Sara Parkin (born 9 April 1946) is a Scottish nurse and political activist. She started her working life as a nurse in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

but rose to prominence as a green political activist during and after the

1989 European Parliament election The 1989 European Parliament election was a held on June Wednesday 15 to Sunday 18 across the 12 European Union member state in June 1989. It was the third European Parliament election but the first time that Spain and Portugal voted at the sam ...

, in which the UK Green Party gained 15% of the votes but no seats. She resigned from the party in 1992, at odds with the party's anti-leadership stance, and went on to found the Forum for the Future with

Jonathon Porritt Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, 2nd Baronet, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 6 July 1950) is a British environmentalist and writer. He is known for his advocacy of the Green Party of England and Wales. Porritt frequently contributes to ma ...

and

Paul Ekins Professor Paul Ekins OBE (born 1950) is a British academic in the field of sustainable economics, currently Professor of Resources and Environment Policy at University College London. He was formerly co-director of the UK Energy Research Centre ...

. Her current campaigning focus is

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

literacy as an essential outcome of formal education, especially in universities and colleges. She lives in Hackney,

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

Early life and education

Sara Parkin was born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. She was educated in Coventry at Green Lane Primary School and Barr's Hill Grammar School. She then trained as a nurse at

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) was established in 1729, and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire."In Com ...

(1970–74)

Career

Parkin worked there as a ward sister at the Royal Infirmary. There, she met her husband Max, and her children Colin and Douglas were born there.Why Parkin sups with political devils, The Guardian, 18 September 1989 She tutored

undergraduates Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...

in nursing at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

(1972-3) and worked elsewhere in the health sector in the 1970s and 1980s before turning to politics.

Politics

On moving to

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

in 1976, Parkin discovered the Ecology Party (as the UK Green Party was then known). She stood (unsuccessfully) against Keith Joseph in the 1979 general election and in several local elections. When her husband's work as a cancer epidemiologist took the family to live in Lyon France, she became involved with the international growth of green politics. This including leading on the establishment of the Coordination of (European) Green Parties (a grouping now known as the

European Green Party The European Green Party (EGP), also referred to as European Greens, is a transnational, European political party representing national parties from across Europe who share Green values. The European Greens works closely with the Greens–Eur ...

for which she acted as Co-secretary and Spokesperson until 1991. With activists in other European Green Parties she provided support for green-oriented parties around the world, including dissident movements in east Europe. Parkin emerged as the most articulate and telegenic Green Party spokesperson after 1989 and was credited with being committed to Green Party policy and practical in terms of political tactics. Caroline Lucas remembers being “exhausted in the office and she’d burst through the door and bring with her new thoughts and ideas” while journalist Walter Schwartz considered her “the party’s best all-rounder, the easiest of the Greens to imagine as a Cabinet Minister. She is a highly organised political animal. Most Greens are not.” After an exploratory approach by the Labour Party, Parkin was defeated in her attempt at the 1989 Green Party conference to secure agreement to open negotiations with other parties on an alliance to bring in a proportional election system. She was also associated with Green 2000, a group advocating constitutional changes to the Green Party, including the creation of an Executive Committee, with a Chair, a Regional Council, and only two principle speakers (Immediately after the 1989 election 32 speakers were offered to the press). The party voted to agree these changes, electing a Green 2000 supporter to every post, and Sara Parkin as Chair. This organisational structure is still in place. The 1992 general election results were not good for the Green Party largely because of predictions of a hung parliament, but also because of the ongoing internal disarray of the Green Party. Parkin resigned before the 1992 Green Party Conference citing the party's refusal to sanction what was openly described as a campaign “to harry the (Green 2000) leadership at every opportunity until its members simply gave up in despair and quit.” The harrying persisted at the conference itself, with the last straw proving the party's ‘open door’ to the controversial

David Icke David Vaughan Icke ( ; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist, author and a former Association football, footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more tha ...

. Green Parties: An international guide, which Parkin published early in 1989 is out of print, but remains a benchmark study of green politics at that time. Her 1994 biography of her friend, German Green Party leader Petra Kelly The life and death of Petra Kelly is published in several languages most recently in 2016 in Spanish. Parkin remains an advocate of Green Parties, arguing consistently for the need to organise for success and the importance to that of good leadership.

Life after politics

Frustration in the aftermath of the 1992 UN Earth Summit led many UK green movement activists to think about different ways of implementing more sustainable ways of living and working. Parkin joined up with other former Green Party activists

and

to create in 1996 the Forum for the Future, a registered charity and non-profit with a mission to promote sustainable development through working in partnership with business, government and other organisations. For the Forum Parkin designed a pioneering Masters course in Leadership for Sustainable Development and worked mainly with education sector, government and the professions, particularly engineering, over 20 years to promote sustainability literacy in universities and colleges. Her 2010 book Positive Deviant: Sustainability Leadership in a perverse world, based on this experience is a course book in several universities around the world. She stepped down from day to day involvement with the Forum in 2016, but remains a Trustee. During this time, she also served on boards of the Environment Agency for England and Wales, the

Natural Environment Research Council The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British Research Councils UK, research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several envir ...

, the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, the European Training Foundation and, at various times, NGOs such as

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of grassroots environmental organizations in 73 countries. About half of the member groups call themselves "Friends of the Earth" in their own languages; the others use other ...

New Economics Foundation The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a Great Britain, British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice". NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new m ...

and Groundwork. Parkin continues to work with in education through The Sustainability Literacy Project, for which she is a Principal Associate. She also advises the National Union of Students on sustainability, and sits on the Boards of the

Higher Education Academy Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recogniti ...

and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. She is also a Patron of

Population Matters Population Matters, formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust, is a UK-based charity that works at the intersection of population, environmental sustainability, and human rights, including women's empowerment and leadership, sexual and repr ...

and The Museum of Islay Life, Chair of the Richard Sandbrook Trust and Trustee of the St Andrews Prize for the Environment.

Awards and honours

Sara Parkin was appointed an OBE in 2000 for her services to education and sustainability, and holds honorary positions with several organisations, including the Institute of Energy, the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a Charitable organization, charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters ar ...

, the

Engineering Council The Engineering Council (formerly Engineering Council UK; colloquially known as EngC) is the UK's regulatory authority for registration of Chartered and Incorporated engineers and engineering technician. The Engineering Council holds the nat ...

and the

Society for the Environment The Society for the Environment (SocEnv) is an Umbrella organization, umbrella body for environmental organisations in the UK. Its primary function is the licensing of its member institutions to confer chartered (professional), chartered status o ...

. She has 11 honorary degrees.

Selected works

* Parkin S (1989) Green Parties: An international guide London: Heretic Books * Parkin S (ed) (1991) Green Light on Europe London: Heretic Books * Parkin S (1991) Green Futures: Agenda for the 21st century London:Fount * Parkin S (1994) The Life and Death of Petra Kelly London:Pandora * Parkin S (2010) The Positive Deviant: Sustainability leadership in a perverse world London: Earthscan

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkin, Sara 1946 births 20th-century Scottish women writers 21st-century Scottish women writers Living people Green Party of England and Wales politicians British non-fiction environmental writers Nurses of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh People educated at Barr's Hill School Scottish nurses Scottish non-fiction writers British sustainability advocates Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire