Longtime Sustainable St Albans volunteer Judith Leary-Joyce shares her journey to giving a TEDx talk on how home retrofit can be climate action at the first ever St Albans TEDx.
I always thought I had a TED talk in me. Just never thought, in a million years, it would be about insulation. After a long career focusing on relationships and people – most recently leadership and management development – retirement takes me into retrofit. Weird!
First it was the book
Having retrofitted our Victorian terrace and saved 75% of our energy usage, I wrote a book –
Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation – to help others do the same. It’s the book I longed for when ploughing my way through indecipherable documents on the intricacies of insulation and airtightness. “Would someone please give me an ‘idiot’s guide’ – I just want the basics!”
Since that basic book didn’t exist, I decided to write it. To speak, one homeowner to another, sharing all I’d learned. Successes and failures – the lot.
Then it was the blog
EcoRenovationHome is a blog that lets me keep sharing my learning. The field of sustainability and eco building is moving at such a fast pace, I felt I needed to write as I go along.
Then came TEDx
I saw the advert and I knew I had to do it. Daunted already, I wrote and reframed until I was
driving myself mad. So I just hit Send, and the die was cast.
Audition, acceptance, planning, writing, many, many rehearsals and the day finally arrived.
In the throes of Covid fatigue and a lingering cough, I was so pleased I’d done all that
rehearsal and practice – this talk was in my bones – even if I forgot what I was doing there!
And now it has landed on Youtube
Here it is – take a look and let me know what you think.
Your first act of warrior-ship – please – is to Click, Like and Share. Let’s get this out into the world to do its job of inspiring people to action. And let’s get builders on board and take this to the next step. If we work together, we can do this.