There is a breathlessness to Celia Wain-Heapy’s voice. So much to say and so little time. It’s not often a two-hour conversation feels like it’s been cut short, but that’s how it felt when we eventually ran out of time.
Celia is the founder of ClimateYouChange, a grassroots education group that began in 2019, which has since engaged with and conservatively reached around 2,000 Newham residents, alongside earning the ear of the council on environmental matters.
The sense of urgency in Celia’s voice reflects the gravity of her message: people need to come together and do something about the climate emergency, right now.
In an email following our chat, she includes a quote from UN Climate Executive Secretary Simon Stiell: “When I say we have two years to save the world, it begs the question, ‘Who exactly has two years to save the world?’ The answer is every person on this planet.”
Stiell said that in 2024.
So why did Celia, once a fashion designer and then a tutor at the University of the Arts London, decide six years ago to focus all her energy on climate education?
“I'd been trying to live my life sustainably to a degree, but I can't say I was doing enough.
“Working in the fashion trade, I was part of the problem, but I wasn't really allowing myself to see how big a part of the problem I was - that I was working for this really energy-intensive, very damaging industry.
“I'd known about climate change since the ‘80s from school, but like a lot of people, I’d psychologically shelved it.
“It's such an immensely big and catastrophic and incredibly scary issue, and it's all too easy to compartmentalise it in your mind.”
Celia became aware of the increasing frequency of climate change coverage on the BBC.
“It quite rapidly went from one article a week, which already seemed pretty abhorrent, to one every three days, to one a day, to sometimes even three articles a day.
“And once you're awake to it, you can't unsee it.”
She got involved in local activism, but soon found that the large, local campaign group she had joined was stymied by people politics.
“It quickly turned out to be not a very nice experience. I noticed that some people were kind of elbows-at-dawn and more interested in attention. They weren't approaching it from the right perspective. It wasn't for the greater good.”
What was missing, Celia thought, was a more “pragmatic, logistical standpoint”.
“Campaigning and protesting has its place,” she says. “But there wasn’t enough joining-the-dots education about how we can make changes in our own lives, and there needs to be more of that.”
She found it time-consuming wading through internet searches to find out more about relatively simple things like how best to reduce dairy consumption or use fewer chemicals at home.
“We all know about reducing flying and driving, but when it comes to the finer details, how do we do that?”
It was at that point that Celia decided to strike out on her own and create ClimateYouChange, which is more focused on education and showing people how they can affect the environment, both individually and collectively.
On the website, you’ll find guides on how to make your own laundry powder, insecticide, and eggshell fertiliser, along with support on ethical banking and more.
They have also run regular sustainable fashion and food-growing workshops, taught climate-friendly cooking classes and have hosted fairs where guests were offered advice on saving energy, and given free samples of toiletries and cleaning products.
The group’s ‘Climate Kids’ programme also teaches children about the benefits of reusing materials, and how they can do that themselves.
But ClimateYouChange’s biggest project to date has been the installation and upkeep of a so-called ‘food forest’ at the Katherine Road Community Centre in Forest Gate.
Funded by the council’s People Powered Places initiative, the ‘Fair Share Food Forest’ is different from a community garden in that it is “very much centered around protecting the planet”, according to Celia. She points out that community gardens can do that too, but the food forest is designed from the ground up with climate change at the forefront.
The idea comes from Martin Crawford, founder of the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART) in Devon.
“The work he's doing is second to none,” Celia explains. “And he is really, really highly respected in the field of forest gardening and understands the most sustainable ways of growing food.”
Crawford has three sites where he practises agroforestry, which is a system of planting designed to “mimic the structure of a natural forest - the most stable and sustainable type of ecosystem in this climate”, according to ART’s website.
As an aside, Crawford’s original site, which he has been running for over 30 years, is now under threat because of a lease issue - you can find a petition opposed to its destruction here.
Celia has replicated this concept on a patch of previously disused land at the community centre.
“Within food forest systems you have fruit trees and bushes, ground cover food crops, herbs and perennial vegetables. You include more essential oil-emitting plants, which deter pests,” Celia explains. “You have plants that draw in not only pollinators but beneficial insects that eat the pests, such as aphids.
“You also have plants that support others in drawing up essential nutrients from deep within the soil, which can then be used within the wider system. And then you have plants that actually take nitrogen out of the air.
“Once the system is established, and apparently it takes about three years, it is easy to maintain.”
But food forestry does need people to get their hands dirty, Celia says.
“We need to get people more involved in stewarding the land and growing food. And even though we're in the city, we can still have pockets of land that we can use.”
ClimateYouChange’s knowledge and success has seen the group earn a seat at the table when it comes to environmental matters in Newham, and even saw Celia and ClimateYouChange given a civic award for their work.
When the borough wanted advice on what to plant on the border of East Ham’s Gooseley Playing Fields, which are right next to the busy A13 road, they approached Celia.
Miyawaki, a dense tree-planting technique that can sequester up to 30 times more carbon dioxide than normal planting, was the answer, because growing food next to an A-road was out of the question.
Six thousand trees, planted miyawaki-style, are now being introduced.
The positive relationship between ClimateYouChange and Newham Council is helped by Celia’s belief that being in the room is more effective than shouting from behind the door.
“Certainly the two MPs and the council, we know that they are open to dialogue,” she says. “And the thing is, if you go in with an antagonistic attitude, you're not going to find out if people are open to dialogue.”
She was once asked by a member of an activism group how she was planning to campaign on an issue that she had been invited by a council to give a talk about.
“I was like, ‘What?’ We've been invited to give a talk, so why would we go in and campaign?
“If you're invited to the table, then have a respectful, polite conversation. If people don't show their worth and don't show that they're prepared to do what they need to do, then you can be angry. But why should that be your starting point if people are welcoming you to the table?”
This attitude reflects the way ClimateYouChange is run - far from the niggly, competitive approach Celia had experienced in her early days in voluntary climate change work.
She says of the group’s members: “Everybody's important, everybody matters, everyone's voice needs to be heard. We absolutely don't tolerate any kind of bullying.
“We allow for differences in personality, obviously, because there are some people who are more extroverted and others who want to be involved in quieter activities.
“But we won't stand for anyone denigrating others or stopping someone's voice being heard.
“I feel privileged to be in a position to stop that kind of unpleasantness from happening in the first place.”
But getting to that position has not been easy.
Celia, core members of ClimateYouChange and committed volunteers have given up significant time and put in a lot of effort to furthering their shared aims.
She explains “It’s taken a lot of personal sacrifice to gain momentum.”
“But we're doing it because we believe in it. We're not doing this for fun. It's not for jollies. It’s walking the talk.”
‘Walk the talk’ is a phrase that comes up more than once.
Celia’s version of this - and she stresses that this is by no means what she expects of everyone, according to what individual circumstances allow - can be found in a list of 26 pledges on the ClimateYouChange website.
These range from buying seasonal food in local shops, planting more wildflowers and reducing household energy consumption to not owning a vehicle and refusing to travel by airplane.
But two pledges really give an insight into Celia’s character.
The first is that she commits to “continuing to learn from and share knowledge with others”.
Despite being impressively well-researched and passionate, and naturally in her role having to persuade people about the importance of following her example, Celia is extremely wary of coming across as self-righteous or individualistic.
During our conversation, she is at pains to credit everyone who has helped ClimateYouChange develop. Every project or fact discussed, every story about one of the group’s members, comes with a name attached. Celia even sent me the correct spellings of several names after our chat.
Sadly I can’t mention everyone, but if you’ve had any connection to the work of ClimateYouChange, rest assured that your name came up.
The second of Celia’s pledges that struck me was her promise to “continue to believe in the power of community”.
While ClimateYouChange offers support for individuals to reduce the damage they do to the environment, it is clear from talking to Celia that building community is what really drives her, and it is borne out of a deep sense of care for the world and its inhabitants.
“I couldn't countenance sitting back and twiddling my thumbs and not doing anything,” she says. “Knowing that if we go over one and a half degrees, it could be game over. Global warming could just be permanently locked in, getting hotter and hotter, and there's no way that's going to end well.
“We're potentially looking at extinction. It could be an extinction-level event. Maybe some people could survive, but it would only be some people. And most of the flora and fauna on this planet would no longer exist. It’s sad.”
Celia reels off shocking statistics throughout our interview, and again I sadly can’t mention them all, but what she said about the increase in wildfires was truly scary.
“So in California in 2020, a total area more than 10 times the size of London burnt, which was 4.3 million acres. That was more than double the 2018 record and seven times the amount burnt seven years before. I'm just talking about the UK here.”
She moves on to global figures: “Between autumn 2019 and spring 2020, we saw 42 million acres of bushland burnt in one Australian fire season. For comparison, 42 million acres is equivalent to just over two-thirds of the UK.
“Then in 2023, we saw 45.7 point million acres of land burnt in Canada - nearly two per cent of its total land mass and equivalent to three-quarters of the UK.”
Celia pauses before adding: “I don't even have words for how anxiety-inducing and catastrophic it is. And so within ClimateYouChange, some of it is soft-touch - let's teach you about
food-growing, sustainable product swaps, fashion upcycling, waste reduction, plant-based eating - but some of it is saying to people that, ultimately, there is no-one coming to save us.”
And is she optimistic about our chances?
“I'm not lacking in optimism,” she replies. “I'm a realist. I know that it could go either way.
“But I know that if we don't grab the bull by the horns and try to make a difference ourselves, that it will only go the wrong way.”
As for the future of ClimateYouChange, Celia says they are talking with the council about rolling out food forests across Newham.
The group has also launched a crowdfunder to help complete the work on the Katherine Road site.
But the ultimate goal is to become a national charity with branches run by like-minded people all over the country. On that note, if you’re interested in becoming a trustee of ClimateYouChange and think you can ‘walk the talk’ on climate action, Celia would love to hear from you.
And of course, new members are always welcome, and can get involved as much or as little as they like. Membership is free too.
Celia adds: “What we want to say to people is that everybody has power. We can all come together, we can all make a difference, and everybody has something that they can contribute - as long as they do so respectfully and with kindness for others.”
You can find out more about ClimateYouChange, and get in touch with Celia and the team, on its website here.