Stephanie Gilliver – volunteering to create positive change.
Stephanie Gilliver, Head of Responsible Investing, Virgin Money Investments
Leading on Virgin Money Investment’s journey to be a responsible investor, Stephanie’s role is to lead on how we consider people and the planet in the way they help the customer grow their money over the long-term. She is also passionate about wanting to use knowledge and energy to help create positive change. Wanting to be part of the opportunity to build more sustainable and regenerative systems for a brighter future for all, Stephanie joined the Climate Ambassadors community.
Stephanie is fortunate enough to work for a company that values volunteering, with two days given for all staff to be used as they wish and flexible working which enables this to be put to the most effective use. Through Virgin Money she signed up as a STEM volunteer, a committed group that do amazing educational outreach, and has been fortunate enough to work with this group in some career events.
I work full time, have two children and a house that doesn’t clean itself… Why would I want to add to my spinning plates by volunteering?
Anyone that spares their precious free time volunteering will know the answer to that question:
· It is enriching and rewarding
· It teaches you stuff and provides a different perspective
· It has a positive impact
That positive impact can be made in lots of different ways. For me I wanted to help with local impact in responding to the climate emergency. When I heard about the Climate Ambassadors programme operating though STEM Learning my hand shot up, I am in!
This fantastic graphic recording from the Norwich Science Festival 15-17 February 2025 explains the Climate Ambassador initiative and how it is aiming to create ripples of change to progress the integration of climate action in education.
My volunteering for Climate Ambassadors is just at the beginning of its journey, but already I have helped with a couple of events – one in a secondary school on their climate education and green careers pillar and the second with the regional hub at the Norwich Science Festival. I am also starting to work out how to best use my skills and experience starting with helping my local primary school with their action plan.
Norwich Science Festival event was a fantastic demonstration of how to inspire local action using an annual science-based festival. Curated by the Climate Ambassador Regional Hub, the event, brought together local ambassadors to help children to learn about climate change, what we can do about it and to write their own climate action plan.
All those that wrote a plan, included the name of their school and these will be sent to their Head Teachers, with a letter from Asher Minns , Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change – nearly 300 students wrote a plan over the 3-day event!
It was a lot of fun, with great engagement from children and their parents who really enjoyed being able to give their views. The standout for me was nature… children value it, feel it is something they can tangibly help make a difference to and want more ponds!
Stephanie Gilliver, Virgin Money Investing