Agent of Change: Nicole Rycroft
Talk about a career journey. Nicole Rycroft started out as an elite rower in Australia and is now a Canada-based activist for forest conservation. Her forest-friendly influence has already transformed the publishing industry and now she has fashion in her sights.
Canopy, the organisation you founded, partners with business to achieve large-scale forest conservation. How does that work?
So many human rights violations and environmental degradations happen under the rubric of the global economy, and it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to leave a trail of environmental and social destruction behind. The companies we work with care about that, too. For some, [getting involved in conservation] is risk management – they have carbon goals they’re trying to hit. For lots of CEOs and companies, however, it’s about contributing to a legacy that’s bigger than themselves.
Your first big success, 20 years ago, was thanks to Harry Potter. Tell us about that.
A significant amount of paper back then came from high-carbon, high-diversity-value forests. At that time, there were no environmental papers you could use that didn’t cost five arms and six legs. The fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix, was about to appear, and it was a very lucrative contract for a paper mill. We worked with the Canadian publisher to get a paper mill to produce publication-grade paper that contained no endangered forest fibres. It proved that you could do a high-quality publication at that scale. [Author] JK Rowling wrote a quote about it for the cover, and it really caught the imagination of Harry Potter fans.
What were the flow-on effects of that?
It helped us catalyse a sea change. By the time the seventh Harry Potter book appeared, we had publishers in 24 countries using paper free of endangered forest fibres, and 40 different environmentally-friendly papers were available. Today a publisher like Penguin Random House in the UK prints more than 90 per cent of its textbooks on environmentally-friendly paper.
What other industries do you work with?
Our work in the book industry showed that change can happen in years, not decades. We applied the model we used on book publishing to magazines and newspapers, and now we are working with the fashion industry to ensure that viscose and rayon fabrics don’t become major drivers of deforestation. Every year 200 million trees disappear into making these soft, silky fabrics – and most people don’t even realise it. We are working with companies like Amazon, Target, Country Road, Zara and Stella McCartney to ensure that the majority of viscose is produced using low-impact methods. The first of the next-generation solutions are starting to hit the market: fabrics that are made from waste textiles which have been diverted from landfill.
You were an elite athlete and a physiotherapist. Is that a useful background for an environmental activist?
Absolutely. A good physio looks for the source of the pain: you look for the systemic issue, not just the pain that’s presenting. This work is kind of like that – how do we drive systemic change? And having been an elite-level athlete, the tenacity you need for training really helps when you’re an environmental activist. I have a flat forehead from banging my head against brick walls.
How do you unwind from your high-pressure job?
My grandmother handed down her love of wild places to me, so getting out for a walk in the forest always makes me happy. We have beautiful forests near where I live in Vancouver but I haven’t been home since the beginning of last year and miss the Australian bush.
What’s the one skill you’re still trying to master?
You want me to narrow it down? [laughs] I’ve had a unicycle for a long time and I haven’t quite managed to work out how to get further than 20 metres and stay upright.
For the past year, the world has been focused on COVID. Has that pushed the environment down the list of issues to be fixed?
I think the environment has actually moved up the priority list. We’re more aware than ever that 75 per cent of new diseases cross the zoonotic barrier, and that habitat destruction from logging intact forest areas risks unleashing more pathogens. There’s a cognisance around action on sustainability, conservation and climate, and the transition to the circular economy. What’s good for the planet is good for humanity.
Two decades after you started Canopy, are you feeling more or less hopeful about the future?
A lot has changed since those days and I celebrate it every day. When I started out, I called the organisation Markets Initiative, because I thought businesspeople would be more likely to return calls from that company. Ten years later, things had changed enough that we were able to move to a name that reflected our status as a not-for-profit. We live on this spectacular planet and we have such an ability to influence what happens over the course of the next decade. We’re in a turnaround decade and it’s an incredible opportunity to shift the trajectory upon which we’ve been.
Interview with Nicole Rycroft by Ute Junker
Collage_ Lou Fay