A little bit of sunshine, a little bit of hope and a whole lot of sweat

When we moved to the Southern Highlands about five years ago, I started to get involved in the environmental movement again. The IPCC report had just come out and even before the bushfires hit us, I knew I had to do something to help. The issues seemed insurmountable so I applied, and to my delight was accept into Al Gore’s ‘Climate Reality Leader’ training program.

This helped put it all into perspective, and gave me an idea of what I could do as a marketer and copywriter. I set up a website, trying to persuade people to switch to renewable energy, and before long ended up on a crusade to get solar panels installed at my kids’ school.

This led to me joining the board of a not-for-profit, meeting local politicians, fighting complacency and bureaucracy, and losing my mind on many occasions. I got angry, upset, annoyed, encouraged and inspired, and eventually – three years, eight months and four days after my first email to the Department of Education – we got approval to put solar panels on our tiny wee school.

Woo hoo!

Now, I can’t possibly go into all the ups and downs this has taken, but it’s been a battle the whole way, to say the least, and I’m quite proud to say I was actually asked to bugger off at one point in the process! As much as I’d love to have a moan about it, though, I’m not going to do that just now. Instead, this is a celebration, a thanks to everyone who helped along the way, and hopefully a note of encouragement for everyone else out there trying to make a change for the better.

Karyn Fitzgerald, Gaye White, Derek White, Cecilia Kemp, Gavin Dostal, Wendy Tuckerman MP and Sarah Farnese – I couldn’t have done this without all of you, so thanks for the parts that you played.

And for those involved in your own struggles, here’s what I’ve learned in the process. I’m sure none of this is new, or ground breaking, but it’s lived experience and perhaps, a little helpful.

1. The system is set-up to keep the status quo.
And changing it is unbelievably hard. The number of hurdles to overcome, and hoops to jump through make it so bloody difficult that eventually you just run out of energy, give up and let go. But you can’t, and you shouldn’t, because if we all give up on our own little challenges, nothing ever changes.

2. Persistence, and taking wee breaks now and again is the way to go.
I was doing this in addition to running my own business, juggling family life and kids so not exactly my main focus every day, nevertheless it was incredibly time consuming, and often emotionally draining. Mentally taking a wee break now and again was absolutely necessary, to maintain the energy and enthusiasm required to see it through.

3. The people who work in the system, are all on the same page.
But the people who want to change, are not united behind their vision for the future. And often they get caught up fighting each other, as opposed to the forces they really should be tackling. I’m not sure there’s a way to avoid this, but if you’re crystal clear about what your trying to achieve, maybe there’s a better chance of gathering people to your cause, who’re all of a similar mind.

So that’s my experience, for what it’s worth, and even though we were only talking about a few solar panels on a tiny school, it’s really a microcosm of the what’s going on all over the world right now. We are in a different position, globally, than we were three years, eight months and four days ago, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

The solar panels aren’t on the roof quite yet, but the money has arrived so I’m sure it’ll happen soon.
I’ll keep badgering until they’re done, then I think I’ll take a wee break myself…

…. and after a while, no doubt, I’ll be looking for another project to get stuck into.