So nice to meet you! We’re Sally and Helen.

Sally’s an award-winning solutionist, storyteller and creative for sustainability - and the Founder of Be The Future, in Australia. She’s also guaranteed to be the shortest person in any room. 

Helen’s an award-winning educator, designer and author for sustainability - and the Founder of sister social enterprise, It Started With a Sloth, in the UK. She’s also a gold-level clumsy person who’s guaranteed to be the one who face-plants on entering that room.

We’ve both got kids in our lives: Sally has a son and Helen has a nephew. And we want them - and the children in your life - to have a thriving future on this amazing planet.

Together we have 5 degrees, credentials from the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change Coaches, and many awards.

We’re great believers in imperfect environmentalism. No one can get everything right all of the time. And trying to is just a highway to paralysis.

It’s about finding actions that fit in with you and your life. Creating small ripples of change that’ll help us all ride a growing wave of action*. 

* As a social enterprise based partly in Australia, we’re legally obliged to use at least one surfing analogy per 1,000 words.

A colorful welcoming graphic with two women smiling, rainbow trail, and the word 'Welcome' on a green background.

How we built Be The Future 🇦🇺 (and It Started With a Sloth 🇬🇧)

Our social enterprises started with a hashtag, evolved with an email, and now run almost entirely on an intricate understanding of UK-Australia time differences.

Before we met, we were both living in the UK and ambassadors for #tacklethecrisis, a campaign about spreading climate positivity.

Because we’re both pretty sure that’s what the world needs. 

Something to counter the doom-and-gloom stories that make us want to stick our fingers in our ears and assume the fetal position because it’s all too much.

So there we were, being ambassadors for this hashtag, when Sally spotted Helen’s logo for her other business: Unlikely Genius. 

She figured there had to be an interesting person behind that name (spoiler: there was). So in December 2020, she wrote Helen an email:

I’m looking for a witty, funny, smart copywriter and designer to help me with my idea. And you seem kind of perfect.

Helen jumped on board right away. Phew.

We got to meet in person a couple of times between lockdown ending and Sally moving back to Australia (could this founding story *be* any more pandemic?).

And finally met in person again three years later, when Helen came to Australia for the Sacred Earth, Sustainable Futures experience we held at the Australian Museum with TIPIAC for CAWSYD 2025.

Group of educators and children at the Sacred Earth, Sustainable Futures experience at the Australian Museum

Photo credit: International Grammar School

Photo credit: Robin Wyatt

What started as Be The Future has now become Be The Future in Australia and our sister social enterprise, It Started With A Sloth, in the UK.

Sure, running sister operations across Yorkshire and Sydney isn’t always the easiest way to do things… 

But thanks to the wonder of Zoom, Trello, and our ability to reliably set alarm clocks, everything’s working out pretty well. 

Which is lucky, because we adore what we do: 

Creating interactive education for a sustainable world.

We know how tough it is to find your place in climate action. The mountain often feels too big to climb.

But it’s the issue of our lifetime.

And we need as many people as possible to join this ever-growing movement to create a better future.

It’s why we get up in the morning (nine/eleven hours apart).

Be part of creating change for us - and our children. Let’s collaborate!

A bit more about us…

  • Woman standing smiling

    Sally Giblin

    Sally’s an award-winning solutionist, storyteller and creative for sustainability. Her purpose is to inspire others to take dramatic action on our climate and biodiversity crisis - the most important issue of our lifetime.

    Sally was recognised as an Emerging Leader by Environmental Education NSW in 2023.

    Sally is a Greenpeace Australia Pacific General Assembly Member, an Australian Parents for Climate Action spokesperson, and a Climate Reality Leader. She’s been at the forefront of many positive change initiatives over the years, with organizations such as Young UN Women and Social Good Summit.

    She previously CoFounded Pure Bundle, a circular fashion startup, and worked as a Customer Experience Consultant. Sally holds a Masters in International Development from UNSW and studied at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

    Connect with Sally
  • A woman with short blonde hair wearing a black top, smiling, against a cartoon background with a blue sky, white clouds, green hills, and a rainbow border. The name 'Helen' is written in yellow text.

    Helen Hill

    Helen is a learning design specialist, children’s book illustrator and ‘silly auntie Heron’ to her nephew, Emmett. She loves nothing more than to get giddy with ideas for books, games, activities and mischief, bringing in her 20+ years of working in education and the design industry. She is also our in-house designer, tech guru and trained climate coach.

    Helen is also the sole founder of UnlikelyGenius™️ Ltd, a business founded around helping people and planet to thrive. Here she specialises in producing playful designs and concepts for creative educational resources and books which teach about tough topics like grief, anxiety and climate change.

    In addition to a level 2 coaching diploma and ICF ACC status, Helen is also trained in Climate Change Coaching, Embodied Transformation and Positive Psychology to help build stronger connections between body, mind and planet.

    Connect with Helen