BIG GREEN WEEK! Interview with Planted.

To celebrate Big Green Week, we had an exclusive interview with Planted!

The Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. https://greatbiggreenweek.com/

Planted is the creation of husband-and-wife team Deborah Spencer and Sam Peters.

How did the journey of PLANTED begin?

For the best part of a decade Deborah ran designjunction, one of London’s leading design events, while Sam was a journalist, travelling the world covering sport.

Through running designjunction, Debs witnessed first-hand the epic amount of waste which events could generate while Sam’s real passion had always been nature, sustainability and the outdoors.

When our daughter Ella was born, we sought to combine our passions for nature and design by setting up and events and media company which promoted nature-based design businesses and environmentally focused organisations. That’s how Planted began. 

What’s the mission of your business?

In setting up Planted it was our belief we could affect positive environmental change through events and media. Through the Planted community we want to educate and inspire people to reconnect with nature and become environmental advocates of the future.

What is your main goal towards helping our planet during Big Green Week?

To deliver a Planted Country event which has the lightest possible physical impact on the land and environmental while simultaneously having the biggest impact on people’s understanding of the need to urgently address climate change and biodiversity loss.

For too long we have been fearful of nature and this has led to us to destroy it. If our children are to inhabit a liveable and living planet, we need to deconstruct the perception nature exists to be controlled, exploited and commoditised by human beings.

The Big Green Week is to push community action, how does PLANTED help communities?

Climate change and lack of access to nature impacts the poorest people in society most directly. Nature deprived communities experience poorer mental and physical health while education standards are lower and obesity rates are higher. We believe access to good quality green spaces (and that doesn’t just mean huge arable fields which happen to be green at certain times of the year) should be a basic human right.

In the short term, we need to educate people and engage the next generation with the importance of protecting and regenerating nature for people and planet.

Hopefully the next Planted Country event, when we will be holding a dedicated schools day on Fri June 9, while running a series of environmentally focused workshops and talks, will help us achieve that.  

PLANTED helps nature-based businesses and organisations, how can brands join your community?

By contacting us via our website www.planted-community.co.uk If you truly place nature and the environment at the heart of your business, you are welcome to join us!