We’ve been thinking a lot about what we can do at Whistler Towers about Climate Change. And it was in the book Spinning Out by the brilliant activist, Charlie Hertzog Young that we first heard about climate cafes. These are spaces where people can talk about their eco anxiety, share ideas and feel like they’re not alone that first inspired this page.
But mostly, they’re physical spaces; in the last issue, we read about Circles’ monthly meet-up for women involved in sustainability, either through activism or business, and in this issue, we meet Sam Zindle, managing director of Brighton B Corp certified digital marketing company, Propellernet who organises Brighton’s People, Planet, Pint monthly get togethers which have spread all over the world. Over to you, Sam.
“People, Planet, Pint is an international meet-up group now. It was started by Adam Bastock, who founded Small99, which creates carbon reduction plans for small businesses. I was there when he ran the first one in 2021 at Cop 26 in Glasgow. It was essentially just a room in the back of a pub in Glasgow, and it’s grown and grown. Brighton was one of the first other cities to start running people planning meet-ups.
We meet once a month, alternating between The Walrus – that’s the one that I’m responsible for – and at the old Albion. It’s always the third Thursday of the month from six until whenever people want to go home. It needs to be regular for people. You just sign up at Eventbrite, and it’s completely free.
This is for anyone who’s interested in sustainability, but it’s purposefully non agenda based. We get people from all walks of life, from people in academia to startups in the kind of tech sustainability space. Or they may simply care about the environment. So, if you’re just curious people in the city who want to talk more, you can come down. There are never any speakers. There’s never a running order. It’s literally that you get your first drink bought for you, courtesy of our sponsors, Crystal Hosting and Propellernet. And then you can have your chats. It’s just a place where you’re surrounded by people who feel the same way.
I think Brighton is awash with some brilliant independently run, volunteer-based community groups and it thrives on that. There used to be something in Brighton years ago called like, the Green Drinks, but back then sustainability wasn’t mainstream or a conscious thought for many people. I think attendance didn’t really last; it was always the same people. Every time we do People, Planet, Pint, we get about 40% of people that are new. So, it does have an amazing kind of new energy to each one.
You do get maybe 20 people or so I’d say that are there for most of them. But you just get an array of different people coming through the door of the pub that each meetup which makes it keeps it fresh, keeps it exciting and keeps new conversations happening. We get somewhere between 50 and 100 people each month which makes it the largest sustainability meet up in the city. I guess it’s just a really vibrant and active community around sustainability and Brighton.
In the last month alone, I’ve spoken with a guy who’s pressing plant-based vinyl records who’s now done a deal with a major label, and a guy who works in agri tech and is using AI to direct plant-enhancing products onto the crops to grow them better in a really sustainable way. I speak to people who work in marketing and we talk about green washing and green hushing and how to help companies navigate that whole space. I mean, I could go on… you meet people from 101 different backgrounds.
And my hope is that the conversations go on beyond the evening. I know for a fact there’s been some connections made and people who’ve kind of collaborated, which is a really big part of this and that everyone has there has a shared interest in doing something for the planet and environment in whatever form that may take.
So it’s a very successful meetup and it will endure, I have no doubt, for years to come and hopefully grow in attendance. There’s no move to change how we do it. It seems to work for people
There are People, Planet Pints all over the world now. I think it’s in 30 different cities in the UK, including Manchester, London and Bristol, and even smaller places like Cheltenham. But there’s one in California, there’s one in Berlin, there’s a couple I think in Scandinavia. You can go onto the People, Planet, Pint website to find out more about where the local events are happening all over the world.
We don’t have big budgets to advertise. We don’t have massive sponsors. And actually, that’s part of its attraction, I think, because the minute you start kind of having to deliver a sponsored message or advertised, you know, to certain people that it becomes something different. So I’m pretty comfortable with the kind of grassroots scene in Brighton but of course, we’re always always looking for new people to find out about us and come along and spread the word.
GILLY SMITH
The Whistler 