Kate Wood-Foye - Business Illuminate

Illuminate

with KATE WOOD-FOYE

THE GUTS, GRIT AND GROUNDWORK OF REMARKABLE REGIONAL ENTREPRENEURS, INNOVATORS, LEADERS AND GAME CHANGERS.

Angela Frimberger is a leading light with a passion for business, animals and the environment, expertly combining her roles of parent, biologist, veterinary oncologist, small business owner and volunteer climate advocate and educator. Angela shines a light on environmental concerns and in 2014 trained as a Climate Leader by the Climate Reality Project and Australian Conservation Foundation. Locally she is known for her role as Chair and Treasurer of the Energy Forever community renewable energy project and also successfully manages her family’s adventure experience business, Façade Escape Room. Founding Climate Vets in 2016 and through her role as national Deputy Chair of Veterinarians for Climate Action, Angela leads important discussions to advance climate advocacy within the veterinary profession and the broader community.

Angela you are passionate

advocate for the environment, inspiring, and educating and channelling your passion into numerous projects with purpose – what projects are you most excited about?

There are three projects that I’m especially

ANGELA

FRIMBERGER

excited about right now.

My family’s local small business, Façade Escape Room (façade-escape.com.au), is fl ourishing again after the most recent COVID wave; and this is always throwing something new and fun at me!

The local NFP I’m involved with, Energy Forever (pmhsn.org.au/energy-forever-inc), is embarking on a new social enterprise to support the sustainable growth of the original charity. Right now we’re exploring an exciting partnership with another community organisation, and a community battery, both potentially launching this next year.

I’m also super excited about the growth of Veterinarians for Climate Action (vfca.org.au)! VfCA is growing so quickly – clearly our mission of addressing climate change on behalf of the animals resonates with many people both within the animal care profession, and animal lovers in all walks of life.

You are a woman of many talents… nature lover, veterinarian, business owner, mother and climate change educator and social entrepreneur. You have passion for animals and nature, and have combined these passions in NFP Veterinarians for Climate Action. What inspired you to establish/be part this organisation and how do you hope to make an impact?

I’ve been a veterinarian for 30 years, and love the animal care profession for its compassion and dedication to health and welfare of both animals and people.

I’ve also always loved nature, and I’ve matured at a time of increasing threats to the environment, so this developed into a passion to protect it. Eight years ago I received climate change communication training, helping me go from just being quietly worried, to actively working on the problem.

When Jeannet Kessels, a veterinarian from Brisbane, contacted me three years ago to say she was worried about climate change too and wanted to start an organisation to help veterinarians act on it, I was thrilled to weave these two important threads of my personal mission together.

The central message we want to share is that if you love an animal, climate change is important to you; and the most valuable action we can take it is elect and support policymakers to make the strongest and quickest possible emissions reductions.

How important are collaborative pursuits and partnerships to your projects’ success?

Absolutely vital! None of these would have gotten off the ground without the wonderful teams I’m privileged to be part of.

In parallel with your role as a veterinarian and climate advocate, you introduced and continue to run the highly successful Façade Escape Room in Port Macquarie – what was your inspiration behind this?

Just fun! Façade started out as a goofball idea on a long car trip… Our family has always enjoyed mysteries, games, puzzles – and that means of course we love playing escape rooms. We were talking about how great it would be if Port Macquarie had an escape room so we wouldn’t have to drive so far away to play. Someone jokingly said, “If nobody else will, we should open one!” And somehow that stuck.

We opened in December 2018, not sure how Port Macquarie would take to something so new and different; and the community’s response has been just amazing. Becoming a member of the local business community has been so rewarding. The business has grown much more than we expected – we now have 10 staff, which we never foresaw; and cultivating our team has been a real delight. And of course, we love the

THE CENTRAL creativity of building the

MESSAGE WE games themselves, and WANT TO SHARE IS the joy they bring to our THAT IF YOU LOVE players. AN ANIMAL, What has been your CLIMATE CHANGE biggest challenge IS IMPORTANT TO in each of your YOU businesses and

projects?

Façade’s faced the same challenges that everyone in our community has in the last few years… In late 2019 we spent three weeks fighting bushfires threatening our property at home (happily, now a registered NSW Biodiversity Conservation Area); and then of course, the shared challenges of COVID-19. But with the amazing support of our team and community we’ve been able to meet the challenges so far. Energy Forever’s biggest challenge is volunteer workload. We have a small, highly dedicated group of volunteers but we always need more hands. This is the genesis of the social enterprise initiative, to generate funds to support a staff member.

What drives you to inspire and educate the next generation in understanding and mitigating climate change? How important is it for you to ensure the next generation has a voice when it comes to creating meaningful change?

Climate change touches everything we care about. We all love our families, and we try to ensure that their futures will be bright. We want our friends and neighbours to be safe and healthy, our town to thrive. We want our businesses to be successful in a healthy economy. As citizens and human beings we care about immigration and defence and we recognise moral and humanitarian problems.

As a veterinarian and nature lover, I especially worry about biodiversity and the impact on animals – and I want future generations to be able to experience nature as I’ve been fortunate to.

It’s critically important that the next generation be heard on climate change and other environmental matters – simply, it’s their future and their right. I’m passionate to do whatever I can to support their voice, including providing information and encouragement to help them to find it – but not putting words in their mouth.

That said, ideally they shouldn’t have to. My generation has a clear moral responsibility to hand over a healthy, functioning environment to future generations, and we should do that regardless.

How instrumental were mentors in your journey? What is the most valuable lesson they taught you?

Critically important! Mentors provide information, and most importantly, encouragement and inspiration embarking on a new path.

What is the hardest lesson you have learned in life and business?

That I can’t control everything, and sometimes I have to let go.

How important has risk been to the success of your journey?

It’s always important to take (measured) risks. There’s no growth without going somewhere we haven’t been before.

As a passionate professional and social entrepreneur with current and future projects on the horizon – what is one piece of advice you can share with others to enable them to have a positive impact on the world?

Don’t give up. You’re more powerful than you think. If you think something is important, say so. Don’t be afraid to try something new – not everything will work, and that’s okay – that’s how we learn and grow.

Thanks Angela.