Matilda and Arts chat with Camden who is a passionate advocate for our oceans and a driving force behind positive solutions in the Pacific Region. Howitt is Co-Founder and Coastlines Lead of multi-award winning charity Sustainable Coastlines, and an Edmund Hillary Fellow.  Since 2008, the charity group has delivered large-scale coastal clean-up, waterway restoration, education, capacity development and data collection activities around New Zealand and in its branches in Papua New Guinea and Hawaii.

A regular contributor to national, regional and global dialogue on marine litter, Howitt relentlessly pushes for innovative solutions; twice addressing the United Nations at its headquarters in New York and most recently consulting and presenting at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya in March 2019. 

Working alongside the Ministry for the Environment, Statistics New Zealand and the Department of Conservation, Howitt is helping to spearhead a ground-breaking new programme ‘Litter Intelligence’, combining grass roots community engagement with innovative technologies; training Citizen Scientists to collect long-term marine litter data, report on Sustainable Development Goals, and scale-up action.

The trio begin right back where it all started for Camden, growing up with parents that were passionate about the environment and sustainability. It is very clear that is rubbed off on Camden. While most return from Mexico with a tan and a few tales that should never be repeated Camden was (believe it or not) inspired by the amount of rubbish he saw while he was there.

What started as Camden being more self-aware and conscious of his consumption grew into a charity that Matty perfectly describes as ‘an organisation full of hope’. Sustainable Coastlines, acknowledge that even countries like New Zealand need to do more to reduce the refuse that ends up in our waterways so their mission is ‘to enable people to look after the coastlines and waterways they love.’  Camden talks us through the various ways that they do this and the things that you can do at home to make a difference - Because YOU really can make a difference. 

 This is not to be missed! Settle in for a wonderful chat.