Sustainability stories - Watford LM

Owen Everett, Watford LM

Thanks to my parents I have always been environmentally conscious on a personal level. I was brought up as a vegetarian recycling-fanatic, and as they’ve never had a car went everywhere by bike or train. However I started to take ownership of my response to issues of sustainability after attending Junior Yearly Meeting about five years ago: generally inspired, I looked to make a change and decided to return to being vegetarian after some years of rebellion.

Yet it was only really when I began university two years ago that I became a more active environmentalist. Through People and Planet I did numerous campaigns on diverse green issues, and attended loads of protests including Climate Camp at the G20. In December 2009 I helped organise the Quaker contingent at The Wave march in London, before cycling part of the way to Copenhagen with two university friends to protests and document the UN Climate Conference from the outside.

Protecting the environment and striving towards a truly sustainable world is our shared responsibility. Certainly the Quaker testimony to Simplicity has been important to me in encouraging my actions, but fundamentally I think I’m driven by a desire for justice: for people in the developing world who are suffering the most from our un-sustainable mistreatment of the planet, but also for all plant and animal species whose existence we jeopardise.

I would urge all Friends to be moved to action by the many aspects of Quakerism that lead back to the great importance of sustainability, but also to remember that sometimes it is important to take a break from campaigning now and then (as I am doing at the moment!) because otherwise you can risk ‘burnout’.

We’d love to hear the story of you or your meeting too. Just email sunnivat@quaker.org.uk and tell us about it.