Annette Pinner - Chief Executive, Vegetarian Society

How old are you?
53

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
I’m Chief Executive of The Vegetarian Society

How long have been doing this?
18 months

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
We help people become and remain vegetarian which reduces animal suffering and killing and has positive benefits for the environment and global sustainability .

What’s the best bit about your job?
The people I work with each day (inside and outside the Society).

What’s the worst thing?
Paperwork and bureaucracy

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Fantastic! Our ‘Silent but Deadly’ environmental campaign has been a great success. Mars Bars became vegetarian again and we have built stronger working relationships with partners.

What were you doing before this?
I worked for the Environment Agency as Area Manager for Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire.

What was your very first full-time job?
Post-doctoral research at Oxford University in soil chemistry.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you? Follow your heart, look for opportunities, take some risks.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
We’ll be running a campaign on animal welfare as well as continuing our environmental campaigning. We’ll also be expanding our training for professional chefs - we want people to be able to eat better vegetarian food in workplace canteens, hospitals and schools as well as in restaurants.

What do you do to relax?
Spend time with friends and family, meditate, go to the gym, read.

Who do you live with?
My husband and sometimes my daughter (when she’s home from university)

Whereabouts do you live?
Manchester

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Tax meat production!

As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Trains and trams (regular and frequent ones I hope!)

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
I hate being cold so I probably use more energy heating the house than I should.

What have you done that you were most proud of?
That there are fewer nauseating smells in Wigan! I probably shouldn’t go into too much detail but I guess I can say that I lead a team at the Environment Agency that worked really hard to get a particular operation to stop sending out some pretty foul smelling stuff. On a personal note, leaving the Environment Agency to come to VegSoc. Lots of people told me I was crazy to give up such a well paid and secure job, not to mention the final salary pension, but I know working here would be more in line with my own values and beliefs.

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Excessive consumption based on, what seems to me, the mistaken idea it will make us happier.

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
The Dalai Lama – because he exudes both kindness and wisdom and is so true to his values and beliefs sometimes under great pressure.

What’s your website address?
www.vegsoc.org

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.stephenbatchelor.org – I’ve been on several retreats with Stephen and Martin Batchelor and love their practical and open approach. There are talks, very informed discussions and beautiful photos on the site.
www.resurgence.org - the site for Satish Kumar’s Resurgence magazine. Inspiring articles and videos.
http://knowleseddyknowles.blogspot.com/ - lots of interesting photos and writing. OK, it’s a site our son runs along with 2 colleagues but what the heck, I love it!

Adam York - Ethical Grocer

How old are you?
44

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Grocer, Buyer and Veg Grower; Unicorn Grocery Ltd, Manchester and Glebelands Market Garden Ltd, Sale.

How long have been doing this?
15 years

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
Preoccupation with feeding the public well and earning a living in a way that enables me to sleep at night.

What’s the best bit about your job?
Seeing quality fruit and veg arrayed in front of appreciative customers. Trading and making deals over new supply. Seeing large team of fellow members pull together.

What’s the worst thing?
Dealing with the fallout from laissez-faire New Labour and seeing some of the ugly stuff from the 1980s come to fruition.

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Tough retail competition, harsh Summer conditions in 2007, trying to keep up with the rapid global changes taking place as Western Capitalism slips away...

What were you doing before this?
Bringing up my son/part-time jobs

What was your very first full-time job?
Watford Gap services, wearing Captain Scarlett hats and getting very hot!

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Be determined, gain experience with others and get on with it. Remember if it goes wrong it really is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. While you retain a sense of humour you still have power.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
Aquire land for more food production, read more good stories, go dancing more, nuture more enthusiastic traders and innovators, learn how to sail properly.

What do you do to relax?
Get out of urban madness. Spend time with people doing different things.

Who do you live with?
Partner, housemates+ vicious terrier.

Whereabouts do you live?
Whalley Range (post Smiths version).

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Accept that inequality of wealth/relative wealth matter a lot. Pursue policy agenda based on this and trying to make quality of life improve for the greatest number of people.

As cheap and easily available oil is expected to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Shank’s Pony, stay fit. A smooth road needs asphalt needs oil. Expect big changes soon.

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
Wanting to torch Tesco HQ?

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Tried to stick to my principles and the values I was brought up with. Finding that pioneering eco writers of the 1970s have been vindicated and I was right to be inspired by them. Resisting the complacency and materialistic dross of much about me, maybe doing some manual work keeps you grounded?

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Imminent likelihood of mass starvation globally.

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
Alan Simpson MP(!) Getting on with eco-projects and speaking out consistently against New Labour globalistas.

What’s your website address?
www.glebelandsmarketgarden.co.uk
www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.countercurrents.org peak oil tab, Peter Goodchild articles particularly. www.independent.co.uk business comment.
http://resonancef.com/ listen for tunes.

Niki Clarke - Press Officer, Ecocentric

How old are you?
26

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Press Office for EcoCentric. They sell eco gifts and homewares for the stylish & eco-conscious consumer.

How long have been doing this?
For about a year

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
Everything at EcoCentric is eco in some way (as the name suggests) whether it be made from recycled glass, be an organic cushion or fair trade bed linen…

What’s the best bit about your job?
I love getting excited about new eco-chic products out there that will encourage people to go green. It has taken a while for consumers to see that eco is stylish too. Then my job is to tell people about it and get them excited too…

What’s the worst thing?
As it is a small company we all take our turn at the mundane jobs too…

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
A learning curve. My training and previous jobs have been in fashion, so I am getting used to the interiors angle of things. I also love being part of a small company as you get to see the inner cogs whirring.

What were you doing before this?
I was part time for People Tree in PR, and part time web assistant for a charity called Latin Link

What was your very first full-time job?
This one! I had always been a bits-and-pieces kinda gal. I like variety…though it does often lead to working more than full time!

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Volunteer to get experience (but not for too long!), and do what you love.

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
I’ll keep them under my hat for now…

What do you do to relax?
I cycle to and from work as buses can make me get agitated and crazy! I also love knitting

Who do you live with?
My hubby Andy – photographer extraordinaire.

Whereabouts do you live?
Peckham. An amazing and buzzing community.

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
Make people share.

As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Can’t really see people giving up their cars. But technology is moving fast and manufacturers seem committed to finding a way… Why exactly did Dr Beeching shut all the railways?

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
I take long showers…does that count?

What have you done that you were most proud of?
My gap year in Bolivia, working with women who were in prison because of debt. A small set-up helped them to knit & sew their way to independence for them and their kids.

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Selfishness

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
Anita Roddick may be a bit of a cliché, but she really had it all, and I have been following her for years. I would love to be able to achieve and make a difference even a fraction of what she has. ‘Business as unusual’ is the way to go!

What’s your website address?
www.ecocentric.co.uk

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.businesslink.gov.uk – if you can’t find the job you want, make it!
www.peopletree.co.uk – I always ask for vouchers for Christmas and my birthday and stockpile for the new season!
www.facebook.com – great for networking…but possibly a bit too addictive!

Dr. Rachel Dodds - Director, Sustaining Tourism

How old are you?
36

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Director, Sustaining Tourism and Assistant Professor, Ryerson University

How long have been doing this?
Consulting – 10 years
Prof – 2 years

What’s the best bit about your job?
It is what I am passionate about

What’s the worst thing?
I work too much

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Busy but exciting – we just founded an organisation called the Icarus Foundation which is aimed to help Canada become a carbon neutral tourism destination

What were you doing before?
I was doing the same – trying to make tourism more sustainable

What was your very first full-time job?
I was a paper deliverer

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
I hope to keep pushing the agenda

What do you do to relax?
Travel and do yoga

Who do you live with?
My boyfriend

Whereabouts do you live?
Toronto, Canada

If you were Prime Minister (of Canada), what’s the very first thing you do?
Admit that the country’s national policy on the environment needs to change!

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
I fly a lot and it is hard to offset – I like to know what projects I am supporting so sometimes forget to offset.

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Not sure, perhaps finish my PhD but…

What are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Our greed is getting out of control – we need to start caring for mother nature!

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
There are probably a few but ….I would think probably the King of Thailand – he loves his country and his people and has done a number of projects that put sustainable development of his country in the forefront. And his people love him- which really does say a lot.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
Network – it is the key in the tourism industry.

What’s your website address?
http://www.sustainabletourism.net

What are your three favourite other websites?
www.theicarusfoundation.com
http://www.toinitiative.org/
and probably travel sites!

Michelle Clarke - Volunteer Development Worker, Action 21

How old are you?
Almost 25

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Volunteer Development Worker. I work full time for Action 21 who work on practical sustainability projects in Warwickshire.

How long have been doing this?
Since February 2007

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
Action 21 is a social enterprise that promotes sustainable living in Warwickshire through: practical environmental action; information and education; volunteering opportunities and volunteer support. We work in four different areas of sustainability: recycling, energy, food and transport. My job involves recruiting and supporting individuals to volunteer with Action 21. It’s great to get local people involved in environmental projects and to provide them with opportunities to up skill themselves and contribute in their community.

What’s the best bit about your job?
My job puts me in touch with a wide variety of the community and working with a wide team of volunteers is really inspiring and rewarding. I’m always having interesting conversations and meeting new people. It’s also great to see what voluntary work can do for people – especially those who do not think it’s for them and to see the change in people is really great.

What’s the worst thing?
There’s just not enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do. The sustainability agenda is huge and there are always more things that we could do. We’re a small organisation and the task seems immense!

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
The last 12 months have been really exciting but incredibly busy. Sometimes there seems little time for reflection and to think about what we’ve done. They have been great though as I’ve learnt so much, met so many people and really had some fun times.

What were you doing before this?
I was doing a placement with Groundwork Oldham and Rochdale which involved doing environmental education with Groundwork and working for Rochdale Borough Council in their sustainability department. Prior to this I was doing various voluntary jobs with environmental organisations and running my own social enterprise in Nottingham.

What was your very first full-time job?
My placement in Groundwork was my first full time job. Prior to that I was working full time hours but not just in one job. It was hectic! I wasn’t paid to work for Groundwork but it was still a full time job. Never underestimate the value of voluntary work!

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
I would suggest volunteering in the areas of work that interest you and getting as much experience as you can. It’s also a good chance to work out what you really want to do and what floats your boat. It’s very rewarding to work part time in paid work to pay the bills and then volunteer as much as you can in things you really care about. You get to meet so many people who always give you advice and sometimes you can be lucky enough to get paid work in the organisation you volunteer for. There is loads out there to do and you get so many skills. You can always start your own ethical job up – starting a social enterprise is hard work but so rewarding!

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
I’m not sure what the next 12 months hold as I’m not sure how much job will pan out with funding and the projects that I’m working on. I think I’ll take each day as it comes as if you endlessly plan, you never can really live in the moment!

What do you do to relax?
Yoga, tai chi, going out dancing, visiting friends, walking, reading, talking to my housemates, watching films.

Who do you live with?
A girl who works for Guide Dogs for the blind, Kat, and a lad who works in the Computer Games industry, Edd. They are the same age as me and just happen to be in Leamington for their jobs too.

Whereabouts do you live?
Leamington Spa, just south of Birmingham.

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
I would take some drastic measures to get people out of their cars and would also want to try and people consuming soo much!

As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
Bicycles – it’s the only way! People will see the light! What with more obesity and mental health problems, congestion, social exclusion and stress, people should get on their saddles. I would make sure that people paid the true cost of driving their cars and that people really thought before getting in their cars.

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
Actually – I haven’t really but I am a bit rubbish at persuading others to be green – I feel like I’m annoying them! I’ve given up flying, am vegetarian, cycle everywhere and only buy second hand clothes but there is always more you could do.

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Set up the Crocus Café with a group of friends in Nottingham. This is a social enterprise which has a variety of aims and is a really great thing to have been involved in. It certainly helped me get my current job.

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Climate change.

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
Tony Juniper – Director of Friends of the Earth. He’s such a good public figure for the green movement and I find him really personable and interesting. He’s really good at talking about environmental issues. It’s a shame he’s not in the public eye as much as he could be.

What’s your website address?
www.action21.co.uk

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
I have to admit it but Facebook is one of my favourite – it really is such a good way to communicate with people and it can put you in touch with inspiring groups of people. It’s also a great way to keep in touch with people.
I’m also loving Wikipedia as my knowledge always needs extending.
And I guess I would have to say our website as a team of volunteers are updating it and editing it and it’s really going to come alive!

Susan Morley - Reception and Signposting Co-ordinator, Northern Refugee Centre

How old are you?
43

What’s your occupation and who do you work for?
Reception & Signposting Co-ordinator, Northern Refugee Centre, Sheffield

How long have been doing this?
9 months

What is it about your job that makes it ethical?
At Northern Refugee Centre we work very hard at being fair, honest and environmentally friendly. We also make sure that we are non-judgemental and try to treat everyone as equal regardless of their race, religion, sexuality, political beliefs etc according to our Equal Opportunities policies.

What’s the best bit about your job?
Being able to help an asylum seeker or refugee to make their life better in whatever way they need us to. I have also learned an incredible amount about different cultures and countries.

What’s the worst thing?
Being sworn at by frustrated and angry clients and never having enough time.

What have the last 12 months been like for you?
Very stressful and a very steep learning curve.

What were you doing before this?
I was the Office Manager at Northern Refugee Centre.

What was your very first full-time job?
Youth Opportunities Scheme job in a community theatre company.

What advice would you give to someone wishing to embark on the same sort of work as you?
It’s not easy and you have to be passionate about the sector that you are working in to make it easier to balance the stress with being able to make a difference to peoples lives. It’s also important to have a clear understanding of their issues to enable you to effectively deal with people and how their situation affects them and their lives. Being a ‘people person’ definitely helps!

Have you got any plans for the next 12 months you’d like to share with us?
I wish to learn more about the countries of origin of our clients to gain a better understanding of why they have ended up in the UK and what they have fled from. I also want to do some training around the best way to deal with difficult clients.

What do you do to relax?
Walk my dogs.

Who do you live with?
My partner and 2 children

Whereabouts do you live?
Sheffield

If you were Prime Minister, what’s the very first thing you would do?
I would allow asylum seekers to work (and in fact, provide support to help them find decent employment)

As cheap and easily available oil is expect to run out in the next couple of decades, what do you think will be the predominant form of transport in 2027?
I have no idea.

Have you got any guilty carbon secrets?
I don’t always recycle as much as I should. I am also guilty of not switching things off (eg phone chargers, speakers on the pc, tv at the mains)

What have you done that you were most proud of?
Raised 2 beautiful children who care about people and are empathetic. Work wise, I know I am a friendly face who clients who are (hopefully) put at ease when they come to our service and are assured that I will do my best to make sure they are given the help they need.

What single issue are you most concerned about in the world at large?
Poverty

Which person in the public eye do you most admire and why?
Can’t think of anyone

What’s your website address?
www.nrcentre.org.uk

What are your three favourite other websites of the moment?
www.bbc.co.uk
www.refugeeaccess.org.uk
www.amazon.co.uk