Celebrating International Women's Day

This article is part of our series 'Spotlighting Diversity in Environmentalism'. In this series we'll be celebrating the days and months that raise awareness of diversity in our society, regarding race, gender, sexual orientation amongst many other examples of diversity and inclusion. Celebrating diversity in our society is so important, and we want to highlight those people who have made significant contributions to the environmental cause.

Friday 8th March marks International Women’s Day (IWD), a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day is also a call to action for furthering women’s equality. Did you know the first IWD was marked in 1911 by Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland? Over one million people attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights to work, vote, to hold public office and to end discrimination. 

Here at CN28 we are celebrating IWD because firstly there are so many women who are taking action in the fight against climate change, and we want to ensure their voices are heard. Secondly, we know that the impacts of climate change disproportionally impact women, particularly those in the world’s poorest countries. For example, women and girls are more likely to be responsible for securing water, food, and fuel for cooking which are all being threatened by climate change.  

This IWD we want to shine a light on one Nottingham-based environmental innovator: Penney Poyzer. Penney Poyzer is a multi-award-winning environmentalist – what she doesn’t know about saving the planet arguably isn’t worth knowing!

Image: Nottingham-based environmental innovator, Penney Poyzer

Penney transformed energy use in her home resulting in a huge 60% carbon saving! The extensive retrofit included solar panels, rainwater harvesting and both internal and external insulation. Penney’s work on her home led to her being acknowledged by the Department of Energy and Climate Change in 2012 as a pioneer of the low energy retrofit movement in the UK. 

Penney has also done amazing work with climate friendly community food growing. As chair of Nottingham Good Food Partnership, she is working towards transforming Nottingham’s urban environment into an edible landscape and connecting grassroots organisations. She’s also won business awards for socially responsible entrepreneurship, presented the BBC2 hit series “No Waste like Home” amongst other BBC and ITV shows, she’s also a writer, contributing to newspapers and magazines as well as authoring two books! In 2014, Penney was given a lifetime achievement award for her services to the environment by the City of Nottingham, and this IWD we celebrate her amazing achievements again. Happy International Women’s Day! 

To find out more about Penney follow her on Instagram and to read more about the impacts of climate change on women click here to visit the Actionaid website.