Environmental Award winner working with Sir David Attenborough on a climate change conference!

As our Jack Petchey Environmental Award nominations continue to grow, we reached out to some winners to share their stories and inspire others to protect our environment! We came across Isabella Topley who ran a conference with Sir David Attenborough as a guest speaker as part of volunteering with the Kingston and Richmond Youth Council! Read below to hear her amazing work towards climate change!

Hello, I’m Isabella and I’m 17. I was awarded a Jack Petchey Environmental Award for working with my local youth council to organise a climate change conference for schools and running a climate change grants scheme following the conference’s success. I’ve been volunteering with the Kingston and Richmond Youth Council for the last 5 years and this has got to be the most exciting project we’ve worked on!

Climate change is the biggest problem that our generation will face, so in 2019 we decided to run a conference about it for schools in the borough to think of ways that we can work together to combat it. The conference itself was an amazing event! We were incredibly lucky to have Sir David Attenborough as a guest speaker and it was very inspiring to hear his passion for the environment! We later discussed how we could bring changes into our own schools to look after the environment more, and many of us pledged to ask our schools for eco prefects, more recycling bins and more vegan food options.

Impressed with our work, Richmond Council then awarded us £10,00 to spend on a climate change related project. After weeks of debate, we eventually decided that we wanted to donate the grant between schools and youth groups in the borough to let other young people create a positive change in their communities.

The projects we ended up awarding grants to were incredible! We’ve funded a clothes swap and upcycling event run by young people; a community garden which will help raise awareness of climate change and provide space for people to enjoy nature; a school garden which will reduce the carbon footprint of their school meals; and many other amazing projects!

It’s been an incredible opportunity to have been able to work with other young people to both organise a conference ourselves and help support and inspire even more young people to create change in our community. And we were also able to secure more funding from Richmond Council, and also Kingston Council, to run the scheme again which is amazing!

As young people, it can sometimes feel very difficult to make a difference, but I’ve found that there’s so much support available. Local youth councils are a great way to have your voice listened to and create changes in your borough; and grant schemes like our own and the Jack Petchey Foundation’s are amazing opportunities to get the resources to run your own projects. Despite seeming daunting, it is more than possible to create change as a young person, and now more than ever is a great time to get involved to help combat climate change!

Thank you Isabella for sharing your story with us, we hope it inspires others to positively impact the environment!