Creative Youth-Led Environmental Action: The 'While We Still Can' Playbook

In the face of mounting environmental crises, the creativity and influence of young people offer powerful opportunities for change. However, for many within the environmental education sector, integrating deeply creative and playful approaches can feel unfamiliar or even daunting. While We Still Can emerged in 2023 as a bold experiment in bridging this gap—bringing together arts organisation Stacked Wonky and Somerset Wildlife Trust to create a space where young people aged 12 to 18 could creatively explore and respond to climate and ecological challenges.

Supported by the University of Exeter’s Department of Geography and Lestari Environmental Education, this initiative fostered an innovative partnership between sectors with different approaches to activism and engagement. The result was a dynamic process of youth-led expression, culminating in projects such as the Down to Zero pop-up shop in Porlock. Over six weeks, the shop—initially filled with 350 pieces of single-use plastic—became a powerful community intervention, encouraging pledges for sustainable lifestyle changes and ultimately achieving its goal of going plastic-free.

This seminar will focus on the While We Still Can Playbook and the creative process behind it, telling the story of how the project fostered youth agency, creativity, and leadership. It will explore the power of performance and artistic engagement in addressing urgent environmental issues and offer insights into the collaborative processes that made the project successful. By illustrating how working interdisciplinarily with diverse stakeholders—from academia to local communities—can come together to support youth-led environmental activism, the Playbook serves as both a resource and an inspiration. Through these examples, this practical and accessible guide aims to equip others with the tools and strategies to launch similar initiatives, empowering young people to become creative leaders and advocates for meaningful environmental change.

Bio:

Dr Harry Hilser is an experienced environmental social scientist, conservation practitioner and project manager. Harry has extensive experience in environmental social science and biodiversity conservation; from training and strategy development, to leading exploratory, engaged, and applied research. His specialities include professional capacity building, fostering collaboration, public speaking and event facilitation. He is passionate about creating connections and cultures of care. His research explores the cultural roots of our relationships with nature, specialising in the underpinnings of human values and behaviours. Harry completed his PhD in Human Geography at the University of Exeter where he is now a Research Fellow, primarily focused on conservation advocacy and connectedness to nature. His current interests are on the connections between pro-social and pro-environmental values and the impacts of behaviour change strategies.

Please email infoGSI@exeter.ac.uk to confirm your place.