Code Red - What we can do

The UN issued a Code Red Warning for Climate Change. ?People can become quite passive to warning signs and alarm bells.?Even when the canaries start chirping down the mine and red flags appear people will always say that is normal it always does that there is nothing to worry about.

?So even when the world’s leading climate scientists delivered their starkest warning yet about the?deepening?climate emergency, with some impacts thought to be “irreversible” for centuries to come, a new story comes along and its quickly forgotten.

A lot of the real issues with climate change are out of sight and therefore out of mind.?Very few of us have relatives in the West Coast of America where the combination of extreme heat and huge forest fires have had a huge impact on the population.?Or the same in Brazil, Australia and Greece which have all had catastrophic fires.

So what does that tell us about how people treat climate change and is it the big elephant in the room. People rarely react to something unless it's in 2 degrees of separation. Take covid for example unless someone knows someone who has been hospitalised or died they tend to deny the existence like it's something that happens to other people but not me.

?We are more likely to react to something when it impacts a family member or friend.?So when a cousin in London has a basement flooded, or an uncle or auntie can’t get to work due to flash floods, or a mum/dad or brother or sister has their house damaged due to extreme weather then we tend to be a lot more aware about the changing world around us.

?In extreme cases as we saw in Germany and Belgium when a catastrophe hits like 2 months of rain in an hour, it's too late to do anything about it and we can lose everything.?If we can see the red flags around us then we should take action before its too late because it will whether we like it or not have a direct impact on our daily lives.

?For example when Spain had flash floods in 2019 not only did 3,500 people have to be evacuated most of the fresh produce from lettuces, cucumbers and tomatoes were ruined and many of our supermarkets had very limited supplies of fresh produce for months.

The world has a huge population and we have stretched resources and it becomes very fragile when links in the chain break.?One of the biggest problems is that while the scientists are talking about the issues and the insurance companies keep making larger and large pay outs there is not being enough done about addressing what needs to change and how to do it.

This is where consumer power and the entrepreneurs step in, as an individual one person can’t change something but you can influence a group of people to change and when large groups of people do something together that’s where we see a real tangible measurable impact.?

?Take for example zero waste shops in 2016 there was practically no zero waste shops and now there is over 2,000 of them.?The rise of a movement called B Corp movement, where companies put the purpose ahead of profit and work in a socially responsible way to both people and the environment is signalling a major shift in consumer behavior.?

?Our own company The Cheeky Panda founded in 2016 has been carbon zero since 2017.?By people using Cheeky Panda products we have calculated we have saved 250,000 trees, reduced 31,500 tons of carbon and reduced plastic consumption by almost 10 tons for toilet tissue, kitchen towels and wipes. If we continue growing at our current rate we will have saved over 3,000,000 trees by 2025, reduced carbon by 300,000 tons and taken out over 100 tons of plastic from the system. Here is where it gets really interesting if Cheeky Panda represents just 5% of the global tissue and hygiene market we would save 1,200,000,000 trees and 150,000,000 tons of carbon. This would have a direct contribution to stopping climate change. Our impact is both measurable and huge!!

?Its not just our impact that has grown so has our turnover ￡1.7m in 2019, to ￡5.2m in 2020 and forecast for ￡12m by the end of 2021.?The share price has grown from ￡4.23 in 2017 to ￡50 today.?Its been backed by over 4,000 individual investors through crowdfunding, a large majority of them preferring to put money into a business they know and trust than in pension fund that has a portfolio of companies that may not be aligned to the individuals interests.

?This democratisation of financial markets from retail investors into the green economy is something that comes around only a few times in a century, from the Gold and mineral rush in America in the 19th century, the oil boom in the early 20th century, the tech boom in the later part of the 20th century.

Pioneering firms like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Tesla in their early days always have their supporters and critics.?A change of consumer sentiment means that while all the financial models can look good if we ignore the macro economic situation then what happens is we get exactly the same thing happen as the credit crunch.?Except and environmental crunch will be much harder and more widespread as its not just our finances that will be impacted but our daily lives.

?So we need less talking and reporting and more consumers buying products without plastic packaging, a more flexitarian diet, greener energy investment and the mass exodus of investment in the brown economy and into ESG businesses. Its not a case of making the change for the world, its making the change for your sons and daughters, your nieces and nephews, your cousins and even yourself because at the end of the day its our families and friends that will either be the beneficiaries or the losers of the decisions we make today.

?More information about The Cheeky Panda and our mission can be found at www.cheekypanda.com