It was just over two years ago that the first She Is Sustainable event was held, in London, Since then, there have been six more sessions, with more in the pipeline. Over 200 women have been involved altogether, bringing with them huge amounts of energy and enthusiasm. (Here’s some blogs which say a bit more)
SiS has evolved organically. Emily came to the London event, then ran another in Cambridge. Becky persuaded Lancaster University colleagues Gail and Jess to join her and bring SiS to the North. Mairi heard about what we’d done and decided to get together with friends and colleagues to run one in Oxford. Then Amy and Anisha put on another London session; Gráinne took SiS international, with a Dublin session; Robyn and McKenna conquered Scotland; and Penny, Brigid and Carolina ran a workshop specifically designed for mid-career women. The latest initiative is She Is Sustainable:Energy Pioneers, run by Caterina Brandmayr at Green Alliance.
If you would like to come to a She Is Sustainable event, or even better, would like to think about running one, please get in touch. We can help you with advice and contacts. We are working on producing a how-to guide, and we can link you up with people who have run previous events. It’s probably easier to come along to an event before you run your own, but it’s not absolutely necessary.
To get in touch, email sheisustainable[at]rebeccawillis.co.uk . We’d love to hear from you.
She Is Sustainable 
I too am very excited to have stumbled across you, as I have just started the Kent Women’s Environmental Network and the issues and interests I see above are exactly what we are all about too!
I shall be emailing you as soon as my excitement settles and I can think straight, but as an older woman who has worked in the environmental sector for the last 12 + years and lives as much of an eco lifestyle as I can, on a dutch sailing barge, I am keen to offer help.
My work experiences include business, project and community development, writing, communications including website and social media – and all sorts of other random stuff you gather in life 😉
I look forward to hearing more and am now off to check out the Dublin conference reports as I hail from the Emerald Isle and hope to return some day. 🙂
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Hi there, I’ve only recently found you (with great excitement). I’m happy to offer you a free switch to green web hosting and a free year of web hosting in reciprocation for what you are offering. I’ll help in any way that I can with web dev, I’m at home with WordPress and live with a geeky guy who can always find a solution to what I’m trying to do if I can’t find it.
After years of being on the periphery of sustainable movements it’s great to find a women’s collective. I’ve been living off grid for years and have been co-teaching “build your own wind turbine” courses since 2007. We have always struggled with getting more women to take part in the course, only recently am I seeing changes in that regard. Hopefully this coming year will see a rebirth of the BYOWT courses and also workshops on living off-gird or with a lighter footprint.
I’m excited to see where this year will lead us all 🙂
Miriam
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Hello ladies
I agree with what you’ve suggested and what Penny has said about having a buddy to bounce ideas off of. I have been looking into organising an event in Dublin and unfortunately I might have to mess with the format as I’ve been told that employers would be generous to give one day off to attend a conference like this but two days is too much so I’m looking now into condensing those two days into one. So I would appreciate any thoughts on what types of thoughts or workshops should be given priority to make this mini conference as successful as possible.
Thanking you
Gráinne
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Thanks very much l team for taking things this far and for throwing open the forum for views on where to go next!
I am 100% confident that women working in sustainability will find future SiS events wonderful, supportive and inspirational.
I am keen to run a SiS for older women, although I haven’t been able to move this forward yet. I don’t have strong preferences about financial models or how to ensure capacity for future events. What I can offer are some reflections on what’s stopped me going further forward, and I expect that these reflections will help the team make choices.
What helped me get as far as I have?
• going to an event, being inspired, meeting great women, helping to run bits of it, and my general experience of event design and facilitation;
• warm welcome from Becky to the idea of me running an event;
• clear guidance on what experience has shown to be a good way to do it.
What has stopped me getting further:
• other work priorities;
• lack of contacts for sufficiently high profile key note speaker;
• unenthusiastic response from possible venue provider;
• not feeling chased or committed to doing enough to overcome these things.
What would help?
• buddy, team or other person as committed/more committed as me, to check in with regularly, share the worry and ideas, share the work, hold me to account;
• specifically, more ideas and leads on speaker and venue;
• links to testimonials and event descriptions to show speakers and venue hosts that SiS is a brilliant thing they will want to be associated with.
I think once those things are in place, it would take off.
On the business model, I really like the idea that I can tell everyone involved that we’re doing it on a shoe string and beg/borrowing. Keeps it simple, keeps it cheap and builds sense of team. Gets rid of suspicion that it’s a money making thing for the organisers.
I think that’s all from me!
Penny
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