Green mum encourages woman power
THREE years ago, Natalie Isaacs was not a regular recycler. Today, however, she has convinced 30,000 women to sign up to cutting their carbon emissions and is aiming to convince 970,000 more.
THREE years ago, Natalie Isaacs was not a regular recycler. Today, however, she has convinced 30,000 women to sign up to cutting their carbon emissions and is aiming to convince 970,000 more.
The Sydney-based campaigner — who is the guest speaker at the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia’s Victorian presidential lunch next Thursday, November 4 — sold her cosmetics company, the Natalie Group, to set up 1 Million Women — an initiative to encourage one million women to cut one million tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution.
But the Brisbane-born mother of four is hardly a career “greenie”. Until three or four years ago, talk of climate change “completely bounced off me”, she said.
However, sustained media attention, her husband’s book about global warming and a friend’s campaign to increase the usage of low-emissions light globes all conspired to convince Isaacs to work to improve the environment.
“I got the point,” she said. “I had to get engaged.”
One of the problems that has confronted policymakers and environmental groups is how to make such an enormous challenge understandable to the average Australian.
Isaacs said it was this problem she is addressing through 1 Million Women. “The ultimate aim of the campaign is to change behaviour.”
Simple things — such as rejecting single-use plastic shopping bags, eating leftovers instead of wasting food, or avoiding products with excessive packaging — are the focus of her campaign.
Small actions make the huge climate change challenge less overwhelming, she said.
Asked how a few women can make a difference when the world’s dirty industries continue to pollute, Isaacs was realistic. “Everyone’s got to act together. The Million Women campaign is not going to save the planet, but you have to engage the population.
“The Million Women campaign is simply finding another way of playing to the unique strengths of women,” she said, adding that women are very good at spreading the word and raising their voices.
“People have power.”
Isaacs, who grew up in Brisbane’s small Jewish community participating in Betar and Maccabi, said she was looking forward to speaking at next week’s lunch. “It will be about harnessing the strength of women and how it is hard to change that behaviour,” she said of her planned speech.
NAOMI LEVIN
comments