Leadership Series: Vancouverite inspires people one clean-up at a time

We’ve all heard about how Vancouver strives to be one of the greenest cities on Earth, but what does that dedication to keeping our environment clean and sustainable actually look like on the ground level? Who are the people inspiring changes locally?

Simone Casu is one of them; she works with Vancouver’s Surfrider Foundation, which organizes clean-ups of local beaches.

Casu started as a volunteer after taking a trip to Indonesia, where she saw beautiful sandy shores littered beyond belief.

“I was speechless when I’d go to the beaches and I would just, you know, it’s like every square metre has like I don’t know 50 pieces of plastic in it, from big pieces to really tiny pieces that had broken down over time.”

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So when she came back home she noticed Vancouver’s beaches were dirtier than she remembered.

She said it’s difficult to notice how littered beaches actually are until you start cleaning them.

“I was amazed at my first clean up that I went to and being like ‘oh we’re not going to pick up very much, it’s pretty clean,’ but when you get it all together we filled up, I don’t know, 10 garbage bags filled with all these little bits of litter and that’s what we’ve found at all our events.”

Now, Casu coordinates the local clean-ups, and part of that job is to lead other volunteers.

She also works on inspiring others to care enough to pick up a trash bag themselves and scour English Bay.

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It’s about leading by example and helping teach others what they might not have known before in a way that doesn’t scare them off she said.

She said slowly, but surely, the message is spreading, adding that some of her greatest success has been with local schools.

“Younger students want to run their own clean-up, or have us come to their school, or to their local beach and do a clean-up with them,’ said Casu.

“So for me that’s been a huge indicator that the word is getting out there and for me it’s a big success. It’s really cool that you get the next generation starting to care about it.”

Casu said within those volunteers, some are now helping in other ways.

“We had a girl come out who is trying to just raise awareness of the damage of throwing out your cigarette butts, and with her own savings she’s bought those little pocket ashtrays that you can carry around and you put your cigarette butt in there and it’s odourless.”

Casu said this was very inspiring and keeps reminds her why her role and what they do is so important.

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She said it’s fellow environmental leaders who lift each other up the most, that’s where the real leadership is found.

She said it’s easy to stay inspired and motivated to do the work they do when you’re “surrounded by those kinds of people who they don’t just care about the environment, but they’re trying to help the environment and help change the mentality of the general public so that our actions aren’t as harmful to the environment.”