I came away from Blue Earth Summit (London, October 2026) feeling both inspired and impatient. Inspired by the extraordinary people working to create a different future, and impatient because we know so much about what needs to change, yet we are still moving far too slowly. This is not news of course.
What I loved about Blue Earth was the combination of urgency and optimism. The messages were stark, but the conversations were full of ideas, solutions and people determined to make things happen. From Kate Raworth challenging our assumptions about economic growth, to conversations about regenerative agriculture, restoring nature and waterways, investing in the natural world and the power of storytelling to inspire change. The sharp focus on human health this year made me wince over and over, as Tim Spector explored the connections between food, our health and the planet and Sian Sutherland highlighted the health consequences of plastic pollution. Maybe we need to speak about babies and plastic particles in the same sentence to bring this into sharp focus.
One of the ideas that has stayed with me came from Kate Williams, CEO of 1% for the planet, talking about leadership at the edge. In ecology, the edge is a place of change, where different environments meet and new possibilities emerge. Her reflections on moving from destruction to transformation, getting creative within constraints and being prepared to make difficult trade-offs really resonated with me. She challenged us to lead like fireweed, which is ultimately, tough and persistent.
And that got me thinking about leadership of course, and what are we actually leading for. The reality is that we are heading towards a planet that is becoming increasingly difficult to live on. The scale of the challenge is extraordinary, and I sometimes wonder whether we have really grasped what that means for leadership and if we need to throw away the play book.
We need people who can imagine something fundamentally different to what we’re doing now. People prepared to question how our economies work, how we value nature, how we include people, and what we consider progress. People who bring optimism and creativity should enter stage left. I don’t think we have the luxury to define leadership in any other way.
Views are my own.
Zoe Greenwood
Zoe is Deputy Executive Director at Oxford HR, overseeing all of the organisation’s sector areas, with a particular focus on Climate, Nature and Sustainability. She brings deep expertise in inclusive recruitment and co-leadership, alongside a strong interest in advocacy, justice and feminist organisations.
Zoe has led CEO, Board and Director-level searches for a wide range of organisations, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Global Canopy, Ethical Tea Partnership, Positive Money, Manufacture 2030, Womankind and Climate Emergency Collaboration Group. Before joining Oxford HR, Zoe spent 16 years working across environmental NGOs in communications, field management, partnerships and leadership development. She has led cross-sector partnerships involving local organisations, global NGOs and businesses to embed sustainability principles, and has worked in some of the world’s most biodiverse regions alongside climate scientists to design and deliver nature-based behaviour change programmes for corporate leaders, teachers and young people.
In 2018, Zoe co-founded Climate Change Coaches, an organisation focused on accelerating the green transition through coaching. She is a trained coach and facilitator, and is also actively involved in the B Corp movement. In her space time she supports community development and youth engagement in Oxford.
