Cranleigh Culture Magazine Issue 3

CRANLEIGH CULTURE ISSUE 3: THE ECO ISSUE

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CONTENTS FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 From the Headmaster TURNING TRASH INTO TREASURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Ellie Mackay SOCKSTAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 Lewis Bedford

UNPACKAGED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 Catherine Conway CONSERVATION POST COVID-19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 Will Travers

CRANLEIGH ECO-GROUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 Inaugural members

TREADING LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6 Jeanine Hsu

FROM THE ARCHIVES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 Peter Conder

CHANGING HEARTS AND MINDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 Dr Zac Baynham-Herd

KNEPP ESTATE: A PERSONAL JOURNEY OVER TWO DECADES . . . . . . . 3 8 Jason Emrich Editor: Jody Cooksley, JRC@cranleigh.org, Natalie Maher, NJM@cranleigh.org Designer: Lucy Collins, LAC@cranleigh.org Cranleigh School, Horseshoe Lane, Cranleigh, Surrey, GU6 8QQ Tel: 01483 273666 PAGE 2 | Cranleigh Culture

FOREWORD | MARTIN READER, HEADMASTER

FOREWORD FROM THE HEADMASTER

If we find no meaning in our surroundings, no beauty, why would we ever seek to protect them? If a sense of their immeasurable worth has been lost, why would anyone choose to allocate resources to preserve them for future generations when we could use those places for economic growth? Why not expend them for our convenience?

Each of these personal stories from Old Cranleighans engaged in environmental action stems from a sense of connectedness to the natural world; a connectedness which has motivated them to do something to protect it. They have used their Cranleigh education to make the world a better place — a vision we uphold for all Cranleighans.

If we are to take positives from the lockdown of spring 2020, one was the reawakening of an awareness of the natural world — people noticing the wonders of bird song even in the heart of a now quieter city; glimpses of the wild closer at hand.

And in that re-connection people have discovered a sense of their own well-being.

Octavia Hill, one of the founders of the National Trust, commented ‘the sight of sky and things growing are fundamental needs, common to all men.’ If through

a reconnection with the natural world, societies begin to reappraise what is valuable and of economic worth, there is a chance that we can begin to make a difference, as many of world’s challenges lie either in our desire either for endless economic growth, or just the daily struggle to put food on our plate.

What is particularly exciting about the experiences and actions of these Old Cranleighans is that many of them are entrepreneurs, demonstrating alternative ways of generating wealth that is sustainable not exploitative. We learn that new technologies and behavioural science can be applied to identify and tackle waste more effectively and change attitudes and how data informs better conservation.

The future is yet to be written and the possibilities can be brighter than the prophecies.

I hope this and future generations of Cranleighans will be inspired by their learning to play their part in tackling the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. Ultimately, the responsibility and the solutions lie with people. That means each and every one of us must play our part. This magazine gives us a glimpse of how that could be done.

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MICHAEL WILSON | INTRODUCTION

TURNING TRASH INTO TREASURE ELLIE MACKAY PAGE 4 | Cranleigh Culture

TURNING TRASH INTO TREASURE | ELLIE MACKAY

Ellie Mackay is an Old Cranleighan, former member of Common Room and currently CEO and Founder of Ellipsis Earth Ltd., an organisation that uses the power of machine learning and aerial imaging to track waste deposits and find collaborative solutions to reduce or prevent them returning. Ellie is also a research professional and experienced science communicator who has found adventure and inspiration all over the globe. She uses her skills in broadcast media, public speaking, teaching, drone piloting and film-making to tell positive stories about conservation.

Around 99 per cent of the plastic that enters the ocean is missing and it’s vitally important that we track and trace it before it does more damage, and so we can see where the leaks are coming from and turn them off for good. I’ve spent a lot of time on expeditions as a research scientist and I’ve seen plastic waste everywhere I’ve travelled, even places as remote and uninhabited as The Galapagos Islands and The Arctic. Plenty of people are committed to helping, doing beach cleans and trapping plastic, but we need to know where to look for it all in the first place.

The solution we’ve developed with Ellipsis Earth Ltd. combines my experience of drone flying for the military with the accurate data gathering of research science into a really sophisticated tool for mapping plastic. We’ve designed an algorithm that can automatically detect 47 different types of waste to 93 per cent accuracy, processing around 10,000 images a second. It’s a phenomenally powerful piece of software.

We’ve been involved in some really exciting projects. With National Geographic we mapped the length of the Ganges before and after the monsoon, collecting robust data that showed where waste was coming from as well as where it ended up, and we were able to use it to help drive behaviour change. We also worked on a successful programme in Sorrento, jointly sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Environment and

a tobacco brand, surveying cigarettebutt littering. As a result of the data we collected we were able to tell city officials where would be the best places to position ashtrays and trash cans. Comparing the data before and after the programme we were able to show a 70 per cent reduction in cigarette littering, that’s around half a million fewer cigarette butts going into the ocean every summer. Now we’re aiming to do this in cities across the world.

The Ellipsis system is brilliant because it combines robust scientific data with storytelling to drive behaviour change. We know if the campaign works because we see the results and then we can champion and celebrate that success. Eventually, Ellipsis will be a resource centre for action on plastics and we’ll support student-led and citizen scientist projects.

Working in conservation came naturally to me as I was always interested in travel and adventure, thanks to my mum who was a pioneer single female traveller in the 1970s. Her view of the world and her confidence were inspirational. When I was young, my mum often hosted exchange students, people from Japan or Latin America whose stories also made me want to travel and whose company made me see that everyone in the world is the same — wherever we’re from and whatever our customs we communicate with the same emotions. I studied sciences too, Cranleigh Culture | PAGE 5

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“WE NEED THE PUBLIC

TO HAVE HOPE, TO HAVE FAITH IN SCIENCE AND TO SEE THAT SO MANY PROJECTS ARE REALLY WORKING, TO INSPIRE PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED AND SUPPORT CONSERVATION

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TURNING TRASH INTO TREASURE | ELLIE MACKAY

sea to source pre-monsoon survey India and Bangladesh 2019

summary report

so combining travel and science led me naturally to environmental work.

My first experience of positive conservation was during my gap year after Cranleigh, when I set up and ran a charity for sea turtles and coral in Tobago, the home of leatherback turtles.

It was really successful and is now part of the international WideCast movement.

Leatherback turtle numbers have seen an impressive rebound there and it was enough to show me that actions really can make a difference in reversing the decline of species. If humans were eliminated completely the world would be back to full biodiversity within hundreds of years. But we’re here and so it’s important that we live and work together with other species to make the planet habitable for everyone.

My year in Tobago taught me that although there are many committed and dedicated conservationists, when you’re working for a small charity you are using a huge amount of effort, time and emotional energy for very small gain, so it’s energy inefficient. It is far better to get into the system from the inside and fix it, trying to achieve that internal shift, and that’s what I’m doing now.

After my gap year I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, and took a Masters in Science Communication at Imperial. I worked in journalism because I was always more interested in storytelling and getting the news to the public than the actual research. I enjoyed working as a science news reporter, but realised that there is a political agenda in the mainstream media, and always a need to get a sensational

produced by Ellie Mackay March 2020

in partnership with National Geographic Society

angle on the story. It means that negative and disaster news dominate and that’s not great for conservation. We need the public to have hope, to have faith in science and to see that so many projects are really working, to inspire people to get involved and support the work. That’s when I got into teaching, which is the purest form of communication, speaking to the next generation, and my teaching brought me back to Cranleigh’s Common Room where I was delighted to work with my A Level Biology teacher, Dr Mann. He was the first person who believed in me as a scientist — until then I’d been recognised for my creativity and storytelling and was pigeonholed into being an arts student, but Dr Mann recognised my love of science and the fact that science is in fact a highly creative field which needs more creative thinkers. I was a very shy student when I first started at Cranleigh and I am so grateful to him for giving me the confidence to find my voice, find my passion and follow my skillset into the world of science communication.

Cranleigh is a special place, the students are bright, funny, sarcastic and brilliantly challenging and the four years I spent teaching there really inspired me. Teaching then took me to Borneo where I taught in international schools and undertook an education consultancy for South East Asian schools, stimulating real world science research and trying to get science perceived as being hands on and integrated with society — citizen science is really important and conservation is a key part of that. I really believe that everyone should be scientifically literate, understanding data, cause and correlation Cranleigh Culture | PAGE 7

anti-littering campaign

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impact reporti sorrento, italyi report compiled by Ellipsis Earth august 2020

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TURNING TRASH INTO TREASURE | ELLIE MACKAY

and being able to see through media stories and the way data is presented.

Critical thinking and the ability to assess fake news is key for young people and I’m delighted Cranleigh is focusing on questioning the curriculum. Young people should be questioning everything, getting their information from sources as diverse as possible and making their voices heard.

I’ve travelled a lot. After Borneo I took time to do things like climb the 10 highest volcanoes in SE Asia, visiting all the biodiversity I was teaching about. Seeing the beauty of the world has both inspired me and made me determined to protect it.

It’s also taught me that, in the main, local populations know how to live sustainably within their own environments, it’s the Western world that’s the problem. We need to shift away from our fast-paced 24-hour society where people demand pineapples to be flown across the globe out of season — it’s killing the planet. It’s our society that’s at fault and the sooner we realise it and work to change it the better. The global news agenda always vilifies local logging companies but actually Britain has lost 98% of its forests to agriculture.

Everyone across the world

is just trying to survive and feed their families. We’re the ones with the wealth and the global news networks, it’s down to us to set the right example.

Ellipsis is one way to tell conservation stories and my documentaries are another. My first feature film, Fragmented, won 42 awards at film festivals and will hopefully be available through a major online streaming platform in the next year. I always try to put a positive message in the films that I produce. If all viewers see is forests burning they get desensitised and such approaches foster harmful and negative emotions which impede collaborative conservation — we all have to work together rather than throwing blame.

Collaboration is what conservation needs.

Ellipsis Earth is about to launch their first funding round.

Please visit www.ellipsis.earth to find out more.

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SOCKSTAR

SOCKSTAR | LEWIS BEDFORD

LEWIS BEDFORD

Lewis Bedford left Cranleigh in 2018. Whilst still an undergraduate at Durham he has set up and developed Sockstar: the first global charity to support wildlife rangers with basic clothes and equipment. A promising cricketer at Cranleigh, Lewis briefly considered a career in the sport and has just taken on the Captaincy of the Durham Club. Lewis is currently studying for a combined honours in Politics and Development and during lockdown undertook an internship with the Q5 Consultancy, involving virtual work experience with a range of clients. His post-graduate vision is beyond academic as he wants to ‘change the world rather than think about how to change it’.

Sockstar is about trying to fix things in simple ways. Everyone knows that wildlife rangers in the major nature reserves do an amazing job fighting poachers and protecting animals but no-one knows they are barely funded. Rangers are experts in the environment and the animals they look after and their work is really respected, but they’re not highly paid and they can’t afford to get the basic things they need to be comfortable while doing their jobs.

When I heard that they were struggling to afford basic clothing like socks, and that this was hindering their ability to carry out their work, I thought ‘this needs fixing’ and immediately set out to do something about it.

In the first instance, all I did was put out a message on social media and in a few

days I had hundreds of pairs of socks donated and cash pledged. In a matter of weeks I’d sent them all out to a project in Africa and rangers that work there had socks on their feet. That chain is incredibly simple. But I wanted to make even more of a difference. Gathering goods like socks here and posting them doesn’t benefit the local economy, so now Sockstar just raises money and sends it out to the few local shops that are near the projects the rangers work on – so those small local businesses benefit too. It’s still a simple proposition. It’s mission in action and now there are lots of spin-off benefits.

When this started, I didn’t realise that it could have as many angles, now we’re also empowering women to be in conservation by supplying the feminine

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IT’S A MESSAGE THAT WE ARE ALL CONNECTED SOMEHOW, AND THAT MESSAGE IS A GROWING NARRATIVE

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FLT LT VICTORIA TURNER | LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

hygiene products they need to give them independence. Sockstar has a message that speaks to many social causes that push equality and champion each other. It’s a message that’s we’re all connected somehow, and that message is a growing narrative, it’s coming out loud and clear during lockdown. The crisis has to lead to positive social change and I do believe it’s an opportunity to reestimate our relationship with nature and push for social justice. Covid-19 has already shown that we must change our relationship with wildlife, wet markets will likely be outlawed and that’s a really positive change from this pandemic. Like Sockstar, real change is about trying to fix things that are broken.

There are no organisational costs attached to Sockstar because I manage it all and fund myself, I have a few less beers a week out of my student loan and spend it on the organisation. I don’t need to be paid and you don’t need to make money to do some good in the world. It’s valuesbased and it seems to be a message that people really understand so I have found myself able to persuade people to do things for me for free.

Ultimately I would love Sockstar to be able to cover all 5000 of the ranger groups across the world, and have a fund built so that if rangers get injured they can go to the fund for financial help.

Rangers do a vitally important job. There are years of environmental crises coming and we will all see the impact of climate change when forests are depleted and biodiversity shallows. We need to balance the three pillars of environment, social PAGE 12 | Cranleigh Culture

justice and equality: without social justice and equality the environment will deplete further. Above all we must mitigate the impact of it all by protecting wildlife. Every action we take now is writing the next chapter and I just hope that Sockstar can be a part of that action for good. It’s about changing the world in small steps and I want to be able to look back and say that I took action to change things. It’s about goalposts, I know I’ll never achieve Greta Thunberg’s seismic change but I’ll be able to make a difference in the world.

Cranleigh really helped me to think about changing the world in small steps.

At the School people are encouraged to think philanthropically and it’s good at pushing good causes because it’s a privileged place but one that wants pupils to recognise their privilege. At Cranleigh you could do anything you wanted and no-one would say it was weird, you could be whoever you wanted to be, whether academic or playing music or liking conservation or being really into one sport. My advice to current pupils would be ‘don’t follow others, don’t be afraid to fail’. There will be kids at Cranleigh now who want to change the world and they need to know that they can.

Visit www.thesockstarproject.org to find out more about the project.

LIFE IN THE FAST LANE | FLT LT VICTORIA TURNER

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WE NEED TO BALANCE THE THREE PILLARS OF ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUALITY

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UNPACKAGED CATHERINE CONWAY PAGE 14 | Cranleigh Culture

Catherine, a former Cranleigh pupil, is one of the leading voices campaigning on all aspects of reuse and zero waste. She launched Unpackaged in 2006 and has been spearheading the zero-waste retail movement for over a decade. The Unpackaged brand has one simple, powerful mission: to help businesses develop and implement successful reusable packaging solutions. In addition, Unpackaged’s consultancy work supports innovative retailers and manufacturers to go ‘Unpackaged’ ­ — including supporting zero waste shops all over the world such as Sweden, Costa Rica and Hong Kong.

UNPACKAGED | CATHERINE CONWAY

Unpackaged started 14 years as the first modern zero waste market stall then shop —when no-one knew what zero waste was, or really cared about the problem of single use packaging! The concept was born because, as a consumer, I wanted to shop without packaging — I could see the problems we were creating putting everything in single-use plastic.

In my 20s, I was living in East London, trying to live a sustainable life. I used to refill my Ecover cleaning products at a local health food shop but I couldn’t understand why everything else I wanted to buy (rice, muesli, etc.) wasn’t refillable. I remember one day talking to Ali Strong (nee Mitchell, also ex Cranleigh) and telling her I had

this idea for a shop where everything would be refillable without packaging, and Unpackaged was born.

With growing ‘use once and throw away’ culture, I wanted to provide an alternative, sustainable option that would engage customers into thinking about how much waste they were creating in their daily lives, and how they could do something about it. Anita Roddick, who founded The Body Shop, has always been a massive influence for me over how to set up a purpose driven company, and never lose the fire in your belly. Also the maverick Buckminster Fuller who’s quote has sat above my desk from day one:

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YOU NEVER CHANGE THINGS BY FIGHTING THE EXISTING REALITY. TO CHANGE SOMETHING, BUILD A NEW MODEL THAT MAKES THE EXISTING MODEL OBSOLETE

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“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete” We began as a market stall in Islington, North London and there were days that I didn’t even make enough money to pay the congestion charge to get to the market, but slowly people started to understand what we were doing. We’ve always had a massive cross section of the population — from young people who are really switched on about environmental issues, parents who want to do the best for their children and the older generation who remember shopping like this before.

But what unites them is a commitment to creating as little waste as possible through their daily shopping. For 10 out of 13 years we couldn’t get any of the big companies to listen to us, much less implement our ideas but we stayed true because we knew they would eventually, they (we all) have no other choice.

Now, we don’t have our own shops anymore and our clients are other businesses who we help implement bulk and refill systems — Waitrose, Co-Op, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Planet Organic and a host of smaller independent delis, farm shops, etc. We have just launched our latest innovation project for Abel & Cole tackling refills through home delivery, and have a host of high street names in the pipeline. I’m speaking at lots of industry conferences getting the message out, and have applied for some government funding to advance our supply chain solutions which could be really big in the coming years.

The only reason we do this is to make a positive change in the world - we’re a social enterprise through and through. We listen to what our clients want, deliver real life projects but also push them further than they often want to go because we know the urgency of change towards more sustainable consumption.

Everything we do is education — within the sector and into the consumer space. Over the years, we have gone out and banged the Unpackaged drum at every opportunity — schools, universities, colleges, industry events and consumer fairs - you name it, we’ve done it, and finally people are listening. Everything we do is about helping all parts of the industry implement zero waste solutions as a solution to the single-use and climate crisis we face. We run our business according to our values (no fly policy etc.) and my family at home too — one of my toddlers first words was “recycling!”

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Unpackaged is now the sector-leader in designing and implementing zero waste retail solutions. We are growing and consolidating the core areas of our business (consultancy, workshops and selling in refill systems) by taking on more clients and improving the services we already offer. We spent 13 years building to this point, and finally the market is ready, so we’re committed to doing everything we can to shift retailers to the circular economy.

I always knew I wanted to work in the Third Sector - making a positive contribution to the society in which we live is the thing that motivates me above everything else.

Cranleigh was a fantastic place to be for my A Levels and I think we were lucky to have an environment where we could each be individually good at what we were good

at and supported in that way — I never felt in competition with anyone other than myself. The belief of our teachers, and gentle pushing to always do better, gives a very good grounding for the world of work when you have to be self-motivated to succeed and is something I know I was extremely privileged to receive, so I try and offer it back to my colleagues and employees. Cranleigh also gave me a close group of friends who have been an invaluable support network over the many lows and highs of Unpackaged. We’re highly privileged to have had the education we did, and live the lives that we do so we should all be doing all that we can, all of the time to have a positive impact on the society, and world, in which we live. Really though, my message is that anyone can do this — with the right grit, determination and support structure.

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MAKING A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE SOCIETY IN WHICH WE LIVE IS THE THING THAT MOTIVATES ME ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE

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The global crisis, which has consequences for everyone on the planet, is also having a huge impact on conservation, wildlife, the environment and nature as a whole. The likely reality is that we will have to learn to manage our lives with an ever-present Covid-19, and add it to the list of diseases that will never be eliminated. At the time of writing, billions of lives have been disrupted; 40 million cases and counting; 1.1 million fatalities (at least). These are staggering numbers. But beyond the direct human tragedy, the outstanding dedication of our first responders, and the largely confused, piecemeal and patchwork reaction of governments around the world to the pandemic, what about nature?

CONSERVATION POST COVID-19 WILL TRAVERS, OBE

Will Travers is an Old Cranleighan and Co-Founder of The Born Free Foundation as well as Founder and President of The Species Survival Network. He has spent 36 years working in the field of conservation and wild animal welfare, as a global campaigner and animal rights activist as well as writing, directing and producing many films on conservation themes. He was awarded the OBE in 2012 for services to animal welfare.

For more information on The Born Free Foundation and how to support its work in conservation, visit www.bornfree.org.uk

This article is based on an Opinion/Editorial article submitted to the Independent newspaper and published on the 1st August 2020. The Independent, with its Stop The Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign, has been at the forefront of this aspect of Covid-19.

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Theories abound, but it seems clear that the most likely source of Covid-19 was bats, via pangolins, to humans, either in China or in Vietnam. That is not to say that wildlife is to blame. We are the ones who exploit wild animals in brutal, cruel and thoughtless ways, massively increasing the likelihood of pathogens leaping from one species to another and, ultimately, to humans.

As Bill Maher, the American talk-show host, writer and social commentator suggested, when we have an infectious disease in humans we apply strict measures to stop it spreading: we socially distance, impose rigorous hygiene standards, dramatically reduce person-to-person contact and the sharing of bodily fluids. Yet we do exactly the opposite to animals traded in wildlife markets. They’re either caught from the wild (where we have no knowledge of their health status) or bred in largely unregulated captive circumstances; they are shipped in high densities; they are traded in wildlife markets where they are kept, one on top of the other, in unsanitary conditions, where faecal materials and droplet infection are optimised; and then consumed with little or no attention to food hygiene. And we wonder what happened?

Now we are living with the consequences — and one of the victims is conservation.

In many countries, there is a clear link between wildlife tourism and wildlife conservation, but with tourism at a standstill in Kenya where, for example, international visitors have declined by over 90%, funding for conservation has been hit hard. Rangers and Wardens, wildlife’s ‘first responders’, face retrenchment. Lodges and camps have closed. Staff have been laid off and sent home. Now, anecdotal evidence suggests that without jobs, without income, without social security, former employees are turning to poaching to feed their families or make some money to survive.

Developing countries, already massively stretched trying to find the resources to pay for surging public health costs, have little ability to find yet further funds to support beleaguered conservation and wildlife protection agencies. The Kenyan President recently allocated US$10 million to help pay 5,000 community scouts protecting wildlife on conservancies and group ranches. It’s a welcome move, but that’s just US$2,000 a person a year — just over $5 a day. It is not enough.

Of course, it’s not only about money. Access to the field has been severely limited with curfews being introduced and travel bans making movement highly problematic. And while wildlife law enforcement agencies and conservation NGOs are running on empty, poaching syndicates and organised wildlife crime operatives seize their opportunity.

My hope is that in the short-term we will somehow make the necessary commitments to bolster protection for high-risk species like elephants, rhino, lions, tigers, pangolins and more. But we also need the look for long-term, sustainable solutions too. Conservation must be weaned off its over-dependency on wildlife tourism. Blatant exploitation by way of trophy hunting must not become the easy option for people seduced by the old and largely discredited ‘if it pays, it stays’ mantra.

We need innovation: harnessing the engagement of and empowering reduced tourist numbers to become a global community of wildlife guardians; engaging the World Bank, the EU, the G20, the OEDC, the World Economic Forum, to make a baseline commitment to Investing in Nature, along the same lines as the commitment the UK has made to guaranteeing 0.7% of GDP towards international development.

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WE NEED INNOVATION: HARNESSING THE ENGAGEMENT OF AND EMPOWERING REDUCED TOURIST NUMBERS TO BECOME A GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF WILDLIFE GUARDIANS

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Initiatives could also include restructuring/forgiveness of debt (Zambia, for example, owes at least US$11 billion — about half its 2019 GDP) to allow countries to spend more of their revenue on public health and environmental protection, rather than on servicing multi-billion dollar loans that will, most likely, never be paid off. Creating debt for nature products that remove hard currency obligations from developing countries in return for equivalent local currency wildlife trust funds would be sustainable and have positive, far-reaching consequences.

In 2019, the UK government invested over £90 billion in our education system, over £40 billion in defence, but just £3 billion in protecting our environment. That immense imbalance means nature remains virtually defenceless and at the mercy of those who would exploit it with little thought or regard to the future.

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We have all experienced, at an individual and personal level, what lack of freedom, the denial of choice means. It is something that Born Free, the charity I co-founded 36 years ago with my parents, Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, has been focussed on ever since.

However, the bigger picture remains my abiding priority, that only by valuing, investing in and securing the long-term future of the natural world, with the ecosystem services we all rely on, can we secure a future for all life on earth – including ourselves.

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POETRY AND ULTIMATE TRUTH | JAMES HARPUR

THE BIGGER PICTURE REMAINS MY ABIDING PRIORITY, THAT ONLY BY VALUING, INVESTING IN AND SECURING THE LONGTERM FUTURE OF THE NATURAL WORLD, WITH THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES WE ALL RELY ON, CAN WE SECURE A FUTURE FOR ALL LIFE ON EARTH – INCLUDING OURSELVES Cranleigh Culture | PAGE 21

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CRANLEIGH ECO-GROUP INAUGURAL MEMBERS

As the first Eco-Group we were proud to be part of kickstarting this important initiative across the School. Along with the Pledge, designed to raise awareness of issues and spur people into action, we chose a few areas to address where we thought we could make a change and we were delighted with the impact. In addition to the areas below we succeeded in getting all single use-plastics removed from the main catering system, reducing printing and raising awareness in the curriculum. There’s a long way to go but the group is in good hands and we look forward to returning to see what else they achieve.

FOOD WASTE

We gave a school assembly on food waste and made a film as well as a series of posters and awareness campaigns to reduce food waste. We weighed our food wastage at the start of the project and catering reported a pleasing drop. Through a partnership with local business, For Earth’s Sake, we got the School to send all its food waste to a local Biodigester where it is now converted to biogas that helps to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

FAST FASHION

We organised a ‘Pre-loved’/Second Hand clothes sale followed by a second-hand mufti day, where we asked all pupils to wear at least one item of pre-loved clothing. Our message was: “Fast fashion is one of the world’s top polluters, promoting a non-sustainable way of life whilst producing a huge amount of harmful greenhouse gases. What is more, did you know it takes around 2,700 litres of water to produce just ONE cotton T-shirt?!” We raised over £2000 which was sent to the relief funds in Australia to fight the consequences of bush fires; to ‘Behind the Label’ who campaign for equality on the fashion industry and to local environmental projects.

MEAT FREE

In order to raise the awareness of the impact of meat farming on the environment, we set up Meat Free Mondays at our School – no mean feat at a full-time boarding school!

By creating a clear awareness campaign and working closely with the food group, with the catering and the bursary we proved that vegetarian food can be excellent, varied, filling and sustainable. Next year, we plan to change this to a Meat Free ‘Oneday’ model where we will not just go veggie on one day but spread it out over the week. We feel this will better mirror the majority choice of being ‘flexitarian’, lessen the impact on others who may be reticent to adopt this initiative and actually allow us to save even more meat and all the associated benefits of this.

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INAUGURAL MEMBERS | CRANLEIGH ECO-GROUP

THE PLEDGE OUR INTENTION IS THAT ALL MEMBERS OF THE CRANLEIGH COMMUNITY SHALL: • Understand the need and necessity to take immediate action on environmental issues • Take practical steps to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, both personally and as a community. This will include, but not be limited to: energy usage, recycling, sustainable products, lifestyle choices, food waste • Actively seek to educate, engage with and support others on environmental issues both inside and outside the Cranleigh community

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CRANLEIGH ECO-GROUP | INAUGURAL MEMBERS

WE WILL ACHIEVE THIS THROUGH: • Actively seeking and actively providing opportunities to learn about climate change and sustainable living • Devising and implementing a series of aspirational, yet achievable, practical goals, schemes and policies • Working with pupils, staff and other members of the Cranleigh community to help them adopt our policies and ideas • Inspiring others by our own actions • Engaging in direct action when deemed appropriate

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TREADING LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH

JEANINE HSU Jeanine Hsu is an Old Cranleighan and internationally renowned jewellery designer. Her own brand — niin — uses re-purposed materials to create ethical and sustainable jewellery and accessories. niin is a celebrity favourite with a flagship store in Hong Kong and plans to expand its work in sustainability with an education programme in The Philippines. Jeanine lives in Hong Kong with her husband and three young sons.

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I always knew I wanted to be an artist or designer and initially I chose Cranleigh because of the beautiful Art School that has its own space nestled in the green fields. It seemed a very special place to me because I have always taken inspiration from nature for my art. At that time it was exciting to be presented with so much choice — you could do sculpture, painting, ceramics and learn about all types of art with different teachers.

I went on to do a Foundation in Art and Design at Wimbledon School of Art where I discovered a love of fashion and was delighted to get a place at St Martin’s afterwards. I loved the full colourful and inspiring experience there, so I went on to work in the fashion industry and later also costume design for opera and theatre, where I learned about accessorising and saw the most incredible designs.

At the Vienna Workshops and Salzburg Festival House they make garments, even the shoes, gloves and accessories entirely by hand and it was there that I started to appreciate the artisanal skills

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of fashion and accessories. It was also there that I began to realise how much the considerable waste in fashion bothered me, For a few years, I was selling handmade Indian jewellery sourced by a friend on stalls in Portobello and Spitalfields Market in London. I became really interested in the craftsmanship of the pieces. On a visit to India I developed some of my own designs from their old unused beads and scraps of woods and it was from there I knew that was going to be my path, and that I was determined to create sustainable and ethical jewellery.

All niin jewellery is made from my own hand drawn designs, from materials that I mostly source and collect. I take the designs and materials to the jewellery makers in the Philippines and Thailand twice a year and we work together to produce and finalise the collections.

Now I’m expanding into accessories and homewares and, again, sustainability is the highest priority after design.

SUSTAINABILITY IS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY

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TREADING LIGHTLY ON THE EARTH | JEANINE HSU

EVERYONE SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR QUESTIONING HOW THE THINGS THEY BUY ARE MADE, BY WHOM, AND WHAT THEY COST THE EARTH

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My inspiration is life itself, all the silent energies that cross the earth and the colour palettes it provides. Even in Hong Kong, I immerse myself in nature as often as I can. Many people just know the city but in five minutes from most places you can be immersed in jungle and waterfalls in the hills or on a beach.

Creating ethical pieces comes naturally because I always find that the most interesting materials are those which have already been used. ‘I love working with and supporting communities and local artisans who can handcraft something beautiful out of nearly any material I present to them. For example, working with wood offcuts that come from the large furniture manufacturers in Asia, there’s an awesome non-perfection in the pieces that they throw away, beautiful grains and colours of wood that would otherwise have been burned as waste.

Many of the restaurants in Hong Kong, where I’m based, serve seafood in shells that they then discard. I used to beg them to let me take them home but now I have agreements with some of them to use and re-purpose the shells they no longer need.

These are all materials that are fascinating because they have already lived other lives and it’s exciting to be able to make them into new pieces that will be treasured.

earth. Diamond mining can have a terrible impact on wildlife and the environment as well as human life, but it is possible to use ‘gentle diamonds’ instead. It’s a movement that’s growing. Several fashion influencers have supported my work, people like Poppy Delavigne, Kate Moss and Amanda Strang all wear pieces and promote the ethical message.

One of the next steps for niin is to finalise establishing a vocational training school for local workers and apprentices in the Philippines. They’ll be trained and educated by a top Austrian jewellery house so they’ll be highly skilled and able to then train others, creating real employment opportunities. We’re working with Don Bosco Mondo youth charity and The University of the Philippines to create a lasting programme of training and employment. The plan was halted by COVID-19 but should be back on track soon.

Our dream at niin is to make the business fully circular with zero waste. We want to tread as lightly as possible on the earth, whilst spreading positivity at the same time – be it through the natural healing energy of the crystals or by knowing you can feel and look good whilst also respecting nature.

People have started to look at the fashion world and question the price of fast fashion, but once you realise the impact that jewellery can have on the earth it’s surprising. Everyone should be responsible for questioning how the things they buy are made, and what they cost the

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: PETER CONDER, OBE

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The late Peter Conder OBE found his passion for birdwatching whilst boarding at Cranleigh, an interest that was developed during his time as a Prisoner of War. He used his wartime bird studies as the basis for an ornithological career that saw him become Director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) taking it from an ineffectual organisation of 20,000 members to more than 200,000 during his stewardship.

He is widely credited with instigating a culture of conservation of the environment to protect bird and their habitats..

Peter Conder’s interest in ornithology began when he arrived at Cranleigh as a boy. The campus is a haven for birds and the surrounding Surrey Hills provide a perfect habitat for many species. He regularly used to sneak out from his 2&3 South dormitory to undertake early morning birdwatching expeditions and ornithology became his main interest throughout his whole school career.

On leaving in 1937 he started work in advertising, an experience that was to help him transform the RSPB later in life.

After just two years, war broke out and, as a member of the Territorial Army, he went to serve. A year later he was captured by the Germans and sent to a Prisoner of War (PoW) camp.

Along with three other prisoners he founded a secret birdwatching society and the men dedicated themselves to serious study, sometimes drawing in interested guards at great risk to all of them. During the spring they watched a slagheap at the corner of the camp, counting the mass migration of thousands of rooks, jackdaws,

and skylarks overhead. In 1942 they were moved to the Bavarian camp of Eichstatt, a wooded valley that was a paradise for wildlife; birds were breeding everywhere – swallows even nested inside the barrack huts, swooping over the men’s beds.

Eventually, leaving a north German camp, Conder evaded his captors by bolting into the woods, but managed to keep hold of his 17 heavy notebooks containing valuable bird data by wrapping them in a shirt fashioned as a rucksack, hiding in a barn where he was eventually picked up by the US Army.

For more stories about Conder’s extraordinary wartime experience and the unlikely beginnings of British wildlife conservation read Derek Niemanns’ book about the birdwatchers of the PoW camps — Birds in a Cage, published by Short Books Ltd.

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WE CAN ACT AS CONSERVATIONISTS ON OUR OWN SMALL PATCHES, INDEED, WE ALL SHOULD TRY TO DO THIS AS CONSERVATION IS REALLY A PHILOSOPHY FOR LIVING

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– RSPB Guide to Birdwatching

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CRANLEIGH CULTURE | FROM THE ARCHIVES: PETER HENRY EMERSON

BIRDS SHARE THE ENVIRONMENT WITH MAN AND MANY OTHER CREATURES. THEIR SONG, THEIR MOVEMENT AND THEIR COLOURS MAKE THEM CONSPICUOUS AND THIS CONSPICUOUSNESS MAKES THEM IN TURN GOOD INDICTORS OF THE WAY IN WHICH MAN OR NATURE IS CHANGING THE ENVIRONMENT – RSPB Guide to Birdwatching

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CHANGING HEARTS AND MINDS DR ZAC BAYNHAM-HERD Zac is an Old Cranleighan with a background in sustainability, currently working as a consultant at the Behavioural Insights Team, helping a range of organisations to achieve changes in consumer behaviour around sustainable environmental decisions.

He holds first-class degrees in Natural Sciences (BA and MSc) from the University of Cambridge and completed his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, where he researched behavioural interventions in conservation. His research has been published in a range of peer-reviewed international journals.

My interest in wildlife, and subsequent desire to work in an area where I could make a difference to how humans and wildlife live together, started when I was quite young. I loved the Attenborough documentaries and was lucky to live in a place like Cranleigh where I could spot wildlife on walks. I was also fortunate to have access to such supportive teachers and resources — I remember after-class discussions with my tutor (Dr Mann) fuelling my interest in evolutionary theory. After school I started in natural sciences, focusing on the environment, then switched to the History and Philosophy of Science department to study the history of the conservation movement. My PhD then focussed on conservation intervention in areas of conflict — and that’s my real interest, looking at the evidence for what works and trying to use that to change human behaviour for the benefit of people and the environment.

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Now I work at The Behavioural Insights Team, where we apply expert knowledge of human behaviour to the work of governments, charities and other organisations. We inform large-scale strategy as well as test the finer-scale detail of communications and design in programmes that are aiming to encourage more sustainable living. For instance, sometimes the language used to promote the choice of things like electric cars, or a meat-free diet, can be off-putting for consumers so we work on making it more positive and showcasing the end results of sustainable consumer decisions. Lately I’ve been thinking about consumption habits and how to encourage people to shift away from products that kill or threaten wildlife and their habitats, like ivory or pangolin scales — that would be an ideal sphere to work in at the moment.

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Everyone has an important role to play in future sustainability — governments can effect massive change through policy, commercial organisations can make their products more environmentally friendly, and consumers, en masse, can effect great change by making just a few different decisions. I’d encourage every voter to read in detail the environmental policy of different political parties and also to really get to know the charities they’re sending their donations to, as some are more effective than others.

It was during undergraduate studies that I was introduced to the idea of evidencebased conservation and began looking

at areas where sometimes interventions weren’t successful. It’s important to exercise humility and realise that projects may not always work, but also to test things where possible. We also have to realise that behaviours can change, and sometimes be patient about the time that can take. I find that looking backwards and seeing how far we have come is really helpful in giving me the optimism needed to imagine more positive change in the future. In fact, positive news nearly always gets hidden: the more we can shine a light on progress the better.

Tanzania was my first experience of conservation in the field and it really

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EVERYONE HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY IN FUTURE SUSTAINABILITY

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ULTIMATELY THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING IS TO BE MORE OPEN, LISTEN MORE, REALISE YOUR OPINIONS CAN CHANGE AND BE MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THAT

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brought home to me the realities of living alongside large animals. It’s scary and inconvenient to be living alongside large wildlife; and it was sobering to realise that for some farmers, an elephant might be able to eat half their annual crop income overnight.

It’s massively important that conservation projects work properly with locals, or they won’t succeed. Tanzania also gave me an insight into the decision-making process in conservation, and who gets to decide what happens on the ground. It seems impossible to imagine an African organisation telling a UK estate what it should do to reintroduce lynx, for example, yet that is how global conservation groups can sometimes work. Projects simply won’t succeed unless they work hand-in-hand with locals and local organisations.

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In my research I’ve done a lot of thinking about the best approaches to get local buyin as well as considering the ways in which conservation projects are presented to potential donors. I want to find the behavioural perspective that will ultimately lead to the most environmental benefit and help the projects to succeed.

It’s important to understand the emotional aspects and to focus on the positive outcomes.

However, I’m also a strong believer in technological innovation and can really see big wins for the environment through improved tech. For example, in the post-COVID-19 workplace, corporates are now realising there’s no need to fly teams around the world to meet with each other, tech can bring them together just as effectively.

Pupils at Cranleigh now will work in a world that’s not all invented yet, and that can be both exciting and daunting. As a student I really benefited from experiences like volunteering at the London Wetlands Centre and doing an internship at the Joint Nature Conservation Committee — I’d really encourage all young people to volunteer more in the areas that interest them. But if I could go back and give my former self some life lessons I’d push me to challenge myself more. I never found public speaking easy but I really enjoyed the TED talk I did on living more sustainably, it’s confidence-building and helps you to understand how best to tell stories and present ideas to people. Ultimately the key to understanding is to be more open, listen more, realise your opinions can change and be comfortable with that.

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KNEPP ESTATE: A PERSONAL JOURNEY OVER TWO DECADES JASON EMRICH

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Jason is a Cranleigh parent and has been the Estate Manager at Knepp since 2000. He is responsible for developing new businesses on the estate as well as managing the existing enterprises, from meat production and agri-environment schemes, to tourism and property. He started at Knepp when the restoration of the Repton park around Knepp castle was in its planning phase and has been the lynchpin in the transition from conventional farming to rewilding.

There has been a great deal written recently about Knepp and rewilding, not least Isabella Tree’s bestseller Wilding which charts the story from the time I joined the Burrells to manage their estate.

Knepp has changed a great deal in those twenty years. Initially we went through a period of rationalising and built a large let property portfolio out of farm buildings, whilst mothballing the land in an attempt to stop haemorrhaging financial losses

© Knepp Wildland

in agriculture. Serendipitously this led to new pleasures; initially rough shooting and latterly a greater awareness of wildlife, which in the past decade has escalated into a fascinating adventure and education into nature conservation, where we find ourselves leading a zeitgeist into rewilding.

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SERENDIPITOUSLY THIS LED TO NEW PLEASURES; INITIALLY ROUGH SHOOTING AND LATTERLY A GREATER AWARENESS OF WILDLIFE

This is now spinning into new opportunities in eco-tourism, ethical food production, regenerative farming,

© Knepp Wildland

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Š Knepp Wildland

office hubs, education, retail and the world of carbon and natural capital, and we fully anticipate these opportunities to continue for all in the landed sector as they embrace a fast evolving market place.

I thought myself a country boy when I came to Knepp, with a career in rural property, country sports and agriculture with Savills following several years training on estates in the Scottish Highlands, but what I have learned in the past decade about what creatures share

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our countryside has been uplifting and made me realise how little I really knew about the core tenets such as soil, wildlife, and biodiversity. We have had a culture of taking from nature for too long, and there is now an urgent need for a paradigm shift if we are to slow both climate change and the rate of extinctions and learn to coexist with nature.

The Knepp story is really one of hope I think. In these times of climate apathy and eco-anxiety about all that is dreadful, particularly amongst the young, we

Š Knepp Wildland

have pulled off an experiment in nature conservation that has shown that in a short time, ordinary farmland can reemerge from a relatively sterile palette to an extraordinary haven for nature. Charlie Burrell (who now sits on multiple Boards of landowning operations as an advisor) speculated that we might have one of the densest populations of breeding songbirds in the UK at the moment, and this follows other startling wildlife results.

The statistic that I really like is about dung beetles… stay with me… these humble creatures move dung into soil and are presumably some way down there in the food chain. It is well documented that nonorganic farming’s insecticides wipe out this layer of biodiversity, so we compared our project with neighbouring organic farms. In one day, 12,178 dung beetles

were collected by a student in pitfall traps.

Of those identified 11,066 were found at Knepp, compared to just 512 on the organic farms. Even more amazing was that 90% of these were in what we call the Southern Block which has seen the most dramatic transition from arable to scrub.

We speculate that natural processes are functioning in this core area, and this is really exciting.

The Southern Block is also the area where we achieve our highest financial gross margin on the estate, much higher than can be achieved from conventional farming on this sort of land, which is a message I have been trying to hammer home to contemporaries and landowners as they visit us, as this all makes sound business sense too.

POETRY AND ULTIMATE TRUTH | JAMES HARPUR

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WE HAVE HAD A CULTURE OF TAKING FROM NATURE FOR TOO LONG, AND THERE IS NOW AN URGENT NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT

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One of the greatest treats for me has been the chance to raise our children Bea and Teddy at Knepp. It was particularly spoiling during Lockdown being virtually alone here as nature emerged undisturbed from that dreadful wet winter. Then we had a perfect storm of Boris opening the countryside just as we were featured on Springwatch, which lead to an invasion that we were unprepared for, but by and large it has been an overwhelmingly positive experience.

The tens of thousands of visitors and their positive comments have reinforced our belief that there is a significant proportion of society with an enthusiasm for nature, and this quest to improve biodiversity needn’t stop in our countryside. © Knepp Wildland

Pre-Lockdown I was invited to look at Cranleigh, not as a parent, but as someone in the world of land management and nature conservation, and I hope that when the dust settles on 2020, we can resume our quest to integrate nature into the School’s landholding, through simple measures such as the introduction of swift nest boxes on the tall facades of the college buildings, and more controversial ones such as breaking up the manicured lawns to make wildflower meadows bordered by hedges scruffy enough to support bird nesting. How wonderful also to use the School’s farmland to support and empower the children to think about and be amongst nature. Eco groups will give way to mainstream thinking as wildlife cameras bring this life onto the screens that dominate our daily lives.

However, whilst Government policy and climate commitments are definitely challenging conventional agriculture and incentivising land owners and farmers to become green, so are they beating the drum for house building, and in our area, massive new housing developments are being promoted. The Northern Powerhouse is still only a concept, and despite COVID-19 changing people’s work patterns, the quest for housing in the Southeast is currently unstoppable. The tragedy is that this is in direct conflict with what we need to do to reverse the decline in biodiversity and build climate change resilience. Nature needs to be able to connect and move through landscapes; our fragmented nature hot spots will fail as the climate heats. New towns in the countryside are a disaster if they come before we have figured out how to connect nature and allow it to move through our homogenised humanscapes.

On a happier note, Knepp is influencing and inspiring many other landowners, and as we continue to unlock from the pandemic, we are developing an educational foundation in which we very much look forward to welcoming our children’s contemporaries here too, to see a little of what can be achieved if we give some space for nature.

To find out more about Knepp Estate and rewilding, please visit: www.knepp.co.uk PAGE 42 | Cranleigh Culture © Knepp Wildland

© Knepp Wildland

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The School farm, now the Cranleigh School Equestrian Centre, in the 1950’s

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