Tellus Blog – Page 18 – What Can YOU Do?

For the first time in a long time, I feel very positive about our future. Over the past years, we’ve witness floods, fires and increasingly alarming numbers regarding global warming. It’s often felt that we’re all passengers aboard a fast train heading towards earthy despair. But then Covid-19 happened and alas a global lockdown actually ensued – I still can’t quite believe it!

It seems the train came to a sudden halt and finally our Earth, our Governments, the companies and ourselves were given a chance to gasp for a breath of (much-needed) air. What we saw was the quick regeneration of our fruitful Earth back to a powerful equilibrium that was achieved whilst we were all shut up. The world experienced clearer skies, friendlier sea life at our shores, wild animals reclaiming land and, ultimately, global warming slowing down – see my earlier Blog:

“We cannot always control what life may bring, but how we respond to it will shape everything”

So now, how do we maintain this sense of harmony? Surely, we’re not going to continue to strip mother nature of her resources even though we know a potentially daunting economic collapse lies ahead.

But perhaps this break from “reality” was a blessing in disguise. It is in fact, the best opportunity to make changes. And it’s not just me thinking this. It has made Governments, Chief Executives and Green Organisations commit to a better, greener World. After all, when something’s broken, it presents the opportunity to build it back better!

I’m happy to say it seems the hunger for a cleaner, greener return is larger than the hunger for more. Governments across the World, including the UK, are currently organising their ‘get out of lockdown plans’ for a smooth and fast economic recovery. They are calling it, ‘the post Covid-19 economic stimulus package’.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated, “We owe it to our future generations to build back better”. This sentiment is hopeful, resourceful and is finally an active response to the underlying existential fear that we’re experiencing, and the generations to follow. 200 Chief Executives of companies (including Asda, Heathrow Airport, Mitsubishi, Sky, Siemens, National Grid, HSBC) have signed up to focus on sectors that favour the environment post-COVID. Greenpeace and these Chief Executives are don’t usually see ‘eye-to-eye’ but now, these powerful forces are pulling together on the fundamental changes that need to be made.

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? “Polarities and Powers” coming together when it matters most. Greenpeace has outlined a manifesto stating strong and, in some cases, controversial plans for the future. The manifesto called for the net-zero emissions goal, that was for 2050 to be delivered before 2045.

I like this sense of urgency!

Greenpeace has also proposed to radically redesign the road network to prioritise cycling & walking and to ‘expand, electrify and increase the affordability of public transport’. Including the aim to speed up the transition to electric vehicles. There are discussions of petrol and diesel vehicles to be banned by …(drumroll please)… 2030!

This ‘break’ from the rat-race, albeit at times stressful and unsettling, means we can now walk (or cycle) out of this towards transformed economies and new business opportunities that await us. A decade ago, 40% of the country’s electricity was powered by coal, during the lockdown 30% of power was generated from renewables, surprising many experts who thought it couldn’t be done!

The European Commission has taken this mission seriously and is planning a whopping Euro €750 billion investment to tackle the economic downturn with a greener plan, with countless job opportunities on the other side. Clean energy calls for three times more jobs than investments into fossil fuel infrastructure. As well as getting the UK on a path towards a zero-waste economy, where EVERYTHING can be reused (hoping by 2025 we should have halved the production of single-use plastics), this will ultimately be supporting innovations and jobs from private investment including sectors of ‘efficient product design and sustainable waste infrastructure’.

The simple logic is the more you produce, the cheaper it gets, and the good thing about sustainable energy is that there’s not a finite amount of resource. This encourages a move towards low carbon technology. Higher employment opportunities, more investment in the right projects and, as renewable energy becoming cheaper to produce, the businesses will follow.

When this way of life becomes more sustainable, not just for the planet, but for companies, it will become ‘business as usual’. Globally, Governments are planning a considerable scale-up of solar and wind investment to make it more affordable. Whilst discussing a tax on oversea products depending on their carbon footprint making it costly to not be conscious.

Buckle up business folk, it’s better to make friends with the Planet!

I predict that the demand for travel, consumer products and therefore more useless production will remain low after COVID-19. With more businesses now trusting employees to work from home and shut down their places of work, it could have a positive effect on a restructuring of the global “hamster-wheel” as we’ve known it! It could be that more people become freelance, companies will expand their online presence and with more people staying home, the digital ‘realm’ will increase, decreasing the strain on external resources.

Of course, a lot of businesses have gone bust since COVID-19, so as these empty premises begin to fill, I trust there will be zero tolerance for new companies who are not green-conscious about business. This means looking to places that are zero-waste, ethical, sustainable and dare I say, more vegan – see my earlier Blog:

“VEGANISM: The Next Stage in Human (R)evolution?”

It’s up to us as business owners, future employees, consumers, users, travellers, and above all, a community, to do our part in facilitating the new world growth. We have a very exciting future ahead, let’s change our current behaviour to become even more responsible, more respectful, and more aware.

If you feel passionate about this change, the best thing you can do in this moment is share this blog with your friends.

Let’s spread this awareness by supporting the call for change!

Take care, keep well!

Blog: Eliza Pitkin
June 2020

Do you agree? Tell us what you think – email: tellus@whatcanyoudo.earth

“tellus” is a Latin word meaning “Earth” e.g. Tellus Mater the ancient Roman Earth Mother Goddess

I wrote a poem at the beginning of lockdown, with hopes for a more positive change, please enjoy!

More of my poems on Instagram – @elizapitkin.

References:

As we enter another month of lockdown, the Sustainable Goals can feel distant and quiet as the World focuses on the more immediate global situation at hand. However, it’s a good opportunity to look at other organisations that are working towards the same goals as us in order to sustain our motivation. One that really caught my attention was “Project Everyone”, this is an organisation whose mission is to bring about real change by 2030 in respect of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their focus is largely based on the communications around the UN’s Sustainable Goals Project, working towards governmental change, driving discussions in the UN and, more importantly, keeping the entire mission alive and breathing, working behind the scenes and regularly updating their Social Media presence by offering support during the pandemic.

Of course, these are the same Sustainable Goals that we are working towards. The founders of Project Everyone are Gail Gallie, who has created campaigns for P&G, political parties and worked in marketing for the BBC. The other co-founder is Kate Garvey, who has worked in communication for the Paralympic Games, Live Earth, The Global Fund and also worked in politics. They are supported by SDG Advocate and filmmaker Richard Curtis (probably best known for writing and directing on films such as Notting Hill and Love Actually). Richard is also the name behind Comic Relief, something we all know and love as an annual celebration of ‘madness’, in the name of charity, here in the UK.

Most certainly a strong team of people!

They work with the UN, create campaigns, raise money and awareness. They support various active campaigns such as “Goalkeepers” founded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, dedicated to accelerating progress towards the UN Global Goals. Alongside that, Project Everyone has called on the British Prime Minister to take a more conscious effort towards supporting the Sustainable Goals Project – sadly, the initiative to host the 2020 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow has had to be postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.

Amongst the hard work happening behind the scenes, Project Everyone is doing a fantastic job keeping the public informed with missions, achievements and conversations around current topics.

For example, they managed to bring together a variety of famous faces in support of the goals who joined in to encourage more awareness and motivation. These faces included (the late) Stephen Hawking, David Attenborough, Jamie Oliver, Ed Sheeran and politically influential people such as Malala Yousafzai, who stands to increase quality education – see “We the People” YouTube video link below:

I remember when I became aware of the Global Goals Project back in 2017, they created a campaign where you chose a Sustainable Goal that you felt most passionate about and took a photograph of it. Through the power of Social Media, it didn’t take long before the Global Goals spread like wildfire and entered the public mindset. However, it’s difficult to maintain momentum in an ever-changing world. Fortunately, there are many companies such as Project Everyone, Global Goals, and our own What Can You Do (Earth) striving to maintain a finger on the ‘sustainability pulse’ over time.

The future feels uncertain for us, our children and the Planet. Covid-19 has taught us a lot about the importance of working together to battle something. It’s clear to me that the Global Goals can be our Golden Ticket ‘way out’ of the financially vulnerable situation we now find ourselves in. Global Goal 1, ‘No Poverty’ will be a common hardship we’ll face as a result of the lockdown. This could encourage countries to try to recover independently. But now, more than ever, we need to work together to tackle global poverty alongside all the other Global Goals.

Project Everyone projects a conscious business acumen, keeping current, conscious and purposeful in an operation that will take years to achieve. They have set their goal, 2030 which – can you believe it? – is only ten years away! It is powerful and necessary to have an inspiring goal at a time when there are opposing forces and deadlines, whether that be climate change, unnecessary infrastructure, animal extinction and so on. We should pay attention to organisations like Project Everyone, they are what they say they are:

‘A project for everyone’.

It is more than a glimmer of hope, it is an influential team trailblazing towards a brighter future. It’s organisations like this that provide the motivation whilst we navigate our way out of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

News-flash: We are excited that our “WCYDo App” (What Can You Do) will shortly become available to support you and your chosen Goal in a way that feels easy, doable and ultimately effective. Until then it’s inspiring to track the journey of people and projects such as ‘Project Everyone’.

We are grateful, excited and looking forward to what lies ahead.

Until the next blog, keep positive and continue to make healthy, and happy decisions for yourself and others!

If you have another project, team or person you know that is inspiring progress, please share with us.

Blog: Eliza Pitkin

May 2020

tellus@whatcanyoudo.earth

“tellus” is a Latin word meaning “Earth” e.g. Tellus Mater the ancient Roman Earth Mother Goddess

A Cleaner World – “That’s just business”

Project Everyone: An Inspiring Companion in the work towards the Global Goals