Volunteering with Arran Eco Savvy
We started 2018 with under 30 people volunteering with Arran Eco Savvy, and now have over 100. Greater volunteer support […]
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Meet The Board
Helen Ross – Trustee and Chair
Helen is the Eco Savvy Chair. Helen received a good grounding in public service & administration in the Civil Service and professional work in the voluntary sector placing people for work experience, planning community care services, providing an information service & developing community projects with older people in rural areas.
She continued her work with the community, gaining 19 years experience at local, regional and UK level in Public Health, developing sustainable services that also improve our lifestyles and our health and well being. Constructing or retrofitting existing buildings with improved insulation and renewable energy systems such as solar and air source, cycling and walking instead of driving, sourcing and growing food locally and organically, reducing and composting food waste, and recycling pre-loved goods, can help to save money and contribute to our health and well being as well as reducing our carbon emissions and impact on Climate Change.
Helen moved to Arran in 2017, is an allotment holder on the Arran Community Land Initiative & a volunteer in the Eco Savvy Hub in Whiting Bay.
She became a Fellow Through Distinction with the UK Faculty of Public Health in 2022.
Hilary Grace Maguire FCA – Trustee and Treasurer
Hilary moved to Arran in 2017 after spending family holidays here for over 30 years and became an Eco Savvy trustee and treasurer the following year. A chartered accountant; trained with Price Waterhouse Coopers and jointly ran a practice featuring the provision of an outsourced financial controller/finance director role for new technology and renewable energy companies for many years.
Hilary has actively supported environmental charities and causes for most of her life. She is involved with music and the arts on Arran and is learning Gaelic.
Sarah North- Trustee and Secretary
Sarah lives at Thundergay and moved to Arran in 2020, having fallen under Arran’s spell on a trip to the west coast of Scotland. Sarah has worked for Greenpeace in the UK and globally for over 25 years, designing campaign strategy. She now runs her own campaigning consultancy and is also a Trustee of Genewatch and the Pirnmill Village Association. She has a MSc in Nature Conservation from UCL and is passionate about helping Arran maximise it sustainability across its energy, food, waste and transport systems.”
Donald McNicol – Trustee
Donald left the island in 1977 to (eventually) get a degree and even more eventually become a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He returned in 2013 for good and has since been involved with Whiting Bay Primary, Kilmory Primary, COAST and latterly with Eco Savvy. His background is in feasibility, design, design management and due diligence of conventional and latterly renewable generation. His role is to help Eco Savvy identify community renewable opportunities on the island and assist in their development to the environmental and financial benefit of the island residents.
Dianna Turbett – Trustee
Diana joined the Eco Savvy Board of Trustees in May 2021 after volunteering with the Eco Savvy Food Share at Shiskine Hall in July 2019. This led on to attending various workshops and learning more about the wide range of environmental projects Eco Savvy undertake to tackle climate change and help make Arran a greener and more sustainable community.
Diana has lived on Arran since 1988, moving here to job share the then one social worker post with her husband Colin and raise their young family. Diana has been involved with Shiskine Hall for many years and more recently the community toilets at Blackwaterfoot. Since retirement in 2019 Diana has joined the Arran Locality Partnership as a community representative and the committee of Arran Youth Foundations.
Diana has recently trained as a volunteer health walk leader and along with others is starting a programme of short walks around the island under the umbrella of the NAC Trinity Active Travel Hub to promote gentle exercise and social contact. This provides an opportunity to link in the Eco Savvy Active Travel project and encourage more of us to get out and about and reduce our dependency on cars.
After many years as a social worker on Arran, Diana is very aware of the challenges island living can present, including access to affordable and warm homes, public transport, social isolation and access to healthy food. Diana feels Eco Savvy has a key role to play in making Arran a greener and more sustainable community for all.
Elsa Rodeck – Trustee
Elsa joined the Eco Savvy team at the end of 2019 to help with minute taking at trustee meetings. After some years commuting between Arran and Glasgow, since the Covid-19 pandemic she and her family have moved back to Arran full time and are delighted to have the opportunity to immerse themselves more fully again in the island’s community and natural environment. Before lockdown her main work was in primary schools running peace education programmes for children. While this work is on hold, as well as supporting Arran Eco Savvy with some admin, Elsa has been helping the Pioneer Project set up the community garden in Cordon. She also continues her work as editor for the Voice for Arran, a publication covering social, political and environmental issues on Arran. She is very happy to find her place on this beautiful island, helping to promote the health and sustainability of it through different environmental projects.
Become a Trustee
Eco Savvy is seeking to appoint new Trustees. We wish to appoint Trustees who will strengthen and support Eco Savvys’ ongoing work through knowledge, networking, and experience, in accordance with its charitable aims.
Find out what being a Trustee involves
Meet the Eco Savvy Team
Jess Wallace – Sustainable Food Coordinator
Jess has been working as the food coordinator for Eco Savvy since 2019. She helped expand the Food Share scheme, runs sustainable food workshops, works in partnership with other local food initiatives and delivers the Zero Waste Cafe project with the rest of the food team. In her spare time she loves exploring the Arran hills, is a keen cook (and eater!) and is a strong advocate for the human and planetary benefits of seasonal, local produce. Jess believes that food is a great way to bring the community together and to connect with climate issues.
Donna Gold – Zero Waste Cafe Officer
I am very passionate about not wasting food and have been volunteering with the Eco Savvy Food Share since 2019 and more recently working as part of the Zero Waste Cafe team. I’m a creative cook, often developing recipes as I avoid food waste whenever possible. I use my practiced skills and family recipes at the Zero Waste Cafe when repurposing Food Share and using donated locally grown veg to make seasonal soups and homebaking. Outside of Eco Savvy you’ll find me making jams and preserves or working at Arcas.
Sofi Graham – Event & Project Manager
Communications Officer
Sofi moved from Glasgow to Arran when seconded here in 2019. She had never visited and very quickly fell in love with all the island has to offer.
She’s since moved back to the mainland but splits her time between Arran and Glasgow as she still has family here. Previously she worked to support small, female owned businesses with their communications, but before that spent her time teaching sewing and quilting to adults and children across the central belt of Scotland.
Since becoming a mother she’s become even more passionate about the environment, her impact and how she can make her life more sustainable. In her spare time you can find her pottering around her kitchen garden at home where she spends her time protecting her plants from slugs or in the kitchen garden in Arran where she spends her time trying to find a happy balance between growing food and keeping the bracken at bay.
Sofi Graham
Emma Tracey – Active Travel Hub Officer
Emma first moved to Arran when she was a young teenager, but moved back to Glasgow to study at Glasgow School of Art where she graduated with an honours degree in Communication Design.
She has never wanted a car, as a child she understood that burning fuel is terrible for the environment so held off driving until she was in her early 30’s. When she moved full time to Arran she discovered rural living is extremely challenging without a car and thus her love of cycling really came into play. She is passionate about the social, well-being and environmental aspects that cycling brings and is keen to pass on her knowledge.
This is Emma’s second time joining the team at Eco Savvy, previously she worked on the Sustainable Island Life project from 2019-2021.
She also runs Arran Bike Hire with her husband and they have a young son.
Emma Tracey
Juliette Walsh – Active Travel Officer
Juliette moved to Arran with her family in 2005 and got stuck into island life, initially working in Whiting Bay Nursery and qualifying as an Early Years Practitioner and Forest School Leader as well as serving as a trustee on various island environmental charity boards.
For the past five years she has worked in Glasgow delivering community re-wilding and food growing health projects. She is passionate about healthy lifestyle choices which embrace the outdoors and is now island based once again and keen to help Eco Savvy and islanders take steps to support both the island’s pristine environment and their own health and wellbeing. Her passions include growing organic fruit and veg, and keeping active with cycling, walking and swimming.
Jean Harmer – Active Travel Coordinator
Jeannie moved to Arran from the Lake District with her young family in 2022 and has embraced island life.
She is passionate about healthy living and caring for the environment so future generations can enjoy. She has a background in running and supporting small businesses across various sectors – ethical retail sector, eco-travel and rural businesses.
Jeannie has joined Eco Savvy in the Active Travel Hub team where she is keen to influence people on Arran to make active travel choices. She is fanatical about sustainable living, communities, her family & collie dogs, the great outdoors with hill walking, cycling and open water swimming, is learning to garden, has become a birder, is a keen knitter and has recently taken up potting.
Nikki Harris – Shop Manager
Nikki is a long term resident of Arran who is a passionate environmentalist and enjoys working with the community.
Nikki has spent time working in the public sector as a Youth Worker, in the private sector as a shop keeper and in the voluntary sector working for COAST.
Knowing the Arran Community as well as she does, she hopes this will stand her in good stead as the new Eco Savvy Shop Manager.
Nikki is eager to contribute to the islands green credentials and sustainability. Nikki also runs her own part time Picture Framing business and outside of work Nikki enjoys a variety of crafts and upcycling, learning Spanish and walking.
Stuart Wallace – eBike Coordinator/Mechanic
Most people call me Wally. I have worked as an outdoor leader since I was 18 and have lived on Arran for 15 years. A UK mountain leader, mountain bike level 2 leader and Ctech 2 cycle mechanic. I have been riding the road on a bike as long as I can remember, I resprayed and rebuilt my first full size bike which I was given as a hand me down from my brother. A 1966 Carlton criterium, the frame of which I still ride today.
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