Yasmin Rasyid, founder of NGO EcoKnights and sustainability director at Lendlease Malaysia, and social entrepreneur Sonalie Figueiras, founder of sustainability media platform Green Queen, discuss their journeys into sustainability, how different the field is today, and the lifestyle changes we should all be making
It was the early 1990s when sustainability scientist Yasmin Rasyid was first exposed to phrases such as “global warming” and “climate change”. She was studying marine biology, and the scientific evidence of such change was clear. She went on to work at WWF-Malaysia, where she felt that human behaviour was not being tackled and there was potential to affect change by targeting a younger population. This was what led her to eventually found EcoKnights in 2005 to work with communities on sustainable development, partly through leadership development for young people, so they can fight for climate action.
In 2019, Rasyid decided to change paths. “In the non-profit space, there’s only so far that people look to you in terms of influence,” she says of her move into the corporate world to “work with the culprits” in construction. She calls it “a particularly dirty industry”, where, as sustainability director, she is tasked with applying her sustainability knowhow to deliver on real estate firm Lendlease’s net zero carbon target.
Many roads lead to sustainability, and Sonalie Figueiras came to the space via a very different route. Having suffered from severe health issues as a teenager and seen numerous doctors who made little effort to properly investigate, instead simply giving her a catch-all diagnosis of IBS, Figueiras took matters into her own hands and started researching online. “I realised that food could be a way for me to address some of my symptoms. But the more I found out about the food system, the more I felt something was off—that we were growing food in a way that was destructive to nature as well as to ourselves. And I had this realisation that if everyone knew, it would upend the world order,” says Figueiras, who was inspired to launch Green Queen, “a blog with no plan” that today is an award-winning impact media platform advocating for social and environmental change.
“We’re at a point where climate is everywhere. But I’m torn, because sustainability has also become big business, and with that have come more sinister trends around greenwashing and using sustainability for corporate gain”
Much has changed for both women since those nascent days, especially in terms of getting a message across. “In the early years, the spread of information was challenging and almost always benefited only like-minded people,” says Rasyid. “But with social media, you can reach a much broader audience. So, communication has helped, and we have more young people coming in with this wealth of understanding about sustainability, who are more inspired and empowered to take action.
I see a proliferation of social enterprises, startups and non-profits too, and it’s amazing to see how that ecosystem has changed from a typically activist-driven effort to one that’s using science and policies to advance a topic.”
Figueiras adds, “For many years I felt very isolated in my world of sustainability. I was often told: ‘Asians won’t be interested in this. This isn’t important.’ The connections between climate and greenhouse gas emissions and food and plastic waste hadn’t been made. In terms of that rising to a global consciousness, we’ve arrived. We’re at a point where climate is everywhere. But I’m torn, because sustainability has also become big business, and with that have come more sinister trends around greenwashing and using sustainability for corporate gain and branding and marketing positioning rather than for affecting change. So, we’ve made progress, but we’re not closer to reducing emissions or changing our habits, and we’re open to more risks. And, of course, climate has become politicised. So, we have more awareness, but we also have a bigger minefield.”
There is still so much to be done. But, at an individual level, both women are adamant that there are ways to contribute. “I’m a big fan of the concept of degrowth, where you don’t always need to have something more than before,” says Rasyid. “Everything on this planet is finite. That realisation is very important. Everything you throw out still ends up in this finite space. So, it’s about getting only what you need.”
“I have a long history of answering this question by saying ‘buy less stuff ’, which is exactly what Yasmin is saying. There is no getting out of this without us having less stuff and buying less,” says Figueiras. “I would add to really use your platform, whether that’s the school PTA, social media, or starting a green group at work or a climate book club with friends. In whatever way you have clout or influence, or an audience or peers willing to talk and dialogue in whatever format, there is a way to create a ripple effect. And if everyone is creating some ripple effect, it really does create bigger change.”
This story is part of our Front & Female In Conversation column, which appears monthly in the Tatler print magazine and is a series of discussions between women who are making an impact in their respective regions and fields.