Lee Robb - Founder of Positive Carrickfergus & Co-Founder of Carrick Greengrocers -
Lee Robb - Founder of Positive Carrickfergus & Co-Founder of Carrick Greengrocers -
Lee Robb
Founder of Positive Carrickfergus & Co-Founder of Carrick Greengrocers
My background is in project management and funding programme and process design for a lottery funder. Doing that work I learnt that the best way to get things done is to build strong, trusting relationships so that groups of people can collaborate to bring about positive change.
Since 2017 I have been using my skills, knowledge and experience and relationships to help bring about the changes that we need for people and the planet to thrive by building tangible solutions, such as prototyping our Town Hall as an arts centre or opening a community owned greengrocers.
My practice is emergent, deeply relational, and driven by systems thinking. When I look at my work through a systems lens, I am trying to understand the current conditions, patterns and relationships, what’s keeping things the way they are and what is there that can be nurtured to build useful interventions in the system. The ‘system’ can be Carrickfergus, the local food system, the local economy, the town centre in Carrick etc. My values are core to my practice and fundamentally that means that I believe that people are good and want a better world for everyone.
I am also particularly interested in the power of community to create change - there is too much focus on individual actions or policy change and not enough focus on people coming together to do stuff that builds a sustainable way of living. Strong communities are resilient and are what we need to thrive.
What does sustainability mean to you?
In my work it means creating stuff that supports people and the planet to live in harmony - that we live within planetary boundaries, reconnect to ourselves, each other and the natural world and recognise that everything is interdependent. It is about moving away from hyper-consumerism, taking care of what we have, thinking long-term, unlearning many of the ways we have been living and finding joy in living differently.
How do you incorporate sustainability into your design practice?
My work is about building community-based solutions to the challenges we are facing in terms of climate, biodiversity loss and an economy that is not working - and trying to build the system that we need to live in a much more sustainable way. For example, In terms of Positive Carrickfergus that means creating places where people can connect with others in community and with their own creativity. That work is very much inspired by Rob Hopkins and how he talks about creativity in his book, ‘From What Is to What If - Unleashing the power of the imagination to create the future we want’. So, sustainability drives what I do.