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Career changing, mountaineering, resilience and a Christmas tree rental business
Jonathan Mearns OBE, has a job role topical to the festive season, which is why this interview dropped on Christmas Eve as a bonus episode.
Jonathan is a founder of London Christmas Tree Rental. The company rents out living Norway Spruce trees to businesses and families in England's capital city over the Christmas period. Trees are tagged, picked up by their temporary owners – who promise to look after them like a visiting family member – then returned to their nursery. The trees' brief encounter with the indoors means they stay healthy and can resume growing unstressed in the spring. The idea of renting out Christmas trees itself sprang to life when one year in January, Jonathan saw dozens of desiccated and discarded trees awaiting refuse collection on London's streets and thought 'There's got to be a better way than this.' Research showed that seven million trees were chucked, cast off or chipped every year and Jonathan's new business plan began.
But that's not where Jonathan's career story starts, or even where it's going to end. A former police officer, who was awarded an OBE for services to international counter-terrorism in the King's New Years Honours 2023, Jonathan is now a life and career coach, an ambassador for IAfrika children's home in Nairobi, where he promotes and financially supports children's education in Kenya. And when he's not doing all of that he's an adventurer and mountaineer. In fact, it was an encounter with his own mortality on a mountain that prompted him to write a book, 'One Mountain, Two Minds: Taking the Mountain Metaphor to the Next Level'.
Jonathan is open about his lack of glowing school reports and still recalls one parents' evening when his primary school teacher made dire predictions about his future. Instead he has had an exciting, challenging and life affirming career. He maintains a positivity that is palpable – even on a screen via Zoom connection – and he's not done yet.
Jonathan Mearns
The Earthshot Prize
IAfrika children's home in Nairobi, Kenya
London Christmas Tree Rental
Season 3 Episode 5: Jo Faulkner-Harvey, head of charity fundraising
Season 1 Episode 10: Duncan Goose, founder of Global Ethics and One Water
Season 2 Episode 4: Kurt Henderson, senior product designer Byway Travel
Season 3 Episode 8: Rachel Johnson, student mental health social worker
