David Taylor: Hello! How are you doing?

Amy Petrikova: Hi David!

DT: Would you like to tell me first of all about the carbon negative work that you've pretty much instigated I think at Nexus and how that came about?

AP: Yeah, so I it was all quite exciting and a bit of a new venture for us. We set it up at the very start of 2020, just at the beginning of lockdown really, which was quite ironic. Basically we were tasked with coming up with an initiative to make us carbon neutral. That meant us going away and working with a company that can take our carbon neutrality and calculate our emissions for the whole of 2019, which was a big task!

And then it was working with them to offset that through one of their offset projects, which they have many of. Then we decided we wanted to go one step further and actually become carbon negative – so that means offsetting more than we’ve made. We decided to do double – essentially, we have covered two years. It’s something that everyone is thinking about a lot more at the moment because of Covid-related issues and how we can be more environmentally friendly. It’s a key agenda at the moment.

DT: So what was the spark to actually self-analyse? Was it Covid or a general environmentalism?

AP: As a company I think we just wanted to start looking at this and it's becoming a lot more of a big issue obviously across the UK and the government. We are looking at it in a lot more detail with a lot of our projects. Interestingly, if we get bids come in, they're looking for us to demonstrate that we're doing it, and it is becoming much more of a bigger thing in terms of working on projects and working with councils. But we just wanted to do it anyway because we want to do our bit, and some of the projects are really nice and they also feed in well with the work that we are doing.

DT: And essentially it involves tree planting but also protection of the Amazon Rainforest, if I'm not mistaken?

AP: Yeah: so there are lots of different projects to choose from. This project that we chose is planting in the Amazon Forest, but for every tree that is planted in the Amazon there is actually one planted in the UK as well. And something we really liked is that it’s an initiative for schools, and we do a lot of school and other education work. It fits in nicely with that and I think it’s really important to encourage schools to be doing this sort of work, especially now. Getting out and getting engaged with the environment - that's an element we really liked, that marries with the Amazon planting as well.

DT: That neatly segues us to your school work. Are you finding that there is much more of an emphasis now on outdoor learning and indeed involving communities in your schools that you are working on?

AP: Yes. There is lots of outdoor learning. I think that it's something that has always been there, and we've been seeing in a lot of our school projects, but I think Covid has exacerbated that, and the issues to do with needing social distance and being outside.  It's accelerated it but I think it's something that was always there, and it is really important. There are two aspects of it, really. The biophilic impacts that you get from being with the plants and reducing stress impacts and increasing opportunities to connect with nature. It is really good for releasing anxiety and we've got a big issue with young children and mental health at the moment. So you’ve got the mental health aspect of that as well, and the physical aspect obviously of getting out and about. And then at the same time the environmental positives from additional planting and having a greener school. But these play areas, we realised, are not really play areas; they’re learning areas. It’s not a playground, it’s a “you're having classroom outside today”.  I think it’s moving away from this sitting in a classroom learning from a book. It's “let's go outside; let's get involved, be stimulated”, and at the same time it's better for the children physically and mentally.

DT: And in the main how does that work with our notoriously awful climate? Is it external canopy structures, that sort of thing? How does it work?

AP: Yeah. I think you just kind of have to roll with it!

DT: (laughs)

AP: Yeah, there are some canopy structures outside, covered areas, and I think just being flexible and (laughs) maybe adapting the timetable to when it's not raining than when it is. 

DT: More coats!  Thicker coats!

AP: Yeah! Sometimes, you know, you have just got to get out there in the rain! (laughs)