I started working with Context as a freelance translator in 2022. In April of this year, the Context Translation team invited me to take part in ‘Climate Heroes’, a fun, team-based challenge that invites you to learn about the contributing factors to climate change, develop positive habits and compete in reducing carbon emissions. Participants tracked their individual actions and efforts on an app and competed within their team as well as almost 60 community groups from 18 counties across Ireland, with a total of 443 people participating nationwide. It’s a really worthwhile endeavour and free to join for community groups and organisations in Ireland. The donation Context made was of course appreciated.

I took part in the Climate Heroes Challenge with Context because I know that sustainability is one of their enduring values and I was already conscious of my impact on the environment. I’m also a big fan of friendly competition and was confident in my ability to rack up a few points on the scoreboard! While taking part, I found it fascinating trying to discover ways of tweaking my lifestyle in order to gain as many points as I could. During the challenge, I often found that there were numerous small changes I could make that would make a big difference in terms of my carbon footprint. For example, I’m already a vegetarian, so having oat milk some days wasn’t too much of a change and I enjoyed finding new vegan recipes to try. And while I couldn’t do them every day, doing a few big energy saving actions was a real motivator, for example, on days when I wasn’t washing my hair, I challenged myself to shower in under four minutes in order to get those all-important points!

I was delighted to have topped the leader board and I thoroughly enjoyed taking part. The Climate Heroes Challenge has helped me become more climate conscious in my day-to-day life and I’ve kept some of the habits that I picked up while taking part in the event – I’ll definitely be looking to join in the next one! I was blown away by the fantastic prize offered by Context – I had a lovely weekend with my husband and my dog staying in a luxury bell tent in a secluded corner of the North York Moors, not far from where we live. We roasted marshmallows on the fire, cooked in the open air under the trees and fell asleep listening to the stream that ran through our camp, all while living in keeping with the site’s eco-friendly ethos.

We can all make small steps to be more sustainable and changes that seem big at first soon become second nature. Last year, I found out that UK supermarkets have recycling points for packaging like crisp packets and bread bags. Initially, it seemed quite cumbersome to remember to separate out this type of packaging and take it to the supermarket but it’s now become part of our routine at home and the amount of general waste we collect every two weeks has dramatically reduced. There are little things we can all do that will make a big difference.

That said, we as individuals can only do so much and need the cooperation of large companies in a number of industries in order to make a real difference. I believe that working with organisations who prioritise and are committed to climate conscious practices is essential for a sustainable future.

So, what are you waiting for? Visit the Climate Heroes website and enjoy the challenge of trying out some new habits to reduce your carbon footprint.

Winner of the Context Climate Curlews team,
Emily Scott

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