When our founder set up Ubuntu Studio only a year ago, it was with the desire to help businesses rethink the way they communicate with, and market to, their customers. Central to this, lies their ability to evaluate the impact they have on both people and the planet. Our core values are driven around the notion that without change at the corporate and government level, we have little chance of rebalancing planet Earth and reducing the toxic effect we’ve had as a species on not only our own race, but on the natural world around us.

The Blue Earth Summit re-ignited that passion for protecting what we have taken for granted, and given us renewed hope that as a united force, we can create change.

We’ve written before about climate doomism (the idea that we’ve passed the point of no return and there’s nothing we can further do to protect our planet) and that it’s difficult to sometimes not to feel helplessly overhwlemes — especially as our current government looks to reopen fracking sites and reduce solar farms. However, The Blue Earth Summit was the perfect tonic.

To anyone in attendance, it goes without saying that the orchestration of the logistics, the candour of the speakers, and the quality and variety of the topics covered were each phenomenal in their own right. We have to give a shout out to the organisers for picking a venue that was easily accessible via foot, bike, public transport — and Voi.

If we had one gripe, it was the lack of sufficient WiFi to tackle those pesky emails that slipped into our inbox throughout the three days. The network quickly buckled under the pressure of a thousand busy professionals trying to answer messages at the same time, else checking up on what catastrophic new policy had been announced by the government. Perhaps by design, it at least meant that everyone was forced to disconnect from their offices and collectively engage with the event!

We left the summit on Wednesday feeling motivated and inspired by the range of thought-leaders and their powerful words. If you want to read more about each day in more detail, then you can check out our day one and two roundups, but we’d like to give a special shoutout to the speakers who stood out the most and created some thought-provoking discussions at Ubuntu.

To name just a few, a special thanks to:

• Caroline Dennett from CLOUT who reminded us to always stand up for what you believe in, especially in the corporate world where it’s easy to get wrapped up in the greenwashing narrative that plagues our screens, billboards, and every other ad space.
• Hugo Tagholm, former CEO at Surfers Against Sewage, now Executive Director & Vice President of Oceana in the UK, who gave us all a well-needed kick up the bum and reminder that the biggest change we can make is to “vote, vote, vote!”
• Clare Brooke, CEO of Blue Marine Foundation, who taught us about the dangers of bottom trawling, as well as the vital importance of the ocean in the fight against climate change.
• Abraham Bugre, a Climate Change Consultant, who gave us a true insight into the amazing work that young Ghanains are doing to combat pollution and climate change, and instigate change in a country that has disproportionately felt the adverse effects of decades of malpractice by the global North.

And what better way to end an energetic, inspirational event than to re-connect with the natural world at The Wave? On Thursday, we were lucky enough to don our wetsuits and get in the water to enjoy some waves — a physical challenge to repetitively jump on our boards for over an hour, however the banana blossom “fish” & chips afterwards was worth it.

So, here’s to the Blue Earth Summit 2023! We’ve grabbed our tickets already, and can’t wait to meet more exceptional businesses and individuals who have our planet at the heart of what they’re doing.

See you there?