Austinmer local Robyn Johnson, director of Blend ESQ consultancy, has started a podcast called Wollongong, Let’s Get Salty. Each month she interviews an expert about changes coming to our area, from wind farms to community batteries, and how we can all help build a sustainable future.
It’s message of hope inspired by a nightmare.
After 20 years of advising industry and business on environmental management, shortly before Covid hit, Robyn had a wake-up call.
“I’d been working for a proposed new coal mine in the Southern Highlands, as the environment, health and safety manager. And I had to deliver a presentation to some Year 5 kids. They were interviewing us as the big, bad proposed coal mine.
“It forced me to have a look at what was happening with climate change and, by the nature of their questions, I realised that I had become a bit jaded. Because as a working mum, you’re like, ‘okay, well I’m just doing my job, I’m trying to make people safe, I’m trying to make sure that if this goes ahead, it’s got good practices’.
“They stopped me in my tracks.
“I started thinking about the path that we were going down, like did we really need another new coal mine. And could I lend my skills to the energy transition instead?
“That journey really sent me down into a bit of a spiral, with climatic impacts and the overwhelm of it all. We started to make some changes at home.”
What started as walking and cycling instead of driving during Covid lockdown sparked a family revolution that has extended to all aspects of home life, from changes to the menu (buying food locally from Green Connect) to product switches (shampoo bars not bottles).
“We had started watching climate change videos and listening to things on the radio and podcasts.
“Then my daughter woke up one morning. She said, ‘Oh mum, I had a nightmare!’
‘She said, ‘The world was flooding and we opened up this hatch in the earth and all the animals were already in there. And so we climbed in, but then like the water filled up and we all died.’
“She’s nine.”
Robyn realised she needed to switch the focus from grief to hope when talking about climate change.
The podcast plan crystallised last November.
“We were in the middle of the local election and I was watching what the Greens were doing. I’m part of an industry group down here called i3net and a lot of what they talk about is this energy transition, and it occurred to me that there was more going on than people were aware of.
“I think there’s two things. I had information that I could share, that maybe we could translate into actionable things to help others. Then the other thing was just the connections that I had.
“I come from a consulting background. I know a bushfire guy, I know a water guy, and I know a few people at the council and then across industry.”
Robyn had never done any podcasting before, but the conversational format was perfectly suited to making the science of change accessible to ordinary listeners.
The name Wollongong, Let’s Get Salty was inspired by her love for the sea.
“I’m very connected to ocean – actually I spend more time in the ocean pool – and it seemed a good catchy tagline for why maybe a lot of people live here.
“Salty by definition means upset or angry. It’s more of an American thing, but it fits well because … we could stay upset and angry or we could just move to hope and action.”
Local firm Relativity records the podcasts and Soto Engineering sponsors them.
As branded content, the podcast will also build awareness of Robyn’s environment, safety and quality consultancy, Blend ESQ.
“It’s a passion project, we want to showcase those stories, to provide community education mixed with inspiration, and motivation.”
Robyn recorded the first episode in December with local landscape photographer for Brad Chilby.
“We were both very nervous! We didn’t release it until a couple of months ago.”
Wollongong, Let’s Get Salty is now four episodes in and Robyn has talked about local history and connection to nature with Brad Chilby, kickstarting offshore wind farms with Oceanex Energy CEO Andy Evans; and community batteries with electricity supply industry expert Ty Christopher.
“I’m hoping to do it monthly. My hope is that we’ll go for years. I feel like there’s enough content here to keep telling the story.
“The list is already a couple of years long.”
Podcasters at work
Blend ESQ director Robyn Johnson and operations manager Catherine Wade are both Austinmer locals, career scientists and mothers of young children keen to do more to help the environment.
In Episode 3 of Wollongong, Let’s Get Salty, the Blend ESQ colleagues talk about growing up in the Illawarra, how family holidays in the bush fostered a love for nature that led them to study earth sciences at the University of Wollongong (even though Robyn hated science at school). Catherine qualified as a marine biologist, admitting she was the kind of teen with posters of sharks not boys on her wall. Robyn remembers doing a scuba course with her husband at age 18. “We spent pretty much all of our 20s underwater, exploring the Great Barrier Reef and off the coast here.”
The episode shares their personal awakenings to the climate crisis, and their determination to set a good example for their children, and changes they’ve made, from doing up second-hand bikes from the Revolve Centre to installing solar panels at home. The takeaway? “It’s really an exciting time for change,” Catherine says.
Visit the Blend ESQ website for more information.