This week’s guest is Sustainability and Climate Advisor, Ali Sheridan. And for those of you thinking environmental issues are not really of interest to me, I really do encourage you to listen in, because if there is one person who can impress on you the understanding that climate action is critical to every single citizen, I think it could be today’s guest.  I met Ali Sheridan 2 years ago when she joined a panel discussion I hosted at my university where we asked the question: Was Sustainability – A fashionable trend, or a social movement? It was a really great evening with a fantastic panel of speakers. I remember being so impressed by Ali’s endless knowledge of sustainability in business supply chains. At the time she was working with IKEA as their Country Sustainability Leader. She is now independently consulting for a variety of businesses and projects; she hosts her own podcast show Climate Allies, and she is doing a Ph.D. exploring sustainability leadership at Maynooth University. 

What I really like about Ali is that she is an absolute font of knowledge on this subject matter of climate change, and she just delivers her message in a very clear, practical & pragmatic manner. She doesn’t preach what she knows, she just shares the facts and figures as they are. And even though the statistics can make for grim listening, she injects a lot of hope and sees a lot of opportunity in how we could develop a healthier society overall, if we just act now – If we could maybe collectively act with the urgency of someone who realises their house is indeed on fire.
 
TOPICS DISCUSSED:

• Interest in the environment - every citizen's concern 
• Connecting wellness & nature with wider environmental & climate change issues
• Opportunities for real change - in slow tourism, preloved fashion systems, a vibrant nighttime economy, etc
• Why is the groundwork left to consumers to decipher what has been produced ethically? 
• Businesses realising the need to calculate climate change risk into their business ops
• Designing for the circular economy - designing products with the end in mind 
• Customer experience - designing a circular lifecycle for garments & take-back models for worn clothing
• Retrofitting homes
• Gardening & Growing connects us to the natural cycle of life & nature 
• There's no 'perfect sustainability' 
• Sulitest questionnaire & sustainable literacy 
• Climate literacy -how to embed sustainability into business models
• We need the next generation sitting at the decision-making table - let them decide what future they want
• Need an intergenerational & interdisciplinary approach to address climate change
• The biggest fight of our lives 

RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Ali's podcast Climate Allies: https://www.climateallies.ie/
Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland: https://www.seai.ie/
Grow It Yourself with Mick Kelly: https://giy.ie/
Sulitest.org: https://www.sulitest.org/en/index.html
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