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This article first appeared in our Organic September 2024 issue of My Green Pod Magazine. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox
Hana Sanadi’s youth was spent in two very different areas – Toxteth (‘L8’), one of Liverpool’s most culturally diverse communities, and the countryside in and around Merseyside.
The proud British-Yemeni was raised on stories of the jungle; from a young age her concept of ‘nature’ only ever evoked images of untouched wilderness or exotic biodiversity, yet she found these impressions weren’t reflected in the empty, cultivated green land of inner-city life.
Hana didn’t intend for climate change to become part of her career until, during her first year studying Engineering at the University of Southampton, she was diagnosed with cancer. This led Hana to discover and explore the link between planetary health and human health.
Hana continued her studies in Environment and Planning at University of Liverpool while undergoing cancer treatment, so she could learn more about environmental science and urban health.
Today Hana is an ambassador for OMMM and an award-winning sustainability advocate, currently specialising in environmental regeneration issues and sustainable urban development.
She says her goal is to serve as a positive example for fellow cancer survivors and, more generally, youth in the north of England.
Hana’s interest in sustainability was sparked at the age of 17, when she took a work placement at the Tropical Rainforest Research Conservation Centre in heart of the jungle in Borneo, and joined a volunteer-led Raleigh International expedition.
Hana witnessed forest fires, deforestation and habitat destruction during a 19-day trek into the ancient Crocker Range Virgin Jungle in Borneo’s Sabah.
During her three-month expedition to Malaysia Hana also helped to create a reservoir, dam and gravity-fed water system, and took part in a project to plant 400 trees at a former illegally deforested palm oil site.
Hana’s passion for the planet and environmental activism have seen her present at the House of Lords, United Nations and Mexican Congress, Parliament of Mexico. She was elected Coordinator to the UK Global Peace Forum Conference and is also involved with the UNFCCC.
Hana was selected as the official UK Youth Delegate and Climate Policy Lead at COP28 and is currently the COP29 Partnerships Officer for Generation Climate Europe (GCE), Europe’s largest climate youth NGO.
Hana has a strong entrepreneurial spirit; she created and is developing a service dedicated to e waste recycling, with a focus on the intersection between technology and climate change, for healthier cities and a circular economy.
‘Urban Upcycle connects people and businesses with the most trusted, ethical recyclers to ensure proper disposal of different types of growing waste in cities’, Hana explains. ‘The focus is on electric waste, and the goal is to increase awareness of the intersection between tech and climate change.’
The student-led waste management service is an accessible platform with resources that support collaborative measures to reduce e-waste in urban areas across the UK. The goal is to roll it out to more countries in the near future.
For subscribed members, Urban Upcycle provides access to sustainability events, plus leading academic research on waste and climate change. It is an interactive platform that creates the opportunity to network with leaders in sustainability.
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