Julia Hailes MBE

Sustainability Pioneer

Speaking at Lyme Regis fossil festival (May19)

I had to walk right round the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis before finding the entrance, on the first evening of events for the Fossil Festival. I was rather surprised by the number of people in the audience – it was almost full. I started my speech with a video of waves of plastic washing […]

I’m feeding my dog insects! (Apr19)

The brilliant thing about this is that it’s better for the planet – and apparently good nutritionally too. And, Rex loves them.  The main insect ingredient comes from soldier fly grubs, which are reared in high tech vertical farms and fed on vegetable matter – and they grow to full size in just 14 days.  […]

Getting better at a ‘Green’ Christmas (Dec18)

Christmas decorations at home – including reindeer made from recycled bolts and springs and motorbike and lemon Christmas trees My son Connor led the way to a greener Christmas.  He had some inspiring ideas, from wrapping presents in ‘Who Gives A Crap’ loo paper wrappers, to creating re-usable Christmas gift boxes, that will come again […]

Watching ‘Blue’ made people angry (Dec18)

It was difficult to decide which part of the film made me more angry.  High on the the list were the scenes cutting the fins from living sharks and throwing them back into the sea. I think the film said that 60 million sharks are killed for their fins each year – but looking it […]

Blue Planet effect is reducing litter?

A man in the audience for one of my speeches on plastic came up with a rather surprising fact.  He was a morning walker – and over a number of years had been an avid litter picker during his daily excursions.  He told us that he’d seen a dramatic decline in the number of plastic […]

Converting people to Sodastream (Nov18)

Many of us remember having a Sodastream in our childhood.  Then it seemed to disappear from consciousness. Now it’s back. It’s only been 10 years since I started liking sparkling water. Before then, I couldn’t understand why people weren’t happy with tap water.  Now, I’ve quite keen on having a cool glass of fizz with […]

War on Waste – Not just plastics (Oct18)

I’ve now done multiple speeches about plastics and waste.  The more I do, the more committed I am to changing our wasteful, disposable society. We’ve adopted practices that are ridiculous in their wastefulness and think nothing of it.  Here are some examples: Online Shopping: I live in rural Dorset and do most of my shopping […]

Sealed Air Conference in Paris (Sep18)

“Your speech was very well received by the audience and you definitely challenged us to think differently about the challenges ahead of us. Of the speakers, you came out top in terms of appreciation and relevance.” Stephanie Poole, Senior Marketing Manager, EMEA – Convenience Foods and VPP Food Care

Plastics-free everywhere (Jun18)

The plastic-free phenomenon is everywhere… I was walking between meetings in Soho and came across a shop front with all its windows showing art installations of our disposable plastics culture – with coffee cups, straws and other paraphernalia.  I went in to find out more and discovered Tyrone Wood from We Are Project Zero.  The […]

How good is my re-usable bamboo cup? (Jun18)

I’ve found a re-usable cup I really like.  It’s made from bamboo, is quite colourful and has a really good lid that stops the liquid from spilling.  My previous versions had lids that fell off, which made them pretty useless for coffee on the move. Bamboo has become a bit of a thing.  When I […]

Speaking on Plastics – (May18)

The town hall in Bridport was full with an expectant crowd. Organised by the Transition Town network in Bridport, as part of their Green Fortnight, everyone had come to hear me talk about plastics. I’d taken a lot of time getting slides together, but the projector wouldn’t accept them! It became clear that I’d have […]

Battle of the Quooker – hot water tap (May18)

Most people complain that their husband / male partner, doesn’t help enough with the washing up.  Mine does too much!  He’s obsessive about it. This means he gets up early in the morning to get into the sink before the day starts – and also before the cleaner comes.  Another part of the ‘problem’ is […]