Ep 13. Restoring Nature and Ourselves with Clara Rowe (CEO Restor)
My guest on the show today is Clara Rowe, CEO of Restor, an exciting new open-data platform enabling the global restoration movement. Restor was recently named as a finalist in the Earthshot prize for the incredible potential it offers to tackle climate and biodiversity challenges on our planet.
Clara and I chat about how either-or-thinking in terms of restoration, and in our own lives, can be detrimental. We discuss the misunderstanding around the 1 Trillion Trees campaign and how Restor has integrated the lessons learned. We also explore Clara’s leadership journey to develop and establish Restor.
The topics we cover are:
How Restor aims to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss through restoration
How Clara’s upbringing in Costa Rica influenced her career path
The one creative practice Clara makes time for every day
Her work on sustainable Palm Oil in Guatemala with the Earthworm foundation
Moments of impact that stood out in her work
How she came to lead Restor
The risk of simplifying issues and proposing single solutions with the example of the 1 Trillion Trees initiative by Restor founder Tom Crowther
What it means to do restoration the right way
Some of the challenges Clara faced when starting to lead the organization
How she deals with overwhelm from navigating such an ambitious project
The topic of gender in restoration work
What she learned from nature about her own regeneration
Further information:
Restor: https://restor.eco/
Follow them on:
Twitter @Restor_Eco
Instagram and Facebook @Restor.eco
Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/restor-eco/
Clara Rowe: Twitter @clarawrowe
Resources mentioned in the episode:
For more on the 1-trillion-trees debate, check out Tom Crowther’s TED Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJX1Te0jey0&ab_channel=TED and this recently published Guardian article https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/01/ive-never-said-we-should-plant-a-trillion-trees-what-ecopreneur-thomas-crowther-did-next-aoe and the original Science paper here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aax0848
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