Nicky Chambers was one of those characters people never forgot. She oozed positivity and made an impact on the lives and careers of so many, inspiring top level environmental entrepreneurs worldwide and spreading the love of nature, people and planet here in Eynsham. This photo was taken on 3 June 2023.
Locals often didn’t know that as a charismatic leader, she operated at a high level in numerous environmental agencies and start-up businesses; she co-founded one of Europe’s leading sustainability consultancies, Best Foot Forward, known for pioneering work in rigorous, evidence-based carbon and ecological foot printing back in 1996.
Nicky had an enormous talent for friendship earning her a network that spanned the world and resulting in some remarkable invitations and adventures. Starting with a Project Trust trip to Kenya as a teenager, through a year of global travel after graduation, cycling the Santiago Camino and a year in Spain, with her then two very young toddlers building a straw bale house in an experiment in living off grid.
A natural entrepreneur, Nicky was always looking for new solutions to the huge issues caused by climate change and biodiversity depletion. She was a fierce advocate for other entrepreneurs and lent her time and expertise to many founders, particularly through the University of Oxford and Imperial College London as an entrepreneur mentor and expert.
Nicky was excited by new ideas and saw the start-up world as a powerful vehicle to effect impactful change. She was a Board member for OxFutures Green Fund and Eynsham’s Curiosity Box and an avid investor, bringing her wealth of experience and clarity of vision to help others realise their own sustainability dreams.
Her mission was ‘showing business, government and society how to create a better quality of life without trashing the planet’. She inspired so many in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises.
Nicky was committed to her community and was deeply involved in projects first in East Oxford and more recently in Eynsham. Here she encouraged us to campaign for new development to be the best it could be, by sitting lightly on the planet. She said, ‘if you can’t do it in Oxfordshire where can you?’ She instigated the revival of EPIC and used her extensive contacts to put together an ‘inspiration panel’ for GreenTEA to demand the innovative kind of development we need. She was a constant support as we worked through the many years of planning a zero carbon energy system. It was so fitting that the success of the Salt Cross net zero legal action came within hours of her death.
She set up a befriending scheme during the Pandemic and, just as committedly, worked as a ticket-seller at the annual Eynsham Carnival.
One of her lasting local legacies is the wonderful Eynsham Nature Recovery Network which would not be the success it is without Nicky, the brilliant, bold and charismatic mentor.
Catriona Bass writes: Nicky encouraged celebrations at each tiny step forward; she carried our spirits over every setback. Her huge experience navigating the complex, competitive corporate and NGO environmental world helped the NRN succeed in positioning its bottom-up, community-led nature recovery network within it. Her clarity and insistence that what we are all doing is innovative and good is what has kept us going – it inspired and enabled us to achieve so much on the ground in so short a time. You can read NRN’s tribute here.
Nicky carried her expertise lightly, was endlessly encouraging and as Barbara Hammond CEO of the Low Carbon Hub said, ‘she was a total bundle of positive energy and touched so many, many people for good.’ We have lost ‘one of the genuinely cheerful agitators of a better world’. She was always the first to suggest a celebration, to share the joy of a walk, a wild swim, a kayak, the sight of a kingfisher gliding down the Limb Brook, looking at otters on the camera trap, or sharing a glass of wine after collecting wildflower seeds on Long Mead in the mid-summer sunshine.
This positive and joyful attitude never left her and she would often exclaim with a smile ‘how lucky are we? She left us far too soon on 19 February 2024 at the age of only 57.
Nicky leaves a legacy of passion and energy for the protection, promotion and restoration of the natural environment (and her wonderful children Molly and Finn and sister Jenny).
Thank you for the inspiration, Nicky