How do we connect our personal stories to the big story about the environment? How can we motivate corporations and government to not just aim for profit, but include reporting on their environmental risks and impacts in their balance sheets?
Sue Inches is an advocate, author, and teacher. She has worked in public policy for over 25 years, serving as the Deputy Director of the State Planning Office, and as a Director at the Maine Department of Marine Resources. She is author of Advocating for the Environment: How to Gather Your Power and Take Action, and teaches college and high school workshops on same. Her consulting work focuses on strategic planning, program development, and environmental campaigns.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST
When we live in a healthy environment, it is also reflected in our physical health. I know that you love hiking and the outdoors, so it's not just looking after the planet. It actually has reverberations within our physical health. So what for you is the link between mental health and nature?
SUE INCHES
So to me, the connection is just being outdoors. It really brings energy, to my life and it brings energy to my work. And I think for a lot of people, this is true, that nature is kind of the place where they can regenerate their energy. And if people haven't experienced that, I encourage them to try it, because nature can be very restorative. So, absolutely there's a connection between health, the outdoors, and between environmental issues and creating a healthy, clean environment for future generations.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST
Your book Advocating for the Environment really sets out your many experiences and also how anyone can be a part of advocacy.
INCHES
Advocacy starts with your story, my story, and everyone else's stories. They add up to the big story that we are telling ourselves about the Earth. Over time, our collective stories will guide us to sustainable prosperity and well-being, or to total destruction. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. And the reason I bring up stories so early in the book is because when you're actually doing lobbying, it's the stories that the decision-makers remember. So legislators have said that to me when "I go to vote on an issue, it's the stories I remember." It's not the data. It's not the charts and graphs. Those are important, but it's the stories that they remember and that's how they vote on these issues.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS · ONE PLANET PODCAST
Corporations maximize their profits, and down the line, it's the taxpayers who pay to clean up the mess after they're gone.
INCHES
Our culture and the way that we carry out capitalism is that we have allowed businesses to create a mess. And then the taxpayers are the ones that pay to clean it up. Corporations need to be held accountable for the environmental harm that they cause. And that way it's not going to be left to us. Corporations are caught in a system and the way that we carry out capitalism now is that profit is above everything, including people's health. And these corporations feel that if they don't maximize profit, they could be sued by their shareholders because their shareholders are basically holding them accountable for profit only. One of them that's worked quite well in Europe, and it's just starting to emerge in America, is to require that corporations report on their environmental impact. So right alongside their financial report would be environmental risk and environmental impact reporting.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk and Ava Clancy with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this episode was Ava Clancy.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process & One Planet Podcast (Conversations about Climate Change & Environmental Solutions).
