My Guest Blogger – Amelia Crews
This article will take approximately 3 minutes to read
Published 25 Mar 2022 in Phil's blog
Hi, I’m Amelia Crews – an Energy Innovation Co-ordinator at Your Co-op Utilities. Phil is away this week, so I’ve been asked to shed some light on my world as a climate activist. I hope that this blog inspires you, even just a tiny bit, to realise the power you hold as an individual.
A little about me…
I’m a 22-year-old climate activist who cares deeply about the planet and every heartbeat, every lifeform that calls it it's home. I’ve always been a strong advocate of helping people realise that the solution starts with us – not with large corporations or Governments. It’s through utilising our voices as a mosaic of stories, insights and feelings that can encourage those in power to create radical shifts in policies and decisions.
Growing up as generation Z, I regularly experience eco-anxieties about my future. This has led me to channel my drive into action and to become part of various climate circles. Here are a few standouts in my activist story so far:
G7 Youth Summit
In 2021, I became an ambassador for the G7 Youth Summit (Y7). This involved helping to interview hundreds of youth around the world to gain insight into what they hoped the world leaders would talk about at the G7. The 3 main themes that arose were climate resilience, digital literacy and mental health. In fact, it was a direct result of the Y7 that mental health was mentioned in the G7 communique (a shared agenda for global action)…that was such a win!
COP26 & Force of Nature
I’m beyond grateful to have been given the opportunity to go to COP26 in Glasgow last year – both to represent Midcounties and to volunteer with Force of Nature (FoN). We were campaigning to help individuals understand their true feelings towards the climate crisis and to channel those anxieties into action. Clover Hogan, the founder of FoN, sums their mission up perfectly - ‘the threat greater even than the climate crisis is our feeling of powerlessness in the face of it.’ The discussions I had and the connections I made will stay with me forever. It was so magical seeing the spark in people’s eyes, knowing that they realised their emotions can make their fight even stronger.
Catalyse Change
The foundations of my career have been laid by Catalyse Change. They’re an organisation that helps empower young women who are driven by the environment in the early stages of their careers. I attended their boot camp back in 2020 and have since become an active ambassador for their work. It really is powerful to be connected to such a like-minded community and to be connected with other young people who are super driven! I’d highly recommend it to any young woman, struggling to find their purpose.
The golden thread, joining all of my activist stories together so far, is instilling a sense of drive and motivation within others to take action. Every single person is capable of the wildest of things and if we can help to inspire them to realise the power behind those, well… the world will become a far better place!
Don’t forget this weekend it’s Earth Hour, so why not switch off your lights tomorrow from 8.30-9.30pm? Click here to find out some great tips on what you could do during the hour while the power is off.
Why Midcounties Co-operative?
I joined Midcounties for two main reasons.
1) Energy is a significant contributor to the climate crisis. I knew, that by starting my career in renewable energy, I would be making a real difference to the planet. By raising the awareness of locally sourced, community-powered energy, we’re one step closer to a world run on renewables – how exciting is that?! Every day I see the value in my work and know that simply by choosing to invest my time here, I’m nourishing myself and the world.
2) I truly believe in co-operatives. They provide an excellent framework of how businesses should be run. Granted, co-operatives are rooted in traditional practices and, as with any business that’s been around for some time, there are changes that need to be made. However, the principle that each member can realise their power, and can make an actual, tangible difference, is incredible.
EV Launch - Launch day of Your Co-op Energy’s Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice scheme. Working with Octopus Energy, we arranged test drives in a range of cars with opportunities to talk to Electric Vehicle (EV) specialists. This is the start of an exciting future for Midcounties and EVs!
What I’m currently working on:
We’re currently working hard on a super exciting product that makes investing in renewable energy more accessible and affordable. At the moment, investment opportunities tend to require a large lump sum upfront and that just isn’t feasible for most people. So… we’ve created PowerShare!
By investing as little as £5/month, members can own a piece of solar on our Your Co-op Food store’s roof. The returns made are delivered back through your energy bill and any profits are invested into the local community.
To help diversify the energy space, we’ve created a youth board to own and operate the solar panels. Currently, this area is too often saturated by the elder generations so by injecting youth, this really does become a game-changing investment opportunity!
The PowerShare launch
We teamed up with Younity to deliver PowerShare, which has been truly inspiring! Younity is a joint venture between Your Co-op Energy and Octopus Energy – enabling community energy to be at the heart of our projects.
If you’d like to understand more about PowerShare, check out our blog post here.
Finally, I want to mention that the frustrations, anxieties, and emotions that you may feel right now are valid. Our world is uncertain, people’s lives are under threat every second. It’s ok to feel overwhelmed and it’s ok to protect your energy. Sometimes we have the motivation within ourselves to act, to stand up for our people and our planet but sometimes, what’s more important is that we are kind to ourselves. It’s ok to take time to recuperate, it’s ok to not always be fighting the fight.
Thanks for reading my guest blog and feel free to drop me a comment below or a 'Heart' above.