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July 3rd was the hottest day recorded in the history of humankind (since we started measuring). Yet, The Global Political Economy seems to constantly ebb and flow between progression and regression when it comes to climate action. One country that has stood out from the rest in the last year (in a great way) is Brazil. A home for our precious Amazon Rainforest, which absorbs 25% of the CO2 in our atmosphere, so much of our global efforts on climate change hinge on the Brazilian activists, entrepreneurs, and political leaders dreaming of a new system.

Thomas met Andréia Coutinho Louback at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. She spoke on an incredible panel - Watch here at 1:47:55 - focused on climate action, justice, and unlocking capital for youth who want to launch their own initiatives. The panel, full of young women from across Africa and Central/South America spoke about the need for patient, flexible capital, distributed by donors who are youth themselves and can connect with our approach. Many times, established funders are from the generation before us and don’t quite align with or understand our approach to solution building - Andréia calls this our ‘Trust-Based Problem’.

In our conversation together (interview above!) we dive into an analysis of this panel ^, the Loss & Damage Fund, the sentiment and feeling in Brazil now that leftist President Lula da Silva is back in power for the third time with a focus on protecting the Amazon, and how young people across the world can access resources like:

• Global Climate Justice Map that can be a ‘common source of truth’ resource for:

• Youth activists looking for inspiration on a new project

• Youth Activists hoping to share their work with a larger audience

• Funders looking for amazing projects to support!

• HERO portal:

• Youth Activists can take 5-7 minutes to fill out THIS FORM to be matched with relevant funding and operational support opportunities.

• This Podcast shares more on the HERO process:

• Community Climate Justice Guidelines: Andréia is currently building, along with a collective group of youth from the Global South, a guideline for projects and programs that hope to engage community based organizations in their deployment.

This is the Season 2 Finale… so what’s next!!?? Thomas will be traveling to South Africa in July, Brym will be launching the flagship programs of our ‘Social Action Lab’ in August and we’ll re-launch our storytelling platform for Season 3 in September! Onwards…

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this fun ride so far. Excited to see where this goes alongside all of you.

Thomas Guest, Brym Founder

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Hello, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 12! After this morning, Only 1 more episode left in Season 2 after this before we unveil the next chapter of Brym. We can’t wait to share more… a new Website, Storytelling Form, Social Action Lab, Sustainable Business Model… we’ve got a lot in the works!

Today we focus on building a life as an activist. Hint: It’s really hard, especially in our world today that doesn’t value work located outside the classic capitalist system. How do you build something from scratch? How do you organize your initial community? How do you develop that group into a movement that exists on a platform? How do you tell your story through multiple art forms? How do you do this all while paying for a roof over your head!??

Marla Louissaint, producer, actor, artist, model, entrepreneur, Marla-verse, is accomplishing all the above as we speak. Her interview attached and resource collection below provides a blueprint I hope we can all try to follow. I’ve learned so much from her personally and Brym would not be where we are today without her guidance and wisdom as a member of the Brym Global Working Group. Take the time to enter into a space of learning… open the links below and work through them at your own pace. I’ll be doing the same over the coming weeks.

Title: A Goddess Reborn: Black Panthers in the 21st Century

Author: Marla Louissaint, June 2, 2023

Real Utopias! They're hard to imagine and even harder to create. But that's the work of the artist, to make the movement irresistible. At Claim Our Space Now, we are building a creative library of resources and a plan for action to dismantle white supremacy, colonialism, and global capitalism. As we imagine what new versions of what our world could look like, please enjoy this bounty and engage.

AfroMarxist Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2xX2FI6s4i9xz3t9qjayhg

Black Panther Party Survival programs: Real examples of anti-capitalist programs and operational details for how to execute community movements focused on food, healthcare, housing, clothing, and a LOT more: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18qytrqD_aJlG3m6gjK44qE1DhtV1SuOh/view?usp=sharingclaimourspacenow.org for National Resources and organizations liberating black lives.

marlalou.com for Marla's individual site - book time with me to brainstorm projects you're working on!

Pull up and connect! If you’re trying to build solidarity movements in your community, hit me up and let’s build together.

Only one more episode left this season! Keep a look out and have a safe weekend!

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Hello, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 11! This has been such an amazing season so far with people sharing their stories from all over the world! If you want to take a look back at all the amazing work being done, check it out here! We will be producing 1-2 more stories in Season 2 before regrouping over the Summer to think about the next evolution of our Storytelling Platform. Hint: Video? Short Films? Documentaries? We’ll see :) Thank you for being here and a part of this exciting ride that’s just getting started!

After almost two seasons of collecting stories from around the world, Food, Water, and Energy have emerged as constant points of community focus. Motifs and trends throughout these stories inform what Brym is working towards and how, especially as we move towards translating stories into projects through our upcoming Innovation Lab launching this Summer!

Today, we dig into on of those focus areas: the world of Community Energy with two amazing leaders in the space, Crystal Huang (who writes her story below) and Julius Mujuni!! There are a ton of great resources below shared by Crystal if your community is thinking about building decentralized systems of energy! That’s a huge focus of Brym as well, so feel free to reach out with any questions moving forward!

If you’re not already subscribed, we’d love to have you along for the journey!!

‘Reimaging Energy for Our Communities’

Author Crystal Huang, People Power Solar Cooperative, May 11 2023

About the Author: Crystal Huang

Crystal Huang is a Co-Founder and Worker Owner of People Power Solar Cooperative - a movement cooperative that aims to enable everyone to own and shape our energy future. She is a grassroots community-builder and a 2020 Roddenberry Fellow with more than 10 years of experience deploying climate solution technologies. For her work building popular education on energy and power, she serves on the Resilience Hubs Advisory Council for “Toward Resilient California Communities” Initiative funded by the Strategic Growth Council. Nationally, she also leads the Energy Democracy Project, a collaboration of close to 40 geographically and racially diverse organizations working to democratize the energy sector in the US. She is the Board Treasurer of the People’s Solar Energy Fund. Check out her story featured by Seventh Generation here.

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Hello, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 10! We will be producing 2-3 more stories in Season 2 before regrouping over the Summer to think about the next evolution of our Storytelling Platform. Thank you for being here and a part of this exciting ride that’s just getting started!

Today’s Climate Story is a core inspiration for how we hope Brym’s storytelling can make a jump to the next level… diving into the power of short film and documentaries with Cathleen Dean. We dive deep into her new short film, ‘Wade in the Water’ and how it intersects with the amazing work of Dr. Miriam Lynch and Diversity in Aquatics.

After the trailer, Cathleen has also been kind enough to share a ‘Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Documentary Film’!! So if you have a story you want to tell - feel free to learn from her guide and connect directly!

Diving Deep: The Power of Documentary Storytelling & Water Activism

Author: Cathleen Dean, April 26, 2023

Documentary films have the power to move, inspire, and educate audiences in ways that traditional Hollywood blockbusters cannot. They are a form of storytelling that allows filmmakers to shed light on important issues, and to share perspectives that are often overlooked or ignored. 'Wade in the Water' is one such documentary that has captured the hearts and minds of audiences around the world. Directed by Cathleen Dean, the film explores Black Florida’s fight for the right to swim. The film brings to life the 1960s Civil Rights protests that desegregated the state’s beaches and swimming pools and sheds light on the historical, cultural and spiritual connection BIPOC communities’ have with the water.

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Hello, Everyone! Happy Sunday and welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 9! Today’s Climate Story focuses on re-imagining our global food system and comes from the amazing Henry Obispo: Website + Linkedin. This conversation couldn’t be more timely as the US rolls back Emergency Allotments of Food Stamps across the country… leaving low income communities scrambling for other options.

Seeding the Future: Re-Imagining our Food System

Author: Henry Obispo, March 31, 2023

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Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 8! Before diving into our next Climate Story from the amazing Kavindu Ediriweera, here’s a quick update on how Brym is doing as an organization and what’s coming on the horizon.

• On March 16th, the Brym Global Working Group (of which Kavindu is a part) will have our third Session! We have 12 members planning to attend from 7 countries, with the intention of sharing experiences and brainstorming potential projects we can work on together. This next meeting will be led by Arijit Reeves, Daniel Wildman, and Jen Cole, focusing on the themes of Community Energy & Water.

• Brym will be launching our first ever Community Climate Lab in Q2 (April/May)! This has not been formally announced yet but we wanted to share with all of you who are reading as a sneak peak. The Lab will focus on translating the amazing stories we’ve heard through this platform into actionable projects happening in the world. Common Project Themes include: Community Energy, Water, Food & Land. Hint: Arijit, Daniel and Jen will be leading the next Global Working Group meeting to share a bit about a new potential project that will be launching in the Lab!

• Keep an eye out for our Year 1 Thesis Report - pulling together common themes and lessons from our research & development over the first year of Brym! This Thesis Report is informing the direction and model of Brym as an organization moving forward - can’t wait to share it with all of you.

As always, feel free to follow along on Apple Podcasts as well! Hope you enjoy…

A Sri Lankan ‘Think-and-do-Tank’

Author: Kavindu Ediriweera, February 23, 2023

My Past

I used to have a carefree life, full of dreams in my hometown of Matara, in the deep South of Sri Lanka.

When asked who I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d nonchalantly say - an ambulance driver! Probably I instinctively felt that I needed to be at the centre-stage of saving the dying man.

As I was growing up, Sri Lanka was going through a brutal civil war and we were in the midst of several political developments. As this was all going on, I fervently felt the need to challenge the mainstream thinking which had divisive undertones, and busied myself following political discussions whenever I could.

This passion of mine became more honed as I gained more opportunities to contribute to the discourse, through various internships and by contributing as an op-ed journalist on politics for one of the leading newspapers in the country.

Starting to study law was one of the key turning points in my life. This is where I met the Executive Director of SLYCAN Trust - Vositha Wijenayake (Back then as a tutor in law) where she got me to watch a speech she conducted at a TEDx show on youth and climate change.

That is where I started exploring more on climate action and started to read and learn more on technical matters related to climate change with her guidance.

Starting from the passion that developed by reading - I had the opportunity to engage with thousands of young people, policy makers and sector experts over the past ten years while building my career with SLYCAN Trust.

My Present

SLYCAN Trust functions as a think-tank based in Asia, Africa and Europe and carry out evidence-based research work, policy analysis work and a lot of capacity-building on climate action at many levels, starting from grassroots communities to young people to different stakeholders in multiple disciplines. Our studies are incorporated into wide range of national policy documents and recognized by many stakeholders in Sri Lanka and worldwide.

We also have recently launched EthicalX - Climate and Innovation Hubs, working with local entrepreneurs who are building solutions in the realm of food systems, fashion, tourism and the circular economy. In that way, we’re almost like a ‘Think-and-do-Tank’, helping to turn policy and research into action.

Key multi-stakeholder groups that I have had the opportunity to interact with include:

• Local farmers,

• Policy-makers,

• Youth,

• Private-sector leaders,

• Civil society organizations,

• Community-based organizations and

• Mainstream media.

These stakeholders came under a multitude of key thematic areas that includes:

• Climate resilience,

• Risk management and risk finance,

• Youth and Action for Climate Empowerment,

• Entrepreneurship and innovation (Through EthicalX-Climate and Innovation Hubs),

• Ethical, Sustainable & Climate-friendly food systems,

• Climate-induced loss and damage,

• Just Transition and transformative solutions (With a special focus on Renewable Energy),

• Ecosystems and biodiversity conservation (With a special focus on mangroves restoration) and

• Law, governance and multilateral processes that includes national and international processes including UNFCCC negotiations.

Our Future

I’ve always envisioned a life that would be dedicated towards working in radical, visionary projects, geared towards enabling a meaningful tomorrow for the world.

Working towards that future requires concrete reflection and multi-stakeholder engagement, across multiple spheres including education and institution-led initiatives.

However, I fervently believe in the inherent goodness of human beings and believe we can tackle the challenge of climate change together!

Huge thank you to Kavindu for sharing his awesome story! Up next, look out for our next Climate Story on March 9th from Artist & Entrepreneur, Marla Louissaint! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more exciting updates…

Have a great rest of the week everyone and a safe weekend.

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Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 7! A quick note before we dive in about this new Season and how it’s a bit different than Season 1 (if you haven’t already caught our drift)…

• In Season 2 of Brym Labs, we will be highlighting stories directly from changemakers across the world - inviting them to tell their own stories in their own ways in the spirit of Citizen Journalism! In addition to a written piece in their own words, we’ll also be doing interviews so you get to hear from their own voice as well!

• In this week’s Climate Story and Interview, we hear from Daniel Collins-Wildman! Daniel got his PhD in Chemistry from Emory University and now is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab working on battery technology and renewable energy! Daniel is also a member of Brym’s Global Working Group working on a few projects we’ll be able to share soon!

• Keep an eye out for our Year 1 Thesis Report and keep your eyes peeled for some other exciting announcements coming soon on Brym initiatives heading into Q2!

As always, feel free to follow along on Apple Podcasts as well! Hope you enjoy…

Evolution of a Battery Chemist

Author: Daniel Collins-Wildman, February 9, 2023

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Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 6! And it’s 2023! A quick note before we dive in about this new Season and how it’s a bit different than Season 1 (if you haven’t already caught our drift)…

• First of all, we are still working on our Year 1 Thesis Report. We have gathered some great feedback and will be distributing to everyone in February… keep your eyes peeled for that and some other exciting announcements coming soon!

• In Season 2 of Brym Labs, we will be highlighting stories directly from changemakers across the world - inviting them to tell their own stories in their own ways in the spirit of Citizen Journalism! In addition to a written piece that they write themselves, we’ll also be doing interviews so you get to hear from their own voice as well!

• In this week’s Climate Story and Interview, we hear from Ahmad Hamwi! Ahmad is the Founder and CEO of Ignitos Space. We met in person at COP27 in Egypt when Ahmad was winning the Africa Grows Green Awards for his work with Ignitos Space! So excited to share Ahmad’s story and please feel free to reach out to the ‘Astropreneur’ as you learn more!

As always, feel free to follow along on Apple Podcasts as well! Hope you enjoy…

Reborn - The Zambian Astropreneur

Author: Ahmad Hamwi, January 26, 2023

How did we get here?

Thomas my guy, I believe you have unlocked something beyond this being just another blog.

I’ve worked in the climate change field for a few years now, but I was never pushed to find the real story behind it, and writing my story for Brym has made me discover things about me and my story that never connected before. So Brym, you are doing Fine!

This spans back to my early childhood, a 7yrs old boy with asthma, living in Lebanon on the outskirts of the city. At that age, I had two main interests: electronics and nature. Two very opposite areas, but where my passion found a home.

On weekends and on breaks, I used to spend most of my time in the forest at a mountain near our house. There I explored nature, I spent hours looking at different plants, insects, rivers and running water, and tadpoles (It fascinated me to see them grow into frogs).

On other days when I couldn’t go out of the house, I used to turn my focus to electronics. Anything that came to my reach, I started examining it, trying to understand how it works, and yeah sometimes I would take it apart using a variety of tools I found around the house (because my parents hid the main screwdrivers and tools from me for some reason!).

Things started changing after a few years when the mountain started to get eaten by machines. Bulldozers chipped away at my favorite place, and buildings started to grow. This didn’t only make me sad seeing my sanctuary being destroyed, but all the dust coming from the construction made my asthma attacks much more severe and gave my parents many nights of rushing me to the hospital for treatment and oxygen.

A few years later, at the university level, I decided to become a software engineer. I always understood the mechanical part of things, but the software was now what fascinated me, and how much we can create programs and worlds inside a computer.

Fast forward again to 2014, I went on a tourist trip to Zambia, a country where an uncle of mine had some businesses. I fell in love with the country in 1 week. Nature is beyond what I imagined! Victoria Falls, the largest natural waterfalls in the world, animals, forests, rivers, everything I was deprived of, and more!

A few months later I resigned from my job as an E-learning administrator for the American University in Beirut and moved to Zambia, a country where I knew no one. I stepped in as the executive director for the company my uncle had, as he lived in a different country. And that’s how in 2015, I set foot into my new Home.

In 2017, while running Zambia’s biggest AgriTech company “Roto Tanks”, we started another project in Siavonga on Lake Kariba (the biggest man-made lake, with the size of Lebanon!). That project consisted of building holiday homes and starting commercial farming activities on 2,000 hectares of land.

That project grew exponentially as we hired an expert agronomist, who taught me a lot about agriculture and precision farming. We had to listen to the plants, not to what the books are saying, so we know if they need more water or less, to know which type of fertilizers they needed, which apparently changes in every stage of growth of the plant, depending on a lot of factors, including the soil composition. We were conducting soil testing all the time, to keep track of what the soil is lacking, and what is already there, as putting excess fertilizer, whether organic or chemical, will lead to soil degradation. This led to higher crop yields and a more sustainable farming operation overall.

Through Roto Tanks, I started conducting workshops for farmers around the country to sensitize them to the use of technology for farming, how to use drip irrigation, fertilizer tanks, soil testing, and more. I found myself also gravitating toward some of my most successful workshops which were titled “make agriculture sexy again” where I taught the audience how to turn farming into farming as a business. It is important to be proud of being a farmer, compared to the shame and “poverty” titles that surround any young person doing farming.

Meanwhile, I started building my own company named “Green Future Enterprises”, which focused on the agriculture value chain. Our model includes everything from workshops and agri-advisory to importing fruits we got from the farms and various Agricultural products to chain stores around the country.

From there, in 2019, I left my last formal job at Roto and “Green future” grew. We established a name in the market, we even started some new projects and things were looking fantastic…Until March 2020, when covid hit, when there were big losses for the company, borders closed down, workshops got canceled, and the whole world went on lockdown.

2020 was a strange year, as many people's main focus was on survival. Although my businesses did not survive, I was able to personally survive. But 2020 had one more surprise for me.

On New Year's Eve 2020, I felt very tired and sick and went to bed early. The next morning, I was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with COVID-19. After two weeks, my condition worsened, I developed three holes in my lungs, coughed up blood, and struggled to breathe until the night when the doctors told my family that I wouldn't make it through the night.

I was in a state of mental confusion most of the time and lost track of days and time. But in the night when doctors gave up, I refused to.

In my timeless foggy state, I told myself that I hadn't achieved my purpose in this world yet and my time was not done. And in the morning, I was able to eat and talk, and I began to improve. It took a few months to fully heal, but I now had a renewed sense of purpose.

My purpose was to help people and save the planet. I didn’t know exactly how yet, I think maybe I still don’t know exactly how, but for sure we’ll figure it out. I even got myself a Tattoo on my forearm. A tattoo of a phoenix, symbolizes resilience, coming back from the ashes, health and business, and every aspect.

In 2021, an opportunity presented itself to me: a challenge in France, by VIVATECH, about using space technology. This was the opportunity I was waiting for.

Combining my software development background, my agriculture experience, and my interactions with farmers on the ground, I came up with an idea. I wanted to use satellites to help farmers get information about their land and soil, enabling them to do precision and climate-smart farming.

I started my research, took a few courses on how satellites work, put a team together, and started refining my invention. I applied for the competition, and from a worldwide pool of companies, we were selected to be on stage as a finalist!

And that’s when “Ignitos Space” was born. The name “ignitos” from ignite, to ignite the fire like a phoenix inside people and tell them that the sky is not the limit.

Ignitos Space’s concept evolved with time and refined more and more. Now we are developing “igniteAi” which is an artificial intelligence platform that provides actionable insights on the ground, to all farmers, using smartphones and even USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) for those who don’t have or know how to use tech.

We are now bridging the gap between high-tech and people who need it the most. All you need is a phone, smart or dumb, and we can locate where you are and give you information about your farm and enable you to increase your yields.

We have now won multiple awards around the world, including Africa’s best space innovation company, and more. We got invited to NASA and Virgin Orbit in Los Angeles. And most recently, we won the Africa Grows Green competition at COP27, where I met Thomas!

Ignitos now has a local Zambian team and is assisted by an international team and board of advisors with 30+ years of experience in various fields. In addition to our invention of artificial intelligence, we create systems and research on deforestation and agriculture advice to NGOs, governments, and more.

My Rebirth led me into Ignitos, but also into “the Astropreneur”, which became my new title. Through that, I decided to shine a light on my life experience and the various startups I started throughout my life, combined with courses I’ve taken in business, psychology, and coaching.

So now, I’m a motivational public speaker, a business coach, advocate for climate change, education, and of course agriculture. I conduct workshops and masterclasses and consult businesses to take them from zero to hero. As well, I’m a mentor for multiple local and international organizations.

What’s next? I guess we’ll write another story in a few years.

Huge thank you to Ahmad for sharing his beautiful story! Up next, look out for our next Climate Story on February 9th + lots of exciting things in the works for 2023!!

Have a great rest of the week everyone and a safe weekend.

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Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 5! And it’s almost the Holidays! A quick note before we dive in about this new Season and how it’s a bit different than Season 1 (if you haven’t already caught our drift)…

• First of all, huge thanks to my friend Nicolas Vivas Nikonorow for his genius music in our podcast episode!!!

• In Season 2 of Brym, we will be highlighting stories directly from changemakers across the world - inviting them to tell their own stories in their own ways in the spirit of Citizen Journalism! In addition to a written piece that they write themselves, we’ll also be doing interviews so you get to hear from their own voice as well!

• In this week’s Climate Story and Interview, we hear from Imani Cenac! Imani is the Resiliency Organizer with NQ - Nos Quedamos (English Translation: We Stay). The work happening in the South Bronx through NQ, see: Community Land Trusts, Community Gardens, Multi-Family Housing, and upcoming Resiliency Hubs (read on) - has all been hugely inspirational to Brym. So excited to share Imani’s story and hopefully everyone can learn from their unique model!!

You can read the full story here: brym.substack.com!

Resilience in the Bronx

Author: Imani Cenac, December 15, 2022

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Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 4! And it’s December! A quick note before we dive into this new Season and how it’s a bit different…

• First of all, huge thanks to my friend Nicolas Vivas Nikonorow for his genius music in our podcast episode!!!

• In Season 2 of Brym, we will be highlighting stories directly from changemakers across the world - inviting those folks to tell their own stories in their own ways in the spirit of Citizen Journalism! In addition to a written piece that they write themselves, we’ll also be doing interviews so you get to hear from their own voice as well!

• In this week’s podcast episode, we interviewed Steve Chiu! Steve and I recently attended COP27 in Egypt together and you’ll hear some of our reflections on the conference at the beginning of the interview! Steve is the UN Representative for the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation and also a part of Brym’s new Global Working Group, an advisory team dedicated to re-imagining our world systems and building global climate solutions together.

As always, feel free to follow along on Apple Podcasts as well! Hope you enjoy…

Hello this is Steve’s Climate Story!

Author: Steve Chiu, December 1, 2022

Growing up in Ohio, I was always reminded by my mother that we were deeply lucky to be able to experience all four seasons of weather, and that we should use the changing of seasons as a reminder of the passage of time, and the ever shifting nature of our lives. It is with this lens that I spent my childhood, savoring the preciousness of each season, cherishing every day spent outdoors, knowing that in time, the season would pass and something new would come forth. From the fluffy snow that would fall in the wintertime, to the late summer nights spent chasing fireflies in the forest, and the rainy spring days where flowers would magically appear from the ground overnight, each season had its unique texture to experience as a child, filling my life with wonder, adventure, and joy.

Of all the four seasons, autumn was by far my favorite. As summer gave way to winter, the trees that were once so lush and green, became adorn with brilliant and vivid colors of red, yellow and orange. Hiking and camping in parks and mountains, I fell in love with the natural world, in how through its mere existence, I could witness so much beauty, wisdom and life while being reminded that nothing lasts forever: change was the eternal constant.

In 1999, the Taiwanese community in Ohio bore witness to the second most deadly earthquake in Taiwan’s recorded history, which killed thousands of people, displaced tens of thousands, caused billions of dollars in damages, and left Taiwanese expats engulfed with concern for those they loved back home. In the wake of this destruction, one of the first organizations to respond was the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, arriving at the scene of the disaster with hot food, stations for medical care, and a space for emotional and spiritual care. Touched by the rapid response and thoughtful ways that Tzu Chi’s volunteers served the disaster survivors, our family took to the streets of Ohio to fundraise for Tzu Chi’s efforts. What resulted was an unexpected outpouring of love, showing me the good that can emerge when we create opportunities for people to give, serve, and be in community with each other for a shared cause.

In the following years, we created a local chapter of Tzu Chi in Columbus, building a community to host local service programs, while responding to disasters in the midwest region. From tornadoes and hurricanes, to floods and fires, many of my weekends became immersed in working with disaster survivors to rebuild from the devastation brought forth by natural causes; the natural world was not only a beautiful creator of life, but a force of destruction, capable of erasing the accumulated efforts of human beings in a swift sharp instant, leaving behind in its wake, sorrow and suffering for all those it touches.

Recognizing the impermanence that underpins our relationship with the natural world, it became important for me to ask, what does a meaningful life look like if the accumulation of material achievements alone could be erased in an instant. If the very life I had could be taken away by natural forces beyond my control, how should I spend my time? I want to leave behind a better world for those to come after me. One where future generations can continue to experience the bounty that the natural world provides for us while also having stronger frameworks in place that protect us from the impacts of disasters and climate change. Societies and systems rooted in values of love, regeneration, and interdependence, as opposed to our current values of extraction, exploitation, and a disconnect from the true impacts of our actions on the natural world. To create this future, I serve as Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation’s Representative to the United Nations, where I work to build relationships, share best practices and develop programs with the international community, highlighting the holistic approaches that can build resilience and tackle the complex challenges created by our triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. In this position, over the past eight years, I’ve come to truly appreciate the unique role that each and every person has to play in addressing the climate crisis. From building coalitions of concerned citizens to create change within local communities, to advocating in international spaces to shift global consciousness, there is a space for you, utilizing your talents and skills, to contribute towards modeling the future we wish to inhabit.

Life is short. I hope that in addition to consuming content related to the climate crisis, that you seek out opportunities to take action, in your own unique way, and that you find a community of like minded individuals to walk along this journey of creating change with you. If you’d like to connect, you can find me:

• In person, meandering about New York City parks, and probably at the Tzu Chi Center

• Monthly, reflecting on life and art, in my zine: “I Love You And I Wish We Saw Each Other More”

• Persistently on my website

• Interviewing friends on issues related to the United Nations here

• Reflecting on holistic solutions to the climate crisis here

• Sign of Hope / Case Study we discuss in the interview: The Green Hospital Initiative - Article + Video

Huge thank you to Steve for sharing his beautiful story! Our next Climate Autobiography will come on December 15th!!

Have a great rest of the week everyone and a safe weekend.

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Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 3! A quick note before we dive into this new Season and how it’s a bit different !

• First of all, huge thanks to my friend Nicolas Vivas Nikonorow for his genius music in our podcast episode!!!

• In Season 2 of Brym, we will be highlighting stories directly from changemakers across the world - inviting those folks to tell their own stories in their own ways in the spirit of Citizen Journalism! In addition to a written piece that they write themselves, we’ll also be doing interviews so you get to hear from their own voice as well!

• In this week’s podcast episode, we interviewed Andrew Banda! Andrew actually taught me about the concept of Citizen Journalism when we met in Lusaka in March and is a part of Brym’s new Global Working Group, an advisory team dedicated to re-imagining our world systems and building global climate solutions together.

As always, feel free to follow along on Apple Podcasts as well! Hope you enjoy…

Building Call to Action Communities

Author: Andrew Banda, November 17, 2022

I remember walking barefoot with a 15KG bag of fresh harvest from the farm with a sort of excitement, while the rain poured down heavily. Feeling connected to the earth as my bare feet touched the mud, I followed my mum and other parents and their children my age as best as I could as we took a foot trail through the bush, farms and a graveyard leading back home.

I grew up in the northern end of the outskirts of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, on the border of the Central Province’s Chibombo district, in a place called Chunga. Lusaka was at this time mostly farmlands and open bush. This was truer in Chunga than most areas, where almost all roads leading to it passed through some of bush. But this is not so now. There was a stream near where I lived to the east and it went north creating a natural border between Lusaka and the Central Province. Everything on the other side of this stream was either open bush or farmland. The stream, whose banks had ashy fertile black soil was suitable for sugar cane plants but also an extra use, as a raw material for toys. Many children my age and those before us used to make toy dolls, cars, houses and other ingenious things. Past the sugarcane fields was the guava tree fields, decommissioned sewer ponds, then further and around that were mango trees littered around the fields and the small hills that made up the southern side of Chunga. When in season, we would buy cheap guavas, mangos or go collect bondwe, a delicious vegetable which grew around and in the decommissioned sewer ponds. Sugarcane season was one of those seasons which I loved, where we would go to buy very cheap sugarcane or just pick the thrown away ones and eat to our hearts desire. Between our farming, and the amazing fruits, vegetables and insect delicacies which the seasons provided thanks in large part to the farms and open bush that surrounded us, it seemed we were never in short supply of food.

Years later, I volunteered at a local theatre NGO called Barefeet Theatre. I consider this era in my life as the birthplace of my voice, which because of Barefeet, tilted hugely toward creative expression and storytelling more than anything else. While at Barefeet I became one of the founding members of a youth advocacy group called the Barefeet Children’s Council, advocating for issues that affected children and young people. This was also the period where I first came to learn about Climate Change, while networking with Zambia’s UNICEF ambassadors and the many trainings and workshops that Barefeet would afford me the opportunity to attend. Through Barefeet, I would attend 350.org’s Global Power Shift Conference and go on to host multiple events before and after the conference, the highlight being during the Barefeet Youth Arts Festival.

Global Power Shift Conference, 2013

Barefeet Youth Arts Festival

This was also a time in my life where I would leave my village (metaphorically), and find out, ‘oh, other people with different ideas, cultures etc exist!’ It was confusing, intimidating, scary and beautiful. I especially loved it when you would enter a Barefeet workshop and know, it doesn’t matter who I am, because the space would reduce us to happy kids on a playing field, running, laughing, bonding and creating.

Barefoot Team during Rehearsal, 2021

After seven years at Barefeet, I joined the Alliance for Community Action (ACA), an NGO focused on social accountability. I remember when I joined, the Executive Director said something like, “we have reports, we want those reports to be turned into something citizens can interact with.” Well, they were in luck, I came from Barefeet lol. I like to credit Barefeet as the place that gave me confidence in my voice, creativity and imagination. The ACA, on the other hand, I like to think of as the place where I discovered the WHY to my voice. It’s so much I would need a part two to talk about it all but one thing I can say is that through their work I learnt that there was no such thing as the voice of the voiceless. People had voices and it was our duty to give them correct information and then a platform for them to use their voice.

Andrew Facilitating an ACA Workshop on their Rights-Based Approach

Because if there is anything that governments are afraid of, it is a mass of people speaking up, not one famous person. Through the ACA I got to lead on projects that introduced me to the African Crossroads, a group of changemakers in different spaces across Africa and beyond, sharing, collaborating and creating for the betterment of the continent. Through the community I did a data storytelling project called Tipende (lets count) and a climate change contextualizing project called Bevla of which season two is about to kick off.

Here now, I see at how fortunate I was. I just happened to grow up in the outskirts of Lusaka at a time when there was farmland. This allowed my single mother and other parents to provide food for us, send us to school while other kids were on the streets trying to sell to have food... that’s the case more so today than when I was growing up. Of course, my meals were not extravagant, but I was not hungry. That made a huge difference, the only difference I required to be educated.

Andrew, Bottom Right, with his Siblings, Mom and Nephew (who is now Executive Director of Barefoot Theater!)

That is how I look at climate change, a man-made event that affects how available and affordable food is, that directly affects how hungry families there are and what they are able to achieve. If poor families are unable to break the cycle of poverty because their children have to be on the streets to find food, then we have failed them. But I also know that they have a voice, so from my first privilege, growing up not hungry to Barefeet, to ACA to the African Crossroads and other amazing communities, I decided, I want to help them understand what climate change is and how it affects them. Then, watch them use their beautiful voices.

Huge thank you to Andrew for sharing his beautiful story! Our next Climate Autobiography will come from Steve Chiu, another member of the Brym Global Working Group on December 1st!

Have a great rest of the week everyone and a safe weekend.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brym.substack.com

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Hey, Everyone! Welcome back to Brym - it’s Season 2, Episode 2! A quick note before we dive into this new Season and how it’s a bit different !

• First of all, huge thanks to my friend Nicolas Vivas Nikonorow for his genius music in our podcast episode !!!

• In Season 2 of Brym, we will be highlighting stories from changemakers across the world - inviting those folks to tell their own stories in their own ways in the spirit of Citizen Journalism. In addition to a written piece that they write themselves, we’ll also be doing interviews so you get to hear from their own voice as well!

• In this week’s podcast episode, we interviewed both our writer this week, Jen Cole, and Arijit Reeves, who shared his ‘Climate Autobiography’ last week! Both are a part of Brym’s new Global Working Group, an advisory team dedicated to re-imagining our world systems and building global climate solutions together.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brym.substack.com

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Arijit Reeves - Climate Autobiography

Hailing from a very small suburban town in India called Bansberia, I grew up living on the banks of the river Hooghly, surrounded by more trees than concrete.

Summer sunsets are mesmerizing to watch from the terrace

Video: A little montage of our garden and beings that dwell in and around.

My whole school life has been spent here in this very town, spending the summer holidays cycling around with my friends and lazing by the riverside almost every late afternoon.

We would chill by the riverside, wave at passing boats and watch people fishing.

There is this place by the riverside where an illegal river sand mining business used to run. It was shut down a few years back but it ran for a long time. They would pump up water and silt from the riverbed and dump it into huge trough-like basins and allow the water to slowly move back into the river via outlets, leaving behind the white sand.

Pipeline that ran from the riverbed to the troughs on the riverside

I remember running around on the white sand and playing football in the late afternoons. It felt like a mini beach at that place.

The sand would be mined during the afternoon and transported at night.

It was only many years down the line that I understood the massive impact of that activity when a local bridge caught a crack in one of its pillars and had to be closed off and repaired right away. I didn’t know what kind of thought it sparked in me, but it did affect me.

One could see little pioneer species growing out of the sand.

When I moved to the city of Kolkata for attending college, two things stood out to me. The sheer population of the city and the quality of air. I remember feeling a certain heaviness in the air while breathing. There are more than a few reasons for that but I only got to know about them in detail during my master’s. I used to be a field volunteer for a research project surrounding air quality & its health impact and it was during those days that we quantified the pollution and saw first-hand how bad the situation was. Particulate matter was through the roof, both 2.5 microns and 10 microns and as for the dissolved gases like ammonia, sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, etc., it was the sulphur oxides that were dominant due to diesel-run vehicles. Have a look at the documentary I shot for the research project and maybe that could give a better explanation.

Video: This project is aimed at finding the pollution hotspots of the city and predicting their change.

After my master’s, I got work as a Media Consultant for a project called ‘Delta Lives’ in the ecologically and environmentally volatile zone called the Sundarbans, the world’s largest delta ecosystem.

Video: A sneak peek into the village life in the world’s largest delta.

Part of our job was to highlight the regional art, craft, practices and skillsets to the world, that are slowly fading away into oblivion. While working I came across stories about the survival of the villagers against tropical cyclones and storm systems. One of those stories that really stuck with me was of the cyclone ‘Amphan’ in May of 2020. When the cyclone hit the Sundarbans, the villagers were as prepared as they could be but one thing always evaded their preparedness. The embankments. The riverside was embanked but was not strong enough to hold against the maddening waters during the cyclone.

Video: I once daringly filmed a thunderstorm from the terrace. But this is pretty much how cyclones start.

When the water rose in the river, it started pushing against the embankment and if that were to keep on happening, it would eventually break it and flood their fields of rice and vegetables with saltwater and render it useless for agriculture. With nothing to stop nature, the villagers decided to do anything to save their future. They made it to the embankment and laid down, hand-in-hand, on the slope in order to stop the water from breaking the embankment. They lay there for hours till the water calmed down and the worst part of the cyclone had blown over. After I listened to the story, it dawned on me to what lengths the people of the world will go to save their families, their communities and their future from being wiped off of the face of this Earth.

The embankment, made out of sacks of sand and soil, where the villagers lay down to stop it from breaking.

Currently, I work as a Communications Associate at the Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. With this work, I hope to shed more light and bring to the attention of the greater mass the progress of research in the country and the various strides being taken in academia to better the lives of everyone in the world. I believe everyone should have a peek into the work of researchers that strive tirelessly, day and night, to make the world a bit better to live in the next day. It shouldn’t just be exclusive to other researchers and academicians what their labour is bringing to the table. I wish to bridge the gap between the institutes, the society and the administration to make a seamless transaction of information and ideas that will help alleviate local problems using global solutions.

When you spend years living in a single place, you end up looking at your surroundings with greater depth and with each passing year, you become better at analyzing the information you absorb from it. You also bear witness to some of the major changes that take place around you and more often than not, it affects you in ways you don’t understand. But when you do, be sure to act on it. I don’t envision a future where everyone is rich but I do envision one where everyone is happy and no one lives in fear of losing their life to calamities of nature. And to that end, everyone must at least understand the dynamics of the world and how our actions now will shape the future. Because if we don’t start small now, we will never make big changes then. Nobody knows what the future holds or how it will change. But it will change, no doubt. And it is up to us to make it a good one.

Final Video!

So go on ahead and bring small changes.

• Arijit Reeves

Thank you everyone for reading and helping us kick off Season 2! If you would like to learn more about Arijit’s work and get in touch, please let us know. Over the next 6 months, we will invite different guests to share their Climate Autobiographies in their own way. Can’t wait to share the next one on November 3rd!

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In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Glenn Schatz, Chief Revenue Officer at Blocpower! We dig into his background in the Navy, his first encounter with CEO Donnel back in 2014 and how their paths have crossed again to decarbonize every city in the US. You can also, as always, tune in through our Website or Apple Podcasts. Hope you enjoy!

‘Turning Buildings into Teslas’… Blocpower’s new slogan, coined by their CEO, Donnel Baird sounds cool, but what does it mean!?

You might not guess it, but over ⅔ of New York City’s CO2 emissions come from the Built Environment - consisting mostly of man-made infrastructure, such as buildings.

When I learned that, I was surprised at first. I thought transportation, all those cars backed up in midtown traffic, would be a much higher percentage of all emissions.. But transportation makes up only about 30% …

And I guess that makes sense. Think about all the skyscrapers leaking heat out of their glass structures … and also think about the low-income communities who have seen divestment from housing in their neighborhoods for centuries leading to outdated infrastructure, energy inefficiencies, and many other challenges not having to do with climate change...

How do we transition built spaces away from carbon-intensive fuels. AND, an often forgotten variable, how do we do this in a way that actually centers community voices in the planning, strategy, and execution of this transition.

Glenn Schatz, Blocpower’s Chief Revenue Officer was born in Taipei, Taiwan - his mom Taiwanese and dad from Brooklyn. After moving to and growing up in the US, he has spent 2 decades in the Navy (+ is still a part of the reserve team!), and built a passion for combatting climate change.

He first came across Donnel and Blocpower in 2014 during his time at the US Department of Energy in the office looking at building energy efficiency technology. Their stories have evolved and overlapped since then - now Glenn has been brought on to lead their growth!

It was an honor being able to connect with Glenn in person to learn more about his story and the work happening at Blocpower today - when Brym first started crystalizing into reality, Blocpower was one of the first examples I found and said ‘yup - that’s our North Star’. In our first ever 1-pager describing our work, Blocpower is even mentioned briefly…

Definitely a meaningful full-circle moment to share more about why their work is such a guiding force and why it should be for you too.

The Trophy Shelf at Blocpower is Full

Blocpower has been awarded many accolades for their work.

4 most innovative company in the world - Fast Company

Top 50 on CNBC’s list of Disruptors,

Time Magazine top 100 Most Influential Company

Investors include:

Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ Earth Fund

Goldman Sachs

They raised a $75 Million Series A round from some of the most well known funders in the space, allowing them to bring their message across Brooklyn and to different parts of the country.

This all sounds shiny and great - especially for capitalists who are excited about growth, profit, and scale.

But they’re accomplishing all of this for the right reasons. Through their model, they are systemically challenging the status quo from a political, economic, and social perspective, delivering change on a community level all across the country… an embodiment of ‘Think Globally, Act Locally.’

So What’s the Model?

The model is simple at first glance, but the underlying nuances are what differentiates Blocpower from any other organization I’ve ever come across.

On the surface:

‘Turn Buildings into Teslas’ … Blocpower has software that can look at any building and assess: where can we improve heating and cooling efficiencies - the main contributors to carbon emissions from buildings. They are providing this assessment for every building in the country for free.

Their Workforce (more details below) then completes a renovation project that replaces old oil and gas heating/cooling systems with electric heat pumps.

Increased energy efficiency leads to cost savings on monthly utility bills - these go back to the community and also generate revenue for Blocpower!

Underneath the Surface:

When they sign a contract to retrofit a building or community, Blocpower constructs what they call ‘Community Advisory Boards (CABs)’ made up of neighborhood advocates, religious and community leaders, workers and residents to help lead and contribute to the project.

These building retrofits aren’t free, and the hefty upfront costs are usually an inhibitor to low-middle income households adopting renewable energy in homes … In order to finance these construction projects, Blocpower helps communities raise the required money - they go fundraise from Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and others to step in and offer capital so that the communities can leverage their technology and services at $0 upfront. The cost-savings from switching away from oil and gas pay back Blocpower, their investors, along with delivering savings to the building.

Their Co-Founder and CEO, Donnel Baird grew up in Brooklyn and his background is in community organizing. I’ve listened to him speak on a ton of panels and interviews and the classic story that stuck with me is that his family used to turn on the gas stove to heat the apartment in New York winters…. With the windows open to escape carbon monoxide poisoning. Not only is this unsustainable from a climate perspective, but more importantly, it’s dangerous, unhealthy, and a reality for many families that Blocpower is working with.

Environmental Justice - More than a buzzword

While they’re a for-profit company, one of the many reasons for Blocpower’s success is that, in many ways, they prioritize community impact over profit. Plus, their impact lies beyond just decarbonizing buildings - they hit the intersection of public health, community empowerment and even employment.

A couple examples …

NYC Broadband Internet

Many communities take fast wifi for granted. We use it every day for work, to connect with our friends, to check the weather. But this is not a guaranteed right. Blocpower has also invested to establish community wifi in neighborhoods or buildings without access to this resource. According to Glenn, Donnel, and others, this is a huge piece of leveling the playing field and offering resources to underserved communities…. And it’s prioritized even though it might not be necessarily the most profitable business channel.

Clean Energy Workforce Development Training Program - Civilian Climate Corps

Mayor Eric Adams has given Blocpower a $40-50 million contract to train construction workers from the 5 most ‘Gun Violence Impacted Communities’ in New York City. These individuals have been identified by the NYPD and District Attorney’s Office to be most likely to be involved in a future incident of gun violence. Some are war veterans, survivors of domestic violence, former foster children, and formerly incarcerated individuals, all offered a door into the green buildings revolution. They are brought in to execute the building retrofits and trained in the high-tech future of the built environment.

Momentum is Growing

Many countries, states, and cities are making commitments to achieve net-zero by 2030 or 2050 or somewhere in between (hopefully). And decarbonizing the built environment is a HUGE component of doing this, especially in urban communities.

The first city to stick their neck out, Ithaca, NY, has committed to decarbonize every building - 0 fossil fuels - by 2030 through Blocpower.

Menlo Park, CA followed suit this year, with the goal of electrifying 15 buildings in 2022, 100 in 2023, then 1,000 or more every year after that…

The City/State leadership in Ithaca and Menlo Park are hoping that the examples in their municipalities can build a path for others. Across (just!) the US, there are $4 trillion worth of projects to do…. so there’s a long way to go. More people need to invest in their model, more communities need to make the commitment, and we’ll get there.

Community Ownership and Neighborhoods of the Future

If you have some time to fill with a Youtube video, take a look at this panel. And if you don’t have time to hear the full hour, zoom in on time stamps 18:00, 26:00 and 36:00. A few of the many reasons why I love what Blocpower is bringing to the table…

Maybe with more organizations following Blocpower’s lead, low and middle income communities will become more involved in the green transition and as a result see more of the benefits as well. Glenn and Donnel have made the amazing point…

If we had been investing in solar factories or other types of green energy to create good jobs in West Virginia, we’d have a Climate Infrastructure Bill passed through the US Congress right now because Senator Joe Manchin would be in support.

It’s the right thing to do, but that’s oftentimes not enough to make change in our political or economic world… so they’re making the economic case as well. They are showing that there is room to challenge priorities in our current version of capitalism and still raise hundreds of millions of dollars to support your project.

And there are ways to get involved!

The cool thing is that they invite all types of fundraising to support their work. Individuals can invest as little as $100 through equity crowdfunding campaigns - specifically on Raisegreen’s Marketplace - and see a return on your investment. A quick shout out to Raisegreen… they are a great way for community members to get involved in projects near them. Blocpower is not fundraising now, but may again in the future. If you’re in the US, look for a project you’re interested in and support!!

END OF SEASON 1!

Thank you so much for being a part of this journey so far!!! If you haven’t seen it, please check out our end of season update, stay tuned for more info and enjoy your Summers until then :)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brym.substack.com

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In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Malik Saric, Horticulture Manager at Brooklyn Grange! We dig into our time growing up in NYC, his amazing garden in Bushwick, BK, and how he believes education and the environment can intersect to build more justice into our food system! You can also, as always, tune in through our Website or Apple Podcasts. Hope you enjoy!

A Garden in Brooklyn

9 months ago, I visited my old friend, Malik Saric, at his Brooklyn apartment in Bushwick. After escaping death a few times, weaving in and out of cars on my bike down Broadway Ave, I entered through the gate of an old ground floor parking lot and into a beautiful oxymoron.

Over the last two years, Malik has reimagined his empty parking lot into an ecosystem. As you look around to take it in, everything seems out of place but also perfectly meant to be…

Old tables and dressers scatter towards a kitchen sink filled with soil, a new home for Morning glories. A hand-built raised bed, initially filled with mushroom compost, now burgeons with mushrooms bursting through the cracks during Summer. Vegetables like spinach, kale, green beans, peppers, tomatoes, (everything started from seeds indoors or directly in the garden) harmonize with herbs, flowers and more….

Malik glows as he talks about how every piece of this ecosystem has been ‘refurbished or recycled or found on the street’. Someone was throwing out the sink before he turned it into a flower pot, old Nike sneakers are home to hanging flowers, big blue bins ground tropical plants I’ve never seen before.

I remember visiting this space last year - I also remember the pickled peppers he gave me … and the interaction with God that they led to (they were hot peppers). I remember the tomato off the vine and dark green bell pepper that went down a lot easier than the chile. :)
But I’ll mostly remember this day as one of the moments that inspired me on my own sustainability journey. A few months after our visit, I went to volunteer on an organic farm in Chilé for a month and have recently even built a raised bed of my own in Brooklyn. With any luck, some tomatoes will grow from there this Summer (which Malik helped me plant, of course).

City Kids

People don’t expect to be walking through the streets of New York City and see such an explosion of green and color, especially built into someone’s home…
Malik and I both grew up in Manhattan, but we come from different histories… his Mother grew up on a farm, and his maternal grandfather raised horses, ducks, show dogs, and 10,000 chickens… sounds like a good time. His Dad is from Bosnia, and his paternal grandfather was an award-winning beekeeper… they decided to move to the city to raise Malik.

While from different histories, we both agree that as city kids, our relationship with the earth is weird. We grew up on concrete, much like the empty parking lot at Malik’s place. New York is a great city, partly because it has so many beautiful parks, but it’s still easy, especially if you grow up here, to feel distant and disconnected from the natural environment around you.
That’s why I was so inspired by Malik’s re-imagining of the city space around him. It’s not just about the garden looking pretty, either. He believes we can ‘bring food closer to the people who are consuming it, especially in the city…Right now, healthy food is not affordable for everyone. Which is interesting, because growing food is actually very cheap.’ There’s a lot to learn from the example Malik is setting.
Edible Schoolyard

Thinking back on our lives growing up in the city, Malik started to ask himself how we could get more kids, rural and urban, excited about the environment and ecology. He spent two years doing Teach for America in Richmond, CA - building a passion for education.

We all experience formative moments along our self-discovery journeys… one of Malik’s was going to Chez Panisse and learning about Alice Waters’ contribution to the Edible Schoolyard project and the Slow Food Movement.
I had never heard of the Edible Schoolyard Project before, but please go check them out. The foundation of their work is to center education around organic school gardens, transforming learning into a hands-on experience that connects kids with ‘food, nature and each other,’ according to the organization’s mission statement.

This intersection of education and environment is where Malik’s passion has taken root. He believes that Holistic Learning should include movement, especially ‘for kids who are kinesthetic learners. Working in gardens, working with food, using their whole bodies… ties theoretical knowledge into experiential learning and draws applications into their own lives.’

For Malik, ‘The Kids need to eat what they’re working with…’ In his experience, if kids can learn what veges picked straight off the vine taste like, they also learn that growing your own food (and preparing it) can be really fun! Especially when growing food is a community activity - like eating with friends or feeding your family.
Grow Your City

Last week, we heard from Peter Kirketofte, in Fredericia, Denmark, about his ‘Grow Your City’ program. I think Malik’s story is a great follow up - he is quite literally growing the city around us and setting an inspirational example for people like me who wanted to dive into a new relationship with the earth but didn’t know where to start… as Malik and Robin Wall Kimmerer suggest: start a garden!

Growing your city can be a small act of organizing against the larger, and broken, food system. If your own food comes from your backyard or from someone you know close by, this disconnects communities from the larger supply chain owned by huge monopolistic food producers and allows a group to operate outside the typical economic, social and political systems in place.
We can each grow our own impact on our city - and this movement is completely inclusive. For decades, especially in NYC, we’ve experienced that community gardens can be empowering for immigrant communities - allowing them to center their culture in a new place, sharing food and time together in a space that they design.

Whether you’re an individual or a community, from NYC or Bosnia or anywhere in between, take a listen to the interview with Malik and if you’re thinking about building a garden, let us know… Malik and I will also be working this Summer on pulling together on a guide for resources on gardening.

Malik now works with the Brooklyn Grange - the organization that he speaks to in our conversation together - started as a project to refurbish huge industrial rooftops into rooftop gardens. Their goal is to providing high quality food to communities + helping divert rainwater runoff, which can flood sewers and his a huge issue in NYC + offering educational opportunities for local schools.

Please reach out if you’d like to get in touch with Malik!

Recommended Reading:

Barbara Kingsolver -

‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ - A family’s reflections on 1 year of only eating their own food or food from someone who they knew grew it.

Poisonwood Bible
Robin Wall Kimmerer -

Braiding Sweetgrass

Looking Forward

Believe it or not, this is Brym’s 13th case study and podcast episode!!! If you’ve missed any or just want to take a look back through the journey, you can find the case studies and podcasts all on our website.

Season 1, which started January 4th, is close to wrapping up to take a break for the most of July and August. We need to wrap our heads around what we’ve learned and take time to give thanks for all the amazing people who have been involved… there are some exciting evolutions developing that I can’t wait to share with everyone.

Please look out for a short note from us next week, giving an update on our progress so far, and then our last Study and podcast of Season 1 will come out on July 7!! Thank you so much again for taking the time to dive in with us… and thank you for your support of this new initiative all year. See you soon!

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In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Peter Kirketofte, CEO at Kanal Byen. This interview was recorded in Denmark only a week into Peter’s time in his new role!! You can also, as always, tune in through our website or Apple Podcasts. Hope you enjoy!

Intro

Denmark has always seemed to me like a Star Trek-esque country - futuristic, full of great cheese and also new technology. Ok fine, I’m not sure Star Trek boasts futuristic cheese…I’m more of a Star Wars fan anyway. But when it comes to innovative tech solutions to climate change, Denmark has always stood out to me as a shining example of what’s possible.

And in some ways, that’s true. Unlike the US, Denmark is actually on track to hit carbon neutrality by 2050, a goal agreed to by many governments during the 2021 COP26 conference in Glasgow (including the US). Denmark currently has 50% of its energy coming from solar and wind power with the goal of 100% by 2030 and has specifically doubled down with other Scandinavian countries on maximizing off-shore wind potential.

Beyond tech, they also have one of the best examples of high-functioning Democratic Socialism in the world. While the US is busy building an anti-Socialism campaign across our polity, Denmark’s citizens enjoy free education through university (plus a stipend for students from 14-22 years old), free healthcare for all, the highest ratings for Happiness in the world (yes, countries measure that), low poverty, incredible long-distance transportation infrastructure, and other programs sponsored by the government that are helping all sectors of society including the environment. While the US can’t get a comprehensive Infrastructure Bill through Congress, countries like Denmark seem to be leaving us in the dust.

But every square km of Denmark isn’t a perfect Scandinavian paradise. They are still a part of our global capitalist economy and lower income communities experience the negative effects of that system much like similar communities in other parts of the world.

In today’s Case Study, we’ll hold a magnifying glass up to a specific Danish town called Fredericia, about a 2-hour train ride from the capital of Copenhagen… spending time in Fredericia, I learned more about their industrial past and challenges that come along with being a port town known for shipping and ‘heavy industry’ like fertilizer production. I also left inspired by many innovative programs that are allowing them to re-imagine their physical space and what is possible within their community. Excited to share more…

Fredericia

After a couple days in Copenhagen, my mom and I had the chance to hop on the train and head out to Fredericia. We have been there a few times because my mom has a relationship with the theater in the town - well known across Denmark and internationally, the theater is a center for the community. It’s a small, quiet city with, in addition to the theater, a couple schools, a burgeoning waterfront, and an old castle with ramparts that overlook a stretch of river that leads to the North Sea.

This town reminded me a lot of my ancestors’ hometown in South Wales, Merthyr Tydfil mostly because of its history as a center of the industrial revolution. Instead of coal mining, though, Fredericia's past was molded from its geography as a port. For hundreds of years, they were a hub for shipping and an important stop along a path delivering goods out from Europe to the Baltic and North Seas. That history has left its mark on the land… In recent years, the town has been undergoing a huge re-invention, led in large part by Peter Kirketofte and his organization, Kanal Byen.

A Just Transition

For many generations, hundreds of families have relied on work in Fredericia’s shipping yard to put food on the table. Health of the air, water, and soil was an afterthought. This is the situation so many towns have encountered, in the past and present, and it poses a really complex challenge.

How do you support families who currently rely on jobs that negatively impact the surrounding climate?

How do you think holistically about ‘Health’ to incorporate climate concerns as a variable that impacts human life and survival?

How do you deliver a legitimate alternative rather than just complaining that we ‘Need a new way’ without incorporating the people who might lose their jobs.

Is there a win-win scenario?

The inability for the US to answer these questions has led local leaders like Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia to push back against anything to do with ‘Climate’ legislation… check out Donnel Baird’s thoughts on this. “If we had spent the last 5 years investing in solar factories and installation factories in West Virginia, we’d have a climate bill right now.” The $$ flowing to Sen Machin from the fossil fuel industry is a different, connected issue, but I digress…

Grow Your City

As we envision a true alternative and a Just Transition, Peter and Kanal Byen are leading a few really great initiatives in downtown Fredericia, by the waterfront that was hit hardest by their industrial past. I’ll outline their projects briefly below:

Grow Your City

15 years ago, the town started a program called, ‘Grow Your City’. For 500 Kroner a year, about $71, you can own 10 raised beds filled with soil. In these beds, you can plant produce, flowers, or anything in between. Your plots will be located amongst the beds of other families who are growing their own!

While being a great source of locally sourced, fresh food, this has also been a great way for the community to come together on the issue of their green transition. The town hosts concerts at the Grow Your City venue, school education events, and provides a common space open to the public.

I imagine this working really well in parts of New York where families just don’t have the space indoors to grow produce but could cut down on massive amounts of CO2 emissions, and eat better food, if there was a common place to plant in each community.

Container Living

One of the great re-imaginings of their physical space, the town is transitioning old containers that used to be used for shipping into sustainable living spaces. These are affordable housing options, also located right next to the Grow Your City plots. Other containers are also canvases for local artists and/or rented to local entrepreneurs selling ice cream, food, and drinks, down by the waterfront.

Tree Planting

Also 15 years ago, they started planting different species of trees and devised an experiment: which trees best filter out the fertilizer left over in the soil along the water… many of the early generations of trees died because they could not handle the level of contamination, but over time, the natural filtration system has worked and soil health is on the up!

Green Space

They have built a park just about a hundred feet from the water where school kids are coming to play and learn about the transition of the town. They have even transplanted some of the older trees used for filtration to be a part of the new green park.

Just Transition

In order to support the workers who used to work in the shipping industry, they have increased the amount of jobs in the transportation sector. The transition of the town is attracting more and more people, so jobs for creating that infrastructure are increasing. They have also built new technical colleges in town to offer increased skill training to individuals and families who want to expand their work beyond those traditional sectors.

For me, the concept of ‘Growing Your City’ back to life is special. Not necessarily because of the concept of growth from an economic standpoint but because of the applications this has towards applying natural solutions to solve the problem. Today, these are called Regenerative Solutions.

Another Quick Example

Definitely also take a look at the work being done in Malmo, Sweden - another fantastic example of an industrial port city transitioning to a ‘Living Lab’ and ‘City of the Future’. Their waterfront district D001 runs 100% of renewable energy (already!!) and is a North Star for groups like Peter’s.

I had the opportunity to take a day trip to Malmö and learn more… here’s a visual blueprint for how the D001 District has imagined and executed their vision.

Takeaways

Be brave! If you listen through the interview I had with Peter, this was his final message for any local leaders who are thinking about how to re-define the history of their community towards sustainability.

You’ll notice that many of the above programs in Fredericia started about 15 years ago… there's a reason for that. Peter taught me about the Mayor at the time who made this happen. He decided to buy back the waterfront land from the shipping companies on behalf of the municipality and then asked the heavy industry fertilizer and shipping companies to leave the community. The response wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows…. He was beaten in the next election because of much of the backlash. But he set Fredericia on a path to a new future. I wish more elected leaders would stick their neck out like this.

There are so many towns across the world trying to recover from generations of air, water, and soil pollution… whether you're a government leader, an entrepreneur, an academic, a student, or anywhere in between, take Peter’s blueprint and run with it!

Peter is excited to connect with anyone who has questions or new ideas!!!

Thanks for reading :)

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Hey Everybody… before we dive in, I think it’s important to take a moment to send prayers and whatever other form of good spirit you believe in to our brothers and sisters in Uvalde, Texas… a moment like this really puts things in perspective.

At a loss for any type of good transition, I’m going to jump right in and share an amazing story with all of you - I know I need signs of hope right now, I’m guessing others might too…

As always, you can also read the full case study on our website HERE and listen to our full interview on Apple Podcasts @Brym Labs…

Intro

Next on our journey, we travel to the Middle East, to Lebanon, to meet with Nouhad Awwad! Nouhad represents Greenpeace MENA (Middle East and North Africa), specifically campaigning for the new Ummah for Earth Alliance.

While sadly I did not have a chance to meet with Nouhad in person this time around, I had the pleasure of hearing her speak on a panel during the COP26 conference back in Glasgow in October of last year… which feels like ages ago.

Nouhad was speaking as part of a discussion called ‘Faith in action to strengthen community-led and gender inclusive adaptation for climate justice.’ Along with Patriciah Roy Akullo, Waseem Ahmad, Shahin Ashraf and others, the conversation was focused on how faith-driven groups can take on leadership roles within the climate movement. Nouhad, through her work with Ummah for Earth and Greenpeace is creating a great example for other communities (of faith and otherwise) to learn from… can’t wait to share a tiny bit about her work with all of you.

Early Days

Nouhad was raised in Lebanon, and shared with me early memories of times with her mom where the emphasis was to always be thinking about how they could live with respect for the earth. From picnics where her mom would make sure they didn’t leave any trash behind, to making sure they limited waste in their home, her experiences growing up made her more aware of her relationship with the physical world around her. This reminds me a lot of my experience growing up with my mom who, when we had any free time, would always bring me to parks in New York. As a kid growing up in the city, time in those parks helped shape a lot of what I’m passionate about today.

Much like most of the great activists and organizers that I’ve met, Nouhad started out thinking locally. ‘How can I impact the people around me in my community?’ Taking part in different climate initiatives from an age of 14, like local beach cleanups, she continued her work and finally achieved an Undergraduate and Masters degree in Environmental Sciences.

Seeing her passion growing, one of her professors shared an opportunity for her to take on more responsibility and Nouhad went on to form the Arab Youth Climate Movement in Lebanon in 2012… Over time, her movement grew to expand across many different countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa like Egypt and Qatar until eventually she caught the attention of the United Nations.

In 2015, Nouhad received a scholarship from YUNGA to attend the UN negotiations in Paris and this is when her work went from Regional to Global. The UN invited her not only to attend but also to speak at this international gathering, becoming an important focal point and representative for young voices usually ignored or overlooked in global climate discussions.

Over time, Nouhad has had an important part to play in SO many different initiatives but I’ll name just a few below… her Linkedin shares much more!

YUNGA focal point for developing countries in 2017

Sustainable Development Network Ambassador for Arab Youth

Climate Action Network Regional Coordinator

All of this early work led to her joining Greenpeace MENA (Middle East & North Africa) as an organizer and campaigner. In 2019, through her role with Greenpeace, she helped launch the Ummah for Earth Alliance.

Ummah for Earth

The alliance is a special mixture of different Muslim-centered groups from around the world who have come together centered around shared values of sustainability and climate justice.

Ummah for Earth started in 2019, founded by Nouhad at Greenpeace MENA, along with 3-4 other organizations like GlobalOne, Islamic relief Worldwide and Greenpeace Indonesia. They had many goals, but principle amongst them were:

Raise inclusion of Muslim voices in the climate movement.

3 year goal → ‘Catalyze a new, resilient Muslism climate movement’

Reach new audiences and have Muslim voices heard.

The list of Alliance Members is growing, even since we first met in October of last year. A combination of organizations, individuals, movements, the alliance brings together a vast global community to share experiences and collaborate.

Here is the full list of the current Alliance Members

What are they Focused on?

I’ve been inspired by many things that they’re working on, I’ll name a few below:

Ummah Stories

This incredible initiative invites activists, academics, entrepreneurs, (faith) organizations, and more to share their own experiences on:

How climate change has affected their lives

AND stories of Action to show examples of how they are organizing themselves to build solutions.

Over 180 stories have been submitted to the platform across a broad range of topics… according to Nouhad, ‘Climate change intersects with so many different parts of peoples’ lives, we want to bring awareness around real life impacts.’

Another huge goal of the Ummah Stories initiative is to provide youth with a platform to engage with each other and celebrate success stories. The overall message is one of hope and agency… ‘change is possible and you can be a part of it.’ And they don’t have to change the world overnight, they can engage on whatever level they see that can make a difference..

Green Ramadan

During the month of Ramadan, this is the time for ‘good deeds’... so In this component of their work, they created a ‘Truth or Dare’ game that engaged 90,000 young Muslims across the world and challenged to take climate action during the holy month of Ramadan, with an emphasis on ‘taking a stewardship role for earth.’

Green guide to Hajj + Umrah !!!

For those who don’t know the difference (I didn’t), Hajj is an obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah) that must be undertaken within 10 days of the start of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah. Umrah is that same pilgrimage to Mecca (Makkah) but can be undertaken by anyone at any given time of year.

As communities make their plans for these ‘visits’, Ummah for Earth launched an app that acts as a guide for how people can go about these religious traditions in a climate friendly way. Their goal is to help people move from an individual focus on the ritual itself to more collective action - how can we as a community think about these important moments and their relationship to the environment around us.

Green Mosques Initiative: Solar Project - Glasgow Central Mosque

Heading into COP26 last October, Ummah for Earth put their money where their mouth is and partnered with the Glasgow Central Mosque to install solar panels on their roof.

With the event transpiring in the city, Nouhad’s initiative showed that Faith communities could step up and lead the change.

What does Climate Justice mean for U4E?

While everyone seems to have a different opinion of what ‘climate justice’ or ‘climate action’ means today, Nouhad’s answer was simple: ‘Playing an active role in protecting the planet.’

I appreciate that she leaves her answer open ended so that any young person can find their own entry point into the fight… for those looking for more detail, she offered:

Raising awareness on mitigation and adaptation on local community levels

Pushing for change on the legislative side

Looking into the future, Nouhad accepts the many challenges in our way, but like her Alliance, she flips the narrative towards hope… there is a lot of good work she is seeing in her region and across the world that seems to be leading to a snowball effect. Hugely important in her mind, indigenous voices are being raised and people are waking up to the reality of needing those communities at the decision making table.

Looking Forward

I’ve had the pleasure of dreaming with Nouhad about what a new future could look like for our generation and for those to come… we’ve spoken about ‘A Global Coalition of Youth’ - what would this look like? How would it come together? I think U4E and Nouhad are a fantastic Sign of Hope for our world and clearly onto something very special.

As I’ve been writing this, Nouhad’s narrative has also pushed me to grapple with my own beliefs regarding faith and what impact it can / should have in connection to climate change. I grew up going to church every Sunday but I’ve fallen off in my consistency, largely because I think I have a different relationship with God that might fall a bit outside the guard-rails that organized religion prescribes… anyway, at the end of the day, whether you’re Christian, Muslim, or anywhere in between, I think one lesson here for me is that the best parts of the faith groups I’ve been a part of are the communities that come together around shared values to support each other in times of need and make a positive impact for those that need it the most… And Nouhad, to that point, is showing that faith can be a powerful organizer to speak to people’s value systems and encourage everyone into a common narrative for climate action.

Get involved!: Sign the Pledge of Ummah for Earth and share your stories!

If you’ve made it this far or just scrolled to the bottom, thanks so much for reading :)

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We’re in Double Digits!!! Episode 10 comin’ at ya. As always, you can also read the full case study on our website HERE and listen to our full interview on Apple Podcasts @Brym Labs

In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Shri B.B. Subba, Secretary of Horticulture for the Government of Sikkim, a ‘small’ State in Northeastern India setting a great example for the rest of the world. This audio was recorded during an in-person presentation in Gangtok at their government offices! I would suggest listening in tandem with the Case Study below - where you can learn about the efforts of their department in much more detail.

Intro

What if a government and their people could actually produce a coordinated effort to create a more sustainable climate AND economy?

Sikkim, the second smallest Indian State, is tucked among the Himalayas in the northeastern corner of the country. They are the first state, not just in India but in the world, to become a ‘100% Organic State’. At the same time, they are creating new jobs for young people and building a strong economy, exemplifying that sustainability and development can go hand in hand… if the government and community are aligned on how to achieve that vision.

Amidst the contentious histories of India’s Green Revolution, when chemical fertilizers were first introduced in response to famine in the 1960s, and the more recent ‘Farmer’s Protests’ in 2020/2021, when an estimated 250 Million Indians took a stand against agricultural neoliberalism and formed the world’s largest ever organized strike, Sikkim is writing a new narrative.

I had the honor of sitting down with the Government Secretary of Horticulture, Mr. Shri B.B. Subba in Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, to learn more. I’m excited to share my interview with Mr Subba and help tell the story of how their ‘small’ state can provide a substantial blueprint for other states in India and across the world.

Also, before I dive in, don’t just take my word for their impressive record… here are a list of national and global accolades given to Sikkim for their example and leadership in futuristic planning and sustainability:

Future Policy Gold Award, 2018 in Rome, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Delhi-based research institute Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) - Sustainable Development Leadership award to Chief Minister Chamling (2016)

Germany-Based International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) - One World Award Grand Prix (2017)

Khangchendzonga National Park was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the 11th Biosphere Reserve added to UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves in July 2018.

Indian Agribusiness Excellence Award, 2017

National Kalam Innovation Governance Award, 2018

Also, a quick shout out to Cuba!! Cuba is the only other country/state that has a government-driven mission for total organic farming.

The Journey - Getting to Sikkim

At the end of April, right after leaving the Sundarbans and JGVK, (at the Southeastern most point of India) my dad and I set off on a 24-hour journey to Sikkim (India’s northeastern most State) at the foothills of the Himalayas.

The journey started with a 3 hour drive to Kolkata, then we took an overnight train 13 hours North to Siliguri. Bunk beds lined the sides of the train cars - we were lucky to be in a section with air conditioning … and to meet some new friends from neighboring bunks! From Siliguri, we took an electric, three-wheeled ‘Auto’ to the town bus terminal, where we were ushered into the back seat of a ‘Shared Jeep.’ 10 total people smushed into a 3-row jeep van was a new experience that tested the alignment of our spines and that bumpy ride was our home for the next 3 hours as we climbed the hills at the feet of the Himalayan Mountain Range, arriving next in a town called Darjeeling.

Our family (my grandmother, Frances Helen and great-grandparents, Walter and Mary) lived in Kolkata and Darjeeling almost 100 years ago. So before heading to Sikkim, we spent some time researching our family history first at the school where my grandma attended when she was just 3-5 years old. We found the old cottage where they lived, holding an old black and white picture up to the brightly colored day to confirm the match.

Finally, our last Shared Jeep brought us further North, through the border at Jorethang, out of the state of West Bengal (where Kolkata and Darjeeling are based) and into Sikkim. Jaws drop as you climb higher. Clouds dip into the stunning mountain range like a system of intertwined rivers flowing down from the largest mountain range in the world.

The Background

During my first weeks in India, I had heard tales of Sikkim and their wonderful momentum towards a sustainable and completely ‘Organic’ society. Ahead of our journey North, I was able to learn more thanks to a lucky find in a Kolkata used bookstore - Jiwan Rai’s Remember the Name: Sikkim: India’s First Organic State. I highly suggest everyone reads this for more details on the political, social, cultural and economic context of this beautiful place.

The Sikkimese message is simple but profound - “Organic farming can heal our Earth, help our families, and offer hope for our shared future. Will anyone listen? Will anyone join us?”

There is so much to highlight about their work, but it’s already impressive you’ve read this far :) so here’s what we’ll prioritize …

A brief history of Sustainable agriculture in India and how Sikkim plays into that picture

What does being a ‘100% Organic State’ actually mean? How does their mentality represent a larger movement beyond just farming and gardening practices?

As the first state in the world, not only India, to achieve this, how did they actually pull this off? I’ve included a table of specific actions below rather than try to write them all in narrative form.

Where does Sikkim go from here? How can we follow?

Sikkim - A Brief History:

The Green Revolution in the 1960s introduced pesticides (many supplied by the US) and showed great promise in the first few years after adoption. However, farmers started to realize quickly that while short term yields were up, the soil and crops were changing… and not for the better.

“What began as a genuine desire to increase agricultural productivity in Sikkim through chemicals has become dangerous to the soil and to the health of the people and livestock.” (Rai)

They had to seek a different approach that would better position the health of Sikkim over the long-term.

28 years ago, in 1994, Chief Minister Chamling was elected into leadership. It seems that this transition / push for sustainability started with him in many ways. After he was elected, he made a speech that immediately struck me because it is something I have never heard from the US:

‘To All with Love,

My government is with all those farmers who deserve a dignified life anchored to a dignified profession. The state government will lend every possible aid by way of subsidies, rebates, start-up loans, consultation, capacity building, free benefits doled out to farmers by the state government etc. This offer is for all farmers, agro-entrepreneurs and educated youth who aspire a career in organic farming.’ - Pawan Chamling

From Day 1, Chamling was unwavering in his commitment to this strategy and it has paid off. And not just in success for the ecology of Sikkim but for the economic livelihoods of its people. In the mid-1990s, 41% of the population was living in extreme poverty. By 2011-12, that had dropped to just 8%...

Of course, wary of correlation vs causation, there are other factors that might have impacted this drop in poverty than just the Organic transition, but the variable of Sikkim’s new ‘Organic Mission’ should also not be understated.

Some other fun facts on Sikkim

ALL of their cultivable land is now certified organic - over 76,000 hectares.

Sikkim only occupies 2% of land in India, but it is home to 26% of flowering plants species.

82.31% of geographical area is under administrative protection of State Forestry, Environment & Wildlife Management Depts - ie Forests + Glaciers

Geographically, Sikkim is the only Indian State with five climatic zones (tropical, sub-tropical, temperate, sub-alpine and alpine) all within 114 kilometers, capped by majestic Mt Kanchenjunga, India’s highest, and the world’s third highest, mountain.

Beyond ecology, Sikkim has the lowest crime rate based on stats on murder, theft, kidnapping, rape, and riots

Sikkim is also the safest state in India for women while having the best working conditions for them as well. (Rai, xv)

Sikkim is the only state that produced an increase in forest cover, achieving an increase of 4% over the 20 year period from 1993-2013 - that increase is still expanding today.

2. What does ‘Organic farming’ actually mean?

100% of Sikkim’s cultivable land is now certified organic on an international standard… this means that after state-wide testing of soil, there are no traces of chemical fertilizers. This took a lot of hard work after the history of fertilizers in the region, but now they can start from ground zero with a terrific foundation. This also allows their farmers to benefit from selling a much more desired product at a greater price point (both nationally and internationally).

The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) defines organic farming as (Rai, p 84):

To produce food of high quality in sufficient quantity

To interact in a constructive and life enhancing way with natural systems and cycles.

To consider the wider social and ecological impact of the organic production and processing system.

To encourage and enhance biological cycles within the farming system, involving micro-organisms, soil flora and fauna, plants and animals.

To develop a valuable and sustainable aquatic ecosystem

To maintain and increase long term fertility of soils.

To promote the healthy use and proper care of water, water resources and all life therein.

To use, as far as possible, renewable resources in a locally organized production system

To give all livestock conditions of life with due consideration for the basic aspects of their innate behavior.

To minimize all forms of pollution

To process organic products using renewable resources

To produce fully biodegradable organic products

To allow everyone involved in organic production and processing a quality of life which meets their basic needs and allows an adequate return and satisfaction from their work, including a safe working environment.

To progress toward an entire production, processing and distribution chain which is both socially just and ecologically responsible.

I know that’s a lot of bullet points, but I love this definition because of how comprehensive and futuristic it is. Sikkim’s Organic Mission is not just about how to grow a garden, the vision encapsulates an outlook on life and social systems that includes the best interests of every being involved.

3. Specific Actions Taken, spearheaded by state government and implemented by communities

The above table is an attempt to consolidate and organize many of Sikkim’s actions since the mid-1990s - HOW they implement all of these is equally as impressive.

The below breakdown shows the 5 levels of actors that work together to collectively make decisions and implement solutions like new technologies.

Individuals

Pachayats - decentralized community governments with locally elected leaders

Grand Panchayat Units (5-6 Panchayats combine to make 1 GPU)

State Agencies - like the Horticulture Dept or Forest Dept - coordinate efforts with GPUs

Chief Minister + Cabinet set agenda based on community feedback

Information flows up and down this structure fluidly, inviting inputs from above and implementing solutions from below.

4. Where is Sikkim Going and how can we Follow?

Sikkim is a very new state, having only joined the Indian Union and voting in favor of democracy rather than monarchy in 1975. Being a young state has its disadvantages, but it can also be an exciting blank canvas on which to build something completely unique. Sikkim also has the advantage of learning from the previous mistakes of other states, maybe even the Green Revolution practices that occurred in the 1960s. That’s why building something new is so exciting.

Sikkim’s leadership clarifies a choice for us all, asking: What are our priorities?

Option A: Neoclassical economic mission ‘to maximize profits regardless of the cost to the earth and its ecosphere’.

Option B: Organic Mission to ‘promote sustainable development through an eco-friendly approach’.

In my mind, beyond the social, political, economic lens, the choice also boils down to Short-Term vs Long-Term.

Sikkim has chosen an Organic Mission that considers long-term prosperity over short term profits. And in the words of Mr Subba, this is inspiring the next generation of Sikkim to choose farming as their profession rather than falling into the corporate structure that is pulling so many young Indians into the urban centers from rural communities like Sikkim. The young farmers, in great part to the support of government structure, have started to thrive in a flourishing economic climate and biosphere.

Next, another positive economic result, Sikkim will advocate for Carbon Credits from the national and international community. Their increasing Forest land absorbs tremendous amounts of carbon + Streams / Rivers that descend from their glaciers flow down into the Indian plains to be used for agricultural irrigation and clean drinking water. They are seeking compensation for these resources they’ve worked so hard to protect.

And now, with 100% of land now certified organic, they can start to ramp up production + think outside the box to new technologies like hydroponics (soil-less) and vertical farming to make better use of their resources and drive revenue back into the farming industry!!!

My time in India was an amazing experience, and even more meaningful to be able to share it with my dad. Very few sons get this much time with their fathers, and even fewer have an opportunity to take adventures with them when you both are adults and friends. I’m returning to the USA with a soul full of gratitude for everyone who looked out for me along the way and took the time to teach me about a new way to approach life. I look forward to returning the favor.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this (LONG) case study today. AS always, you can read and listen more on our website: Brym.co…

If you’re looking for some recommended reading, take a gander at Jiwan Rai’s BOOK, which was the foundation for my research for this study. Also just a quick and inspiring read, based on identifying actions rather than doomsday rhetoric.

:)

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Sustainability isn’t just about plants and trees. How we engage with our world affects every aspect of our lives… the food we eat, the air we breathe, our health, our livelihoods, our relationships with each other, and, as we’ll focus on during this case study, the fresh water we drink.

And in this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear from Tridib Reeves, Project Leader of the Sustainable Water Resource Management (SWRM) team at Joygopalpur Gram Vikash Kendra, JGVK. This audio was recorded during an in-person presentation at by the SWRM team - apologies in advance for any choppy sound quality… Excited to share more of their story below!

Introduction: The Sundarbans

About a 3 hour drive southeast of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal, India, is a region called the Sundarbans. Characterized and well-known for being the largest mangrove delta in the world, this ecosystem and natural embankment provides an essential defense system for the surrounding, low-lying wetland communities.

A few other interesting facts about the Sundarbans:

The mangrove forests are home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, of which I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse during my time there. Also unique to the area are the Gangetic freshwater Dolphins and the prowling 15 foot crocodiles that look like floating logs drifting down the rivers…

Sundarban honey is known as (some of) the best in the world. Local farmers trek deep into the forest to harvest small amounts and sadly are often killed by tigers who are known for attacking humans in the villages surrounding the forests.

The Sundarban National Park is like the Florida coast on steroids. Thousands of miles of rivers intertwine to create countless islands and wetlands… you’ll see mangrove roots (which actually grow upwards out of the soil instead of down to avoid the salt water and breathe the oxygen out of the air) signal the arrival of new protective barriers against the next round of cyclones.

The first climate refugee ever recorded fled from this region, highlighting what is still true today: low-lying wetland communities are constantly under threat and being hit hardest by climate change, especially as tropical storms and floodings increase.

The Sundarbans are a UNESCO Heritage Site and span across both India (40%) and Bangladesh (60%).

JGVK - Joygopalpur Gram Vikash Kendra

During my time researching in India, I had the opportunity and privilege to be invited to the Sundarbans to spend time with a local island community, Joygopalpur, hosted by an organization based there, JGVK.

Sandwiched between the Matla and Bidyadhari Rivers, the journey to JGVK’s campus is entrancing. You pass alongside beautiful banana trees and rice paddies for as far as the eye can see until, at last, you arrive at a gate and enter into what looks like a university campus, just miles from the Sundarbans National Park.

On our journey, I was accompanied by recent Calcutta University Masters graduate, Arijit Reeves, an incredibly smart and driven young man who also turned out to be a great friend. His father, Tridib, is the Project Leader of the Sustainable Water Resources Management (SWRM) project at JGVK and was able to give us a great introduction to the work they are doing today… I’m excited to share a bit about what I learned and how we can get involved in their mission.

April 20th: Presentation by SWRM!

The first day we arrived, the Sustainable Water Resources Management team sprung into action and immediately walked us through a comprehensive powerpoint presentation - I will break it down into three parts.

Identified challenges the community is facing with it’s fresh water system

Community solutions they have built to combat the challenges

Finally, and most importantly, how they are manifesting + implementing those solutions everyday in their work

Challenges

Above ground salt water level is rising.

Tridib and his team have recorded an incredible 4 feet increase in high tide water levels over just the last 7 years. Two Sundarban islands - Ghoramara and Mousuni - are already almost completely submerged after two cyclones last year, Yaas and Amphan. Residents have been ushered off the islands by the West Bengal government - adding to the climate refugee totals in the Sundarbans.

Underground fresh water level is decreasing.

The team takes monthly measurements of groundwater at ‘Tube Wells’, situated from village to village where the community comes to pump. Their year-over- year recordings of water levels show drastic changes… water was only 8.58 meters down in the well at its lowest level in 2015, 11.34 meters down in 2020 and a huge jump to 15.07 meters in 2021… this change compared to the rising sea level has eyebrows raised and Tribid’s team is asking questions…

Overnight shifts from drought to storm-level rainfall causes huge flooding

Rainfall has been lower than average over the last 7 years … but abruptly, 46cm (1.5 feet) can fall in a 48 hour period, as was recorded in 2021.

In drought, soil in the Sundarbans loses its permeability. So then when it pours, the rain becomes runoff into the ocean rather than filtering through the soil into the groundwater sources. This is another reason why the sea level has been rising so fast.

Water for drinking vs cultivation

70-80% of water in India is used for agriculture and this challenge applies to Joygopalpur as well. Based on the data they’ve gathered, there is a very strong correlation between the number of shallow pumps in a village (pumps used by farmers to distribute water into agricultural fields) and the number of dry wells nearby for drinking water… which makes sense because they both come from the same source.

Solutions

First of all, I was very impressed with their ability to collect such strong data without any support from the government… they were very excited to show me some of their homegrown tactics for providing data like their Rain Gauge, Tidal gauge, Water level meter - all built on their own or built locally rather than having to import from international companies who they said wanted to charge ridiculous prices...

The first priority, after analyzing their data, was that the community needed to find creative ways to USE LESS WATER! A few great examples/tactics below..

SRI Method - ‘System of Rice Intensification’

Before: Keep paddy fields full of water consistently. Plant 3-4 seeds per paddy.

After: Initial small level of water, wait for dry crack in soil, then refill back to small level. Plant 1 seed instead of 3-4

Resulting in higher output + much less water!

Crop adaptation and rotation -

After rice cultivation, mulch land and grow potatoes with remaining moisture.

Next come banana trees, marigold flowers (which are religiously important and can be sold in town), maize, high protein lentils, and mustard seeds.

By rotating crops, all of these can be grown on the same plot of land, increase the biochemical health of the soil, and use much less later.

Maximize all water sources

During rainy season, they use a water catchment system for domestic water use and are showing an example of how to do this successfully outside their school canteen.

Primary filtration with sand+stone, secondary filtration with biochemicals, then the water is ready for domestic use like washing hands and dishes.. This allows for a smaller amount of potable drinking water to be used on these activities instead of just for drinking.

Leveraging data signals to protect lives during the tropical storm season

Last May, readings from their tidal gauges showed huge swings in water levels, indicating a major upcoming weather event… and indeed it was true. They were able to warn the local villages early of the coming of Yaas, one of two major cyclones in 2021, and saved lives by spurring an evacuation of certain areas…

Many of these solutions seem like simple answers but they are all built upon creative identification of challenges and driven by sound data collection & analytics.

Then, to get these solutions to work beyond the gates of their campus, they have to actually get the community to buy into what they’re saying!! This process entails a serious ‘behavior change’ on the part of the community - and therefore a huge part of JGVK’s strategy as an organization includes methods to engage the villages around them to usher in a new wave of collective strategy.

As Tridib says, their strategy is to ‘educate [their] people on the basis of their own knowledge and day-to-day experience combined with data collected by [JGVK].’

How they are manifesting that everyday in their work

The heart of their organization is a School

As I told the staff, this is definitely a school that I would LOVE to go to. They are teaching these kids to be ‘stewards of our planet, not masters over it,’ emphasizing a holistic education that focuses on life skill and character building beyond just test scores.

They also try to work specifically with underserved kids, many of whom only have one parent or a grandparent… some students even live at the school based on their family situations. Incredibly, over 100 families in the larger surrounding communities have lost a father to a tiger attack, so they even have a specific program to support those kids.

They are teaching the community how to implement the success they themselves are seeing:

Biodiversity Education Park:

When you have an exciting example of success, share it! JGVK has built an incredible garden, poultry farm, and educational center… they are known for inviting people into the space to teach farmers and students about the new sustainable methods they are developing…… they will also be inviting university departments from Calcutta University (where I had the chance to speak with some students as well) to come for weekend trips.

Seed bank - they give out productive seeds to farmers FOR FREE as long as they return with double the seed after a successful harvest so JGVK can share with more and more farmers over time.

Community Organizing - not only are they doing incredible research and demonstrations on-site, but they are also going out into the surrounding villages to teach what they are learning. They even have a Farmer’s Field School!!

One amazing example is their Algae Farm! VERY simply put, their team learned that if you pull algae from the many surrounding ponds (most households have one in the backyard), you can dry it, mix it with fish feed, and see huge impacts on the size of fish you harvest at a fraction of the cost… the alternative is paying for pre-made feed which costs much more and doesn’t produce as healthy fish.

Getting farmers to adapt this new strategy was really tough… but as their Agricultural Specialist shared with me, their strategy was simple…start with 4 farmers, bring them onsite to teach them, then work with those 4 to reach a total of 25, then 50, etc. This beautifully simple method allowed farmers to teach themselves over time and encourage their friends to join the movement. This is helping JGVK build TRUST - which according to them and others I’ve spoken with, is at the heart of every community engagement project.

Food for Thought… JGVK ←→ Black Panthers?

This might be a stretch in many ways, but the work that they are doing at JGVK reminded me a lot of the work that was done by the Black Panthers… here are a few points of similarity I noticed:

They are not waiting for support or partnership from the government, they are building their own grassroots programming from the ground up and training the leaders of tomorrow on a different agenda…

They are also actively questioning global socio-economic relations … as Tridib Reeves suggests, ‘we all need to decide what side we’re on…the haves or the have nots.’

One of the combined efforts that the Black Panthers were known for was community food banks, free school lunch, and free health clinics… they understood the importance of building a social movement around politics, education, health, and encouraging a multi-faceted approach to community building.

‘In the struggle for existence’, as Tridib told me, ‘JGVK shows solidarity with women whom [we consider the key player in the development journey among the poor and marginalized.’

In a world where we are so often depressed about the government’s inaction on climate change, JGVK is showing us all an example of what we can do to create our own ‘community systems of change.’

Partnership Moving Forward

On the last day we were with them, they invited us to join their leadership group of teachers, administrators, community organizers and even their founders, Biswajit Mahakur and Ganesh Sengupta, for a ‘Feedback Session’... First of all, I love this concept just in general… they wanted to know what we thought about the experience of being there and what stood out to us. The overall goal? Brainstorming how we can work together in the future…

I told them how much I loved their model and shared a bit about Brym - the thing that seemed to really stick with them was the potential for young individuals, activists, NGOs, and others to come together and share experiences and expertise across community or even national boundaries… ‘A coordinated effort is missing’ according to their founder. ‘Plus, everyone at these NGO meetings is 75 years old and above.’

I’m excited to work with Arijit, and others I’ve met along the way in different parts of the world, to build a global coalition of young people who are passionate about addressing climate change in innovative ways that put local communities first. And what a visionary example to follow at JGVK that reminds us that sustainability doesn’t just mean one thing, it spans across community support for water, food, air, health, education, and impacts our common survival on this planet.

If you want to connect with Tridib Reeves, the Project Leader of the Sustainable Water Resource Management department at JGVK, please let me know… I know I’ll be staying in touch to brainstorm how we can learn from his team and build connections to others across the world who might be able to learn or teach something too.

JGVK is also an independent non-profit organization and relies on donations to support their kids - if you are willing and able to give, HERE is the link. I can also put you in touch with members of their staff if you would like to learn more before committing.

Thanks for reading!

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I would suggest reading the case study below first before listening so you have more context. Regardless, here’s a look inside our episode this week:

Besa Kaoma speaks about his career starting out as a gardener and evolving to an ‘Environmental Education Manager’ for Conservation Lower Zambezi - outlining the curriculum he’s built to teach the communities about local conservation, why it’s important to protect the environment, and how he’s hoping to inspire the next generation of Besa’s to carry the torch forward.

The inception of the NGO Coalition ‘Save Zambezi, Safe Zambezi’ and how Besa engaged the local community chiefs and schools, as well as artists across Zambia to raise awareness.

Besa explains why he refuses the claim that Zambians will be the ones to benefit from a mine like Kangaluwi. He speaks about his experience growing up on the Copper Belt and reflecting on working conditions for Zambians who in the mines there (including some places we highlighted in our last Case Study like Black Mountain in Kitwe). Finally, we speak about ways that people around the world can engage to oppose the mining project, including the online petition!
Hope you enjoy!

Intro: The Mighty Zambezi & Victoria Falls

Surging over the cliffs of Victoria Falls, a rainbow-infused shower soaked us to the bone. One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, Victoria Falls is the largest curtain of water on our earth with its face stretching across both Zambia and Zimbabwe. The tail end of Rainy Season filled the Falls to the brim, over 150 million gallons of water per minute diving into the plunge pool below then erupting back up hundreds of feet to produce a never ending tropical rainstorm drenching everything within miles. The shades of green around us will be imprinted on my brain for a long time to come.

Gaining momentum as it continues its journey over the Falls, the waters of the Zambezi River flow Eastward through 6 countries and finally out into the vast Mozambique Delta and the Indian Ocean. The Mighty Zambezi is the 4th longest river in Africa and the largest East-flowing waterway, supporting millions of people in Southern Africa.

At the beginning of April, after witnessing the power of this aptly named Wonder of the World, Kampamba, EJ and I found our way to their friend’s family-run Lodge on the bank of the Zambezi River about 600 kilometers downstream - in the Lower Zambezi National Park. Alongside the Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe (just across the river), the two protected areas combine to be recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There, you will find 350 species of birds, as well as IUCN Red Listed species like the African wild dog, hippo, lion, pangolin, leopard, and a key population of African savannah elephants.

Getting there was a journey in and of itself. We maneuvered from Livingstone through the city of Chirundu, then across about 3 hours of roads meant for Jeeps rather than our rented sedan. We navigated around the fresh elephant dung in the last stretches of road and finally arrived alongside the River. Although we knew we were close to the water, in the pitch black darkness of our arrival we had no idea what was awaiting us in the morning.

After a gloriously sleepless night surrounded by a symphony of new sounds, we rose at sunrise to a reflection of orange and pink glancing off a flowing river. Peace resting on the surface, life teeming underneath. Hippos wrestling and bellowing, crocodiles waiting stealthily in the shoreline depths, eagles fishing for breakfast, and unforgettable elephant trunks draped into water from the bank downstream.

In awe, I found myself thinking… this seems pretty perfect. So many places in our world need something that doesn’t currently exist there… What does this place need? The answer clearly screams: absolutely nothing! Over the time we were there, I learned about how the indigenous people live in harmony with the river, relying on it for their fresh drinking water and sustainably fishing from its banks to feed their communities. Animals across a thriving food chain rely on the Park to enjoy the bounty of resources around them.

Along with my overwhelming awe came a sense of regret and apprehension… At the end of the day, my being there represented a threat to the health of these people and ecosystems. We were far enough into the park that there were no other tourists nearby, but over time, where money can be made and spent, people will come… then what happens? There was more to this story developing, I just didn’t know it at the time.

The Kangaluwi Copper Mine:

Beyond the impact of my presence, there was a looming threat on nearby shores, deeper into the park. If you’ve been following along with Brym’s research series in Zambia, you’ll know that one motif has been centered on the effects of our global capitalist system, especially with regard to international extraction of Zambian natural resources. Unfortunately, yet inevitably, this story also applies to this beautiful place…

I came across this article, written up in the Lusaka Times, the Zambian Capital’s local newspaper. The author is Tilyenji Kaunda, son of Dr Kenneth Kaunda who was the first President of Zambia from 1964 to 1991. In addition to being a huge figure in the independence movement from British Colonial rule, President Kaunda was also a staunch conservationist and protector of the Lower Zambezi National Park.

The article from his son speaks out against the operation of an open-pit copper mine project called Kangaluwi. The project recently gained approval to commence drilling and has become a huge source of controversy in Zambia and across Southern Africa for the past few years. However, the physical operation has not yet begun and there are ways we can all act in opposition….

So, here’s some more information on what’s happening:

Who’s the mine owner?: The answer to this is complex which is an additional concern. Kangaluwi is owned by ‘Mwembeshi Resources Ltd’ officially registered in Lusaka, Zambia. However a majority of the company’s shares are held in Bermuda (used as a tax haven) and owned by a majority Chinese and Dubai-based conglomerate.

What was the Approval Process?:

The Mine was Approved on May 7th, 2021 when the Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) issued a letter approving the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) after only a 7-day review - a process of which many are skeptical.

The project had previously been rejected by ZEMA under the previous political administration…however, after the election of the new government, there was a new appeal made and ZEMA then approved.

Here is the official approval letter from ZEMA - thanks to Estella Snowden from CLZ for providing.
Who’s affected?: Over 20,000 people live directly on the banks of the river and depend on it for clean drinking water and food from its 2,000-ton subsistence fishery. This does not only impact the Zambian population but also communities in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique that either live along the banks or rely on its resources.

Who Benefits - A two-sided argument:

Pro-Mine: Mwembeshi Resources has done a good job marketing to local communities that this new mine will provide jobs and more income to the local community. They say that an estimated 250 jobs will be directly generated by the mine with the potential of more jobs available for supporting businesses. And that line of argument is gaining traction with the local people… while it seemed to me like the local communities ‘don’t need anything,’ they are enticed by the mine’s potential of bringing a livelihood to their families and helping provide more financial support than is currently available to them in their daily live.

Against the Mine: For this perspective, I spoke with Besa Kaoma, Environmental Education Manager for Conservation Lower Zambezi, who is working to engage local communities and educating them about the potential effects of the mining project and how to combat it. According to him, these proposed benefits are far outweighed by the 1,000 jobs + $4 Million annual wage bill that is generated from eco-tourism in the area, which will be impacted if the natural environment is harmed. The 250 mining jobs will most likely be labeled ‘unskilled’ in terms of their qualifications, a classic imperialist tool to underpay workers and exploit labor practices of indigenous populations (Walter Rodney). And they will only be short-term jobs… as Besa asks, ‘What happens when the resources are gone? What happens to the community then?’

Mining is a large industry that employs over 2.5% of the Zambian workforce, so it’s important to build an approach that includes these voices to consider how livelihoods can be supported along the River while also protecting the environment that so many count upon… that middle ground has been hard to achieve. One overall concept aiming to compromise and bring Zambians together comes from a new Coalition led by CLZ, WWF Zambia, BioCarbon Partners, which argues: “We believe that mining activities should be restricted to happening in mining areas of the country and should not be allowed in tourism and wildlife conservation areas that have their own ecological and economic value to the country.”

A Conservation Coalition Emerges

The Coalition mentioned above is gaining national and international momentum - their slogan ringing ‘Save Zambezi, Safe Zambezi’ . They are organizing an incredibly impressive and diverse set of NGOs, activists, academics, and artists, totaling 53 different official constituents. In the Podcast Episode for today, we spoke with Besa about his work and what he is hearing from the communities around the River.

Here’s what the Coalition is working on in addition to Besa’s work on the ground:

An Online Petition: Available to people from all over the world to sign in opposition to the mining project. I signed and hope you will too. They are only 600 signatures away from their goal of 50,000 and Besa says they will use this momentum to appeal to the government, showing that people in Zambia and all over the world are opposed.

A Social Media Campaign: through their Facebook Page and other avenues has reached over 1,073,500 people (and that number is from last year!)

‘If mines were that profitable Africa would be rich by now, but still it’s countries we sell to that seem to benefit not us so just leave the Zambezi alone.’ - Billy Banda

Artists’ Song: A group of well-known Zambian artists came together to create a song called Zambezi Niyatu, which means “Zambezi is ours”. As they sing, “Now there’s a looming ecological disaster, and we’ve seen it all before so we know what’s gonna happen after. We cut down, we burn, we poison, we kill, make concrete and steal.. We destroy nature’s beauty, and the planet until there’s no more resources, no nature to steal.”

I admire that in addition to a social media awareness campaign, they also have engaged artists to spread the message in a different way. Whether it’s song, visual art, creative writing, theater, film, or new forms of art we haven’t even imagined yet, the power of art and the role in ‘making the revolution irresistible’ (Toni Cade Bambara) should never be overlooked. The Save Zambezi Safe Zambezi intersectional approach to organizing is something we can all learn from.

I’ve asked Besa to keep us updated as things evolve with this project so we can keep our finger on the pulse and help support where possible.
Moving Forward - ‘Social Life of Things’ - An Exercise for Everyone at Home:

In Part Two of Brym’s research in Zambia - in the Copper Belt region - I mentioned an exercise called the Social Life of Things that can help us think through where our ‘things’ - and the ingredients of which they are made up - really come from. Coined as the ‘Anthropology of Stuff’, this exercise has helped me think through the relationships between nations and systems in our global economy as well as my individual role in it all. This has become even more poignant as we’ve had the chance to study copper mining across Zambia. Give it a try…

Take a look at your iPhone or Apple Computer - ask yourself: what’s in this? How did it get to me? Who’s hands pulled this from the earth? What systems are in place to make that happen? Hopefully these last two Brym Case Studies will start to paint a picture… to start, you can learn more about the journey of your iPhone HERE.

Avenues for Action:

Kangaluwi Mine, while having received approval last year, has not started yet! Share and get involved….

Change.org petition

Facebook Group

Recommended Reading:

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney

Part 1 and Part 2 of our Research in Zambia

Organizations/Activists Referenced - If you’d like to be in touch, let me know!:

CLZ

WWF Zambia

NGO Coalition documents for context on Kangaluwi mine as well as other actors involved.

Artists’ Song

BioCarbon Partners

Thanks for reading :)

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In this week’s podcast episode, you’ll hear recordings from a few moments during our time at the Town Hall Meeting in Lufwanyama, Zambia focused on mining, natural resources and extractivism - I would suggest reading the case study below or on our website HERE first before listening so you have more context on the story of how we got there, but here’s a look inside the episode:

01:50 - 17:03: My interview with Martin Bwalya Kampamba, Founder of Future-Preneurs, just before the Town Hall Meeting started. He outlined the history of mining in the Copper Belt, the environmental, social, and human rights challenges mining communities face, and the solution-building strategies of his organization looking to the future.

17:12 – 35:06: A conversation during the Town Hall meeting led by Edmond Kangamungazi from Caritas Zambia, focused on challenging the councilors on their actions since their election 4 years ago and questioning the contrast between Lufwanyama’s natural resources value and the lack of profits coming to the actual town. This section also includes a couple different testimonies from community members sharing their experiences + raising their voice for greater government and mining company accountability.

35:15- 44:28: A final push at the end of the meeting for the community members to continue to push for change, not just rest on the laurels of the new government that preaches environmental and social considerations.

Recommended Reading: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney

Organizations Referenced:

Future-Preneurs

Caritas Zambia

Zambia Alliance of Women

Publish What you Pay

Introduction - Part 2/3 - Copper Belt

When American superstar actress, Mila Kunis, had her first child in 2014, she landed the role of brand ambassador for Gemfields. Brandishing beautiful, bright green emeralds from the Kagem mine in Lufwanyama, Zambia, the world was blinded by the light… but I wonder if anyone thought about the small town where her emeralds actually came from and how they got to Marina B’s 57th Street Flagship Boutique in New York…

The town of Lufwanyama is in the Northwestern part of the Copper Belt region in Zambia and produces the most desired emeralds in the world. And yet, as Edmond Kangamungazi from Caritas Zambia asked the Town Hall meeting on March 25th:

‘Why do we produce the best emeralds in the world but also have one of the highest levels of poverty?’

Let me rewind a bit. On March 24th, my friends Kampamba, EJ and I headed North from Lusaka to Ndola in the Copper Belt Province. We stayed overnight with their grandmother who reminded me of my late grandmas, especially when she asked with a smirk ‘Are you fasting or something?’ when I initially declined breakfast on Friday. After taking her up on her generous offer, we drove to Lufwanyama where Edmond, Kampamba’s old colleague, met us and introduced us to Martin Bwalya Kampamba who runs a local non-profit called Future-Preneurs … the two of them in conjunction with other civil society organizations were organizing together for a Town Hall meeting to discuss mining practices and natural resource strategies in Lufwanyama.

When we set out, we had no idea this meeting was happening. But after introducing ourselves and telling them about Brym, they immediately invited us to join the meeting and ushered us into the City Council building.

The Meeting

Before I knew it, we were seated in a large room with an early morning breeze greeting us through open windows… a projector at one end, the Lufwanyama Deputy Mayor at the other, and a long table in the middle with city council members gathered in suits.

We took our seats on the side of the room with about 25 different community members and ‘civil society representatives’ including Caritas Zambia, Futurepreneurs, Women Alliance of Zambia, and Publish What You Pay. What transpired over the next 4 hours was an incredible display of democracy, civic participation, and hopefully a huge step towards Lufwanyama breaking the cycle of extraction from their community.

For more complete notes on the meeting, an Appendix will be included in a complete wrap up analysis later in April. For now, here were my main takeaways from the meeting:

Extractivism & Imperialism: The large majority of the benefits of the Lufwanyama mines do not go to the local community.

Profits from selling the emeralds are going to foreign owners of mines. Then they are supposed to pay taxes back to the town based on these profits but activists present say they aren’t paying nearly enough. Also noteworthy, about half of the town profit goes to the council members themselves.

Workers for the mines are being bussed in from Kitwe and other towns instead of the workers coming from Lufwanyama itself.

The representatives from the mining companies didn’t even show up to the meeting!!! What does that tell you about the amount they care about the communities where they mine??

The environmental, social and psychological effects of mining in Lufwanyama are serious!

Take a listen to Martin’s testimony during the interview we had together. 00: - 15:

We also experienced this personally as we drove up to Lufwanyama. We stopped in Kabwe, the most polluted town in Zambia, where you can smell the sulfur and lead in the air. Next, we passed through Kitwe, where you can see the fumes rising from Black Mountain - a huge waste field of copper extract - where many kids ‘picking’ copper were buried alive by the landslide captured on video in 2018 (Warning, Explicit content).

There are both pros and cons when a town thinks about opening a mine.

From the outside in, it seems clear that mines shouldn’t exist, but they provide the promise of jobs that community members need to survive. This reminded me of the Coal Mining conversations in the US.

Democracy appears alive and well in Lufwanyama in the 22nd year Zambia has had Multi-Party Democracy since their independence in 1964.

While they might be up against legislative and politico-economic barriers, moments like this seem important to bring community voices to the table in a structured way… I’ll be curious to stay in touch with the local activists to see if anything truly changes or if this was ‘performative participation’ rather than a truly participatory planning process.

A Way Forward - Environmental Impact Research and Community Accountability Training

When community members asked the council what could actually be done to inspire a change in the status quo, the Deputy Mayor asked for further research on the impacts of the mines…

So Martin’s organization has put together an impressive selection of studies that I will outline briefly below – for deeper analysis please see our appendix coming soon.

The First - attached below, a Comprehensive Study on ‘Environmental Remediation and Improvement focusing on the towns of Kabwe, Kitwe, Chingola and Mufulira from 2017-2020’

This study was funded by the World Bank in 2017, providing over $65 Million in funding to conduct the study and support the implementation of programs in response to findings.

The Second, linked here, a new grant proposal to follow up on the implementation of the previous study for ‘Enhancing Communities Capacity to Demand for Natural Resource Accountability and Environmental Management in the Mining Sector

The assessment of Future-Preneurs is focused on updating the public on the lack of results from the previous study.

Rather than just citing the lack of results, they also present a strategy for community organizing to hold their elected officials accountable.

Another Way Forward - Conservation, Regeneration & The Just Transition

On the way home, we decided to stop at Mwakera Forest… EJ went to university at the Forestry School here and was able to show us around. Absolutely gorgeous. Luscious greens, huge old growth trees, flowing rivers carrying fishermen on handmade canoes, kids playing soccer on a grass field, flowers of purple and yellow along meandering paths carved out of overgrown shrubs, a sunset of endless orange and red, a tropical oasis surrounded by towns treating the earth very differently.

I remember thinking: This is what the region would look like without mines.

And to me, an outsider, it’s so clear! Don’t mine! Look at how much healthier the water, air, and earth will be. But the conversation isn’t that simple…

As Kampamba mentioned during the Town Hall meeting: ‘I think people’s concern is survival.’

This is why the ‘Just Transition’ conversation is so complex - on one hand, people need to survive, and the environment therefore isn’t always top of mind over things like a job and providing food for your family. On the other hand, I remember learning about my family who died in the coal mines of Wales during the Industrial Revolution and think, there has to be a better way to achieve both human and environmental survival at the same time…

There has to be a better way…

Everyone always says that but it’s harder to actually come up with solution… I don’t know if I’m the best person to assert what the ‘better way’ needs to be, but my heart tells me from my experience so far here that it needs to be based changing our world system away from our current Global Capitalist mentality… when I think about what role Brym can play, maybe it’s building a space to re-imagine our world system and bring together people from all over the world to dream up new ways of organizing together to make sure communities and nature can survive and thrive on Planet A before we plug into the Metaverse or ship off to Mars.
What’s next? Part 3/3 - Lower Zambezi

This weekend, the ‘Stormtroopers’ as we’ve started calling ourselves, will head down to the Lower Zambezi region to see what we can find out about the Kangaluwi Project - The copper mine that just received approval to commence operation in the middle of the Lower Zambezi National Park. I’ve been able to connect with a few different organizations from an NGO Coalition pushing back against the mining activities, including representatives from Conservation Lower Zambezi.

I will use the Social Life of Things Exercise as well to challenge us to think about where our iPhones (and the copper in them) comes from - shout out to my dad, Ken, featured in the Youtube video!

Above: A local Newspaper Article from March 22nd focused on the Kangaluwi Mine in Lower Zambezi National Park.

Excited to continue to share our experiences… the next update will come during the week of April 11! Thanks for following along!

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It was really tough to boil down this conversation with Ndivile Mokoena into a bite-size case study… for all the right reasons. Re-listening to our interview, I found myself trying to write out everything that Ndivile said because it all deserves to be highlighted. That being said, the version in this write up is abbreviated, so please go to our website to read the full case study on our conversation together. I hope you’ll take the time to listen to her story and support her work.

Inside the Episode - During our time together, we spoke about:

Ndivile’s experience growing up in Soweto, South Africa and discovering her passion for social justice.

Her work with Gender CC South Africa and why we need women at the table for climate decision making!

Capacity Building: Beyond being the newest COP26 buzzword, what does this concept mean and how does GenderCC apply this in their communities?

The role of NGOs in bridging the gap between governments and local communities, and how important that is especially in countries like South Africa where that relationship is historically complex and still very painful.

Intro

Ndivile grew up in Soweto, South Africa with 5 siblings and parents who worked hard to provide a comfortable life. Early in her young adulthood, once her parents retired, she sacrificed her own education and got a job out of necessity to support her siblings as they were growing up.

While she was doing well in her job and growing successful, she knew that she wasn’t quite working on her true passion - social sciences and justice. So as she got to this moment and stage of life, she took action. She started volunteering in community development work with youth and women while becoming a counselor to support different orphanages and women’s health organizations. A ‘burning desire’ emerged, she told me. ‘This is where I belong, this is who I am.’ It’s hard to make the jump from comfort to passion, I really admire this about Ndivile.

From there, a friend from church put her in touch with a ministry group called Justice and Peace - working on environmental justice, gender justice, land rights, and good governance practices. Among many lessons learned from her work with J&P, they were heavily focused on developing social analyses to assess needs of communities, ‘There is no point in going and implementing something in a community if the community themselves doesn’t relate to it. The project is going to fail, it won’t be successful.’ An important reminder, reminiscent of the message from Forget, this work became a launchpad for her future work with GenderCC and the rest is history!

In our conversation, we touched on a lot of amazing frameworks, use cases, and imagined new ways forward, but I’ll just touch on a few concepts here with some background on her organization first.

GenderCC

GenderCC is an NGO based in Berlin with a chapter in Johannesburg and doing great work across southern Africa. They are focused on work at the intersection of climate justice and gender justice, approaching this by attempting to bridge the gap between government and local communities.

Ndivile categorizes their work as advocacy - in her words, ‘advocating for the integration of gender into climate change policy, capacity building for communities, for government officials, and raising awareness at the nexus of gender and climate change.’ Their work stands up for women and non-binary folks as they are consistently brushed aside during global and local climate conversations.

There’s a lot packed into that, so we dug a bit deeper…

Capacity-building

Everyone at COP26 was talking about ‘Capacity-Building’ when it comes to helping communities better prepare for and adapt to local climate change effects. But somehow I left the conference unclear on what that actually meant.

For Ndivile, it goes something like this: ‘As much as communities are able to identify the challenges they’re facing, they don't always know what to do, where to go, and what it is that is happening around them. Where does it come from, how do they relate to it, and how do they stop it?’

So the goal of GenderCC is to ‘empower these people with knowledge, information and resources when necessary.’ They help communities to identify the challenges, relate them to their social settings, and also tap into their traditional knowledge.

Engaging existing indigenous practices is a huge priority for them: ‘When it comes to climate change and environmental issues, we know how our forefathers took care of our environment. Some of their knowledge, they gave to the next generations, especially when it comes to farming, preserving food, how we value the environment [in our culture], how we relate to nature, so we needed to tap into that knowledge.’

As Ndivile reminds us, ‘before all of this technology/civilization was there, people survived with clean, pure water, eating well. We don’t need to come up with solutions for them, so rather we ask, ‘it seems you have this problem in your area, how do you think it can be sorted?’

Ndivile was kind enough to walk us through their process for community engagement. Rather than write it all out here, please head to our website for the full version: brym.co.

Gender/Climate Use Case - Water:

As an example of how GenderCC engages with communities specifically at the nexus of gender and climate, she told me about a ‘Water Use’ workshop, which included both men and women in a partner community.

They asked the men a simple question: What do you use water for over the course of the day? ‘Bathing, drinking, maybe watering the garden,’ this was the extent of the answers they got.

When the women answered, even men in their own families were amazed by how many more uses the women had for water, to benefit not only themselves but their family and community as a whole.

For GenderCC, exercises like these are essential for communities to realize that women must be involved in decision making for all things with regard to water processes… why would you exclude from planning the group who uses water more than anyone else? The thesis is clear: Women are working with water every day, they can come up with better solutions. This also applies beyond water to things like energy, food and many other areas of life.

On top of that, women across the world are usually still expected to perform care work. This is unrecognized by the economy as ‘informal’ rather than ‘formal’ work and is therefore both unpaid and under-recognized in the context of policy planning. For Ndivile, policies need to be wholly inclusive to all segments of society and involve those who know the most!

GenderCC’s hope is that by highlighting specific intersectional examples to governments, like a woman ‘fetching water or firewood with babies on their back,’ this will create more awareness of the necessity for inclusion in climate conversations.

The Role of an NGO

For Ndivile, the role of an NGO is to bridge government and communities together. They offer some resources to governments to help them go about this in the right way when they are considering offering a new program or solution.

Example :

Advise gov to do a ‘community stakeholder consultation’ - usually at these meetings, there are scientists and academics, but no community leaders.

Use community avenues to communicate time and place of a public hearing and gather feedback on the idea - local radios and newspapers rather than international new outlets.

Use simple and native language - remove scientific jargon and ensure the community can understand. In South Africa, oftentimes the gov will require English, which decreases engagement.

Have a workshop with the community before a public hearing to inform them on how the process will work for this … encourage them to talk from the heart, tell their story. Use their native tongue.

History of Racial and Gender-based violence:

The relationship between government and communities is even more complex in a country like South Africa. As Ndivile told me, ‘[Apartheid] was not long ago, and the damage is still in our minds, it is not gone. It might not be that visible but it is still there.’

That’s why their work is incredibly important now and as we envision a new future world system. I will look to Ndivile’s leadership example as a guidepost along that road.

‘I think we have paved the way, the foundation has been built, and we just need to bring onboard generations to come to learn the ropes. We’ll be mentoring and pushing hard because we still have a long way to go.’

Contact:

To learn more about Ndivile and how you can contribute to the work at GenderCC, visit their website GenderCC.org.za … page to contribute in many forms.

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This time around, we’re trying something a little different! Hope you enjoy.

Our interview this week, with Raúl Quelovren-Martinez, is in Spanish! For all fluent Spanish speakers listening in, I apologize in advance for my broken language abilities :). For English speakers, you’ll find a transcription of our conversation below. Regardless, here’s some background on how this conversation came to be…
In January, I had the opportunity to volunteer on an organic farm in Southern Chilé, just outside of a small town called Pucón. After speaking with the owner of the farm, Pamela, through a program called Workaway, she connected me with Raúl Quelovren-Martinez, the mastermind who runs their farm operations. After losing my passport on the first day in Pucón (and recovering it through a stroke of pure luck and a stranger’s goodwill), I was picked up by Raúl in the town center and we drove out to the farm together.

He had a friend in town who produced and sold a natural (non-alcoholic) ginger ale - he picked me up some for the drive!

Over the weeks we spent together, Raúl challenged me to think differently…Building a spiritual connection to the earth around us matters, gift giving should be the backbone of our ‘economic’ system, and developing relationships with Mother Earth can help us rebuild a more just world.
Interestingly, when I returned home, I found myself feeling self-conscious telling people about my time on the farm because it felt ‘corny’ or ‘cheesy’ speaking about the spirituality I experienced there with human and non-human beings. But as I reflected more, I realized that feeling came from a deeply embedded social coding and it was actually my own reality at home that needed to evolve … Our capitalist mentality of wanting more and consuming more was making it really hard to slow down, breathe, and connect on a deeper level with nature, plants, new friends, a new language, vegetables, fruits, birds, dogs, cats, music and painting.
My time in Pucón wasn’t about making money or going faster, but rather about reconnecting with a part of myself that has long been nascent … re-inventing a city boy’s relationship with Mother Earth. I came away with a passion to start a garden in my community, restart restoration work on the street tree outside the NYC building where I grew up, and to look for ways in which I can have my hands in soil as I chart my future chapters of ‘work’. I owe a lot of this to Raúl.
On one of our last days together, we recorded a conversation… My language skill improved immensely over my time there and I tried my best. For those interested in hearing from Raúl, I’ve transcribed the interview and translated it as best as I could for you in English below…
We cover a lot together, including:
His life growing up in Chilé

His passion for the earth, for gardens, bees, and garlic bread.

Indigenous approaches to sustainability and relationships with the earth.

The potential for technology and innovation to combine with indigenous knowledge and Raúl’s optimism for how humanity’s relationship with the earth will evolve for the better.

Here’s the Interview - my questions in bold, and his answers translated to English in between - hope you enjoy!:
Here we are at Raúl's house! Ten or fifteen minutes outside Pucón in the south of Chile. My first question: Where are you from, what was your life like growing up and how did you get here?

Great! Well, I'm from the north of Chile and since the age of 6 years old, I lived very close to the pure countryside. We had a little place by the riverside playing with animals, cows, open fields, flowers... a very good life. Just playing, enjoying connection with nature. Then I came here, this is where my brother was born, and I met Andres, Pamela's partner. (Pamela is the boss, ha)!. She loves this place and is very passionate about nature, the garden, and sustainability.
It has been amazing working together in the garden and learning from you. What is your favorite thing about a garden?

What I like most about the garden are many things, but I think the main thing is being outside, in the fresh air, in contact with nature. That's what moves me and I feel that the garden polishes you. It teaches you resilience through the cold, heat, rain, and wind. I think that is what I like the most, apart from the colors as well.
What is your favorite garden you have been to and why?

There is a garden built into the forest in Patagonia Park that is definitely my favorite. It was donated by the Chilean State to be a unique park. Usually, you go to a national park, there are always a lot of people. But, this is a very isolated place in Patagonia with only wild animals. And in the middle of the park there is a garden - the best garden, I think.
Every morning, when I worked there, I would walk to the garden and we would see many birds and sometimes even a condor up in the mountains. So, it is already the best place before all the very inspiring people. Environmentalists, photographers, writers, landscape designers. Lots of inspiration and a place of peace.

What is your favorite fruit or vegetable or flower to grow?

I’m not sure I can pick a favorite, but I think I would say the tomato. It is very interesting to work with them, but a lot of work. I love the smell and it takes a different type of handling and cultivation. But when you work hard with them, the harvest is great. And a homegrown tomato is very different from buying a bad supermarket tomato.

Beyond the garden, I learned that you love bread! We had a blast making pizza together and you also make amazing garlic bread! Why this love for bread?
Because the bread that one buys in the supermarket is very bad for my digestion and inflammation - so I finally started making bread for my own wellness. Fermenting your own bread with just flour, water and salt is very different from a bagged bread with 30 ingredients. It's also an interesting process to dedicate time to the cooking - it is like an act of wellness. The wellness comes along with the perfect bread.

And honey!! You brought me some incredible honeycomb from your bees at home and I even saw you sting yourself with a bee for medicine - why do you love bees?
Why do I love the bees? Simply, the bee is like permaculture. They are a perfect, perfect model of a community. Everyone supports each other. Some build, some forage or feed back perfectly. Besides that, they pollinate all our flowers, fruit, food and in their hive are all these different medicines. Everything one needs to be well is in the hive. Not only honey, but propolis, wax, royal jelly. It's like a pharmacy. A perfect model.

Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship with the earth and why it’s important for you? You are always walking around playing music and it seems like you have great respect for the garden but also a lot of fun together!

Well, with my relationship with the Earth, I think it is something much deeper than me and a plant. I feel that there is a spirit behind it but that we are totally blocked from this by our system, by political economy, and we are not perceptible to that.
Also, the garden has helped me a lot, as in my personal path to know who Raúl is. So, I have great respect for the garden as a teacher. I love the vegetable garden, it makes me happy and can you stay alive without the orchard? No.
You told me you really enjoyed studying in university but also you told me that that experience was very different than experiencing work in a garden and volunteering - what did you study, why did you like it, and why was it different than working?

Yes, of course it was different.. I studied agricultural techniques, mostly plant-based, not animal-based. And why was that? Because I suffered a lot of injuries, especially in sports. And I thought, my injuries, maybe they came from bad nutrition… So what can I do to be in nature and seek better food?

And then it started, as you said. A lot of theory, theory, theory, theory, theory, theory, which is very good, very good because one understands how a root, a leaf, a plant, the sun, the air works. Energy is very interesting.

But there was no practice and a lot of theory without practice is useless. Both are very complementary, but practice is needed. So that's when I decided that after University, I would start a two-year career of volunteering hands on, practicing, messing up and finally learning from more people. Learning is every day. It's always different, the garden is always different every day, that's for sure.
You told me about an amazing experience with a community of permaculture. What is permaculture and what was that experience like? You’re certified in permaculture now too, correct?
Yes! Well, my certification came from a month-long permaculture design course. Permaculture is a movement that was born in Australia by the desire of a person, Bill Mollison. He saw the devastation that exists in the relationship between the environment, human beings, society, economy, political relations - everything is in constant degradation. Then, he wanted to find a regenerative solution, a better way of living that encompasses all food, materials and relationships between people and their environment. And that’s what became permaculture, a permanent culture that is sustainable over time.

And for me permaculture was a change, a total change in my life, a paradigm shift in how I see life. We learned about human relationships, agriculture, construction, but in the end it is an inner change. It starts there. Becoming aware of who I am. Coherence between my thinking, feeling, speaking. That is a path of personal regeneration, not just the environment. In the end, though, this is the same thing.
When we talk, you are always excited about medicines that come from our earth. Medicinas naturales. What is your experience like with them - can you tell us about one or two?

Yes, well, the enthusiasm and connection with natural medicine has been amazing, because in my life I have endured much, much abuse of my body - extreme sports, foods, alcohol, and partying led to many injuries and illnesses. When I was in college, there was a period when my body rejected everything I ate. I couldn't eat, my stomach was bloating, bad irritation, very bad. I spent Six months in the hospital and no one could find a Solution… no medication worked, nothing.

Then a friend told me about one type of Field Jungle Medicine, a poison secretion of a frog. For me it was a transcendental change not just physically, but also in my way of life. It was a very, very, very impressive change of consciousness, which simply showed me the damage that I was doing to myself. In less than a month, I had been healed in more ways than one.

There are many more stories, but still I believe it has been the most transcendental experience in my life and the first deeper approach to medicines among many.

That’s very interesting because the medical system in America is totally different… I think we can learn a lot from the jungle and many different types of natural medicines.

The indigenous knowledge of medicine is valuable. They have a unique connection with the Earth, really and a much deeper spiritual connection across generations. It is very spiritual, very spiritual. Each plant is given the same respect as a person in how to talk to her, feel, and connect … there is more to be discovered.

A great example, Maki! For the indigenous Chileans, Mapuche, this is a super medicine and a super food. It has the greatest concentration of antioxidants in the world and is used for a lot of medicine. It also paints your mouth purple, of course.
We talked about the intersection of indigenous knowledge and innovation and technology - can you tell us a little about your thoughts on that and how the two can work together?

Well, both sides are very positive. I feel like the indigenous have a very different way of seeing the earth, not as something to provide production, but as something normal for them on a daily basis, for eating, breathing, tranquility. So it is something that they take with them day by day to survive. By living constantly in the open air, in the environment, they know very well each crop, each tree, what it is used for. They have a lot of knowledge and understand good management of the environment.
But also in this present era there is much, much, much, much, much, much, much to do. Climate change, no water, desertification. So, in many places communities have no water left. So technology in this model can be put together in a very good way. There is non-invasive technology that can be very efficient along with that ancestral knowledge. I feel technology and the indigenous can go very well together.

In the book I am reading, ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer, she suggests that if anyone can do one thing to build a better relationship with the world, they should grow a garden. In a world with much extractivism, how do you think humans can better coexist with the world?

Big question, what a difficult question. There are many ways to coexist better with the world. But I think cultivating a garden is a very good start. This would help us reconnect with ourselves again. Nowadays people fight among themselves. There is no love, no time. So in the garden you plant a seed, you need to dedicate time to it, you need to form a relationship, you need a connection. If you don’t dedicate time and form a relationship, the seed will die, and that's what is happening with our species. There is no connection between us anymore, or between us and the natural. So it feels that the garden is a very good way to start learning about thousands of different factors. There is nothing better than being well with oneself. And what better to start with good food.

What advice do you have for people who are starting a garden? How do you start? What resources would you suggest?

First, understand that it will be hard! There are always things that will go wrong, but if you don't start you will never know. Each one of us has that natural instinct to cultivate, it comes from generation to generation.

As a recommendation, get informed before starting. Where do I live? What is the climate? What crops will grow best at this date? That is very key to start a vegetable garden. We are not going to grow a tomato here that needs 30 degrees (celsius) in winter. How does each plant work? Read a little bit, research and understand, then dare to begin.
I will put together a list of books as a guide for anyone looking for resources!
Looking into the future, Do you believe that Homo sapiens can live with the future Earth?
Totally. I think you have to have a very positive outlook. There are people, many people, doing very interesting things. And there we go again with the mix between indigenous, non-indigenous, gringo, Chilean technology. There are many people doing positive things,

Some people are not positive - ‘We did climate change, nothing can be done. We are not going to get anywhere.’ On the other hand, we can do great things with small actions. I think we can. It's also part of evolution. At some point we will disappear and another species will take our place.

Thank you for teaching me so much, being very patient with my Spanish, and for helping me reconnect with something I used to love as a child.

Thanks to you, Thomas.

References:

Videos on Permacultures: One and Two

Suggested Reading:

Braiding Sweetgrass

User Guide for new gardners coming soon!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brym.substack.com

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Inside the Episode with Forget Shareka, Co-Founder of Chashi Foods and Founder of Life Hope Future Association:

How can organizations avoid the pitfalls of extractive development work and instead build organizations that identify challenges first - then build tailored solutions second.

What is a ‘Multiplier Effect,’ and how can social entrepreneurs leverage this for greater impact?

How can we embody the concept of ‘Shared Prosperity’ for ourselves, our families, and our communities?

Encouraged Reading

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney

Introduction:

I first heard Forget Shareka speak on the COP26 Panel discussion, ‘African Women’s Grassroots Climate Action.’ Years younger than her contemporaries on stage, I was incredibly impressed by her poise, wisdom and vision for the future. I came away inspired by her work as a social entrepreneur and I hope you will be too.

Challenges:

All too often, we heard at COP about the consistent failures of ‘development work’ … AKA oftentimes Global North organizations ‘swooping in’ and attempting to make impact but not doing it in the right ways, leading to further harm for the local communities that organizations were hoping to help. One short and simple story stuck with me.

A Global North - based organization received funding for a limited time project (5 years) to help a community in Uganda grow more farm crops. They introduced a new seed into the farming community, one that would yield crops at a much faster rate. This succeeded over the first harvesting season. However, the farmers soon realized a few things:

The newly introduced seed did not coexist with the local soil and climate. Once crops were harvested, their seeds did not effectively regrow into new generations - something that their local seed did very well.

The new seed was much more expensive and they would have to purchase it from outside the community. Additionally, they would need to purchase a new set of seeds each year because it did not regenerate effectively.

The Global North - based organization would not continue the development project after the allotted 5 years were done and funding evaporated.

The result was a community, who had been farming with a specific and successful seed for countless generations, now had a new reliance on a foreign seed that did not adapt well to their climate and soil. They were locked into a very expensive contract that seemed attractive initially on paper but was ill-designed and extractive from the start.

I was interested to learn from Forget what, in her mind, constituted justice when working with a local community and how we can approach partnership differently than the all-to-frequent cautionary tale above…

Signs of Hope:

Forget Shareka + Chashi Foods

Forget grew up in a rural community in northern Zimbabwe, raised by her grandmother who was a subsistence farmer. She describes her home community as ‘marginalized’ but she “doesn’t regret growing up in that type of environment, because that environment absolutely shaped who [she is] today”. As she said, everything happens for a purpose, and her purpose is to learn from her experiences and have a positive impact in development work.

Inspired by her grandmother and equipped with her education, she decided to focus her energy supporting farmers in her community. As she explained, “Agriculture is life, it is everything… so why can’t I help the farmers and my community around me?”

After spending time with farmers, and even constructing a small farmers’ working group, she quickly identified a key challenge: lack of robust cold storage facilities leads to shorter shelf lives for fruits & veges and lots of post-harvest food waste. Drying technologies seemed to be one potential solution. So, as the leader of Product Development she worked with farmers and in a lab for a year experimenting with different fruit drying techniques.

Forget also knew she wanted to build a completely ‘green business’ and for her that meant ‘no waste’. So the model quickly evolved…

Chashi Foods will buy produce directly from farmers then process that into dried fruits.

The residues are either turned into other products (for example, residual spices can also be sold), or made into compost.

This compost is donated to the community, neighbors or farmers to eliminate waste.

Today, they sell dried pineapples, bananas, mangos, apples, and more - see more details HERE

Additionally, they offer drying services for other farmers who want to leverage their technology and also offer farmer training (like the farmers’ working group) who they help with ‘post harvest management and agribusiness.’ Forget was able to share a few amazing stories as examples during our interview together, like supporting a local farmer grow and sell her own dried tomatoes to a local hotel before even Chashi was able to do so!

Chashi Foods is doing things the ‘right’ way and being recognized for their leadership. They are a majority-women team, received a ‘Green Business Award,’ share their knowledge with the community around them, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here… I’m sure with Forget involved, they will achieve great things.

CAMFED

In our conversation together, Forget referenced a statistic from UNICEF - only 14% of children reach secondary school in Zimbabwe and 8% reach Upper Secondary School. This is an even greater challenge for children like Forget who grew up in rural communities where sometimes just the distance from home to school can make it impossible to continue education. In primary school, she walked 12 kilometers to and from school every day. Compared to my 12 city block walk to school, just over 1 kilometer, this really puts things into perspective.

One incredible group that stepped up to help Forget is CAMFED. Since 1992, they have supported over 4.8 million children go to school in Ghana, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Forget told me that along with school fees being a barrier to education, there are oftentimes many additional factors beyond cost like stationary, uniforms, and sanitary pads. CAMFED helps financially support students who need it but also makes an extra effort to offer non-financial support as well. For example, when Forget’s brother had a stroke, they made sure to track her down and provide support so that she could return to school.

They also are building the CAMFED Association, which is a network of women leaders educated with CAMFED support who are now pushing for change in their communities … this group helped Forget with university applications, and actually provided her with an email address to use when submitting those applications before she had one herself! They also offer zero interest loans and support to any child who wants to start a business to support their family and community, offering an important alternative to banks or other finance institutions who would ask for significant collateral.

Amongst these incredible gifts, according to Forget, one of the greatest lessons from CAMFED came from their mentality around a ‘Multiplier Effect.’ Every girl who graduates and joins this Association agrees to financially support the schooling of at least three others and extend that support into multiple types of mentorship and ‘sisterhood’. Over time, this network expands and multiplies… this is how Forget hopes to run Chashi Foods, with impact multiplying out across communities and across generations after we are all gone from this world.

Takeaways:

Here are some lessons that I’ve learned from Forget since we first met:

“Understanding leads to tailored solutions, extrapolation leads to failed impact.”

Successful projects immediately involve the local community to understand what the real challenges are, what help is needed or not needed, and then leveraging the existing knowledge of the community as a partner to implement a solution.

It is important for entrepreneurs, non-profits and individuals to learn about the challenge first hand rather than assuming you understand by reading about it online.

It is important not to ‘produce’ anything until you know what the challenge is.

‘I am because you are’… we all depend on each other.

Action is at the heart of compassion.

Offer to help with no strings attached.

“Do not make yourself an island, learn to collaborate”

When impacting climate change, always measure, capture, benchmark, and report.

Seek “shared prosperity” rather than individual gain.

Engage:

Chashi Foods: Forget’s start up!

CAMFED - turning the tide on poverty for girls (and now boys) through education

Life Hope Future Association: Forget co-founded this initiative in 2017, helping the indigenous population in northern Zimbabwe transition from hunting and gathering to agri-business and garden projects … they also support programs to help farmers and children receive an education.

World Vision

Beam - gov program to help children and orphans get education

EARTH University - Costa Rican University where Forget studied

Net Impact - US-Based organization, Forget applied for a food program challenge and received funding.

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Inside the Episode with Dan McCallum, Co-Founder of Egni Cooperative and Awel Aman Tawe (AAT) - we had the chance to speak about, amongst other things:

How does Community-Owned energy work and what is a ‘Cooperative’?

Two ‘Social Enterprises’ Combine: The Egni <> Merthyr Town FC Partnership

Predictions for the future of community-owned energy

Based on our conversation, please see more references and recommended reading at the end of our case study today! Enjoy!
Background: Climate Innovation & Justice

At COP26 in Glasgow, a huge topic of conversation was the intersection of environmental justice and the development of new innovative technologies. New solar, wind, marine (and many more) technologies are becoming more mainstream everyday, driving our dependence on fossil fuels down, and that’s great. However, sometimes these new technologies are not built or implemented with ‘justice’ in mind - just profits for a few owners and/or investors. Therefore, multiple events and panel discussions each day dug into challenges and potential breakthroughs where these two concepts (climate innovation and climate justice) meet.

One question that was consistently asked of panelists by moderators and audience members was: ‘As a new project is getting up and running, how can you approach that work through a lens of justice for the community where the work is based?’

There were many different answers given across many different contexts, but a few motifs emerged… Well constructed projects entail:

Community engagement and participation - from the design of a project → implementation → ongoing maintenance and education on why it’s important.

Community Ownership - Community members actually own the assets of the project - Not always possible apparently depending on the context.

Keeping resources in the local community rather than extracting them.

Intro to Egni and Awel Amen Tawe

Thinking through the above criteria, I encountered what I believe are two important case studies based in Swansea, Wales - Egni Co-op and Awel Aman Tawe (AAT). While two different project names, they operate under the stewardship of the same team and charity umbrella organization, so you’ll sometimes see reference to them here as one entity.

Dan McCallum started Amel Awen Tawe with his wife back in 2002 with the hope of generating a wind turbine in their local community. Passionate about sustainability and persistent in their pursuit, it took 14 years to actually get through all of the political and financial barriers, finally getting the turbine project approved in 2016 and commissioned (constructed and producing energy) by 2017. 3 Million pounds was fundraised from the community to support this project!

Egni quickly followed, adding a focus on solar PV panel energy generation - their current share offering (see more details below) aims to install up to 5MW of rooftop solar, the largest rollout of solar in Welsh history. They have raised 4.7 Million Pounds for Egni, closing in on their goal of 4.8 Million!

Egni and AAT have created fantastically unique partnerships with community organizations across the South of Wales. We heard about one such partnership briefly in our last conversation with Rob Davies at Merthyr Town FC. This case study today will get into some of the specifics of how they create partnerships, the unique organization structure they’ve been able to leverage, and why this might be a model that we can all learn from whether you’re starting a new organization from scratch or hoping to redefine an existing organization in pursuit of community energy and justice.

How it Works

The ‘Cooperative’ model and process for Egni is simple but profound:

Egni promotes ‘share offers’ to local community members, organizations, charities, trusts, and social enterprises. This allows all different types of people to become ‘Members’ of the project and invest in the development of a new solar panel, wind turbine, or ground source heat pump. Egni also sometimes donates shares to organizations, like schools, hoping to teach the local community about the ‘Cooperative’ model by including them as a Member.

Egni partners with a group like Merthyr Town FC, a school or a business to install the solar panels on their roofs.

‘Feed in Tariffs’ pay Egni back when they produce energy for the grid. They are then able to reliably offer a 4% return to community investors, repaid annually to Members as interest on the original initial investment. Partners who allow Egni to install solar on their property can buy the energy at a discount.

While the shares are mostly advertised to the community where the work is being done, Dan gave me the go-ahead to share this opportunity with the Brym network… So, if you’re interested in investing and joining this program, their current share offer is available now! HERE is some more info on how it all works and you can invest HERE. The share offer is still open through February 2022 but closing soon. The minimum investment is only 50 pounds and the maximum is 100k. For context, Dan says they’ve received an average investment of ~2-5k from ~1,200 total members.
A Social Enterprise Partnership: Merthyr Town FC <> Egni Cooperative

The partnership between Egni and Merthyr Town FC is a big win-win for both groups and serving as a great example for how we can re-imagine our energy system. These two social enterprises, both from the South of Wales, are working together to keep resources in the community, generate clean energy, and provide an income to local residents all at the same time.

Enabled by an Onsite Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between the two parties, Egni designed and installed Solar Panels directly on Merthyr Town FC’s stadium. The football club then purchases energy from these panels at a fixed rate (20% lower than the alternative grid pricing from their existing supplier). Then, Egni, because of the Feed in Tarrifs mentioned above, are able to receive additional financial support back to pay their members their annual 4% return. Seems like a no-brainer…
However, it’s not all smooth sailing. While structuring share offers seems like a really successful community engagement and fundraising tool, Dan and his team still run into consistent challenges gaining council approvals from the local governing bodies. For example, as we heard from Rob at Merthyr Town FC, it took a year to complete the solar panel installation project on the roof of their stadium. However, only 3 weeks of that year were spent installing the panels. The other 11+ months were spent adapting their ‘lease agreement’ to accommodate the installation and then gaining approval from Merthyr Town Council.

In working with schools, retirement homes, and other more rural community organizations, Egni also frequently comes up against the technical challenge of plugging their power into the grid system… a barrier faced by many decentralized, micro-grid schemes.
However, one way or another, they are positioning the win-win components of these partnerships to navigate through governing bodies, achieving their goal of creating localized clean energy.

The Future of Energy is Community-Owned and Democratic

Big utilities are powerful. They control a lot of the energy produced in our world today along with the profits associated with that energy. But when I asked Dan what he thought the future of energy looked like, he spoke about the oncoming decentralization and democratization developing in our energy system. He mentioned some great examples from community owned solar, wind and ground sourced energy… to decentralized clean transportation in rural areas.

But the example he mentioned that most stuck out to me is unfolding as we speak in Berlin, Germany. The city government has ‘bought the grid’ out of the hands of big private utilities, the main company actually from Sweden. The goal of the city is to build an intricate distributed energy infrastructure over 35,000 square kilometers. There is a growing clean energy and mobility start-up environment in Berlin as well that the city is excited to partner with to re-design the new smart grid system. Maybe a few cooperatives will rise to the challenge to re-imagine what’s possible…

Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in getting in touch with Dan, let us know and we can make that happen. And if you’re thinking about starting a new idea, definitely consult the below ‘References’ section for different resources on how to think through that process.

References:

Egni’s Share Offer Document outlining the Egni model in much greater detail

Resources for starting your own co-op:

Rescoop

Coops UK

Other Resources on Co-ops in the EU:

Community Energy Wales,

Community Energy England

Ecopower - cooperative in Belgium

Energy Sparks - School-specific data platform on energy usage.

Encouraged Reading - Reimagining our socio-economic system through Cooperatives:

How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, Erik Olin Wright

Planet on Fire, A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown

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Apologies in advance for a long interview and post - there was a lot to cover in our first ever interview and I hope you’ll stick with it!

Inside the Episode with Rob Davies, Board Member with Merthyr Town FC:

Family history from my dad’s dad’s old home town in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales and perfect serendipity that reconnected us back to our routes.

A transition from Coal to Green Energy: How history is inspiring a new green energy movement in Merthyr.

Models for Community Ownership and Support: Merthyr Town FC’s strategy for plugging into their community in more ways than just sport.

References to keep in mind:

3G Pitch: The field that Merthyr Town FC plays on, which also acts as the cetner for community involvement and activities to gather the town together like kids summer soccer camp and the walking soccer tournament for seniors. The pitch, through some of these activities, is also helping generate income that will fall into the capital reserve for the club.

Forest Green Rovers: ‘Greenest’ football club in the UK deemed by the EU.

Encouraged Reading:

Powerpoint attached from Rob Davies on how the Club’s Foundation is partnering with their town.

Book on Worker Cooperatives: ‘How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century,’ Erik Olin Wright

The History

My dad’s dad’s side of the family comes from a small town in the South of Wales, called Merthyr Tydfil. You’ve probably never heard of it before. 20 minutes north of Cardiff, Merthyr is a forgotten town with a complex past. My dad and I set out to return back to Merthyr and learn more about this history, we had no idea what to expect…

October 2021. Before departing for our trip, we unpacked 4 overflowing Bankers Boxes onto my bed in New York. They were filled to the brim by my grandmother, Frances Helen, with old family journals, notecards, pictures, and artifacts - I learned quickly where my impressive hoarding genes come from.

Amidst the trinkets, we found a picture that Frances Helen had saved. It showed a grassy field filled with sheep, a Welsh theme we would later learn. On the back of the picture, we found 2 things… the first, a reminder in her script handwriting, ‘Merthyr Tydfil, this is where Mary lived’ (my great-grandmother). The second, a building name: ‘Garthnewydd’. We looked this name up and believe it or not, we found an address… and it still existed today… we had our first lead.

Who would we meet? What would be there? What would we learn about our family? We didn’t know. All we knew was that we would have to go and see for ourselves…

The Journey

While doing research on our old town, we found that they had a local football club, Merthyr Town FC, competing in the Southern League Premier Division South - the 7th tier of the English football league system. I’ve spent pretty much my entire life growing up playing football (soccer), so we knew we had to try and see a match. When we looked up their schedule, sadly, they didn’t have any home games in Wales. BUT, it turned out that on the first day we were planning to arrive in London, they would be playing a match about 45 minutes north of the city…

We caught the Tube from the Tower of London to the national rail line and traveled north to a small town called Kings Langley, another place you’ve probably never heard of considering even our hotel in London had no clue how to get there. The town train stop was still a 20-30 minute walk from the stadium grounds, so we found ourselves walking along the highway on the last leg of the journey. We arrived early, grabbed a beer from the pop-up pub and chose a good spot on the concrete standing bleachers.

Merthyr Town FC came out for warmups before the start of the match and my dad and I gave a cheer, inviting a few confused glances our way from the Kings Langley faithful. ‘Who are these two random guys we’ve never seen before? Why are they rooting for Merthyr? And why do they sound American?’

The match began and Merthyr scored a great goal, jumping out to an early first half lead - my dad and I went crazy. Of course, since we were the ‘away side’ the rest of the crowd was silent EXCEPT for us and these three guys behind us, also in celebration and wearing some very stylish Merthyr Town FC hats. We turned around and high-fived them, thankful that we might have someone on our side if the local team fans decided to turn their death stares into action…

At half-time, my dad and I struck up a conversation with these three men behind us… they were born and raised in Merthyr Tydfil and actually on the Board of Trustees for Merthyr Town FC! They were confused why we were there, confessing that their first thought was ‘who the heck are these lads?’ but also excited to see some other fans who had clearly traveled a long way to show up for the club. We told them about our family history, the notecard with the sheep we had found from my grandmother, and they excitedly invited us to the Merthyr stadium for a tour when we planned to be there a few days later.

‘Perfect Serendipity’… What were the chances of us standing directly in front of them? What were the chances they were a part of the club and kind enough to invite us to their home field? This was one of my first great lessons in the realm of ‘fieldwork’. Go on adventures, put yourself in positions to meet new people, and exude an open mindset to welcome other people into conversation with you.

Community-Driven Green Energy

When I followed up with Board member Rob Davies over email, I told him how excited we were to visit the Merthyr stadium and also told him about Brym, this new project I was working on at the intersection of Climate Innovation and Justice. There were a few environmental organizations in Wales I was hoping he might know and be able to introduce me to. Turns out, while he didn’t know the groups I was targeting,Merthyr Town FC had actually just launched their own ‘Green Energy Programme’!!

We arrived at the stadium and he offered to show me the new solar panels they had just installed in partnership with a local South Wales workers cooperative, EGNI. We will hear more from the Founder of Egni and this partnership in our upcoming episode, but their agreement allowed Merthyr Town FC to purchase energy from those panels at a 20% discount compared to the normal grid pricing. They had also just replaced their old lighting system with LED lights that saved up to 50% of the electricity used, and had installed smart infrared sensors to act as timers in their buildings to only use energy when people entered rooms. Moving forward, they are launching a few other great initiatives with the community including a new wind turbine, electric car chargers in the carpark, potentially on the horizon as an example for the community and for larger football clubs as well.

After the tour, we walked out onto the pitch (field) and I asked him if we could record an interview together on these initiatives… our conversation ended up being Brym’s first ever interview. We were off to the races with a great positive example at the intersection of green innovation, local community justice, and a sport that I loved.

I was not expecting to encounter this third variable in the equation. However, it makes complete sense when you learn more about the essential role of a local football club in supporting a small community like Merthyr beyond just sport. They run a Foundation alongside the club that supports schools, healthcare centers, elderly populations, and is a strong overall proponent for the health of their town.

From Extractivism to Labor Organizing

During our conversation, I also learned more about the history of Merthyr Tydfil and its central role during the global industrial revolution. Under the Merthyr soil lies a vast wealth of coal. In the early 19th century, industry flocked to extract the resource, lifting the population from a couple hundred to over 80,000 in just a few years. The town’s story of extraction is similar to countless others across our world history, leaving the Merthyr land, water and air polluted to the extent you can still see the effects in the town and rivers today. Two of the main current-day tourist attractions are a deep coal mine into which you can take an elevator down and a coal powered steam engine train that takes you into the nearby mountains where much of the mining took place.

This early example of global capitalism led to exploitation of workers for the benefit of the mine owners. We learned that my great-great grandfather was what they called a ‘fireman’, one of the most gruesome jobs in the mining world. The fireman was responsible for carrying a torch into mines to test out where there might be pockets of dangerous gases like methane - hoping to deliver insights on where it was safe to drill next, and sacrificing themselves to show where it was not. My great-great grandfather, Thomas, like many other firemen, died in the mine in his late 20s or early 30s.

Stemming from stories like this, Merthyr Tydfil became one of the birthplaces of Labor Organizing, aiming to collectivize action in support of increased wages and protections for workers in the mines. The Red flag, today oftentimes synonymous with labor movements and socialism, apparently originated in our small town.

Learning and growing from this history, Merthyr Town FC is partnering with their local community to strategize a transition away from coal extraction and towards a cleaner and safer future.

The Lessons: Planning a ‘Just Transition’

One of the biggest questions that we heard coming out of the UN Conference in Glasgow, COP26, was: As we envision a new future beyond the world of fossil fuels and extractivism, ‘How do we design a “Just Transition” that supports each member of our global community?’

One positive example that we can learn from seems to be Merthyr Tydfil and Merthyr Town FC.

Community-oriented in it’s Design, Ownership, and Actions:

Merthyr Town FC is a 100% community and fan-owned club, similar in structure to a workers cooperative. Unlike many of the larger clubs which have wealthy individual owners or conglomerates as their figureheads, local people can ‘own’ their club for as little as 20 pounds.

Rob says that this drives a much greater level of involvement from the local community who see the club as their own and feel as if they can impact the larger whole… as well as benefit from its successes.

When it comes to Decision-making, the club takes the community’s thoughts into much more consideration, as each individual has the ability to vote on large decisions happening within the club.

Intersectional Focus

Climate Change is what we call a ‘threat multiplier’ which means that its impacts aren’t only on the climate, but also health, housing, food, and more. Therefore, it’s important to build intersectional programs that aren’t just geared towards an energy transition, but also provide more social, economic, and healthcare support for the local community.

The Club’s Foundation is a great example that will seek an impact beyond football and the green energy program, supporting the community in many different ways, including working with a special education school program, individuals who have been homeless over the last 3-4 years, care homes for elders with dementia, and military veterans.

Localization of problem solving

Merthyr Town FC, by partnering with a local workers cooperative, EGNI, kept energy and resources in the local community.

As they build their Club Foundation, Merthyr Town FC partners with ‘future generations, current generations, and future generations.’ Local schools, healthcare organizations, and charities identify community challenges and where to focus their foundation’s dollars. They also employ local individuals to carry out the community work.

In Closing

It is a huge privilege and gift to be able to track your family history with family by your side. As I was telling friends about this upcoming experience, a close friend told me how excited he was for me because a lot of people don’t have family records back more than a few generations for a number of reasons… especially if you’re not from a Western European lineage. It was an important blessing to contextualize our adventure in that history.

The process of going back to Merthyr together was really special for me and my dad. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the chance to learn about where I come from. That experience has helped me shape what I’m passionate about and why. It’s allowed me to reckon with really difficult parts of what our family fought for generations ago and why it’s important for me to keep fighting for those things now. I also realize the incredibly lucky circumstances that combined together to allow my family to survive and leave for a new life in the US… now it’s time for us to make the most of it!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brym.substack.com

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We’re happy you’ve made it here, one way or another. :)

Brym is a dream, a mission, and molding itself into a new reality. It’s an organism that is growing deep roots and given the right nurturing, will flower into many manifestations of different shapes and sizes.

To start, we are excited to build a global community of changemakers at the intersection of climate innovation and justice - and hoping that this group can collaborate together to mold Brym in service of global equity and understanding. If you’re reading this, then you’re already a part of our growing community!

Season 1 of our newsletter and interview podcast series will run through July 2022 - thank you in advance for your understanding and patience as we put together a better and better audio product - we’re learning on the job and loving it! Feel free to check out our Website here and give us feedback on what makes sense and what needs work!

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Our Mission

Brym’s Mission Statement (Version 1) is as follows:

Brym seeks to support climate innovations that center environmental justice for local communities affected by climate change.

Coming from this, there stem more than a few questions! What types of innovative climate solutions do we need? What does environmental justice for local communities mean? Who are the communities most affected by climate change?

As the mission for Brym started to manifest, it became clear that we definitely did not have all the answers to the above questions. And that’s ok! We’re excited to collaborate with leaders who can help us navigate these issues while activating a network to not only brainstorm together, but to build solutions.

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Phase 1 - Brym’s Global Research Program

So... the first year of Brym will drive a heavy focus on research, centered around the question:

How can innovative climate solutions manifest through a lens of environmental justice for local communities?

The research program syllabus spans across 4-5 continents, if COVID19 will allow it, with the intention of listening and learning from the experience of organizations and individuals at the frontlines of climate change. Brym hopes to take you along for the journey - highlighting these experiences in different communities, offering initial insights and learnings, and encouraging avenues for engagement.

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Packaging the Research

Dialing into some more details, the research program will be released in a rolling fashion, packaged as a combination of:

The Brym Podcast structured as a Ted Talk Series, where Brym engages in interviews with a global network of organizations and individuals, uplifting their work and encouraging people to get involved! Cadence: Bi-weekly.

The Brym Newsletter highlighting the work of members of our global network and relaying research conducted, lessons learned, and helpful resources to engage within specific areas of focus. Cadence: Bi-Weekly

A Culminating Thesis Report will present research and analysis, weaving together a narrative of learnings from multiple countries and sectors. Findings will inform and shape future evolutions for Brym’s work at the intersection of climate innovation, community empowerment, and global understanding. ETA: September 1, 2022

Please, please, please give us your feedback along the way... there will be things that we can be doing better and we are all ears.

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A sneak peak at the what’s coming your way:

To launch this research, I traveled to the UK and had the opportunity to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. The highlights? Listening to panelists share their experiences from across the world and joining in the Climate Action March with 100,000 other young people fighting for a new world.

You will have the opportunity to hear directly from some of the brilliant minds that I met at COP26 along with collection of learnings from conference panel discussions. You will also hear stories from my travels in Wales (some of which I was lucky enough to do with my dad) and some inspirational figures I met along the way.

To give y’all a more specific sense, you’ll hear from…

A Local Football Club (not the NFL) partnering with the local community to implement a new green energy program in a former coal mining town.

A Workplace Cooperative building community-owned and operated solar and wind projects in Swansea, Wales.

A new Marine Energy company, building ‘Proof-of-Concept’ for a new Wave Energy Machine off the coast in Southwest Wales.

A Sri Lankan organization launching an accelerator/incubator program, supporting youth-led solutions to climate change in their local communities.

A beauty brand re-shaping how we think about waste and the future of a ‘Circular Economy’.

A food justice and educational organization in Zimbabwe - providing a great example of how to incorporate local communities into program planning and implementation processes.

A South African organization fighting for climate justice through the lens of gender equity.

A Middle Eastern faith-based advocacy group pushing for a new type of COP conference.

A Global Buddhist Organization fighting for the protection of all sentient beings, hoping to impact our global food system.

These are just some of the conversations we’ve already had. Can’t wait to share more with all of you. Stay tuned!

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A Call to Action

The ultimate goal of Brym is not only researching global solutions but activating groups of people to learn from these examples in a meaningful way. Brym will offer opportunities to plug into different organizations, partner with individuals and activist networks, and maybe even motivate you to start something of your own with a greater context for what is needed and how best to bring that idea to life.
Personally, I hope along the way, I can get out of my ‘American bubble’ and grow from engaging with people different from myself. I hope to tell stories that cultivate a greater a sense of Global Understanding. Let’s start with listening and learning first, then see where we go from there.

I’m a huge JRR Tolkein fan. After quitting my job and diving whole-heartedly into Brym, sometimes I’ve felt a bit lost along the journey. But, as he says, ‘Not all who wander are lost’... I’m excited to take the time to get out of my normal bubble, meet new people, and wander a bit more than usual into new stories and experiences...

Welcome again! Can’t wait to start this journey with all of you…

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brym.substack.com