The walk I went on last Sunday was one chosen from a book of walks in the Cheviots I had been given as a birthday present. This small book demonstrated exactly how to communicate Sustainability – and how not to.

I will start with the negative as that’s what hit me first. Each walk was accompanied by a completely unrelated eco-fact (see below). I don’t think I’m alone in saying that when I open a book on walks I want to see walks, not a pious lecture about something else. Even as someone who lives, eats and breathes this stuff, I found it rather irritating. Such virtue signalling rarely works as it is written to make the writer feel good, not the reader. I mean, who is suddenly going to become an eco-warrior because of a little green box like this?

As we proceeded on the walk, I realised the book also contained the ‘right’ way of communicating Sustainability. It mentioned that the local feral goat population, a notable feature of this route, was growing increasingly difficult to contain due to climate change increasing kid survival rates. As we were looking out for the goats (although we didn’t spot any), this caught my attention and made me think “Oh!”. This approach worked because it is weaving the climate message into the walk description, not imposing on it.

This is simple Green Jujitsu: if you want to talk climate change to walkers, make it about the walk.