For when a week doesn’t feel like enough.
December 2024 – May 2025

It has been a minute since I posted that I’m looking for work. I was grateful for the reception that post received and the positive feedback on the clarity of my ask.

Since, I’ve been a bit paralysed by the systemic violence we perpetuate towards one another and the planet we are part of. 

50,000 people dead in Gaza, with nearly a third of that number under 18. In Sudan, a deepening humanitarian catastrophe that remains grossly underfunded and underreported, goes on. The war in Ukraine has been considered ecocide and the Chief Exec of RSPB suggested that in its current form, the UK’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB) creates a ‘licence to kill nature’. Don’t get me started on UK’s stance on ‘women’ and on what’s happening in America, the place of my birth and where I grew up.

Aren’t we all just muddling through? 

I contemplate giving up my American passport. I’m trying to sense what’s helpful and needed. I witness friends and collaborators struggle to get work. I’ve doubled down on doing things where I live. I feel very lucky to have work and very guilty complaining about it.

My wise and funny friend Isobel wrote about her commitment to making art that “comes from a meaningful but time-consuming place, rather than fuck it out on a daily basis for the algorithm.”

I love this. It applies to work as much as it does to art. We’re all holding the tension between making a living, delivering what’s needed and necessary and being good people. I don’t want to add to the noise. This is not the time to f*** it out.

So what have I been up to and where am I going with it?

Big things

I helped to identify priority landscapes for nature restoration in Scotland with Verture

Boy, I wish we had something comparable in England to Verture, Scotland’s climate adaptation charity. They do great work, so it was a big deal for me to get on their books, working with Jonny and Emilie to contribute some thinking in response to NatureScot’s brief. 

We worked with the James Hutton Institute to identify which of Scotland’s catchments should be prioritised for nature restoration. We did this by combining their impressive spatial maps built from integrated datasets with perspectives gathered from public agencies, infrastructure organisations, fisheries trusts and charities. to. It was a natural evolution from my work at Arup, which helped me situate myself more in the world of climate adaptation. 

I would love to do more of this. I work well with scientists and data heads. 

Thank you to my longtime work and life friend Ness for the kind referral. The report will be published soon.

Reflections

You can almost literally feel the tension and strain of all that’s being demanded of land in the UK. I think we’re going to have to get a lot better at integrating qualitative data, numbers and stats and in weaving quantitative stuff into- stories and new forms of knowledge. We don’t need more digital tools, we need investment in time and local forms of knowledge sharing.

Cutting my teeth in a design studio made me accustomed to executing projects across 3-6 month time frames, feeding my need for newness. Most of my work now (or the work that I want to be doing) traverses over the long time. I cannot work effectively around issues of land use until I stretch this capacity in myself. This necessitates a shift in how I work which feels uncomfortable and clumsy at times. It’s more apparent why any change work is so dependent on inner work. I’m focusing on building my capacity for patience and for dialogue.

I became a product manager at Defra, as part of their Air Quality team in Data, Digital, Technology & Security (DDTS)

We’re developing a service called Check Air Quality. I took  this work on at the kind invitation from John Steward, who after attending my Designing Sustainable Services training, offered an opportunity both to help to deliver something, and to develop case studies related to designing sustainable services.

It’s been good working on a product backed by a clear policy intent. The brief was initiated in response to the death of Ella Roberts, the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death, so the aim of  ‘no more Ella’s’ feels clear, important and kind. It has also helped my understanding of the role of government in communicating risk and informing citizens. 

This will be increasingly relevant for community resilience in a climate collapsed world. But it needs to be underpinned by strong neighbourhoods and communities which is probably the side of the coin I’d rather be working on! 

At least now I understand the complexity in getting warning systems built and can confirm the limits of digital services in their ability to change people’s behaviours.

Reflections

There’s a lot of content in government! 

There are so many documents. I’ve received a new Mural almost every week. 

This is not good. In terms of sustainable services, there’s a lot of strategy and great examples going on but it’s piecemeal. Most of my effort in this area so far has been in identifying the right people within Defra to help me. As we work as a team to decommission UK Air and replace it with accessible services and content, we’re weaving sustainability into new contracts and considering how to measure the carbon contributions of sending an alert.

I admire the people who double down to build government digital services. The work is necessary (most of it), but a lot of the time I feel like I’m hiding behind a computer. 

It’s easy when delivering digital things to feel detached from the real world implications of the problem you’re trying to solve. I often feel lonely, even though I’m on calls with people most of the day and my team is struggling to do some really nitty gritty design work when we’re all remote.

I do believe the role of a product manager is uniquely placed to support the advancement of sustainable service design. Straddling user and business needs, I’m in front of policy makers more in this role and can bang on about sustainability. I’ve felt vulnerable doing this and it’s really still such a low priority for those actually in a position to do something about it. Gotta keep banging the drum.

Building ‘Electro Gardens’ – a community garden on a roof in a seaside town

It’s much easier to dig a hole in the ground than build a garden on a roof. Electro Studios is an independent space for curated projects in St. Leonards-on-Sea, providing an opportunity for artists and curators to propose exhibitions and projects. I’ve made it my mission to not only create a functioning garden there, but to involve the local community and tie it into the wider network of growing spaces across the town. The roof garden deserves its own post. We’re still going. 

I don’t have many spicy hot-takes atm as I’m focused on raising more funds. The costs for materials has exploded and I underestimated the size of the build. But the concept is evolving to be more of a community nursery which is a vision I really love as it enables me to bed into the horticulturalist I want to be in the area I live and imagine that (one day) I’ll be able to contribute to all the urban greening that needs to be done to enable our climate transitions. 

This feels regenerative and positive. It’s needed, but it needs investment to get there. To keep my head up I keep sowing seeds. What else is there to do?

Little things

• Joined the Hastings Clean Water Action Group as a sea water tester. We’ve received funding from Surfers Against Sewage to do weekly testing for a year to build evidence about the quality of water at a site designated for swimming.
• Participated in the EU Water Futures Policy workshops through the EU Policy Lab. Thank you Ottla for the invitation and the opportunity to work with policy people across Europe to look 15 years ahead and build speculative future scenarios for water reuse. I feel lucky to be invited to Brussels in June.
• Helped to build the new Friends of Ore Community Garden with my friend Suz who has taught me so much about building green spaces for people.
• Supported Iris & Birch, a collective of practitioners focused on exploring complexity and emergence to deliver a couple workshops to inform the continued evolution of the nature towns and cities project
• Applied for a board role at the Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change (MACC Hub). Haven’t heard back from them either way.
• Filled out two horrendous public consultations – one on devolution in Sussex another on water.
• Lost another UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) bid. Not sure I’ll apply for this one again!
• Didn’t manage to mobilise a team to bid for this Coastwise – Coastal Community Transition Plans bid to work with North Norfolk District Council, Coastwise and communities to co-create coastal erosion Community Transition Plans.
• Started baking bread again. I’m looking forward to the publication of Bread on Earth.

On meaning and matters of work

Is any of this meaningful? I still haven’t found a definition of that word that resonates with me in the context of work so I’m not sure. 

But, my life feels meaningful and I’m grateful that it’s so full. While I don’t necessarily feel like I’m f***ing it out, I DO feel slightly rudderless at work in a world so inhibited by the currents it is riding on. I know I’m not alone.

I do have some capacity now (2 days a week) but I am also looking ahead as I don’t intend to stay in digital design unless that’s all on offer. I’m hoping to find more consistent partnerships to sustain me and I question whether freelance is the right model to facilitate the long term work that I want to transition to. Does this necessitate an alignment with academia? I don’t know but I’ll buy a coffee for anyone who wants to chat about it. Please reach out if you’re working in adaptation, disaster planning, community resilience or at the intersection of health and climate and let me know who I should be speaking to in this space.

Coming up

• I’m facilitating another round of Designing Sustainable Services in June. Tickets are here but please reach out if you’re hesitating or have any questions https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/designing-sustainable-services-430-vat-tickets-1104444275559
• Now in its third year, my boyfriend James Wilkie is running a sonic arts festival in St Leonard’s on Sea where we live. To bear witness to someone build something so intentionally, in partnership with others and in community is really gorgeous. No mention of co-design. No frameworks, no workshops. You should come to Sono Electro– a Sound Art festival about belonging through sound.I also have some capacity! Please get in touch if you’re working in adaptation, disaster planning or community resilience or let me know who I should be speaking to in this space.

Until the next rather random time I choose to post.

Stay well. Free Palestine. Release the hostages. Stop buying things you don’t need.