EP71 Empowering Futures: Playful Sustainability Education; An interview with Louise Robertson

Philippa hosts an episode of Pondering Play and Therapy with guest Louise Robertson, founder of The Sustainables Academy (nominated for the Earthshot Prize in 2025) and a lecturer at Aberdeen University, formerly a teacher and head teacher. Louise explains how the colourful “Sustainables” characters provide a playful hook to help children, educators, parents, and communities understand complex sustainability concepts across water, air, and land, encouraging mindful choices, reduced waste, and critical thinking through play. She describes free, curriculum-aligned resources spanning multiple international curricula, pathways for sustainability, circular economy, and climate mental health, plus “wasters” reminder characters and a parent portal with activities and monthly newsletters. The conversation also covers the One Sky app launching in June, representation in the characters, funding challenges, and Louise’s goal for global recognition and support via the website and social channels.

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Transcript

The Sustainables Academy: Inspiring Young Minds and Hearts Through Play"

[00:00:00] 

Philippa: Welcome to this week's episode of Pondering Play and Therapy with me Philippa. And this week my amazing guest is the We Robertson, and she is the founder of the. Sustainables Academy, which in 2025 was a nominee for the Earth Shop Prize, and she is now a lecturer at Aberdeen University, but started her career in teaching and was a head teacher for a short period of time.

So welcome Louise to our podcast. 

Louise: Thank you. I'm laughing at my background screen. Can you see I've got a wind turbine in my head. 

Philippa: Yes. It looks very colorful. I think that's the most colorful background we've had on the podcast. I love all the little sustainable people [00:01:00] all around you, whi which is amazing.

So you have. Come a, long way, but just tell us a little bit about the sustainables because we can see them around you if, you're listening to this on the podcast. They're brides colorful animated characters really with lots of different they look a bit spacey to me.

They've got goggles and, a wind turbine and a a, wrench. Is that a wrench? 

Louise: Yeah, a wrench. So there, our whole point of the characters is that they are playful and they're a hook for our young people to get involved in sustainability. And we didn't want heroes. We wanted people, we wanted characters that represented our earth resources.

And our focus of the, the, three elements of our globe. So water, [00:02:00] air. And land and basically that's all we've got. So I was watching the nasa the Artemis journey. 

Philippa: Yeah. 

Louise: One of the astronauts was looking at the earth and actually said something, I wish I'd got the quote, but actually said something about I'm looking at the earth and it's so beautiful and we need to look after it.

And basically these are the three elements. And I thought that was just such a wonderful thing to say because we do need to look after it. 

Philippa: Yeah, 

Louise: and so the Sustainables characters are all there to en encourage our young people and adults and our whole communities to care for our globe. 

Philippa: You are hoping or they are already part of the curriculum, are they to help children and young people understand one about the impact that we have on the Glo on the world, on the globe, and how they can help to support the growth what, we want [00:03:00] the globe to be or the world to be, rather than destroying it, 

Louise: yeah, some of the concepts of sustainability in our environment are really hard to understand and they're hard for adults to understand. There are real complexities in sustainability. One minute you think that a cotton tote bag is. Is the best thing that you can be using, and then you find out you have to use it for 2,700 times before it becomes carbon neutral and it's been shipped halfway across the world and it's caused desertification and it's not recyclable cotton, et cetera.

I've painted a bleak picture there complexities are really hard for us as adults, and the idea of having that hook for our young people so that they can say okay, this character represents water. This character represents Earth. This character represents plastics, this one materials, et cetera.

And they link to the [00:04:00] curriculum and they link to topic and play and so forth. So they're give a hook, an identification for. Our young people to think about earth resources. 

Philippa: Yeah. So it's more than thinking about, oh, I've recycled my plastic bottle in the, recycle bin, or I'm driving electric.

It's, that's part of it. But it's. It's making us think about the choices we make, the impact that we are having in our everyday lives, how we can help things flourish. As well as repairing once the once something's happened. Is that right? 

Louise: Yeah. And I think it also links to like our philosophy and educational theories that we're encouraging our children to think critically.

And when we're looking at play and we're looking at [00:05:00] sustainability, when we're designing our learning we're looking at. If I got ski and scaffolding that learning and giving those resources and choices and choice in play is really important. And also with sustainability, the sensory elements of it are really key.

When you are looking, when you're talking about glass making, for instance. See, one of the earliest sensory forms of play that our children have is sand. Sand is where we get our glass from and you would think that sand, you think, oh, we've got loads of sand. It is marvelous, but we've only got C, the sands of different types of sands, and we've only got certain types that are especially safer lenses in our.

Glasses so it, it is complex, but what, we're doing is through the play and talking about our resources and caring for things [00:06:00] that we're starting to initiate that value right from a very young age. And we can do that right from a nursery setting. 

Philippa: Okay. And when you talk about choice what do you mean about that?

When you talk about choice in play, in, in regards to sustainability, what does that mean? 

Louise: It's a choice of being first of all is I'm going to take the value aspect of it that we, That we encourage our children to respect what we have and respect how they use our resources and respect what they do with the things.

If you've got a free flow early year setting and children are. Not necessarily eating at the same time. They've got their rubbish that they have from or, they're making something that they're making, that they're choosing and they're choosing to be careful with what they've done and what, how much they use and [00:07:00] whether they waste it or that, that, sort of aspect.

So it is it's many different, 

Philippa: yeah. Yeah. So, thinking that if they're making, I remember when I was at school, we used to make spaghetti pictures with spaghetti and you'd glue them down. So rather than thinking, okay, I'll just take a massive handful it's the it is being caught more mindful of, maybe I'll probably only need five, five things are spaghetti and that'll do my picture.

Rather than thinking, I'll take a, big handful and then I'll chuck the others. Chuck the rest in the bin. So it's been that, it's been that mindful early on, so that by the time they get to our age then, that's just part of their natural life is that they are aware that we, that what we've got is precious really, I suppose is what you're saying, and that we, like you say, we value it and we, don't, we're not thinking, oh, that's disposable and we can chuck [00:08:00] those grasses away or we can replace them very quickly.

Louise: Yes. Yeah, and it's, simple things actually. When you take a child for a walk or you go for a walk that you don't, oh, sorry. That you don't just pick somebody's daffodils. You know what I mean? Yeah. And you do that through conversation and dialogue and interaction and modeling and all those aspects that are really important in our teaching and learning.

And it is about emphasizing those aspects with their young people to think sustainably. 

Philippa: Yeah. So I suppose it's a, it's helping the world stay as beautiful as it is and that we are not stripping those resources away at a level that we can do. 'cause we often think we'll see on the, TV about the Amazon Forest, won't we and, all the deforestation that's going on there.

And I guess we'll look at that and think, oh my gosh, that's. [00:09:00] Awful. Why is, somebody doing that? Why would you do that? But I guess this is the way I'm understanding it, we can actually. Be part of that in a very small way, in not picking the blue bells in blue bell wood, or not taking the the seeds or the, birds nest out the tree or whatever it is.

So it's not on that massive scale, but it's just on that what actually we can do as an everyday people of. Valuing the space and the beauty of what we've got around us. Would that be right? Or am I, 

Louise: yeah. And I think as educators, we also, this is a hard one actually because I think as educators we need to make good choices on what we buy and what we bring into our schools and where we source it.

There's so much online that is extremely cheap and the actual journey of those resources. [00:10:00] And the carbon that is taken to produce them. And I often think when you're buying a very cheap t-shirt in a high, street store you have to look at the production of it the, landscape, where it's come from, how far it's traveled, who's manufactured it, how much they've been paid to make your three pound t-shirt.

It is it's a hard one when we're in a, in a. And we're in a poly crisis with economics and our resources. But I think that as educators, if we start to make those, choices and it's a that's the important thing about the sustainable is, that we're free. 

Philippa: Yeah.

Okay. That, 

Louise: that's one thing that I'm really keen on because as an educator, as a teacher, as a primary teacher I've spent a fortune over the years. Resource [00:11:00] in a classroom. Yeah. Books and things for the children to use and many, teachers do that. And there are online resources that you, you subscribe to, but we're, With getting backing from green companies so that we can offer those resources free to teachers. Yeah. 'cause I don't believe that there aren't many jobs that you need to go and buy your own tools to do the job. And I really think that educators shouldn't be. So that is one big passion of mine that everything that you can download from our website is you have to subscribe because we like to know where in the world people are accessing our resources.

Philippa: Yeah. 

Louise: They are free so that you can you can print off our characters and you can have them in your outdoor play area, or you can have them in your classroom, or you can have them on your light switches. Say it's the, we've got a series of what we call the wasters. They're the naughty ones, and [00:12:00] we we, we encourage schools to have don't be a waster and leave the tap running and make sure you turn the light off. Don't be a waster. So we we, have positive and negatives. 'cause that's the other thing that I believe is that there's a balance in this world. You can't have everything as positive, You have to have a few warnings we have. We have yellow lines to park. Don't park on the yellow lines. You're gonna get a ticket, you're gonna get a consequence and so there are consequences in life, and our teaching and learning needs to provide that as well. 

Philippa: So the characters help to bring a alive bring to life some of the some of the concepts and the ideas that that you are that, you are wanting to share with the children.

Like you say, the waste is, it would the. That's a good one. Switch the lot. We need those round our houses, don't they? Especially when you've got teenagers. I've [00:13:00] got my, son home from university and he never shuts the door and all the heat goes out, out, out the back out the back utility room.

I need one there. But they are designed to then prompt children and young people to remember to switch the light off. 

Louise: Yeah. 

Philippa: Shut the door or those sorts of things. 

Louise: Yeah, we're just joining with another, not, another, not-for-profit. It's actually not sure whether it is not-for-profit, but it is community engagement app called One Sky, and this is in June.

And what they're doing with that is that they're monitoring. People's sustainability. So you can join the app and then you can it, the idea is that it modifies your behavior because you start to think about how you travel, how you use your energy what you like as a consumer, and it's for children and adults alike.

The, outcome [00:14:00] of that app is that it monitors people's changes in behavior and your score can that they have linked with a tree planting organization and a bottle picking plastic bottle organization. And you can, your actions in your change of sustainability can actually impact the. Earth because trees are being planted and plastic bottles are being picked.

That's a practical way with this app that's coming out in June that you can change your behavior. But the sustainables, it's like an every day. We've got we've got a mindful team, we've got Harmony, we've got Calm, we've got Opti, and they are all about. 'cause climate mental health is a real thing that stresses young people and adults, I think.

You're seeing, we will soon see, we've seen floods. We've seen fires, and this is causing [00:15:00] children and young people anxiety. And so we've created these other characters so you can develop a calm area in your learning setting. All about good, mental health and the idea of.

Being an earth steward and empowering and being able to do something. It is like my granny used to say collect the pennies and the pounds will soon add up. That's that kind of thing because sometimes you look at what's going on with our poly crisis and it's just so overwhelming and you.

How can I do something? So I think the app scan to help, but the idea of the sustainables was to really like empower and make, everybody think and change their mindset and become individual change makers so that it's step by step those pennies to the pound type thing.

Philippa: Because it can feel [00:16:00] what is the point of me doing this when and when you see all this other destruction going on and all these other things going on in the world you think, wow, what difference does it make if I buy my, shirt from. Somewhere that's chipped shipped in across and, then I took it away when I've worn it next week.

But actually it, does make a difference and, it makes a difference. I guess what you are saying is to our own emotional and mental health, and because we can feel that we've got some efficacy rather than just letting everything happen that we. In this very small way have got a little bit of efficacy.

So some of the sustainables are supporting with that. That sounds amazing. 

Louise: Yeah, and I think that even doing what I do, you have sat in the car and thought, oh gosh, this is too heavy it's too heavy. And then I go, no. We've had through, we've [00:17:00] had nearly half a million downloads and when I think that if you've had one teacher that has downloaded one.

Resource and they've, used it with 30 kids. Our, on the figures that we've got today, if that was the case and every resource that was downloaded was used, it would be 9 million children that have been accessed already with resource sustainable resources. I don't know the, full impact of that, but you just hope that what we do and that if individuals take that on it would just be, there will be a difference.

Philippa: Absolutely. And they are playful characters. So this is, although it's a very serious topic and it can be very heavy, and it's got this components of worry that comes along with it, it seems that the sustainables are meant to be playful and [00:18:00] engaging and, joyful in some ways that actually. For children and for young people it, it feels more engaging.

Is that, right? 

Louise: Yeah. Yeah, I would say so. And what the, whole my dream is that. The sustainable characters are everywhere and everybody that they make everybody think it'd be great if local authorities had our characters on their waist bins so that people could it would be brilliant if somebody firmed me up and said, let's have the, let's have these out with, within the community as well, not just in the school setting.

But yeah, the idea is to take away that weight, to have that fun, to have the, that playful elements. To change the way that you look at this quite. Heavy subject that you use the word joy and is supposed to be joyful, fun, and engaging. 

Philippa: Yeah, definitely. And I guess for young [00:19:00] people, that's, those kind of things are easily engaged with, aren't we?

We see K-Pop, which is a this they're, these characters, aren't they, from this film and sing and. So many people because they are bright and engaging and colorful, have all of a sudden got engaged with it. Loads of kids that I'm seeing, they all want K-pop stuff, so there's no reason is there if, as adults we are.

We show them to children, we help them engage with it. That couldn't be the case. That, like you say, that they can't print big stickers and stick them on bins to encourage children and young people to recycle or to help things. And that actually would just make your bin look a bit nice.

I wondered if you'd got all those little people when they're lined upon the road. There's all these little characters. I think that would Luke. Looks so nice, wouldn't they, rather than just your gray bin? That would be [00:20:00] just such a nice thing to see in the streets. 

Louise: Yeah. Yeah. It is just, they are just, they are fun and it is supposed to be light and accessible and.

Yeah. 'cause it is a, it is when you talk about food waste what, how you think about food waste and it's a bit grim. Yeah. Whereas if you've got Oggie, who's our organic character. Or Connie, who's our conservation character, or Polly, our pollinator character. But being involved in food waste and agriculture and that kind of thinking, it just makes it like more fun rather than a lot of rotty smelling.

Compost. 

Philippa: Yeah. I'm just gonna ask you one more question about that and then, I just wanna think about how you got into that when you were talking about poly. Then just, for example, so when you are talking about food waste that is the, end, [00:21:00] do Is, part of the sustainables thinking about where it starts.

So it starts with the, bees or the. The, birds or whatever pollinating the fruit trees. And then so, the sustainables is looking at the whole, yeah. The, whole process from where it starts in a flower to where it ends in the bin is, that right? 

Louise: Yeah. 

So what we've done with that, we've actually formed a formal curriculum okay.

And their formal curriculum, we've aligned it. So there's so many curriculum models for sustainability and climate, et cetera, but they don't work with what's being taught in schools. And if. Sustainability isn't your main like for instance in the English system and the Scott, let's take the Four Nations, 'cause we've done it for eight, eight curriculum models.

We've got Australia, New Zealand, we've got a form of American, 'cause there's [00:22:00] variations there. And we've got the Four Nations of the UK with their curriculum models. And we've got IB and we've got international primary curriculum. So Wow. We've aligned those with those curriculum models. So if we take England for instance.

If you're teaching early years through to key stage four, you can look at our 12 pathways of sustainability. And we've also got the 12 pathways of circular economy and we've also got 12 pathways of climate mental health. So you could say you were doing health and wellbeing in Scotland or PSHE in England.

You could take our climate mental health program and you could look at that and look at each of the pathways within the curriculum and sustainability and follow those in progression. So if you were in a primary school setting, for instance, you could [00:23:00] take you could take the, topic of water.

Sustainability of water, and you could do something all the way through the school on that with your class. Classes, and you could have a whole school topic, or if you are doing an individual topic within your curriculum, say for instance you're in key stage one and you're doing materials, you can take the material strand and you can look at the progression from, say you're doing it in.

Key stage one, you take it from year one to, and you could overlap it into year three, and you have that progression and you've got those curriculum objectives so that learning is there. And so the same with you, you mentioned about poly with PO pollination, we encourage people to use the.

Aquifer water poly for pollination. And if you're doing something on conservation or biodiversity, you can use those characters to head it up, but you've got the [00:24:00] academic pathway linked to the curriculum and the learning theory. For the educators to employ that in their classrooms. And we do very much play base.

It's hard to do play base in in upper primary because people, they, you've got your SATs tests and you're driven to test. I've seen over the 40 years of my teaching as a head teacher for 12 years in England the changes that I saw and the narrowing of the curriculum was just horrendous.

Yeah. And so when I first started teaching everything was we, built these beautiful play areas in the classroom and we were free flow in and out and there was so much freedom and there isn't. That freedom now, but you can create it and you can create it by when you're planning, your teaching, always having your sustainability head on and thinking, if I'm teaching tutors, which is [00:25:00] a key stage two topic, How sustainable were the tutors? What was the tutor? Yeah, what was the tutor midden compared to a landfill today? How did Romans use water? They used it for their heating systems and you could look at how you could compare that to the heating systems that we used today.

What did you, it is what sort of if you're doing World War I, Andi, which is a common topic in key stage two that digging for Britain, make, do a mend, all these things that's sustainable and you can bring it into, mate, do a men am I buying a cheap T-shirt and banging it in the bin?

Will, does, will my t-shirt recycle compared to what they were doing, how they recycled and reused in, in the wars, so there's lots of ways of getting those sustainability into your head. And then there's one very, it was very popular in the eighties. This theory, but it was, there [00:26:00] was a lady called Dorothy Heath, coach, I think she was from the Midlands, and she designed something called the mantle of experts.

And you can, and it is more of a, like a drama way of, creating learning, but you can actually employ. The mantle of expert, and we've done several models of that on the website where you can encourage your children to, be experts in a field related to sustainability or related to your, topic in school.

And so you can, and they pretend. And they pretend to. Be that person. And they write letters, they write policies, they do adverts. All the things that you would do in your literacy. But it is all linked in like a, play concept, and you can use our characters for that. So it's all about.

Developing that thinking. And I've totally forgotten what you asked me at the beginning. 

Philippa: That I've forgotten too. I was so interested in what you're saying. [00:27:00] That is amazing to think that you can do that. How would parents get involved with that? So that's for teachers that you've got this, which sounds just so super.

Yeah, I would be so interested in doing that as a, child and as a teacher it's something very different, but. Fitted into what you need to do. How interesting to look at the world and all those topics in that, that different way that, that is gonna really make a big impact.

But if you are parent how do you get involved with this? What is available for you? 

Louise: so we've got a parent portal on our website so you can access resources, you can sign up and access the resources if you want to, if you were, and if. Do you wanted to do something at home in the holidays? It is.

It's not just teacher. Orientated, you can go on and download a coloring sheet or an [00:28:00] activity or a quiz or you could be involved in that way. We produce a newsletter every month, which is actually designed for learners. But the idea is that 'cause so many schools have got eco clubs and tell you I was same situation where I was put in charge of 'cause green schools has been going.

Years and years I was at meetings in the nineties in London over green Flag schools and my school in Surrey that we were doing the green Flag Eco school program and you, get a bit stuck sometimes 'cause you've got to do your everyday school stuff, but then you've got a club or you've got a committee to run.

So what we do is we produce a newsletter. Which is ideal for your learners, which empowers them. So we theme each newsletter each month and so may [00:29:00] is David Attenborough. Newsletter and we also link it with the United Nations articles for rights and respect in schools. So you can get that into your if you're doing the UN citizens Awards, you can get that in.

We've linked it to the Eco schools, we've linked it to the sustainable Development goals. And international days. For instance, like I said, may we are doing this David Attenborough special, and his birthday is the 8th of May, and there's. We'll do four week programs that you can give those to your club or your, or you could do it at home with your children, and you do those activities related to the first week.

Nick in May is David Borough, and I think the, we've got 22nd of May is pollination day, so we've got a week on pollinators and just activities that they can lead with the [00:30:00] school or they could do an assembly, et cetera, too. Present it, and then I think towards the end of the week, the month it's about turtles because it's international turtle day.

So we try and link it with those international days and empower parents and schools and the young people to lead it themselves and, start thinking about it themselves. 

Philippa: And I guess parents can, like you say, go on and, get this information. And then they've got it as well.

If their children are doing it at school, it'll be available to them. But like you say, it's during the summer holidays often we, there's a lot. It's a long time. Six, seven weeks, isn't it? Finding some other things to do and I guess your app really that one Sky App parents can help children think about that and put what they're doing and then being able to, oh look, we've got a tree planted now, or we've [00:31:00] got these many bottles.

You parents can get involved in that way, I'm guessing. 

Louise: Yeah if you are walking down the town to do your shopping rather than driving and parking a car, you can add that onto the app. If you are using a reusable bag, you can add that onto the app and all these that add up for points that will plant something.

So you've got an outcome, you can see what difference you are making. So that's a real positive, but it is just a, it is also about parents can, the pages, one conversation we've other teachers is that we put a lot of information on there and they often just want to get the resources. So we've had, we're we're working like that to put our resources at the top of our pages now because they want to access those page.

So if they go onto the water page, they want to get to the water resources rather than reading all the sustainability bit. But the. Website itself is like a magazine. [00:32:00] It's an information place as well, so that you as an adult or a parent, you could be absolutely sure that you are talking about the right thing and using the correct terms and that you're using the, vocabulary and that you've got the concepts and the points that you're right in what you're saying.

And that actually leads me to talk about, you haven't asked me this, but why I actually started the, started it in the first place. So I was going into schools as a lecturer, as an education lecturer and seeing teachers, student teachers and teaching them classrooms and assessing their lessons for their qualification.

And I was going in and I was seeing lots and lots of 'cause you get mixed ages of people to be teachers, but mainly young people. Very, keen on sustainability, very keen on recycling. And it was. It was brilliant that they wanted to do this, but they were limited in their [00:33:00] knowledge and they were limited in the resources, and they were limited in.

What they were actually, the journey that they were creating for the learners. And I was thinking, oh, you could do it's great that you're doing this, but you could do this so much better. And I wanted to empower them as educators to be able to teach the right stuff. 

Philippa: Yeah. 

Louise: The resources and the tools that they need to do the job.

And so I went away and I was talking to a couple of people and other educators who went, yeah, actually. I don't want to, I'm not going to sit in the middle of a motorway and stop the traffic because I want to protest about oil. I'm not going to gloo myself to a painting. But what I can do is do something that's positive and empowering and that will be change changemaking and in my field, which is education and produce something that people can use to educate themselves and to educate [00:34:00] others and just be.

A steward. And that idea of being a nurse steward and having a code. So when you, start the academic year, you often sit with the children and you talk about. You know the values that you have in the classroom and you make up like rules or expectations or values for your learning for the year.

And so we, I'm encouraging teachers to do that with a code. A sustainability code in their class. Yeah. So in the beginning of the year, you set that up and the same at home that you have these codes and values. And so the whole point of it was to I, felt that there was a gap that needed to be filled and.

But I wanted it to be a free gap. I wanted it, I didn't cost. Yeah, so that was the whole point of setting up the sustainables and 

Philippa: so wouldn't you. Once you [00:35:00] got the concept, how did you go about developing it? Because when we look at it I, know people will be listening on the podcast, so I would really strongly advise you to just go and have a look at the su sustainables.

Website because actually the characters are colorful and they, look amazing. But how did you get to that point? Because I'm guessing from having an idea and thinking, I want to do this to creating what you've created is a, is quite a big journey and costly, I imagine both time and financially.

Louise: Yeah. Yes. Both. Both emotionally as well. 

Philippa: Yeah. 

Louise: What's the drive that I wanted to do this? The cost element really does scare me because it is about, we want to keep it online and you keep trying to get funding and big organizations go, oh, the education department should be [00:36:00] funding this, but we all know that there's not that money for this.

And so they're not, running to my door saying, we are gonna give you lots of money to fund this. Same with trying to, just trying to get funders. See you. There are lots of people out there that have got green missions, but even with the Air Shop Prize. The Air Shop prize is, it's an economic price.

Yeah. So each of those, elements of the Earth Shop Prize, they're businesses and the Air Shop Prize is funding businesses to make a difference. In the world. So it is the, and innovations and funding, those innovations that can be sold and marketed. I, could sell the sustainables, but I don't want to because I want it to be free for educators.

But and the same with a lot of these businesses that are green. Washing powders and things that [00:37:00] fit onto your tumble dryers. These are all innovations that are less plastic, but I'm not finding that. They're knocking at my door saying that's support education.

Which is, sad and there's a massive worry in, in, in that respect. But the actual sort of like desire and the, design of it and the characters. I work with a designer who's local. And we talk about the characters and what they represent. And we do design them. And there have been questions of should we be getting our young people to design the characters?

And actually, I think sometimes you need to give them something. 

Philippa: Yeah. 

Louise: Yeah. And I think that, yeah. Maybe down the line we'll get young people to design another character or an environment for our characters to live in, et cetera. But I think [00:38:00] that sometimes you need to have adult led. So we've actually had great fun designing them and what they represent and the ages we've got, a series of women that are.

Over gray head women. We've got one with with a prosthetic. We've got different races of we've got imaginative characters so, we're trying to represent. People. And as a woman in my sixties, I find that people want to listen to younger people about sustainability. They want listen they, you always hear, oh, are our young what's the, youth voice about this?

And I feel, particularly as a woman in my sixties, I didn't feel empowered. I actually felt like I was back on I'm back on that. Landfill. They've, chucked me off now because I'm, over a certain age and there are certain [00:39:00] things that that as a woman sounds vain.

This sounds really vain, but as a young woman, people would look at me. 

Yeah, absolutely. But as an older woman, you you suddenly realize that you've become invisible. I remember going to a bar in Manchester, and I know that in my younger days I would've been served immediately, but I would being overlooked. And I was being overlooked by younger women and men because I was a woman in my sixties. And it is an actual fact that happens. Yeah, 

Philippa: yeah. 

Louise: And yeah. And so that idea of having that representation of older women in our characters was really, important. And that we haven't got any older men yet, but we'll do, because I think that in the employment market you get like 50.

And you suddenly get to a point where people [00:40:00] are, then, they're not looking in that age bracket and they're looking and they're going they, might retire in five years. I know they're not supposed to, and they're not supposed to say it, but in reality, that's what happens. And I think that and in a, world where I won't get my pension till I'm 67.

Yeah, they might again I could be my kids could be getting their pen pensions at 70, so we need to work longer and we need to have a, you can't write us off at 15 and 60. And so that was another aspect, sorry, very serious. But another aspect of the women of a certain age start to become faceless.

So our characters are really important and we've got. The different abilities and like I say, different races and ages and genders. We got, we've, we run for, we've got children represented. We've got middle aged people, et cetera. Sorry, I do, go on. You were. 

Philippa: No, I think that's a really great point because it [00:41:00] is about that representation, isn't it?

And actually I I am in my early mid fifties now, but I do, people start to discount a little bit and like you say, just being around, like you can become invisible in some ways. So I think it's really, really important. And I think as women. Often it, there's that do they really know?

Do they really if you are wide, middle-aged man, then actually you've got I guess a lot more of a voice. And I suppose like you say, people assume that younger people have. The, I suppose the sustainability stuff or the E because we didn't grow up in that era.

Maybe that's not where we are, but actually it's for everybody, isn't it? Yeah. It, we all have a responsibility whether you are [00:42:00] 70 or whether you are seven. There's a responsibility that we all have, so I guess how. Something that represents all that, that encourages everybody within that 'cause. I guess that's what the Sustainables is doing, is trying to get everybody through education to think about what is our role in our world and how do we help it from conception to end really.

Whether that's food, whether that's. What we buy, whether that's where we walk, whether, whatever we do, and we are all in it together, aren't we really? Yeah. So we all need to be there. 

Louise: Yeah. And it's interesting because it is, lovely to be invited to on this podcast because we see a lot of younger people being invited to and I feel like I've had a real life experience as well and I'm still learning.

I still get it [00:43:00] wrong, I still think I've got value, but we've got a section on the website famously sustainable and of course we've got David Attenborough, but we've got Jane Goodall as well and I remember following what she was doing for years and years and then we've identified other women and other men in their later years that and young people, we've got the, we've got Hamza and the other young.

Younger men and women that are making a difference. Difference globally. So yeah, it's really important to represent that as well. 

Philippa: Absolutely. And so the, just my last question is where, what is your hope for the Sustain Sustainables Academy? Where do you hope it's gonna go? What do you want for it?

Louise: There are some practicalities that I hope for, but the real goal is the, Sustainables Academy. The Sustainables themselves are embraced [00:44:00] globally by everybody, and that they are a bit like Pokemon are in in, in, people's thinking. Everybody recognizes Pikachu. I want everybody to recognize Auggie.

I want everyone to recognize plaster. I want everyone to embrace Connie and Polley and so that they become part of your life so that the, real thing is that I'd like them to represent globally. And that it changes people to be stewards. My actual practicality goals are that we do stay online and we remain free.

And the I still some people will say you need to have a better business plan for that. But you can't rely on hope, but we'll keep plugging away and I'm hoping that one day somebody will go okay, this is really good. We love it and we want to support you.

In reality terms, I talked [00:45:00] about if we were on. Bins or what have you. It would be brilliant if, say some of these waste companies said, actually, we'd like to license your characters. So that would actually keep us online. So there are, streams, but the actual goal is that we are fun, that we're accessable, that we change make, and that.

We remain playful and 

Philippa: yeah, 

Louise: that we, that people embed us into their lives. They embed the sustainables and that, you become a sustainable just because of the way that you are in, your attitude and the way that you behave. 

Philippa: And that those are great. Yeah. If, that, yeah, those are great goals, aren't they, really?

And, I hope that, people can support you. So how do people support you? That you've got the website where they can download, where else can people find you? 

Louise: Yeah, so we're, on Instagram. We didn't have a very good following on Instagram, but it would be really [00:46:00] nice. We're actually on Instagram as the Sustainables and the Infinite Earth Academy.

That's where we are on Instagram. We are the sustainables on Facebook. We are on X, but don't use it very often. I just don't feel comfortable now. Yeah. With that platform. And we are on blue sky, but we are, we're not very good at posting on there. We don't tend to use TikTok because it doesn't, unless we've been working actually with some university students who've been doing a project on a mini game and if they are able to produce that, we might be.

Able to get something on TikTok, but really the website, it's it's a long, we've got a long, http and it is www dot the sustainables with an s [00:47:00] academy. Do org and, you can find us there and just, that's. 

Philippa: Yeah, just, okay. I will put a link to the website, Instagram and Facebook at the end of this podcast.

If you're listening on YouTube, it will be in the, bio. So just, have a look on there. 

Louise: Oh, we've got a YouTube, actually. We've got a YouTube. And what we are going to try and do is get. People who would be keen to read stories, sustainability stories, and then we can edit them and put them on YouTube.

And we'd really like to have some famous people do that with us. But we haven't got people interested yet, but that we have got a YouTube and is the Sustainables Academy on YouTube. And then of course, the sky one. App is coming out, which we are supporting. It's not our app, but we're supporting it and encouraging people to use and change their behavior.

That's coming out in [00:48:00] June. 

Philippa: Oh, that's fantastic. I will put a link to all those, like I say, so people can just click on them. 

Louise: Actually, I think it's One Sky. I think I've said Sky 

Philippa: One. Yeah. One. No, one Sky. You did? 

Louise: Yeah. One Sky and it's, yeah, we're not the tv. 

Philippa: Yeah. Yeah, you talked about Delia, so that's fantastic.

Thank you so much for your time, Louise. That was so great, and I just encourage all our listeners to go and have a look to yeah, just go and support you and, get it out there really, if we can. 

Louise: Yeah we have got a donate button on the website, but I do need just to make, sure that it.

Links properly, which isn't a good, thing, but I will double check. But thank you so much for inviting me and I just love talking about the sustainables. It's nice to talk to other people because my husband won't listen anymore 'cause he's sick to. Thank you. 

Philippa: Absolutely. Thank you.