In 2004, Tracey founded National Downshifting Week, a non-profit awareness campaign designed to help people, ‘Slow Down and Green Up’.
She promoted it all over the UK through all forms of media, predominantly BBC Radio and it was extremely well received and supported; shortly thereafter, ITV National News made her a finalist in Britain’s Eco Hero Awards.
It also marked the start of an extensive wave of support via blogs and websites on the Internet and the beginning of subsequent pressure from organisations in other countries who wanted inclusion in the awareness week.
Tracey worked closely with a team from Conscious Consuming in the United States and helped them launch an American Downshifting Week in June, intentionally coinciding with the birthday of Henry David Thoreau, a naturalist and supporter of simple living.
The campaign was renamed InterNational Downshifting Week in 2007, allowing for total inclusion from interested parties worldwide.
Tracey explains, ‘The campaign gives people a hook to hang their ideas on. Once they realise other people also want to pull back from mass consumption/cut down their car use/reduce their food miles, or similar, it normalises the concept and fuels their fire to explore a more sustainable way of life’.
