Taking climate action with Sophie Jones

Meet the Mancunian -10.12-Sophie Jones-transcript

Intro

[00:00:00] Hello listeners and welcome to Season 10 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester. I'm your host, Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe, offering you a warm Mancunian welcome. I'm delighted to bring to you Season 10 where I celebrate social impact community heroes across Manchester.

[00:00:20] I hope, dear listener, you can learn from their life experiences, the challenges they've overcome, and their passion for their cause. My aim for the Meet the Mancunian podcast is to encourage you to live your life with purpose and impact, inspired by the stories my guests share every Tuesday throughout the season.

[00:00:39] You can listen to the podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, or my website www.meetthemancunian.co.uk. Get ready for another season full of thought-provoking conversations and life-changing stories.

Season 10 Finale Announcement

[00:00:54] Welcome to the 12th episode of Season 10 of the Meet the Mancunian podcast: social impact stories from Manchester. This is the season finale.

[00:01:05] The Meet the Mancunian podcast will then take a break till October 2025 when I return with Season 11. In the meantime, I hope listeners will listen to the over 120 inspiring guest episodes on the Meet the Mancunian podcast.

Guest Introduction: Sophie Jones

[00:01:21] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Passionate about tackling climate change? We hear from Sophie Jones, Community Engagement Lead, In Our Nature in this episode.

[00:01:29] In Sophie's own words.

[00:01:31] Sophie Jones: It's just the easier option at that point that we can provide them with a home energy audit and give them free light bulbs and give them various things. It's actually just off their plate, and hopefully, in a very small way, can start to make their life a little bit easier without them having to even think about it.

[00:01:52] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you so much, Sophie, for joining me today.

[00:01:54] Sophie Jones: Thank you so much for having me. This is very exciting.

[00:01:58] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It's a lovely day in Manchester and we've got an opportunity to talk about things that we're passionate about.

Sophie's Journey into Climate Action

[00:02:03] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What sparked your interest in tackling climate change? Is there a defining moment that started your journey?

[00:02:08] Sophie Jones: I think I've always been interested in the environment from a young age, just even being the recycling monitor or something at school. And then I studied zoology at university and a lot of what we ended up studying was environmental degradation and things happening in different habitats around the world.

[00:02:28] I think it became almost like the most logical step for me. And I'm quite passionate about morality and ethics of how we inhabit the space and look after people. It became the next logical thing for me to go onto.

[00:02:44] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I love that you started off as a recycling volunteer and then studying zoology.

[00:02:50] I had an ambition of being a vet and working with animals. I do that in a different way. I'm an animal charity trustee, but not quite working hands on with animals as I would've perhaps.

[00:03:01] How did you get involved? What does it do?

In Our Nature: Mission and Activities

[00:03:03] Sophie Jones: In Our Nature is a programme that's funded by the Lottery for three years. It's a big programme that I work on. And I got involved because I'm employed by the Manchester Climate Change Agency, and they were the main delivery partner on this project. And I've just been really passionate about community work. My previous job was working with young people in conservation, getting more involved in Manchester's communities and supporting them to take action in their own way. Seemed like a really good opportunity.

[00:03:37] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: So, tell us more about what In Our Nature does?

[00:03:40] Sophie Jones: In Our Nature basically looks at how we can support different communities across Manchester to take action on the climate, in a way that's most relevant to them. It looks really different for different people across Manchester. We all have different needs, different passions, and linking it all together.

[00:03:59] So we like going into different communities that maybe are like a football club. And their passion is football, but we can link it into the other co-benefits of supporting climate change.

[00:04:12] That sounds really big speaky and horrible, but what it might mean is you could save a lot of money if you are perhaps insulating your home. You could also get some really nice mental health benefits and physical benefits from getting out in nature and all these things locked together to support reducing our impacts on climate change.

[00:04:33] So can we get people using the buses and that will save them money, maybe make them more confident and go meet their friends, and all these things make a really holistic, better life for everyone in Manchester.

[00:04:48] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Very much about taking that holistic approach and your daily actions which are good for you and environment as well.

[00:04:56] Sophie Jones: Exactly.

Community Engagement and Challenges

[00:04:58] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What are some of the obstacles you might have had to overcome in this journey?

[00:05:02] Sophie Jones: I think there's just so much going on in the world right now and a lot of people are facing severe barriers and problems of cost of living. There's just so much on people's minds and on people's plates right now that the environment really does take a backseat.

[00:05:21] And I think we're also faced with a lot of confusing messaging, and I think it is purposefully confusing. I think that serves another part of the population if we are confused and don't know what's going on. So it's really helping people to recentre what is going on and how we can help them.

[00:05:43] The environment takes a real backseat. But as I mentioned before, if you are taking actions to reduce your climate impact, often that is helping you in all other ways. But it's just very confusing. So that's a big barrier and we want to be very respectful for people in Manchester that are facing a lot of other problems.

[00:06:04] So it's more like, how do we take the onus off these people? You don't want to be thinking about oat milk, or what food should I be buying if you're just stressed about buying food, that's really not what you should be worried about. So, the cost of paying for heating versus paying for eating. These people shouldn't be worried about the environment, but how can we help make it better for them?

[00:06:26] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Those are really significant problems that people are tackling, whether it be fuel poverty, food poverty, or cost of living in general, but then still are there daily actions they could take that would be beneficial for the environment.

[00:06:42] Sophie Jones: Or even can we take that as a community for them? Can we that onus them completely?

[00:06:49] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: How does that work? Or when you say take the onus as a community?

[00:06:52] Sophie Jones: If we're doing a community project in a community hub in a centre, can we look to provide them with recipes? Can we look to provide them with slow cookers to help them? So, it's not like a choice. They're having to even think about, oh, I'm doing this because I want to, I need to reduce my carbon footprint.

[00:07:11] No, it's just the easier option at that point that we can provide them with a home energy audit and give them free light bulbs and give them various things. It's actually just off their plate, and hopefully in a very small way can start to make their life a little bit easier without them having to even think about it.

[00:07:32] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That does sounds really useful. So you're providing them with some enablers that they can use immediately to improve their lives first, and then also help the environment.

[00:07:42] What are the communities that benefit the most from your work? You talked about working with communities across Greater Manchester.

[00:07:48] Sophie Jones: We've tried to be quite open, to be honest and get to most communities in Manchester. We have focused more on, maybe more deprived wards in Manchester to really focus our funding and efforts there.

[00:08:03] We have such a diverse array of projects. It's hard to pick out a few groups in general. But I think there's obviously groups that don't at associate themselves with the environmental scene, so we would work with them in a slightly different way. Rather than maybe badging this as a climate change project, we would badge it as focusing on mental health or focusing on the economic impacts and trying to improve their lives in those ways.

[00:08:30] So I do think we see some really great impacts there. We've had a few really successful projects around textile upcycling. And that seems to really benefit single women, often from different backgrounds, not native to Manchester. But in all different ways, it really does benefit their self-confidence.

[00:08:53] That's probably a really striking project that we've seen in a few different areas, people feeling oh, I could start to do a sewing business. Often these women are unemployed and stay at home, and so it really seems to bolster their identity. So that could be a particular example, but I personally have helped oversee about 45 projects, so we're in the higher numbers. It's hard to pick one.

[00:09:23] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I think Sustainable Threads is an example of a project that we featured on the podcast last week. Thank you for trying to explain how you work, perhaps more for the mental health or the economic impact in some communities as well. And it's great.

Impact Stories and Successes

[00:09:37] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What's the impact that In Our Nature has made so far?

[00:09:42] Sophie Jones: I guess we have had some really great numbers all across Manchester. The numbers might seem a bit meaningless, so I won't go into them too much. But we have had some really wonderful stories of projects due to the style of our community support, we really work with different community members to co-create projects.

[00:10:02] For example, Shaeda came to us with a project, maybe a bit around food. She was running her own food business, talking about healthy eating for diabetes. But she did mention one bit in her application form about something around public transport. When we were reading the applications, we have a lot of food projects already.

[00:10:25] But I found that really interesting she mentioned public transport, and I spoke to her on the phone. And she was telling me a story about how her mom lives really close to the Didsbury tram stop and the train stop. But every time she was going to the airport, she'd get someone to drive her to the airport. And she thought it was really interesting because there's two forms of transport within a five-minute walk from her house, but she would never do it.

[00:10:52] And I thought that's really interesting story. And we work together to basically produce a project where she would get people from her community and take them on trams and trains. She's from a Pakistani community and people were just really uncomfortable with using the public transport.

[00:11:11] They weren't quite comfortable for different reasons. And so, we've developed this project together. And now it's on its third iteration, and we just have the most amazing impacts of people feeling really housebound, can't get out unless maybe their partner or husband would drive them to places. And since joining this project where Shaeda would take them on public transport, they feel so much more free in their personal life. They've made new friends. They can go to the bank when they need to. They can get on the bus and tram by themselves.

[00:11:46] And it's really amazing some of the stories. A woman had cancer before and did not leave from her house. She joined this project and she realised she could get one of those free bus passes. And she had no idea and then she applied for it and now can't get them off the bus.

[00:12:03] So I think that's one of the really lovely stories that the way that our fund, like our programme is set up I'm employed to be able to have those conversations with people and actually co-create a project that's really beneficial to the participants, but also, just really great for us as well.

[00:12:22] It's getting people using public transport. So I think that's probably a really nice story from this. It shows how you just have to find the right person and Shaeda is the right person and she's done a fantastic job. But actually, the support that we were able to give her has really helped her flourish.

[00:12:40] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I like that very much. A great example of people feeling isolated or maybe lonely because can't figure how to (use public transport). And as somebody newish to Manchester now almost four years in, took me two years to figure out the tram system. I use it all the time now, but it took me two years to figure it out because I was like, I don't how this works. I could use the tubes in London with no problem, but I had just never figured this out.

[00:13:05] I can totally understand how that would've transformed the lives of so many people would've suddenly felt like, oh, my, I can go out, I can feel confident to use. Also, maybe the language fluency would not have been the highest. So the fact that you can actually self-serve.

[00:13:22] Sophie Jones: It's really interesting because as a concept, it is a very simple project. You just take people with you and you show them exactly how it works. But I think these are the best projects. So they do something similar. I think Transport for Manchester (TfM) a programme where someone will cycle with you on your route to work perhaps, and help figure it out.

[00:13:43] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Like a buddy system.

[00:13:44] Sophie Jones: And you could, perhaps people can already ride a bike, but don't know. They're just a bit scared. They just need someone to do it with them for the first time and it really helps.

[00:13:56] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: It does. And this is great. I didn't know about this buddy system. But I don't think I'm going on a bike in Manchester anytime soon. For now, I'm very happy with the trams. They're quite comfortable.

Personal Insights and Advice

[00:14:07] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: So, is there something people often misunderstand about your work or your field?

[00:14:13] Sophie Jones: Oh, interesting. I really think something that kind of plagues our sector or when we're talking to people about what we do is nobody has to be perfect when doing things with sustainability. There's this kind of vision of the perfect, sustainable activist or person or whatever, and it just doesn't exist.

[00:14:37] You don't have to do everything, you can just do some of it, and that would be great. And I think some people feel quite threatened by this idea of, oh God, and I'm not going to do it all, so why would I do any of it? Or, I'm not going to be vegan or I'm not going to never fly, so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:14:58] But that's not the point at all. And no one is forcing you to do that. I think it's this kind of the pressure of it all causes inactivity in, in the threat of what we have going on with climate change and climate destruction basically. We don't need a few people to do it all. We need everyone to do a little bit.

[00:15:21] I think this kind of the fear that goes around really just causes people to just shut down and think that their actions don't mean anything. And if anyone was going to listen to this, if anyone is, hello. The one thing I would want you to come away with it is your actions mean so much. They're so powerful.

[00:15:45] And if you can just do one small thing, like it really will have a ricochet effect and if you feel like stressed and it's all getting too much, I think just start to question who does that serve? Does that emotion serve? And it serves the people that are on the top that inactivity. So, if you're a bit like me and you like feeling a bit of a stick it to the man, your actions can be a form of protest.

[00:16:12] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That's actually really powerful when you talk about no one person has to do it all. We can all do little things. Maybe it's something for recycling or repurposing, maybe it's public transport or feeding in a healthier way or just feeding the birds and animals in your garden and making sustainable choices when possible.

[00:16:32] I think that is really powerful. And I hope listeners do take that away as either every little bit helps, or like you said, a quiet form of protesting and making your voice heard.

[00:16:43] What's your tip for somebody looking to make an impact in the community?

[00:16:46] Sophie Jones: Think you said it in the question, which is community. You are so much powerful in a community setting. Find a community and get involved in whatever it is you're interested in. It can feel really intimidating when you're by yourself. But there are just so many wonderful groups out there, and you'll feed off other people's ideas and excitement and that will push you to do something more and start where you are. Start with the people around you, start with your neighbours, and then it will grow from there.

[00:17:20] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: With your strength and work with your community, I guess that's quite interesting.

[00:17:25] I'll come now to the signature questions that I ask all my guests.

Signature Questions

[00:17:29] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: What makes Manchester a unique place for social impact?

[00:17:33] Sophie Jones: First of all, I think, there are huge strongholds of community and community hubs in Manchester that have been around for decades. They feel very unique in a way. And they are just a pleasure to work with. And, if you get the chance to go and get involved in any of these huge community hubs, absolutely. They just get things done in a way that is really impressive.

[00:18:01] And I think the diversity of Manchester, there's so many different areas to Manchester. There's so much more than that urban city scape in the centre. We've got big parks and just a gorgeous range of people, which I think is really impressive. And I think Manchester is united in its love of that.

[00:18:25] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I like that very much, especially about the community and the community hubs and like you said, the strength of the community. And of course, we are very fortunate to have so many green spaces and blue spaces as well with all the canals and rivers.

[00:18:42] Sophie Jones: I'd love them to do more of the canal in the town. Like it's such an underutilised resource. Need to get some investment in there.

[00:18:49] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I hope that happens.

[00:18:52] If you could have dinner with any historical figure in Manchester, who would it be with and why?

[00:18:57] Sophie Jones: What a good question. I'm going to say one of the Pankhursts, surely that feels like the most relevant thing for me. She's a political activist, organised the suffragette movement and was born in Moss Side, I think. So, I think Pankhurst off the top of my head. I'm sure there's other great options.

[00:19:20] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: She's very popular in the podcast. I could totally understand why.

[00:19:24] Sophie Jones: Actually, let me add a secondary one. As you seem to get that all the time. There's all the amazing stuff in the people's History Museum. I just remember the flags at the top with all the different unions. I'm sure there'd be an amazing like union rep that I'd want to have dinner with. Quiz

[00:19:44] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Actually, haven't been to the People History Museum,

[00:19:46] Sophie Jones: Deepa, you must go. Oh my gosh, I've only been twice. But it really is quite stirring and emotional when you get to the top floor.

[00:19:57] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I haven't actually been there, so it's one on my list.

[00:20:00] Sophie Jones: That's just some really nice stuff. All about like the trade union banners, and that was. I don't know. Something about it just, it's also very beautiful, right? All the artistry and the banners is so beautiful and I think you don't really do that anymore. People might just put it on cardboard or print it out massively. But, they're so beautiful to look at and there's a photo of a woman at a particular, I think it's like a coal strike or something is very impactful.

[00:20:37] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: If you were to create a social impact superhero, what powers would they have and what cause would they fight for?

[00:20:44] Sophie Jones: I think I am going to have to say fight for climate change because that's my role, but it would be a very holistic approach to this fight. So hopefully, it would be intersectional in the way that would hopefully cover a few other bases as well would be great. Homelessness, poverty, hunger, all of that comes into the belt of this.

[00:21:07] The powers that they would have. I think it would be a power for organising the ability to organise groups that might feel like they don't have a voice. Maybe the ability to give them a voice, make them feel like actions have meaning and power, and then I think it'd be solved. No problem, end of climate change. It's all good.

[00:21:30] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I love that. I think voice for the voiceless, that does sound really powerful. And like you said, organising people so that voice comes from themselves rather than somebody else.

[00:21:39] What's the most important life lesson you've learned so far?

[00:21:43] Sophie Jones: Something about some things take a bit of time. I think sometimes in this kind of arena; we're trying to get everything done immediately. And everything is so time pressured and it is, it really is. I do feel that.

[00:21:56] But especially when you're working with community groups and you're working with people that are coming at this from different angles. We need to give them the space to navigate things themselves as well.

[00:22:10] And I think working in Manchester and working with so many different groups, climate action is different for everyone. And I think for a while there was a real blueprint of this is what environmentalism looks like, and for a lot of people it was just white middle-class people maybe talking about animals and that's not what it is now. It's so different for so many people and there needs to be space for everyone to do this in their own way.

[00:22:43] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: I like that very much. I think both somethings take time, but also allowing people to figure it out and do this their own way. Both are really important life lessons. And I guess it comes with a whole lot of patience because everyone wants everything to have happened yesterday.

[00:23:02] How can interested people reach out to you and learn more? Where can find your website, social media, or any other resources?

[00:23:09] Sophie Jones: Me directly, you can get me on LinkedIn. Please feel free to message me if anyone's interested in hearing more. And in terms of In Our Nature, we have a website which I really implore you to have a look on because we have a load of good stuff. It's In Our Nature.uk and we have a whole resource page.

[00:23:32] So if you've somewhat been inspired or interested or curious, and we have a resource page and each of the projects that we run creates a resource to help other people also have a go at their projects. So you might find something and think, oh, that's really interesting, and hopefully there'll be some tips and tricks of how you can do it yourself or how you can spread that information to your own community.

[00:24:00] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: Thank you so much for sharing that. And is there any socials you want to call out?

[00:24:04] Sophie Jones: We also have an Instagram which is I think In Our Nature, MCR and we have a Twitter as well, but I don't use Twitter, so I don’t know how to do that. I think it's also in nature, MCR.

[00:24:19] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That's fine. I'm also not on X anymore I think your Instagram and websites makes sense.

[00:24:25] To end the podcast, is there a funny or a heartwarming story you might like to share with listeners?

[00:24:31] Sophie Jones: We had a project come to us and after we approved the project, it turned out this friends of Park had been really popular over lockdown, but unfortunately had really dwindled and there wasn't actually as much interest from the local community apart from this one person.

[00:24:50] And we were working with them to try and start a tool library which is quite a difficult thing to run in a community and we've encountered quite a lot of problems and barriers. And it was getting to the point where we weren't sure if a project was going to come out of this which is very sad because this individual was really engaged and interested in and wanting to do something positive for their community.

[00:25:17] But we persevered, and we managed to find a venue to instead run a repair cafe. And just by chance at this venue was another in individual that was also really passionate and really excited about the exact same things.

[00:25:33] And I think it's just a really lovely story because I think the two of them together now can be a really good unstoppable force for change in that community. But for so long, they were just isolated with their ideas and actually not able to do anything. But just really persevering. We were able to get to a really heartwarming story and now they run a repair cafe every month. So if you're in Openshaw, please take a look.

[00:26:03] Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: That is a great story, and I love that, two people with the same passions were brought together and they're now successfully running this repair cafe. That does sound really powerful.

[00:26:15] Thank you so much, Sophie. It's been a pleasure to talk to you today.

[00:26:18] Sophie Jones: Thank you so much for having me. It's been wonderful.

Outro

[00:26:21] Sophie, I really enjoyed learning about tackling climate change in the community.

[00:26:26] Dear listener, thank you so much for listening to the 12th and final episode of the Meet the Mancunian podcast, season 10. I hope today's episode has inspired you to make positive change wherever you live.

[00:26:38] You can log on to www.meetthemancunian.co.uk to listen to all the episodes and learn more about my podcasting story.

[00:26:55] The Meet the Mancunian podcast will take a break until October 2025, while I make some time for work and personal travel, a creative project, and a milestone birthday. In the meantime, I hope listeners will listen to the over 120 inspiring guest episodes on the Meet the Mancunian podcast.

[00:27:14] It is wonderful to hear from you, dear listener. You can share your story or send me a message on my website www.meetthemancunian.co.uk or on social media @MeettheMancunian on Instagram, Facebook, and Blue Sky, and @MeettheMancunianpodcast on YouTube.

[00:27:33] Thank you to my wonderful community of listeners. Remember your voice, your story, and your actions matter. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and let's inspire even more positive change.

[00:27:46] To a better kinder world. And until next time, let's continue making Manchester and beyond a place of greater impact, compassion, and action.