Impact (April ’24 to March ’25)

April 30, 2024

You might already be aware that it's part of my mission to continue improving my sustainability and environmental impact as I work to help charities and for-purpose organisations with their comms. To keep me on track in continually improving my positive impact, I'm recording the steps I take each month in the blog post below. At the end of each year (April to March), I also do a roundup of that year's impact:

Last updated 3 November

Impact in... November 2024 to date

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 1,241 emails 

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to 4myplanet to help protect coral reefs via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

๐Ÿšฎ Turned our dog walk into an impromptu beach clean

๐Ÿ‘› Submitted 2 mermaid's purses to The Shark Trust's Great Eggcase Hunt

โ˜• Signed a Change.org petition calling for the ban of single-use coffee cups (thanks to Enviral's Joss Ford for putting this on my radar)

Impact in... October 2024

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 1,645 emails 

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to 4myplanet to help protect coral reefs via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

๐ŸŒฟ Funded around 320 seagrass seeds by donating to Project Seagrass via Work for Good

๐Ÿง  Shared my expertise with early career professionals wanting tips on how to start off as a conservation writer

๐ŸŒด Planted 29 trees (for free) through Treeapp

๐Ÿฆˆ Provided a couple of hours pro bono support to the Madagascar Whale Shark Project

โ˜€๏ธ & took some time out before I burned out so I can continue to have a positive impact through my work (yes, that counts!)

Impact in... September 2024

๐Ÿ’‰ Took some time out of work to donate blood

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 764 emails

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to help build 15 latrines in 4 schools in Togo via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

โœ๏ธ Signed a petition to protect the coastal rocky reefs in Espiritu Santo National Park (via the Manta Trust)

โ˜ฎ๏ธ For the UN's International Day of Charity (5 Sept), I made a small donation (ยฃ25 each) to some important causes: RNLI - Royal National Lifeboat Institution - Saving Lives at Sea, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, Woodland Trust and Dogs Trust

๐Ÿง  Shared my expertise with early career professionals wanting tips on how to start off as a conservation writer

๐ŸŒฟ Funded around 233 seagrass seeds by donating to Project Seagrass via Work for Good

๐ŸŒด Planted 34 trees (for free) through Treeapp

Impact in... August 2024

๐Ÿง  Shared my expertise with the fab Gen-Z copywriting community at Word Tonic to help them find ways of making a positive impact through their copywriting careers

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 1,121 emails

๐Ÿ’ฌ Shared my advice with another writer who wanted to make a positive impact through their work

๐ŸŒฟ Funded around 217 seagrass seeds by donating to Project Seagrass via Work for Good

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to help build 15 latrines in 4 schools in Togo via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

๐Ÿ›ฐ๏ธ Spent half a day helping WWF identify walrus from space as a citizen scientist (don't forget, you can help too! Just have a go online)

๐ŸŒด Planted 36 trees (for free) through Treeapp

โœ๏ธ Signed Oceana's petition to ban bottom trawling in Scottish MPAs

Impact in... July 2024

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 2,459 emails

๐Ÿ—‘๏ธ and spent some time clearing out my Google Drive - deleting 8GB that had somehow built up in the cloud

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to provide medicine for people in Niger via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

๐ŸŒฟ Funded around 240 seagrass seeds by donating to Project Seagrass via Work for Good

๐Ÿง  Shared my expertise & tips with a career switcher who wanted to make a positive impact through their work

๐ŸŒด Planted 35 trees (for free) through Treeapp

๐Ÿ›ฐ๏ธ Spent an hour helping WWF identify walrus from space as a citizen scientist (don't forget, you can help too! Just have a go online)

Impact in... June 2024

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 835 emails

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to Movember via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

๐ŸŒฟ Funded around 230 seagrass seeds by donating to Project Seagrass via Work for Good

โœ๏ธ Added my name to the Marine Conservation Society's petition to Stop Ocean Poison

๐Ÿ’ฌ I shared tips & advice with some junior writers and career switchers so they can try to make a difference through their work

๐ŸŒด Planted 34 trees (for free) through Treeapp

Impact in... May 2024

๐ŸŒฟ Funded around 273 seagrass seeds by donating to Project Seagrass via Work for Good

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 768 emails

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to The Oceancy via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

๐ŸŽฏ Set some impact goals for this year to try to keep on track

โœ’๏ธ Signed an open letter urging the end of whale hunting in Iceland

โœ๏ธ Added my name to the Marine Conservation Society's open letter on a Manifesto for Our Seas

โœ’๏ธ Signed an IFAW petition to make the ocean safer and quieter for whales

๐ŸŒด Planted 36 trees (for free) through Treeapp

Impact in... April 2024

๐ŸŒฟ Funded around 400 seagrass seeds by donating to Project Seagrass via Work for Good

โœ‰๏ธ Kept my digital carbon footprint down by permanently deleting 1,267 emails

๐Ÿ›ฐ๏ธ Spent half a day helping WWF identify walrus from space as a citizen scientist (don't forget, you can help too! Just have a go online)

๐Ÿ‘Ÿ Donated 500 โ€˜Wardsโ€™ (aka ยฃ2.50) generated by my steps to The Oceancy via WeWard (referral code: MELL-J7s3F)

๐ŸŒด Planted 34 trees (for free) through Treeapp

Ongoing

Proudly supporting Project Seagrass โœ”๏ธ

Default search engine = Ecosia โœ”๏ธ

Continuing to share stories about why we should protect the ocean through my marine science and conservation journalism โœ”๏ธ

Changes between '23-'24 and '24-25

๐ŸŒฒMy default search engine Ecosia has stopped showing individual impact... so I won't be able to count this from now on ๐Ÿ™

๐ŸŒณ Activities of the Ecologi Climate Committee are currently on pause

๐ŸŒด I am currently pausing my Ecologi subscription and will focus on donations to Project Seagrass instead

Goals

To try to keep myself accountable, here are some goals for the 24-25 year:

๐ŸŽ 7+ days of pro bono support, volunteering and citizen science

๐ŸŒฟ Funding enough for 2,500 seagrass seeds

๐Ÿ’ฐ Donating 1.5%+ of my income to good causes

๐Ÿ–Š๏ธ Sign 30+ petitions

๐Ÿšฎ Take part in 2+ beach cleans

๐Ÿ‘› Submit 10+ mermaid's purses to The Shark Trust's Great Eggcase Hunt

Ready to chat?

Hello!

Great to hear you're interested in working together - I'm always keen to hear about exciting new stories from marine conservationists, potential commissions from editors and suitable briefs from prospective clients.

So, let's chat. You can send me an email (I aim to respond within three working days, usually sooner) or book a call below. I look forward to hearing from you.

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Please note: due to high demand, I often have a wait time for new clients and cannot guarantee last-minute availability.

As such, please give as much notice as possible for your projects. Thank you!

Or book a call:

I do not work with the fossil fuel industry. If that's you, please look for support elsewhere. Thank you.

The Ocean Writer Ltd. Registered company number: 14772669

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I support Project Seagrass by donating 1% of every cleared payment from my services via Work for Good

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N.B. I do not work with the fossil fuel industry. If that's you, please look for support elsewhere. Thank you.

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