The Art of Environmental Communication, with Savita Wilmott

Ever wondered why so many people say they love nature yet so little seems to change? We sit down with Savita Wilmott, CEO of the Natural History Consortium, to unpack the stubborn care–to-action gap and share practical ways to move from saying you love nature to doing something about it.

We dig into the Festival of Nature as a living case study. By keeping it free, thematic, and woven into a city’s cultural calendar, the Consortium brings nature into everyday life while tracking confirmed behaviours during festival week—tree planting, bird boxes, meeting decision‑makers, and joining local groups. No comfort pledges. Just actions that stick because the follow‑through is built in. Savita highlights research showing that care does not guarantee action, and points to behaviour‑first campaigns that prove action can also spark care. 

We also explore how the field is changing. Over twenty years, the Consortium's Communicate conference has watched channels transform—from early social media to AI, search, and influencer dynamics—while the timeless basics hold steady: framing that resonates, trusted messengers, and meeting audiences where they are. 

Citizen science also emerges in our chat as both a hands‑on way to engage and a serious data engine, with an often‑invisible backbone of expert volunteers who verify records and make the magic happen. 

Enjoy the episode! 

Follow GoodGeist for more episodes on sustainability, communications and how creativity can help make the world a better place.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Goodgeist. A podcast series on sustainability. Hosted by Damla Eusler and Steve Connor. Brought to you by the DNS Network.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Hello, hello everyone. You are listening to Good Guys, the message on sustainability, which is brought to you by the DNS Network, the global network of agencies dedicated to making the world a better place. This is Damla from Mira Agency Istanbul and This is Steve from Creative Concern in Manchester.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

This podcast series explores global sustainability issues, how they communicated, and what creativity can do to make positive change happen.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

So in this episode, we're going to talk to Savita Villemot, who is the CEO of the Natural History Consortium, a charitable collaboration of 13 organizations working together on a shared mission to engage people with the natural world through collaborative action.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

A bold mission. So Savita joined the consortium in 2006 and oversaw its setup as a charity, and its chief exec has continued to grow its impact and programs through projects that are delivered locally, nationally, and internationally. And headline initiatives, which I'm sure we'll delve into, Speaker, for the consortium include a festival of nature. What a lovely thing. Which has been running for over 20 years and the annual communicate event, the UK's leading conference for environmental communicators, which is why, in particular, it's such a brilliant thing to have you on with Damien and myself, Speaker. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Thank you for having me. It's great to be here with you both.

Savita’s Path Into Science Communication

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Brilliant. So um I know, having uh stalked you on the internet and had a look at your background, even though we've met before, um, you've been a science communicator since you did your master's degree, haven't you? So you're clearly on a mission to do something in this space. So tell us a bit more about your background and how you came to be leading the natural history consortium.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Yeah, it's an it's an unexpected story, I guess. My my kind of original undergrad aspirations, I did a I was a chemistry major. So I really started from the sciences and realized pretty quickly that, you know, I wasn't going to be a researcher industry scientist, where my passion was on the communication side. So my kind of very early work was in science education. And then I ended up moving to the UK for doing a master's in science communication, which at the time wasn't something that was available in Canada where I was where I was living. And it was a very fascinating course that has been the bedrock of my career. Because in a master's in science communication, it was really a study of audiences in different places. So we did a lot on, you know, visitor studies, understanding kind of communication from a psychological point of view, and really thinking about science in particular as you know, complex topics and how you would break them down and share them with different audiences. So through that is where I came into my current work with the Natural History Consortium into kind of environmental communication as a sort of subset of science communication. And what's interesting about that is I meet a lot of my peers who've come from a more campaigning background. And I think that I often have a slightly different approach, not right or wrong, because I've come through that, you know, more public engagement science communication background.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

That's that's a topic we want to talk about all day long, right, Sistine?

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

And one of your standout projects for the NHC has to be the Festival of Nature, another kind of communication with a lot of parts. And it was a moment in time when our strongly needed connection to the natural world is nurtured through events and campaigns, and such as so, how has the festival evolved? And as we are an international podcast, does it reach beyond the shores of the UK?

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Yeah, we're so proud of our festival of nature. You know, it's interesting that as an environmental organization, we're not an events organization. We're, you know, a charity that's about environmental communication. But running a festival, a city center festival, has proved to be an exceptional way to mainstream, you know, nature and bring nature into the kind of cultural calendar of Bristol, the city, the city that we're in. And it continues to evolve and grow every year. The things that we're you know proudest of, I'd say, is one that we've continued to keep the festival free for visitors, which in the city that I live is increasingly rare when it's not run by like a major corporation or or kind of external interests. And the second was when we we won an award, this is years ago, for kind of best tourist event of the year, you know, at the like city tourism awards. And it was, it was really showing that, you know, a festival was it wasn't about the nature. Nobody was giving us an award for kind of, you know, best number of topics or well done on the soil science content. You know, it was really about you're creating a great experience for people and visitors and residents in the city. And it was our kind of vehicle for for nature. So every year we look at the theme from scratch. Last year we really focused on water. This year we really focus, we're focusing on forests and woodlands. Doesn't mean everything is about that, but it it gives us a bit of a guiding, guiding principle. We we welcome visitors live, I guess, from our region of England. We do have an online program as well, and that's where we get a lot of international visitors. But I think our biggest international connections have come from how we've developed the evaluation around the festival. So we worked with partners both in the European Union and also with the US Science Festival Alliance to create the evaluation framework that we have, which measures positive action for nature that people take during the festival itself. So, something that we don't do is we don't ask people to make pledges of future behavior change or things they're gonna do. We seek to give people an opportunity to do things during the week of the festival, to plant a tree or to build a bird box or to meet a politician or to, you know, have an experience in nature. And those are the things that we we count. And we couldn't have done that thinking on our own, and it was great to to work with people all over the world to do that. Who we who we keep in contact with.

Measuring Action Not Pledges

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Amazing. So I and I'm not gonna get distracted because we could. I'd love to talk about the psychology of pledging. Because I do know it we in fact we could get into that, Sabita, because I think we've all done, haven't we, campaigns or events where the kind of we think, oh, what's our call to action? How are we gonna activate people? And then you go, oh, we'll have a pledge to give up meat on Mondays or to drive less, or do you know what I mean? And like, so you must have had that conversation, I guess. You know, should uh do pledges mean anything?

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Yeah, and I guess there's other kind of indicator behavior that we do capture. So if someone signs up to volunteer at their local nature reserve, if they become a member of a local organization or a charity, again, they're not taking an action in the moment, but they are, I guess, making a stronger commitment than something like, oh, I'm going to, you know, put a pledge on the pledge tree, which are always gorgeous. But it's a sort of how deep is that psychological commitment in the moment? And who is it that's going to follow up with you? You know, so if you sign up as a volunteer or as a member, or you know, there's sort of you've you've given some personal data over as someone is going to kind of follow up and encourage you to take that action. If you kind of put your name on list of going, I'm not gonna drive next week or eat meat or whatever you're not gonna fly next year, you know, where's the accountability or or more importantly, where's the follow-up? So it's not that those things are important, it's that we don't count them as part of the festival. When we talk about the impact that we have, we say, well, you know, here's a a list of, you know, qualitative feedback. Here are some measurable things that people did during the festival, which it has been very helpful actually for organizations involved.

The Care–Action Gap Explained

SPEAKER_01 9:10

So while we're on the kind of action people take, I think it would be really interesting to talk about a dichotomy. I mean, I mentioned meat-free Mondays, and one thing I won't go off on a veggie rant, Savita, I promise. But one thing I've always found so fascinating is the idea that parents of young children quite happily will give them little books about farmioid animals, they'll have cuddly toys, and yet they enable the eating of other species almost from day one. And that that kind of cognitive dissonance I find absolutely fascinating. But there is one, I think there's one in nature, because certainly for here in the UK, we're a national international podcast, so I'm sure it's the same elsewhere. We we we regularly see surveys or events or responses to cultural moments in time where people show great love for nature, and we have David Attenborough as our national treasure. And and there's a whole wealth of organizations like yours that that do great work in that space, and yet we're still seeing a nature emergency unfold before us. And there's there's still a disjunct, isn't there, between the actions that people take and this great love of nature that we that we tend to exhibit. So why do you think it's a big question, I apologize for it, but why is that love of nature not translating enough into action?

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Well, there's two pieces of work I would refer, refer listeners to that are really instrumental in our thinking. One is UK-based, one is international. So some research that by a researcher named Simon Christmas back in 2013, I think makes the clearest demonstration that care does not lead to action. You know, that these are kind of different functions. And the whole sector has sort of been driven by this kind of, what do you call it, like a phrase you put on a mug. You know, if we care, then you know, you won't protect what you don't care about. And if we love it, we'll care about it, we'll take action for it. You know, we sort of use these patitudes. And I think, and I'm sure, you know, I haven't done a literature review. There's probably other research in addition assignments that show, you know, you can you can care or you can take action, you know, and these things are not a kind of linear pathway. One stop tip into the other. And I think we assume that those tips happen. And so sometimes I think as a sector, we don't, you know, work to make them happen. And in the UK, we often focus on the care aspect. We're we're trying to connect people, we're trying to get people to love and to care. So the second piece of work that I find really inspiring came from Australia from a project at Zoo's Victoria uh called Crap Man. So you have to look up kind of the case study of crap man. And basically what they said about crap man, I can I say that on your podcast? It's an absolutely fascinating story. And you know, what they did was they said, well, let's just take care out of it, right? And actually go straight to action, straight to action. And the the action that they that they were looking for was to kind of shift the population that came to their zoo from into using recycled Lural or toilet paper. And the, you know, I'd encourage you to look at the case study because they just said we're not gonna talk to you about the primates and the like trees and all of this. We're just gonna go and we're gonna drive that action. And I think there's there's some research that shows it can go the other way. Professor Kristen Meyer in the UK, you know, that action can lead to care. So I think, you know, there is a dichotomy, but I think it's a very complex ecosystem. And we need to be pushing on all of the different levers with different programs for different people. We could talk all day about that as well.

Crossing Movements And System Change

SPEAKER_03 13:07

I love it. But it it's really, I think, important and it's really very mind-blowing to talk about the care and action gap. I have another question for this, and please, please forgive me if I ramble too much, but I have to collect my thoughts around it also. In this care and action gap, usually when we look at the NGO sector or the green communications, we always see those compartments. I mean, environmentalist campaigns, X campaigns, Y and Z campaigns. While care and action, so if we need a problem, I mean if we need help with the action part, maybe connecting different compartments together with the whole rights and movements sphere may work a little bit. What I'm talking about is of course it's done for especially for the last 10 years, eco-feminism, anarcho-f anarcho-echoism, and so on. But maybe sometimes women's movement has a lot to teach to the science communication, maybe, but also vice versa. Do you think that we do make those connections enough to work for the better world?

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Probably not enough. And I think it it comes to, you know, working in in silos, kind of working by industry or sectors, you know, these things people sort of tend to work in their organizational lanes. And actually, I don't think we're making, you know, the wide enough connections or drawing enough inspiration from other places. The other thing I I just want to go back and say is that when we're talking about action, we often are talking here about individual action. And where care and action are connected in different ways is, you know, these are big systemic issues and challenges. You know, climate change is leading to biodiversity loss and and all of these other things that actually, if care can also lead to, you know, changes in societal norms and societal pressures and you know, change in that way, it isn't always just about the individual actions that that we need to take as important as they are.

What Nature Connection Really Means

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Yeah, no, no, no, that's fascinating. Do you know the other thing that's really interesting, I think, going back to the the wider ecosystem that you're depicting there and other campaigns, that as Daniel was saying, there is a great piece of work called uh No Cause as an Island by Common Cause, which is an examination of how if you if and this is me totally doing this study, no justice at all, but how if you activate somebody's desire or care around one issue, it becomes much, much more easy to activate them on a parallel issue that might be on a completely different topic because you've actually flexed the values-based muscles in their head that are towards caring, empathy, a feeling of empowerment to make a difference. And so they did a study where they showed that if they got people activated on an environmental cause, they were more likely to donate to a children's charity. It's really interesting, I think. But while we're just on nature, just for one more minute, Sabita, I wanted to talk about the because you've examined this and you've had a long-running festival with nature, and I want to talk about the bond between nature and humans and what that looks like and what you've what you've learned, I guess, from watching that evolve over 20 years. It'd be lovely to hear what is our bond with nature? What do we get from it? Is it trans are we having a transactional relationship with it? Is it mental well-being? Is it something else? What how what do you think that bond with nature looks like?

SPEAKER_02 16:55

I think it's very private to people, very different for different people. And I I worry about some of the movement towards being able to kind of like capture or describe what nature connection looks like in a kind of more simplistic way. Because I think that really can limit what we we feel like connection to nature looks like, sounds like, acts like, dresses like. You know, I think we're in danger of kind of trying to describe something undescribable, actually. And so I have seen people kind of experience connect with nature or time in nature, or experiences in nature, or in such radically different ways because of, you know, working, having so many people come through, you know, programs like Fest of Nature. Yeah, it's actually a kind of term I'm really grappling with right now about how it fits into fits into our work.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Sorry, Dumbledore, can I just jump in just one last thing? Can I that's Julie? Um I'm sorry. Sorry. I know if you're turned so interesting though, because I wonder whether we do need some sort of I mean, it would be horrible, wouldn't it, to take something that essentially quite ethereal and magical and turn it into a a kind of cribb list of what humans get from nature, it'd be a terrible thing to do. But because we are the kind of country in the world, famously, that has the least time connected to nature, there was a study, wasn't there, last year? No, year before, that said the sort of UK on a weekly basis, we have less contact time with nature. And and I just think for our nations in the UK in particular, I think it's really interesting to explore even further this bond we have with nature and what it's a delivering quarters. What do you think? Are we do we need to ramp up the level of connectivity that people have with nature?

Communicate Conference: 20 Years Of Change

SPEAKER_02 18:58

We do, but there's such an ecosystem around that, you know, around the spaces that are available to people, how, you know, how they're maintained, how they're cared for, how they're funded, what are the transport links, you know, what are the what kind of free time are people able to have, you know, how much time people are spending outdoors versus online. You know, I think the the benefits of being in nature or connecting with nature, if that's a helpful term for you, are are undeniable, you know. And so in a way, to understand that means that we can help people when we are in a you know mental health crisis and a crisis of so many different kinds. But I think to be reductive about what nature connection is means that we may lose people along the way.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

You just made me think if I'm spending enough time outdoors, Steve, as you always do. But since time is limited, let's turn to communicate. That's a regular event that convenes all about the art of environmental communication and very much a central theme of yours. What are the standout things you have taken from the communicate? And for you, how is the practice of communication on the environment changing? I mean, yeah, was it and how it's turning now?

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah, it's interesting. Having run the communicate conference for 20 years, I feel like we have walked through a journey of how communication has changed as well as environment has changed. So some things have changed radically and some things have not changed at all in 20 years of communicate. What's changed radically is, you know, the the channels. You know, I remember our first session on social media back in 2010, you know, hottest topic this year, AI. How do we deal with it? AI and search, you know, where, you know, AI role models, influencers, all of these, you know, different things. What's not changing, and this is probably true of any communication conference, not just in the environment, you know, framing, audio, meeting audiences where they are, messages that work and don't work, who you're who the messages are coming from, you know, what do we currently understand about what's working psychologically and also out in the real world? You know, again and again, we're looking at those questions in different ways. And the for us, this annual conference over 20 years has been like a heartbeat of our year, where we have to come and share what we've learned, but we invite a lot of other people to come and share what they learned. And so it's it's not an academic conference, it's a kind of real peer-to-peer sharing event. And I think we'll just we'll keep doing it. You know, it gets bigger and bigger every year.

Citizen Science And Data Verification

SPEAKER_01 21:57

And Tamla, I should I should set. I confess, I've kind of offered for Do Not Smile to get plugged in to communicate. I think it's I think it's well overdue.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

That would be beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

I know, I know exactly. So Sabita, almost last question. Almost. So many of your projects, and then I want to go back to science before we wrap up. So many of your projects, like Bio Blitz, for example, are great examples of citizen science. And that shifting that dialogue around sustainability towards somewhere where you're breaking down the barrier between somebody communicating to an audience versus people actively engaged in hands-on work with the environment. And is that is that a game changer as well? Using citizen science as a trigger to get people literally connected to the issue. Does that work well?

SPEAKER_02 22:50

I think so, right? I mean, you're hugely passionate about citizen science, which, you know, there's a whole kind of spectrum of citizen science, you know, everything from a researcher saying, we just need lots of samples. Can everyone like send in, if you see one of these, you know, let us know, up to kind of much more intensive ways of communities or people coming together to say, we have a shared environmental question. How can we work together to find the data and evidence to answer our question? You know, and it's kind of different, different kinds of projects for different situations. You know, the key thing, though, is processing and understanding that data. And here in the UK, we are still reliant on a surprisingly small number of volunteers who do that verification of those records manually. You know, this is not a problem. You know, technology is playing an amazing role in citizen science and data collection. But actually, the kind of specialist expert voice, who in our in the UK is often a volunteer, is a really critical and I think undervalued and kind of untalked about role. So as we get more environmental change, we'll have more environmental questions. I think there's a great role for citizen science, but it is something, it's not free. You know, it's it does take coordination and support.

Closing Reflections And Sign Off

SPEAKER_03 24:19

So we did right on time, final question. I can't believe we are right on time, but it was you, not us, actually framing it beautifully. So, final question. Our network is ironically called Do Not Smile, because we need to make sustainability a subject that brings happiness into the world. So, what object, place, or person always makes you smile?

SPEAKER_02 24:44

I'm gonna choose a nature space. I'm gonna choose a beautiful lake in Canada where I spent my summers growing up, Iroquois Lake in the center of Canada. It's a wonderful place. I think we always think back to magical places from our childhood. Probably the last time we were like we're super free and played all day. So always makes me happy I get to go back now and then.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Was there a second?

SPEAKER_02 25:11

There wasn't a second, but I don't know if this is a people place or thing, but you know, we're getting towards the weekend, and I and I have to say, sitting now with some friends and a nice glass of wine always.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Oh bingo, yes. Well, I think we're all on the same page there, Savita. Well, thank you so much. That's been fascinating, brilliant, amazing. As I say, we're planning to plug into communicate. And and I I wonder whether we should even use the podcast, Savita, to cascade out some of your communicate outcomes. We could happily share that with the people that we reach out to. I think it's been fabulous talking to you. So, Damla, do you want to wrap it up?

SPEAKER_03 25:48

So, thanks to everyone who has listened to our Goodgeist podcast brought to you by the Do Not Smile Network of Agencies.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

And make sure you listen to future episodes where we'll be talking to more amazing people about how we can work together to create a more sustainable future. So, Damla, Savita, see you soon.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Bye. Electronic economic Goodgeist. A podcast series on sustainability. Brought to you by the DNS Network.