Every year our founder Roberta Lee writes something for International Women’s Day. This year she focused on women and environmental activism. I think we can all agree with her “clothes are great but they shouldn’t be at the cost of our beautiful planet” so it’s great to discover there are so many women standing up for our home.
Roberta also wanted to mention that here at EBD we have a strong female-led team and many of our volunteers across 2018-2019 have played an important role in helping us get to where we are today. We also have some incredible interns on the team, who also happen to be women too. We all believe that we are #strongertogether and #womensupportingwomen is a powerful movement, Roberta encourages us and reminds us of that every day. We can all make our impact, all actions no matter how small all add up.
In her original blog: International Women’s Day – 3 Women Making An Impact for our Planet she highlighted 3 women who we also think deserve recognition on this special day. Here’s a summarised version:
Can we say a big thank you to:
Dame Ellen MacArthur
“Her full name is Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur (DBE) a former competitive sailor, known for her solo record-breaking long-distance stretch around the world in 2005. It was this particular journey on a yacht that opened her eyes to the resources we use, versus what we need to stay alive – hence her interest in the consumption of our planet’s resources. She now lives in the Isle of Wight and through the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, her work has inspired a generation to re-think, re-design and build a positive future circular economy” – Roberta Lee
And can we take a moment to think about how powerful the youth of today are when it comes to leading change:
Greta Thunberg
” Greta Thunberg is known as the world’s most prominent climate activist. According to online sources, her activism started when she started to encourage her parents to lower their own carbon footprint.
Greta’s work is particularly relevant for us fashionistas – the cost of our clothing on the planet is much more damaging than we give it credit for.
Apparel and footwear represent 8.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If the fashion industry continues on its current trajectory, annual production will increase to more than 100 million tonnes by 2030. The Pulse Report fashion forecast predicts emissions will grow by 63% by 2030. Not good news for our planet.” – Roberta Lee
And last but by no means least, can we say our respects to:
Polly Higgins
“The late Polly Higgins was a passionate campaigner, lawyer and barrister who dedicated a decade to creating a law to criminalise ecological damage. The term used for these crimes has been coined Ecocide, although not legally recognised (yet)” – Roberta Lee
On the Ecocide website, Polly stated that:
“There is a missing responsibility to protect… What is required is an expansion of our collective duty of care to protect the natural living world and all life. International ecocide crime is a law to protect the Earth.”
“Polly Higgins sadly passed away early 2019 – however her work will live on through her colleagues at ECOCIDE. If you believe that legislation has a role to play in making sure people are punished for crimes against our planet, you can help them make it a crime. All you need to do is donate HERE. ” – Roberta Lee
If you enjoyed our founder’s post, you may want to read a few others she’s written to honour great women:
International Women’s Day – 35 Inspirational Quotes (2018)
5 Inspirational Women In Ethical Fashion (2018)
Hope you have a fantastic IWD2020 – let us know in the comments how you celebrated or who you celebrated 🙂
The EBD Team x