Steve Sawyer, 1956-2019

I was working for GP China 10 years ago, and Steve used to come to Beijing 3 or 4 times a year, campaigning tirelessly to get the central government to embrace wind power. We’d occasionally go for a drink or dinner but he was too busy to actually see the damn place, until one day he got off the phone, came over to my desk and sheepishly said, “Kelly says I have to let you take me somewhere this weekend.” So off we went to Sanlitun market, where we got Steve fitted for his first ever tailored 3 piece suits (he bought two), and then wandered around Temple of Heaven before having the best Xin Jiang food ever. After that trip, he never missed coming out to see at least one new site, and I loved getting to be his tour guide,

I’d never imagined I could be his friend, because you know… STEVE SAWYER. He was first and foremost a mentor, starting from when I was a baby forests campaigner working on the Canadian rainforest, and Steve meanwhile as GPI ED convinced a number of executive directors and board members from different national offices to get arrested on the logging blockades. That resulted in our lovely global colleagues getting thrown into a really unpleasant jail in a small logging town – and according to a Canadian activist who was in the same jail cell as Thilo Bode (GP Germany ED) and Geert Drieman (Ntlds Board member), as the night got increasingly unpleasant, all they would mutter was “Steve Sawyer will pay for this” … and when he later heard the story, all Steve did was laugh and look gleeful. God, I learned a ton from him, and I’m pretty sure Thilo and Geert didn’t really mind, at least not too much…

We went out a year ago when Steve last came to Japan, still campaigning for uptake of renewables, still wearing the same 3 piece suit. and still speaking truth to power in that abrupt and biting way he had when people were being idiots. I’m only one of thousands who is going to miss him like crazy.

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Sending Kelly, Layla and Sam and Steve’s family all our love. Both I and my wife knows him from work. It is really painful to know that he has left us. Last time we saw each other was in the Rio+20 meeting. Never expected that was the last time. I have always been looking forward to listening to the rainbow warrior story from him again.
I was not that close to Steve but has always inspired by his legend. He has been a warm-hearted supporter to a young man from a small NGO. He and Kelly helped me understand that we are not just soldiers in specific battles but warriors in a long continuing war. And we should never lose sight of the global and historic picture.
Thank you, Steve, we will miss you!

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My condolences to Kelly, Layla and family.
I first met Steve when he became Sec Gen of GWEC, which he immediately brought to another level in terms of influence and credibility. I fondly remember the multiple late night discussions with him, Christian and Arthouros in random hotel bars in even more random countries, fiercely debating the latest forecasts for renewable energy and strategizing about the next moves in the fight against climate change. I feel privileged to have been exposed to such intellect, wit, passion, wisdom, and generosity. He was a good friend, mentor and enormous influence on the sector.
Steve gave us the belief that we can, and must, make a difference and the confidence to stand up and tell the truth – unapologetically. Bruce Douglas

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I’ve spent the last few hours going through all the eulogies for Steve, tears flowing in poignant appreciation for the stories and reflections that all ring true, about our friend, colleague, mentor and hero who is gone. Steve hired me in 1990 to develop the international forests campaign. I’d been working for the Rainforest Information Centre in Australia for a decade, chaining myself to bulldozers and participating in boycotts in defence of forests and solidarity actions for forest peoples in Asia and the Pacific. We had helped inspire and were inspired by Earth First! , the Rainforest Action Network and the World Rainforest Movement and we wanted to grow the movement. But I wasn’t sure if Greenpeace was a team player or if it would respect the rights of forest peoples. I put these challenges to Steve when he interviewed me in the annex on Keizersgracht. When he didn’t demur, I went on to say that a global forests strategy could be simple: Greenpeace will get consumer companies to reject paper and timber coming from forest destruction, from places where forest peoples and environmental groups were taking a stand. Steve gave me the job, which came with an assistant, a researcher and a million dollars programme budget, and said, go for it! Steve was line managing 18 people at the time, so I didn’t get much of his attention but I got help when I needed.

It was Steve’s idea to get half a dozen EDs from Greenpeace’s biggest offices arrested at Clayoquot Sound, where the coastal rainforests on Vancouver Island were being cut down for paper and lumber without the consent of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribes. Greenpeace Canada had been supporting a blockade of the logging there for a year and a thousand Canadians had been arrested defending the rainforests, one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canada’s history. But the logging continued. It was time to take the issue international. Steve winked at me and said that getting those EDs arrested was the sure fire way to get their offices committed to the campaign. And so it happened. As Tamara wrote, the EDs in their lock up cells swore, Steve Sawyer will pay for this! They all returned home as heroes and their offices doubled their efforts to track down and challenge the biggest buyers of pulp and timber coming from those forests. Hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts for pulp from MacMillan Bloedel and Interfore were cancelled until eventually, when even the Japanese market rejected the wood, the logging companies agreed to a moratorium on the logging in Clayoquot’s intact valleys. As Jo Dufay wrote, Greenpeace Canada put literally everything on the line for this, and it was Steve’s wise counsel and support that made that possible.

Steve didn’t last another year as ED; I’ve wondered if Thilo Bode’s time in that lockup cell full of angry loggers formed part of his push to oust Steve. But for me Steve remained a friend and colleague, a sounding-board and source of inspiration ever since. Vale Steve, thank you for all that you did and for how you did it, for all your kindnesses to friends and colleagues, for your fierce love for our Earth. Your spirit lives on in the actions of all you inspired.

Patrick Anderson

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I am deeply saddened by the news although I have never met Steve Sawyer. Since my early childhood, Greenpeace was like a torch guiding me, as I was discovering what direction to take in my life. It represents everything that I have come to believe in. Last month one of my dreams has come true. I had the privilege to visit ‘Rainbow Warrior’ (II) whilst it came to the beautiful island of Kefalonia in Greece, where I now live. I joined a group of protesters against the proposed oil drilling in the Ionian Sea. We have undertaken a number of activities in order to raise awareness of the dangers that come with oil drilling, the damage caused to the environment and to stop this from happening.
‘Rainbow Warrior’ stayed in the capital Argostoli on the 16 and 17 June to support local communities’ actions protesting sea drilling for hydrocarbons and highlighting the problem of climate change. I had the opportunity to go onboard for a guided tour, see a photo exhibition on the repercussions of climate change and talk to the crew about proposed solutions for the protection of the climate. What an amazing experience. Thank you, Steve Sawyer, for leaving us such an amazing legacy.
My sincerest condolences to his family.

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He was a perfectionist with everything; We had a lot of fun playing with the ought to be band at Greenpeace. Nobody can equal his energy and perseverence. We will always remember you !! Marc Keijzer (your drummer and harmonica player in the ninetees)

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So blessed to have known Steve Sawyer. So saddened to hear of his passing. I met Steve at the Greenpeace Boston office in the early 80’s. Soon after he would hire me as a crew member of the Rainbow Warrior – a role that I am most proud to have served. I remember a night during the seal campaign. The RW is parked in the ice up in the Gulf of St Lawrence. It is colder than this New England girl has ever experienced – but I am dancing outside under the stars with my fellow intrepid crew members. Steve has hooked up speakers through the portholes and he is blasting Ry Cooder’s Bop Til Ya Drop into the blackness of the night.
Such sweet memories of such a good man. I am honored to have known Steve and served Greenpeace under his watch. My condolences to the whole family.

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So here is my anecdote as an example how Steve managed to get us to go far and beyond the call of duty: Early 1990, when I had just been elected onto the Greenpeace International board and my son was just about one month old, Steve called to say as international board member with campaign background I was to go on the voting membership of Greenpeace Austria. So far so good. Why not. He then proceeded to say that the Annual Membership Meeting was to be in a months’ time and that I needed to be there as there was some sort of revolt going on inside the and that I needed to be there. But Steve, Danny will just be two moths old by then. So what! Kelly travelled with Layla when she was two moths old, chaired meetings, changed nappies at the same time as taking notes etc. so who was I to throw up problems. Thank you, Kelly, for setting impossible standards! 😊 But ok. If Greenpeace would cover a nanny to come along, I would go. Fine. Get one. Just be there. So I found a woman in my village who was good with cats and asked her to come along and look after Danny. On the day of the voting membership meeting, Steve told me I needed to go on the board of Greenpeace Austria, to help calm the troubles (apparently, I was trusted by both sides of the argument). Meanwhile, my new and still learning nanny was instructed to be back with plenty of time for me to feed and change my son, so we could all be in time for the meeting. But who did not show up? Exactly, nanny and baby. I was going hysterical, but Steve remained calm, offered to call all hospitals in Vienna to find out if they had had an accident, told me they would be fine, etc… Eventually they arrived, pretty clueless of their lateness (oh, is this the time?) and we had to run immediately to the meeting. That was also Steve: FOCUS! No time to feed the baby, there is serious business to be done. So he took the screaming baby off me and carried him all the way to the meeting (I am missing Layla terribly, please let me hold the baby!). Of course, we made the meeting just in time. But by the time I had fed and changed the baby, I was not only voted onto on the board, but freshly baked chair of the board of Greenpeace Austria. Thank you, Steve! Only those around in Vienna at the time will remember what that involved over the next two years… But I am not regretting one single day of it, as we all grew and learned so much those years. We simply had to. And we knew if Steve trusted us to do something, we would simply do our best.

Uta Bellion.

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Dear Kelly, Sam and Layla, my deepest condolences. I am so sorry for your loss. Steve was one of a kind. Knowing him, working with him, changed me and changed my life. I always admired his intelligence, humour and above all his drive! He was a role model, he made me believe one can make a change and even if it seems we are doomed you should keep trying. I will always remember how supportive he was with young inexperienced campaigners. At my first COP in New Delhi, I felt lost and useless but in the middle of the fiasco that conference was, he found the time and patience to explain and make me learn (and laugh) from my mistakes. We had a good system, with Mahi hiding confidential papers in her boots and passing them on to me in the restrooms, and then bringing them to Steve… Montreal was a good one too, I remember us sleeping on the carpet, and Steve running down the long corridors in the middle of the night. But I will remember him especially as a genuine, kind and loving person. I will miss his deep voice and laugh. Dear Steve I will cherish the memories and try to live up to your legacy. Sending lots of love to Kelly and the family xoxo Laetitia De Marez

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