WHY?
I believe now is the time for green leaders to emerge and I believe you are one of them. I have been on a journey that has shown me why it’s important to create a sustainable society that respects and protects the planet. We depend on it for the quality of our lives: food, water, medicine, materials and beauty – the protection of which requires each one of us to be powerful forces for change.
My Story
I used to be employed as a geologist and worked for several years in the Canadian Arctic on a gold mining project in the exploration phase. This meant that I was working with a team of geologists to define the ore body dimensions and volume so the company could decide whether to create an open pit mining operation on this particular site. There was only a small fly-in, fly-out camp on the property while I was there. It had minimal infrastructure, three drills running and the most people in camp at one time was 40! Small, isolated and incredibly beautiful…
I was standing on the porch of the core shack – the building where we inspected and sampled the drill core having a cup of tea and looking over the Arctic tundra. It was fall and the colors were brilliant oranges and reds. What seemed like from out of nowhere, a large caribou buck appeared very close to the core shack. He just stood there and we stared at one another for what seemed like a very long time. It was in that moment that I realised that pretty much exactly where he was standing was where the open pit mining operation would be.
I guess you can say that was my big ‘ah-ha’ moment when it struck me straight into my heart. I realised in that moment that I didn’t want to be contribute to creating a mine there. Would the company respect the environmental issues of the area and the local people who relied on the natural wealth of the ecosystems affected by the mine? Did I really want to be using my time, energy and skills in this way?
The answer was a resounding NO! It took me several years from that moment to find myself in a position to follow my heart – I was accepted into the award winning, Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability program at Blekinge Institute of Technology. It was the most incredible year of my life, studying and completing my Masters of Science degree. I moved to Australia after graduation where I worked for two years for an engineering company, helping them to advance their thinking on sustainability in the corporate setting.
I have chosen to focus on sustainability from a personal perspective. Whether you are a business, an employee, a student, a mother, or a child, we are all part of a family and we all have a role to play in making change. My big why is to foster as many green leaders as possible by empowering them to make smart choices within their context about how to go green with strategy and smarts; alleviating any “eco-guilt” in the process.
This is why I believe now is the time for green leaders to emerge and if you are reading this, then I believe you are one of them. You are a powerful force for change because you care about the people in your life, your clients and customers, your employees and most of all your family’s health and well-being. I invite you to subscribe to my free eZine, participate in the 7-Day Going Green Online Challenge or visit my other services so you can step into being the leader I know you to be.
I look forward to connecting with you!
To your joyful green family success,
Tracy Lydiatt – B.Sc, M.Sc
The Green Families Guru
About
Tracy Lydiatt is an award-winning sustainability advisor, educator and #1 Amazon.com bestselling author passionate about green/sustainability empowerment and change.
Tracy is the recipient of the 2011 Woman of Worth – Sustainable Living award and her book, Your Green Family Blueprint, won Best E-Book and Finalist in Current Affairs/Social Change categories of the 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Her book has also won runner up at the 2011 San Francisco Book Festival and received honorable mention at the 2011 Green Book Festival, both in the “How-To” category.
She is a 3-time TEDx speaker and her work has been featured in Parenting Pink, The Green Parent, YoyoMama.ca and Canada’s Family Magazine – What’s Up!
She specializes in working with young, dynamic, motivated individuals and businesses who care about the planet and their health. Tracy’s unique skills of synthesizing massive amounts of information combined with effective communication skills provides families the support they need to cut through the mountains of information on “going green”. Her mission is to take the ‘mental’ out of environmental by using strategies in easy to understand language, empowering families to create healthy homes and strong communities without going broke or crazy in the process.
In 2005, Tracy had a profound moment while working in the Arctic as a geologist that changed her career trajectory forever. Because of this, she is among the first graduates of the award-winning Masters of Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability program at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. She has lived and/or worked in Canada, USA, Mexico, Argentina, Sweden, Singapore and Australia, giving her insider knowledge into what sustainability looks like for different people.
