Latest news with #Chislett
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Couple quit 9-to-5 to launch disability-led firm
When Imali Chislett set up a marketing agency in 2018, she never imagined it would turn into an award-winning champion of workplace inclusion. All she knew was, as a wheelchair user and living with chronic illness, the traditional workplace was not for her. Ms Chislett and her husband, Cameron, launched Bournemouth-based Inkfire, which claims to be the UK's first disability-led marketing and tech agency. As part of its services, it has helped more than 200 businesses embed inclusivity into their operations. "I had some really terrible experiences, as did my husband, in the workplace," said Ms Chislett. "We both realised that traditional nine-to-five working didn't suit us. We knew we needed something different and tried to build jobs that worked for us. "In doing that, we had so many positive conversations where people said 'we need this too'. "We didn't fully perceive how far it would get at the beginning but it has developed and morphed into this incredible space that we have now." Last month, Inkfire was named winner of the Inclusive Workplace Experience category at the Disability Smart Awards, hosted by the Business Disability Forum. The award recognises small organisations that value the health and wellbeing of workers and have inclusive practices. Ms Chislett said: "Our entire team have disabilities and chronic illnesses and everybody has lived experience, so we very much bring that knowledge to the table when we approach work. "It's good to show businesses that this is what you can achieve. "Our message is, talk to people with disabilities, find out how you can help. "Don't guess what somebody will need because we are here and more than happy to chat." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Disabled-led orchestra 'proves we are good enough' Inkfire Business Disability Forum
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Couple quit 9 to 5 to launch disability-led marketing firm
When Imali Chislett set up a marketing agency in 2018, she never imagined it would turn into an award-winning champion of workplace she knew was, as a wheelchair user and living with chronic illness, the traditional workplace was not for Chislett and her husband, Cameron, launched Bournemouth-based Inkfire, which claims to be the UK's first disability-led marketing and tech part of its services, it has helped more than 200 businesses embed inclusivity into their operations. "I had some really terrible experiences, as did my husband, in the workplace," said Ms Chislett."We both realised that traditional nine-to-five working didn't suit us. We knew we needed something different and tried to build jobs that worked for us."In doing that, we had so many positive conversations where people said 'we need this too'."We didn't fully perceive how far it would get at the beginning but it has developed and morphed into this incredible space that we have now." Last month, Inkfire was named winner of the Inclusive Workplace Experience category at the Disability Smart Awards, hosted by the Business Disability award recognises small organisations that value the health and wellbeing of workers and have inclusive Chislett said: "Our entire team have disabilities and chronic illnesses and everybody has lived experience, so we very much bring that knowledge to the table when we approach work."It's good to show businesses that this is what you can achieve."Our message is, talk to people with disabilities, find out how you can help."Don't guess what somebody will need because we are here and more than happy to chat." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
CBC
24-04-2025
- General
- CBC
This Nunavut community will soon flip the switch on a solar transition
Hello, Earthlings! This is our weekly newsletter on all things environmental, where we highlight trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page. This Nunavut community will soon flip the switch on a solar transition The pervasive, rattling buzz of diesel generators is a daily feature of the Arctic landscape. Especially in the remote communities that pepper the vast tundra of Nunavut. That's because the territory holds the dubious distinction of being one of the few places in Canada that still relies, almost exclusively, on imported fossil fuels. But the needle is moving, ever so slightly, as more and more Nunavummiut look to solar energy to offset their diesel use, emissions and costs — including the first solar project in Nunavut's history big enough to power large parts of a community. The Inuit hamlet of Naujaat sits right on the Arctic circle, facing the icy shores of Hudson's Bay in Nunavut's northern Kivalliq Region. Home to around one thousand people, Naujaat is about to flip the switch on 2,500 solar panels — enough to power 130 homes, or about 60 per cent of the hamlet. By next spring, Naujaat residents are expected to be able to ditch diesel generator sets — for the summer months at least — and power parts of their community on solar energy alone. Blaine Chislett is preparing a 'Coming of the Light' ceremony to mark the solar project's debut. He says below the constant hum of generators, there's a serene silence that he's excited to hear. "Our current generations will be able to hear the silence that our ancestors once did back when they were nomadic people," said Chislett, the manager of energy and sustainability at the Inuit-owned Sakku Investments Corporation. "To have that silence, to touch back into our ancestry, to feel what they felt, back a millennia ago…. It just gives me tingles." Chislett spearheads renewable projects in northern communities, and he's heavily involved in the Naujaat project, which the hamlet council named the Ikayuut Solar and Energy Storage Project. Ikayuut means "help" in Inuktitut. Project planners say Ikayuut will help the community reduce its diesel consumption by 30 per cent, or 400,000 litres per year, and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 30,000 tonnes over the next 30 years. Chislett says the thought of normalizing solar power for younger generations of Inuit gives him "goosebumps." But the project also keeps him and his team up at night. He says they feel the pressure to get this first one right, to show people it can work reliably. With up to 24 hours of daylight in the summer, seasonal solar-powered electricity may seem like a slam dunk in the North. However, energy in Nunavut is tricky, said Martha Lenio, the president of the Arctic Renewables Society, based in Iqlauit, and the system has been hard to change. In part because the harsh climate makes reliability the No. 1 priority for the utility, and diesel has long been the most reliable option. Lenio explains that the territory runs on 25 closed microgrids, many of which were built in the 1970s and already well past their lifespan. That's made the utility provider hesitant to integrate new technology into these aging and precarious grids. But now is a hopeful time for advocates of wind and solar energy in the North, according to Lenio, and she says the new projects are creating jobs. "It's starting to get there," she added, "but it's been hard." Lenio, who also sits on the board of Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC), Nunavut's sole utility provider, says there were no renewable energy policies in place when she first began working in Nunavut in 2016. But over the last decade, the territorial government has introduced a series of programs and grants to allow individual homes, cabins or community buildings to install solar panels. And they've proven very popular. "People want to make this transition to renewables. They care about the environment, they care about the cost of energy and they want to do the right thing," said Lenio. The success of home solar led to the rollout of the Independent Power Producers program in 2019. It allows community-level renewable projects such as the one in Naujaat, developed by Inuit-led companies who meet the technical requirements, to produce wind or solar electricity and sell it to QEC. The electricity then joins the local grid and displaces diesel produced power. The program has had a rocky start. Capital costs in the north are extremely high, and potential producers have complained for years about a lack of clarity from the government and QEC around the rules and implementation of the program. Chislett and Lenio both hope the momentum of the Ikayuut project can act as a blueprint for how to get renewables up and running on a larger scale in remote communities. Alongside the moves being made through the IPP, the Government of Nunavut is replacing many of the aging microgrids with newer, smarter systems that create opportunities for renewable energy to be integrated more easily. And Sakku Investment Corporation is already working toward breaking ground on more community renewable projects. Chislett says he'll soon turn his sights to Ikayuut's sister project, a solar array in Coral Harbour which has just received approval from the hamlet council. "It's about time to do something phenomenal and have my ancestors look down on me, like theirs did on them, and give a congratulations," he said. What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Reader Feedback We're still hearing from readers about a story on a Quebec community that is making it mandatory for homeowners to have a tree in their front yard to reduce the urban heat island effect in a warming climate, and taxing those who don't plant a tree. Monica Graham wrote: "Here in Atlantic Canada, we have had more and higher winds recently. In Hurricane Fiona we lost 28 trees from the 'house lot,' and about half the trees from our woodlot. We have big unpopulated spaces here, and large house lots with room to grow fat tall leafy trees. In a town or city with small lots it might be difficult to grow a tree without interfering with overhead utility lines or falling on structures that can't be anywhere else but nearby. It is expensive to prune limbs around power lines, and more so to rebuild a crunched house. If a community mandates trees, which are not shrubs by definition, then it should offer pruning services to avoid other issues as the trees grow and age. I love trees, and continue to plant them, but now I think of 50 years into the future." Write us at whatonearth@ (And feel free to send photos, too!) The Big Picture: Breathtaking maps reveal improved air quality in Paris France's capital region is breathing better according to a new report by Airparif, the independent group that tracks the air quality in Paris. Since 2005, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations have decreased by 50 and 55 per cent respectively. Long-term exposure to NO2 can impair lung function and worsen asthma. The report attributes the improved air quality to swapping cars and parking lots for bike lanes and greenery, and other policies. NO2 is primarily produced from fuel burning. Fewer cars on the road means less NO2 in the air. Airparif estimates that 45 per cent of NO2 emissions within the Greater Paris Metropolitan area came from road traffic in 2019. Instead of driving, the city is encouraging more environmentally friendly travel methods like walking, cycling and using public transit by introducing environmental taxes, expanding cycling networks and increasing parking fees for larger cars. It also created specified zones that reduce traffic and emissions. To make Paris even more walkable, some streets in the city have been completely closed to cars. In fact, a referendum just last month saw residents electing to close another 500 streets, replacing them with more green infrastructure. — Hayley Reid-Ginis Energy analyst Dave Jones says burning fossil fuels for energy is like renting a home, while installing solar and wind is like buying a home. Here's why. The most popular shows by social media influencers on YouTube are spreading climate misinformation, says a new analysis, which also digs into the kinds of misleading messages they're using. The hot tubs at the Bathhouse spa in Brooklyn, N.Y., aren't heated by burning gas. Their heat source is a handful of bitcoin mining computers. Here's how the system works. What were some of Canada's big environmental disasters? When did laws come in to fight PCBs to the compounds causing acid rain? What did Canada do on the environment in 2011? The Journal of the Environment has released a new searchable timeline called The History of the Environment in Canada that you can try out. The South American tapir is one of the world's largest land mammals. Despite no confirmed sightings for over a century, three have recently been spotted on a wildlife camera in Brazil — including a mother and her calf. Also known as the "forest gardener," tapirs help spread seeds and regenerate forests. Quebec recycler shows what happens to scrap appliances left on the curb This woman is working to keep scrap metal out of the landfill 7 days ago Duration 4:22 Sylvie D'Aoust drives a loop every week around western Quebec and loads her white pickup truck with other people's trash. To her, it's all treasure. She calls herself Recycle Warrior Grl — yes, that's girl without the 'i' — and collects broken appliances from the curb as a way to make quick cash and slow down what gets sent to the landfill. "[The nickname] is like a play on Wonder Woman: black-brown hair, blue eyes," said D'Aoust, who has both. "[Recycling] is one of those things that I just felt passionate about and there's no hesitation whatsoever." That's true even when it means getting dirty. Wearing gloves, coveralls, and a coat she recycled, D'Aoust will climb into dumpsters and rummage through garbage bins at local thrift stores that allow clients to take things that were unsold or broken. "I think it's wonderful, it's great. It's less stuff in the garbage and going in the ground," said André Beauchamp of Trésors de Rupert Treasures, a thrift store where D'Aoust hoisted two stationary bicycles onto her truck. Scrap metal collecting It's been less than a year since D'Aoust has been collecting scrap metal. "I've always been very passionate about recycling and the environment, and this is how I can make a much bigger impact, by offering this service," she said. The idea came to her last summer while she was talking to a friend about recycling and discovered that Metro Scrap Metal (MSM) in Ottawa gives cash for scrap metal. Her first order of business was cleaning up her own backyard — a one acre property in Chelsea that was storing an oil tank, dismantled eavestroughs and pieces from a renovation 10 years ago. She then cleared out her recently widowed neighbour's yard and took four truck loads of heavy metal to be recycled. From there, D'Aoust turned it into a service where in Western Quebec clients can schedule for her to pick up their old appliances for a fee. Recently, her municipality also had changes to their waste collection services. "So now there's an even greater need to be accessible all the time…. You can phone me up and I'll go pick it up," she said. Selling items to reuse Any time D'Aoust gets her hands on an appliance, she'll use a magnet to see if it's steel or aluminum. She'll then cut off the cords, which contain valuable copper, and sort the metals and cords by type on her truck's bed and seats. There's a disclaimer on D'Aoust's booking site that says she has permission to sell or reuse any discarded items. And that could mean it ends up on her eBay store. "Believe it or not, when you're looking for parts, eBay is where you go to find them," she said. When clients discard electronics, she'll research if the cables, remotes, or parts are valuable. If they are, she'll upload them. 'Mining above ground' Once D'Aoust's truckload is full, she takes her haul to either AIM Recyclage Gatineau or MSM in Ottawa's east end. There, she'll throw anything made of steel into the scrap yard, which is then hoisted by a large grapple truck and into large trailers. From there, the contents are boxed up and sold to vendors to be recycled. When customers drop off scrap metal, each material is priced per weight and itemized as either steel, e-waste, batteries, aluminum and copper. In a video, MSM owner Wehbe Wehbe posted on Facebook, he called D'Aoust his "favourite scrapper." "She's saving the landfill and at the same time, she's bringing it here, and we recycle it, and really, we're mining above ground," he said. D'Aoust received $120 on a recent haul to MSM, which was enough to cover her gas. She recently expanded her services to include property clean-up and set up a scrap metal drop-off at her home.
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- The Guardian
‘Their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta': how two centuries of British writers helped forge our view of Spain
Almost 200 years ago, the pioneering British travel writer Richard Ford offered an observation that has been happily ignored by the legions of authors who have traipsed in his dusty footsteps across Spain, toting notebooks, the odd violin or Bible, and, of course, their own particular prejudices. 'Nothing causes more pain to Spaniards', Ford noted in his 1845 Handbook for Travellers in Spain, 'than to see volume after volume written by foreigners about their country.' Given some of his waspish pronouncements, the pain in Spain was thoroughly justified. Catalonia, to Ford's mind, was 'no place for the man of pleasure, taste or literature … here cotton is spun, vice and discontent bred, revolution concocted'. He found Valencians 'vindictive, sullen, fickle and treacherous', while reporting that the 'better classes' in Murcia 'vegetate in a monotonous unsocial existence: their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta'. Ford, whose often acid nib belied a deep love of all things Iberian, is one of 20 British authors profiled in a new Spanish book, Los curiosos impertinentes ('the annoyingly curious'), that explores the UK's enduring fascination with Spain and reflects on how two centuries of travel writing have shaped the country's image abroad. The book is prefaced by Ford's pain quotation and by another, from the late Spanish writer Ramón J Sender: 'There's nothing like a foreigner when it comes to seeing what we're like.' The writers selected by the book's author, the British journalist and writer William Chislett, include Ford and his contemporary, the Bible salesman George Borrow, as well as some of their 20th-century successors, among them Laurie Lee, Gerald Brenan, Norman Lewis, VS Pritchett and Robert Graves. Authors from more recent decades are represented by Miranda France and Giles Tremlett, and by the late Michael Jacobs, to whom the book is dedicated. 'I deliberately began in the 19th century with Ford and Borrow and didn't go further back because I felt I had to start somewhere,' says Chislett, who has lived in Spain for almost 40 years. 'One could regard Ford's book as the first travel book … Then we skip forward to the 20th and 21st century for 18 other people, most of whom are absolutely unknown here, let alone in the UK.' The book, which was originally conceived of as an exhibition, is published by the Instituto Cervantes, the governmental organisation tasked with promoting the Spanish language and Hispanic culture. Chislett says there is no escaping the fact that all the books he cites 'have forged an image' of the country that has shifted over the centuries. He points out that the old British idea of Spain as a dark, devout place – built on anti-Spanish propaganda and best summed up by the austere majesty of El Escorial, Philip II's monastery-cum-palace near Madrid – began to give way to something altogether more wild and romantic in the 19th century. In the aftermath of the peninsula war, Britons began to be seduced by Spain's history, architecture and culture, and El Escorial had given way to the distant, Islamic splendours of the Alhambra in Granada. 'It was unknown territory and had all these exotic elements,' adds Chislett. 'Word got around that there were all these abandoned castles and flamenco … You've got these two contrasts: you've got the 'black legend' version of Spain and then you've got the romantic version of Spain.' Borrow and Ford were followed by Lee, who immortalised Spain on the cusp of civil war in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and by Lewis, whose Voices of the Old Sea captures a dying way of life in Farol, a profoundly superstitious village on the Costa Brava, as fishing gives way to mass tourism. The authors' reflections also reveal that concerns over what is known today as overtourism are hardly new. Ford, who perhaps did more than most to put Spain on the tourist map, complained that the 'implacable march of the European intellectual is crushing many native wildflowers', while Pritchett later lamented that Spain had been 'invaded by tourists'. Equally familiar, as Chislett and others mention, is Spain's love-hate relationship with how it is viewed through foreign eyes. 'Maybe Spaniards are prickly because so much has been written about them,' he says. 'I haven't come to any conclusion, but maybe you could say Spaniards – unjustifiably now, but maybe justifiably during the Franco regime – have an inferiority complex, which I like to think they've got rid of totally, given what's happened over the last 50 years. 'In many ways, Spain is way ahead of other European countries.' While Chislett describes the book as a 'labour of love' and an attempt to repay Spain for its kindness and hospitality over the past four decades, he hopes it will also introduce Spanish readers to some of the great British travel writers. 'There are books earlier than Ford and Borrow, going back to the 18th century,' he adds. 'It's about highlighting this tradition, which still goes on.' In his foreword to the book, the Spanish novelist and travel writer Julio Llamazares advises his compatriots to cast aside their 'pride and patriotism' so that they might glimpse themselves anew in its pages. 'It's worth being prepared to accept the foreign gaze or, perhaps more accurately, the foreign gazes, given how many authors have written about us after touring our country and getting to know it,' he writes. 'Like English-speaking Quixotes, they paint our portraits with their words, even as they demonstrate their passion for a country and a culture that, despite being so different to their own, has marked them forever and for life.'
BBC News
14-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Traders in Brockenhurst fear roadworks will cost thousands
Shopkeepers in the New Forest say they could lose thousands of pounds and fear some businesses will close because of eight weeks of roadworks.A 25m-stretch (82ft) of Brookley Road in Brockenhurst will be closed from Tuesday 22 County Council is carrying out drainage works, installing a speed bump and extending the pavement to make it easier for people to walk and some business owners say the closure comes at the start of a busy summer season and will fall over two lucrative bank holiday weekends. A petition calling for a delay until the autumn has reached 1,000 Jose, who runs the Bakehouse Bakery, said the damage over the coming months "could take 10 years" to recover from."It's going to cost us at least £20,000. People get new routines, the passing trade, the builders. It's the recovery of getting these people back," she Chislett owns Grovely Pets and said traders had previously been told the work would be done out of holiday season."You just have to go outside and look at our pavements," he said."There are potholes everywhere and instead they're going to give us a speed hump in a place where the cars are doing 10 to 15mph down the road. Why do we need a speed hump?" Richard Wolstenholme runs the Pot Pourri Card and Gift Shop, also on Brookley Road."Everything was looking good from Easter onwards," he said."The weather is good as well. This is going to cripple businesses in the village."A Hampshire County Council spokesperson said: "Access for pedestrians will remain at all times, and vehicles will continue to have limited access to the road from either end."We are always mindful of the potential impacts of roadworks in a busy area like this and we do all we can to help businesses to plan in advance, and to keep disruption to an absolute minimum."Whilst the work, and particularly the drainage element, needs to be undertaken during the drier months to be delivered effectively, the timing will avoid the busy Easter and school summer holiday periods." You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
