From Oysters to Peatlands: What Blue Earth Summit Taught Us About Long-Term Care
By Carina, Event Cycle
This week I spent two days at the Blue Earth Summit in Woolwich. The main session room moved into Punchdrunk’s venue this year and the exhibition has grown, so there was even more to explore. Here’s what stayed with me from the event.
A room full of animal sounds
Kate Raworth of Doughnut Economics opened with a full circus act. She had the whole room making animal sounds, then cut them by 73% to show the decline in wildlife since 1970. It’s a great way to make something tangible that seems very abstract. With volunteers playing Mother Nature and Finance, she unpacked the tensions between them. Nature is relational and long-term. Finance turns a forest into the price of timber and thinks in financial years. Her call was for a “we economy”, not a “me economy”.
Communities are already winning
In “Screw This, Let’s Try Something Else”, hosted by Matt Golding of Antidote, the examples were refreshingly practical. They ranged from co-owned farms in Shropshire to community landlords in Grimsby. Imandeep Kaur shared how Civic Square is reimagining Birmingham neighbourhoods for a 3°C world, because no one cares more about a place than its neighbours. Matt also shared #CitizenFriday, a weekly invitation from the 27th of November 2026 onwards, to share, repair and get outside, launching on Black Friday.
Boring frees the sea
Christoph Dörn of Free The Sea made a case that was very practical and right up my street. We tend to value inspiration, but nature runs on repetition: seasons, tides and cycles. Rather than running beach cleans, Free The Sea works at the source, with communities in Indonesia that have no waste collection. Community-run hubs separate plastics so the valuable ones can be sold on, and families who bring in waste can earn access to scholarships and small grants. Ownership stays with the community.
The same message came from Finisterre and Plant One, who want to scale from 60,000 to 100,000 trees planted a year, to protect not only the habitats on land, but also those at the shores. More trees contribute to more nutrients that flow to the sea as run off from surface rain. Planting is just the start, though. At least ten years of care is what counts. (Also, jays may be the best tree planters out there.)
Nobody cares about sustainability
Ian Gill (TikTok) and Dana Haidan (Virgin Media O2) gave the honest answer to their session title: most people don’t, and not everyone needs to. But the right people do. The trick is speaking their language: revenue for the CFO, growth for the ads team, resilience for infrastructure. Sustainability content on TikTok has grown from 80 billion to around 200 billion views a year, and the goal is 1 trillion. I am intrigued as to what I will get recommended soon.
Does sustainable actually pay?
Deborah Meaden’s verdict was clear. Purpose-led businesses are outperforming the rest of her portfolio. They attract better talent, have a clearer vision and are better placed to raise. Alex Voakes of Peak EOR turned his family business purpose-led, introduced a four-day week, and even cycled from Reading to Finland to cut travel emissions. There are short-term costs that pay off in the long term, but you get always get stories your competitors can’t tell.
Game, set, grid
Tennis is an English garden sport, so Wimbledon’s approach starts with cherishing the garden. Sustainability Manager, Hattie Park described a fossil-fuel-free training clubhouse, a wildflower meadow and nature-positive touch points fans can see, all to make sure there are another 150 years of the Championships. She ensures that there is also a lot of sustainability crossover and media attention when it comes to athletes engaging with the climate crisis. Olympian Hugo Inglis of High Impact Athletes put it best when it came to reporting and tracking impact: do the hard stuff so the fun stuff matters.
Oysters, rivers and Justin Beaver
Peter Malinowski shared that 250 million oysters are back in New York harbour, with a goal of a billion by 2030. The harbour scientists tending to the oysters and studying them, are schoolchildren, because restoration without education is temporary. Deputy Mayor of London Mete Coban followed with London’s Clean Rivers and Waterways Plan and the Ealing beavers (the first one was named Justin Beaver 🦫). He also shared that 700,000 Londoners can’t swim. When would they have had access to water? Access to nature shouldn’t be a luxury, that only certain members of society get to experience.
The summit closed with the Impact Awards, where six charities had three minutes each to pitch. Congratulations to the Thousand Year Trust, which is restoring forests along the UK coastline and caring for them for generations to come.
What I’m taking back
The thread running through both days was that the launch is the easy part. The care that follows is what makes the difference, whether that’s a peatland, a forest or a community hub. It’s how we think about every item we rehome at Event Cycle. The work isn’t done when something leaves the venue. It’s done when it’s being used, week in and week out, by the people who need it.
Thank you to everyone I met along the way, and see you next year, Blue Earth.
