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The 10 day expedition brought together conscious travellers from 20 countries around the world, with a variety of interesting perspectives and ideas on how individuals and companies could become stewards for the environment and create real and meaningful change. The expedition was led by a group of ‘stewards’ experts and industry leaders who have long been advocates for sustainability and climate care. These stewards included the likes of Kiwi icons Sir Graham Henry and World Class New Zealander Peter Hilary who was on his 43rd visit to the continent. Peter says the opportunity to bring people to a place and really show them what’s going on is incredibly powerful.
“You’re immersing a whole group of people in this wondrous place, and everyone’s been hugely impacted by that experience. For example, the last morning we had there was quite frankly as good as it gets. You’ve got mirror-like water and icebergs and beautiful mountains all around and whales breaching, it was a truly incredible Antarctic experience. On board the ship you effectively have this forum, a whole group of people who have an interest in the environment and a huge range of speakers bringing different aspects of their knowledge to the party. I think one of the most significant things was that opportunity for conversation and discussion. It just galvanised within me the fact that you not only need to be on board, you need to do something, each of us can do our little part, and sometimes they can be quite big parts.”
The 10-day expedition had a full schedule, with trips off the boat to explore the vast surroundings, lectures from the expedition staff on wildlife, the history of Antarticia and the changes being seen due to climate change and also a number of guest lectures and workshops which examined what individuals and businesses could do to lessen their global footprint.
World Class New Zealander and Boma founder Kaila Colbin says as a CEO the opportunity for her to meet a number of leaders and listen to their global perspectives was a great tool to force self examination.
“Being on the ship with people from different walks of life made it way more interesting, and provided a lot more opportunities for exploration. An experience like this forces us to question what our beliefs are, what our motivations are, what our ambitions are, our preconceptions about the world. We don’t often get opportunities for this sort of pattern interruption from our daily lives. Being in a context like Antarctica, having that shared experience with people creates bonds that I believe make us more open to hearing and experiencing where someone else is coming from.”
Also on board were two researchers from the University of Tasmania, who were focused on human experiences in Antarctica exploring whether visiting the continent has a long-term effect on people’s behaviour.
Passengers were interviewed on the way to the continent as the ship crossed the Drake Passage and again on the way back. They will also be followed up in 18 months time to try and establish if this experience has led to any long-term changes. One of the researchers, Prof. Nicholas Farrelly, says they are keen to understand the effect immersive experiences have on behaviour.
“Over the years we have developed a set of tools and techniques for trying to understand the deeply personal responses to a set of environmental experiences. If we are going to manage ourselves more effectively as humans on this planet, we all need to reflect on what we do and why we do it. Working with this group gives us a tremendous opportunity to engage a wide range of leaders from many different fields. I look forward to working with this group over the coming months and maybe years to understand if experiences like this really can create long term change.”
Founder & CEO of academyEX, Frances Valentine says changes in behaviour towards climate change is a work in progress that we all need to embrace. The World Class New Zealander says the expedition gave her the opportunity to hear from leaders who were at different stages of addressing big global issues like climate change.
“I think we have this innate kind of hope that what we understand to be true is true, and that the person opposite us understands the same thing to be true. But actually, the reality is most of the time that’s not the case. People have different influences, different inputs, different biases, and to get to the truth, you need to start the conversation. An experience like this is a fantastic way to do it.”
Insider Expeditions CEO Steve Pirie-Nally says the theme of stewardship and being a kaitiaki of the planet really resonated with those on board.
“People are coming home with the ABCs of what they can do to be better stewards for the planet, and reimagining what that looks like in business as well. The insights that we’ve had from the crew on the boat as well as our speakers have allowed everyone to dive deeper into certain topics, and really understand in a very real way what these mean for us and individuals and business owners. Having people on board the boat for 10 days experiencing this together has also really supercharged networking, we have had several business deals done around ideas for sustainable solutions and there will no doubt be others that come in the weeks and months following the experience.”
Peter Hilary says he hopes this experience will stay with those who were on board and he would encourage others to take part in future expeditions to share their knowledge and insights and form a connection with what it is we are all trying to save.
“This expedition really grabbed people’s attention. We all know with meetings or video calls or even conferences, people might pay attention for a bit but they tune out, or go back to their day and forget. Nothing beats bringing a whole lot of people together to this place where they can really see the effects and for such a duration of time, that I think is a very powerful thing, you’re immersed in the experience, you breathe it, you feel it, you know, it touches you emotionally and you form a connection with the place, I think at the least people came away from this feeling strongly about being advocates for Antarctica.”
Kea spoke to a number of industry leaders on board and asked them to share their advice and business knowledge with our community, please keep an eye out for this series of global insights articles which will feature Sir Graham and Lady Raewyn Henry, USA Brand and marketing expert Rhoda Swan, and Australian founder of the Models Method Simon Bowen.
