Johanna Franke, M.A.

What’s the work that you do?

I work as a communications manager to communicate projects, research and Arctic issues to a broader audience. Furthermore I work as a beach cleanup coordinator and am involved in a few working groups on plastics. My focus is on marine litter policies and abundance of beach litter in the North of Iceland. I am currently taking part in the Atlantic Plastics Symposium dissemination and creating a marine litter policy brief template for organisations as part of an Arctic Mayors Forum and WWF Arctic project. Besides that I am part of the Board of Directors for the Arctic Youth Network and APECS Germany.

What keeps you going?

What keeps me going is my strong belief that communication is key to solving issues. I want to use my skills in social media communication and graphic design to raise awareness about important issues and be a positive voice in a landscape of media that is toxic. I love that I get to do exactly that in my job and have the freedom to create content that I believe works and needs to be communicated. What I love as a beach cleanup coordinator is that you have a sense of accomplishment with every minute. You clean trash from the environment and you do something good while being outside- what can be better than that?

What’s your message to the world?

Every little step matters. Now is the time to begin, even if it’s just something minor. It’s better than nothing, and as time progresses it adds up. In simpler words, as a famous actor once said: Just do it.