the new world of post lockdown fingers crossed not
00:49:37
Speaker
not too long from now and just take a moment to reflect on just how beautiful and wonderful that really is and to think about each of our actions that can positively enhance the diversity of nature and try and perhaps stop or reduce those things that are having a negative impact on our beautiful world.
00:50:01
Speaker
That is such a beautiful and refreshing note to end this conversation. Thank you so much, Kirsty, for being a guest on the show. Well, thank you so much. It's been lots of fun. It's been really, really lovely talking to you. And I really have enjoyed listening to the podcast as well in preparation for this and I will continue to subscribe.
Podcast Success: Apple Rankings
00:50:19
Speaker
So thank you.
00:50:22
Speaker
What a thought-provoking conversation with Kirsty Schneeberger, Chief Executive of Synchronicity Earth. As I'm stuck in my house in lockdown three, watching the snowflakes settle outside my window, it strikes me how important this conversation was. Because as Kirsty shared, it is now vital for us to nourish ourselves and to nourish the earth if we are to emerge from this pandemic and move towards a better tomorrow, emerging like a butterfly from a caterpillar.
00:50:54
Speaker
I am so grateful to all of our followers and listeners who helped the show reach the top of the Apple Podcast rankings for the non-profit podcast category. It is such an incredible endorsement of our content, and the rankings and reviews really make a difference because they enable more people to find and listen to the podcast. So if you enjoyed the show, please click the subscribe button on your podcast app and consider leaving us a five-star review.
00:51:19
Speaker
Visit our website thecharityceo.com for full show details and to submit suggestions or questions for future guests. Thank you for listening.