What did you do this summer? Beach holiday? Staycation? Cheeky city break with Covid restrictions?
Whatever it was, Sarisher Mann almost certainly has bragging rights on you. BNP Paribas’s sustainability engagement and comms expert spent most of August sailing from Iceland to the west coast of Greenland as part of a project to research and raise awareness of climate change.
Mann is no stranger to the great outdoors. She is an enthusiastic hiker and skier, and is never happier than when tramping the hills with other sustainability-minded types talking about rewilding, carbon reduction and the circular economy.
She even set up the Sustainable Alpine Tourism Initiative (SATI) while doing a part-time masters in sustainability leadership at the University of Cambridge.
But she had never been to sea before. Sailors – or anyone who has looked at a weather forecast for the north Atlantic – will appreciate that braving the waves for the first time between Iceland and Greenland is pretty, well, brave.
Mann confirms that it was no picnic. “We had two weeks of very rough conditions, with winds of up to 60kt,” she says. “The only tailwind was when we flew back from Iceland. I was very seasick.”
She made the trip in company with five other female sustainability champions, including Irish solo ocean racer Joan Mulloy, documentary maker Sophia Scott, and scientist and polar adventurer Felicity Aston.
Dubbed Team Umiaq, after an open skin boat used by Inuit and Yupik women, the group dodged unseasonal icebergs on the approach to Greenland, navigated passages that have recently opened due to global warming, and took samples for Aston’s research into microplastics.
In Greenland, they also heard from locals about how communities are trying to adapt to climate change, from growing new vegetables to shifting the economy from farming to tourism.
“It was incredible to step outside of finance and humanize the narrative,” says Mann. “It felt very raw and real.”
Back on dry land, she is now gearing up for COP26 in Glasgow. So, would she go to sea again or has she been put off for life?
“I would totally go sailing again,” she says. “But next time I will definitely make sure I have proper sea sickness meds.”
