Sustainable(ish)

Money makes the world go around, or so the saying goes. But did you know that YOUR money, might be making fossil fuel companies go round (aka fund them!), without you knowing?
Do you want a few bonkers stats?
- The “Big 5” UK high-street banks – Barclays, HSBC, Santander, Lloyds andNatWest – have financed the fossil fuel industry with more than $556 billion between 2016 and 2023 (1)
- In 2023 alone, they provided $55 billion to fossil fuel companies (1).
- For every £10 you put into your pension, £2 is invested in deforestation (2).

In today’s episode I’m chatting to Lisa Stanley-Mann, from Good with Money. We dive into all things money, and more specifically, the power of our money, and what it might be being used for when we think it’s all tucked up nice and safe and innocently in our bank accounts or pensions.
I was convinced that Lisa had been on the podcast before, but I scrolled back through the archives and couldn’t see an episode, someone please correct me if I’m wrong! But Lisa and I have previously chatted ‘off air’ quite some time ago as it turns out, when I hosted some podcasts for Good With Money – we got chatting about the 2016 craze that is/was sweeping the internet at the time of recording, and that I was blissfully unwaware of as I’m not cool enough! Inevitably I hopped straight onto the bandwagon pretty much as soon as my call with Lisa ended, and if you’re in any way interested (it’s genuinely not that interesting, so I won’t be offended if you’re not!), I did my own 2016 post – I’ll pop a link to it below if you want to have a nose.

PS. We should have said this in the chat, but hopefully it's blindingly obvious that I'm not a financial advisor, and Lisa isn't either! Do take proper professional advice before moving your money.

References:
(1) https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Banking-Guide-2025.pdf
(2) https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Green-Pensions-Guide-2025.pdf

Lisa Stanley-Mann



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USEFUL LINKS:

Good With Money
- Website
- Instagram
- Facebook
- The Good Egg accreditation
- The Good Guides
- The Good Lists
Make My Money Matter
- E-mail template to email your employer about their pension provider
Bank Track
Pension Bee
Zero
Related podcast episodes from the archives:
- [015] - Money as a Force for Good with Triodos Bank
- [091] - Make My Pension Matter - with Make My Money Matter
- [169] - How green is your money - with Dan Sherrard-Smith from Mothertree
Bank.Green
Ethical Consumer
B-Corp
Naturesave
My 2016 post on Instagram



Are you going to do a bit of investigating into your money,
and your current accounts and savings after listening?
Or have you already moved your money?
Do let me know!

[…]

In this episode, I'm chatting to Charlotte Mason-Curl, who is the founder of No Crap Parties and the Kids Party Pact campaign. Charlotte has a background in marketing and comms, and not only does this help to explain how she's done such a bloody great job with getting her message out there, also means she's written herself a really good bio. I had to write myself a bio when The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide was published, and I found it really cringe-inducingly difficult, but Charlotte's done a fab job, so I'm just going to copy and paste her words as an intro:
Charlotte Mason-Curl is a marketing and comms consultant and the person behind The Kids Party Pact. She believes children’s parties are overlooked as a place to spark change. What started as a few Instagram posts has grown into a campaign that’s reached millions of parents. Thousands have now changed how they approach gifts and party bags, sending ripples through their communities. The campaign has secured National Lottery funding and featured in The Times, BBC Newsround, Positive News and more. With 13 years of marketing experience and a sharp understanding of behaviour change, Charlotte builds campaigns that cut through. Powered by strategy, creativity, and a fierce commitment to leaving the world less of a mess for her kids.

How is that for kick-ass!

In the first episode of the re-boot, I dived into the debate around individual change vs system change, and how it can feel really hard as an individual to feel like you can change 'the system;,whatever that really is, and what it means. And then in the last episode I was chtting to the fabulous Nick Oldridge who is going all out for getting MPs on board with the urgency of aciton on the climate crisis, to effect system change from the government, which is ultaimtely what is needed.
But for systems to change, we need people to recognise where things are broken, and to do something differently, which starts to shift social norms. This is somethign that Charlotte is doing brilliantly. She saw that not only was there an issue around kids parties in terms of plastic tat, and waste, and ultiamtely I guess, excessive consumptiuon, but that most parents aren't really that comfortable with it, but well feel like everyone else must be on baord with it, so we don't say anything.
Charlotte says at one point in the podcast, that it's 'just a few party bags', but it's absolutely not. What Charlotte has done, really cleverly, is tapped into her knowledge of behaviour change and comms, and utilised it brilliantly, to help make it really visible that it's not just you, and that you're not alone, and that thousands of other parents would love to do kids parties differently.
And if you're not a parent, or if your kids are out of the party phase, there is still so much in this episode for you - so much of what Charlotte has done can (and should be!) applied to other campaigns and movements, so while you're listening have a think about what social norm you would love to challenge, and what you might be able to replicate from what Charlotte is doing.

Enjoy!

Charlotte Mason-Curl



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USEFUL LINKS:

No Crap Parties
- Website
- Instagram
- Facebook
- Sign the Kids Party Pact
- Email templates to share the Party Pact
- Sustainable Party Bag alternatives
- How to host a toy swap
Party Kit Network
- Podcast ep with Isabel Mack - founder of The Party Kit Network



If you've got young kids, have you signed the Pact?
What are your plans for the next kids party in your household?
Do let me know!

[…]

In this episode, I'm chatting to Nick Oldridge, founder of Climate Science Breakthrough, and co-founder of the National Emergency Briefing. What Nick has done with both of those projects, as you will here, is incredible, but I'm also really fascinated in his back story and his journey to where he is now (side note, really think I need to do an episode on insurance as a lever for climate action!).

I ummed and ahhed about whether to publish this episode so early in the re-launch, as (spoiler alert) some of it is pretty bleak, almost right out of the gate. I'm a big fan of focussing on action and the things that we can do, and I'm very aware that confronting the reality of where we are can be overwhelming and paralysing. However, as Nick says, I think it's important that we don't hide from that reality, and that we find a way to channel our anxiety into action, and use it as motivation to keep taking the next steps.
The Climate Science Breakthrough videos are brilliant - I've linked to them all below. They're all just 4 or 5 minutes long, and do that really clever thing where they're delivering a pretty brutal message, but somehow making you laugh at the same time.

The National Emergency Briefing videos are now all online - I'm working up the courage to watch them if I'm totally honest, and trying to figure out a way to maybe host a 'watch party' so we can all be in it together. If you're interested in that, let me know!
I do think it's important that the videos are watched and shared and that we all understand quite what is at stake. But even more important I think, is that the Briefings result in action, ideally from the Government, but we 'ordinary people' will need to take action to make that happen. I've linked below to the Take Action page, the good news is that all of them can be done from the sofa!
In the first episode of this podcast reboot, I dived in a little bit into the individual change vs system change debate. And as an individual, system change often feels like this nebulous thing that we agree needs to happen, but that we're not quite sure how that happens, or the role that we can play. The National Emergency Briefing is a route to system change, and gives us really clear ways that we as individuals can get involved. And as I said, they're not big asks, doing all of them would take less than 10 minutes and you don't even need to leave your house. And in the podcast, Nick shares that apparently once MPs receive around 20 emails (from different people!) on the same subject, it makes them start to sit up and pay a bit more attention. That number feels do-able - how many people do you know local to you, who you might be able to encourage to send your MP an email? Finally, a quick mention of the Crowdfunder, which at the time of this podcast dropping, is at over £70,000 and nearly halfway to the target. Frustratingly (but good news for the crowdfunder!) the cheaper rewards have all sold out, but that doesn't mean you still can't donate whatever amount you might feel able to. And as Nick says in the podcast, times are tight, and if you aren't able to donate, please do share it on your social feeds.

Nick Oldridge



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USEFUL LINKS:

Climate Science Breakthrough
- Kiri Pritchard-McLean meets Prof Bill McGuire
- Jonathon Pie meets Prof Joanna Haigh
- Nish Kumar meets Prof Fredi Otto
- Jo Brand meets Prof Mark Maslin
- US version - David Cross meets Prof Michael Oppenheimer
Naturesave
Heat by George Monbiot
The Stern Review - the Economics of Climate Change
Planet solvency: study by reseachers at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and the University of Exeter
The Utopia Bureau
Angus Rose podcast
Zero Hour
MP Watch
National Emergency Briefing
- Take action
- The videos on You Tube
Climate Outreach
Liquefied natural gas footprint is worse than coal
The People V Climate Change - doesn't seem to be currently available on iPlayer
Your Brain on Climate - how to talk about the climate emergency
MPs underestimate support for climate policies - Guardian
Climate Change: The Facts - David Attenborough documentary
Rutger Bregman - Reith Lectures 2025



Have you watched any of the videos - either the Climate Science Breakthrough ones, or the National Emergency Briefing ones? What do you think of my idea of online watch parties.
And most importantly, have you done any of the 5 things on the Take Action page of the National Emergency Briefing website? Do it now!

[…]

Well this is exciting isn’t it? As it turns out I was wise to say never say never when I said back in April 24 that that was probably the last ever Sustsainable(ish) podcast episode, because I’m back! And in this first episode back after a looong old break, I’m answering a pretty fundamental question… is it all just bollocks?
Does individual action really matter, or is it, in the words of Green party leader Zack Polanski in a 2025 interview just bollocks.

Tune in to hear my thoughts, as well as my explanation for where I've been and what I've been doing since the last episode the best part of two years ago, and why the podcast is back!

Enjoy!



LISTEN...



USEFUL LINKS:

Sustainable(ish) socials - come and say hello!
- Instagram
- Facebook
- Linked In
Let's Go Zero



I'd love to know what you think, and where you sit on the 'individual change vs system change' debate. Also do let me know your thoughts on the podcast’s return, and whose story you’d love to hear.

[…]

Hello and welcome to episode 184, and as it turns out, the last episode of the Sustainable(ish) podcast! I wanted to try and get to 200, and I’m annoyed not even to be ending on a nice round number like 185, but often in life things aren’t tied up in a nice neat bow. Long term listeners will know that at times the podcast has been very stop start, and the time has come for an intentional stop. For now at at least. I’m not going to say that it will never be back in some form, as I genuinely love having these conversations and will miss the opportunities that the podcast has given me to speak to so many extraordinary and inspiring people. However it’s reached the point where the joy of the conversations is starting to be outweighed by the work involved organising and scheduling everything, editing it all, creating the blog posts and the socials etc etc, so time to put this particular project to bed, for a while at least.

I am so delighted to be going out with such a bang and having the amazing opportunity to interview one of my absolute heroes, Clover Hogan.
Clover is a 24-year-old climate activist and the founding Executive Director of Force of Nature - the youth non-profit mobilising mindsets for climate action. She has worked alongside the world’s leading authorities on sustainability, consulted within the boardrooms of Fortune 50 companies, and counselled heads of state. Her TED talk, 'What to do when climate change feels unstoppable', has been viewed 2 million times. As we’ll hear in the chat, she started her activist journey at the age of just 11, and attended the instrumental Paris COP in 2015 at the age of just 15. She genuinely is a force of nature, and is the kind of person who you just want to be able to download everything that is in their head. We talk about her own journey, what we can do as parents to support our young people, and what we can do ourselves to move beyond individual action and to be a bit more activist. We discuss what the word activist even means, acknowledging that it’s an uncomfortable word for many, but that it encompasses such a wide range of things, and that an ‘in’ for many people is thinking about their workplace and what they might be able to to do to encourage their workplace on a sustainability journey.

I’m pretty sure it’s obvious from the chat, but this was a massive fan-girl moment for me, I loved this chat and totally want Clover to be my new BFF. Ooh and just a quick warning if you tend to listen with kids around, I do drop an F-bomb towards the end – apologies in advance.

Enjoy!

Clover Hogan



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USEFUL LINKS:

Clover Hogan
- Website
- Instagram
- Linked In
- You Tube
- Twitter/X
Forces of Nature
- Website
- Instagram
- Tiktok
- Twitter/X
- Linked In
- Podcast
- Season 1
- Season 2 - We need to talk about Eco Anxiety
- Season 3 - Confessions of a climate activist
- Climate Cafes
An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
Exxon Mobil wants you to feel responsible for climate change so it doesn't have to
Katharine Hayhoe
Global Action Plan - Bringing the values-perception gap to life
Global Action Plan - United in compassion
It's Not That Radical - Mikaela Loach
Carbon Literacy training

Forces of Nature

Forces of Nature podcast



Has this episode sparked a few ideas for you? Or helped you to think a bit differently about what activism looks like for you? Do let me know in the comments, and I'd also love to hear about any of your own 'activism', big or small, do share!

[…]