Three Simple Rules Can Help
The hope that individual actions will sum up to transformative change has long been a pillar of the environmental movement. Recycling your garbage may be the best example of how we’re told that personal decisions are key to preserving the earth.
Individual actions have certainly resulted in notable environmental wins. But every time, those wins come about because individual action was coordinated under good science and reinforced by policy change.
This was the case when BPA met its demise. Moms got wind of the dangers to their kids, informed by science. …
Let’s face it: we need those tickets to heaven
Consumers around the world plunk down an astounding $60 trillion each year buying shoes, cars, and cat butt tissue holders. With such vast scale, consumer spending is often called the “engine of the economy.” Over the past year, the power of that engine has grown even stronger. The pandemic lockdown led to less spending, and now trillions of dollars of savings are piled up in bank accounts.
How this money gets spent will compound the influence of consumers and shape the global economy for years to come. It could also determine whether humanity stands a chance of staving off extreme…
It’s Earth Day — the 51st annual tribute to the planet we inhabit.
Since 1970 this day has been a bittersweet affair, a day for sounding the alarm about how humans are slowly (or not so slowly) wrecking our natural ecosystems. But it’s also a day to get out and enjoy the Earth in all its splendor.
That mixed feeling is especially appropriate at this moment in climate change history. There is plenty of cause for alarm. In 1989 I went to the climate talk — by Al Gore, of course— that first got me interested in climate change. …
The first year is in the books. Here’s the story.
June 30th marked the unofficial close to Climate Neutral’s first certification year. 144 brands took the leap of faith with us, measuring and offsetting their carbon footprints, and setting out on a course to reduce their future emissions. We purchased over 200,000 metric tonnes of carbon offsets from projects around the world. Over ten million consumers learned about us through all manner of digital and printed media.
We will now focus on recruiting new companies to join us before the end of the year and become certified in early 2021.
If you read no further, here’s my one request: help…
Don’t Expect Unprecedented Results from Precedented Measures
Black Friday started on Monday this year, according to the advertising, which gives Americans a full week to indulge their consumer habits — interrupted only by the occasional mouthful of turkey. As in past years, few consumers will think about the link between their consumerism and climate change. In spite of the warnings, the companies that make all of those new socks and blenders and touchpads still have little incentive to stop.
This is a problem. The UN’s latest Emissions Gap Report this week offered the latest stark notice that world economies have…
Austin Whitman
CEO at Climate Neutral.
