Ecopreneur Files 31: Is all this even worth it?

Hello Fellow Ecoprenuers ????

I know, I know - it has literally been MONTHS since the last Ecopreneur Files.

I haven't forgotten, not even a little, but look, life does crazy things. In the last few months I've gotten married, joined a community farm, continued working on my own garden, added new workshops to my repertoire, gained (and lost) clients, and taken on a lot more work trade than we ever have at Dandelion Branding .

In a nut shell, I'm a busy lady. So my favorite lil newsletter fell a bit to the wayside. I'll try and work on it.

Anyways, I had an interesting conversation with my Father-in-Law this weekend that I wanted to share with you.

Is Sustainability Even Worth it?

My in-laws came over for dinner last weekend and after we ate, Tom and I took them over to our community bio-farm. We showed them around and shared all of our slug woes. Super Lovely.

On the walk back from the garden, I had an open conversation with my Father-in-Law about personal sustainability.

Namely, that he's feeling more and more pessimistic that he can truly make any difference at all with his personal sustainability goals. In his view, he works hard to do what he can, which is more than most:

• Eat plant-based and predominately vegetarian.
• Buy local and bio whenever possible.
• Fix and reuse when possible.
• Gifting experiences, not things.
• Retrofitting their house with #solarpanels and a #heatpump.
• Go by train when possible and drive a hybrid vehicle when it isn't.

And then he wants to take one trip to South America and the CO2 from the plane is more than all the changes he's making in his life put together.

And not only is he made to have guilt around the plane trip, he is starting to feel hopeless about the other changes he's made.

He's asking himself, "Is it even worth it?" and "Can we really #makethedifference?"

A Hard Truth

I 100% get what my Father-in-Law says, and sometimes I feel the same way. Am I really making any difference? Do I think we're really going to stop the #climatecrisis with personal life choices?

I shared this with him, and I'll share it with you today because I think we all feel a sense of responsibility for our planet and the looming social, environmental, and political issues.

I don't think any one person can make all the difference.

I don't even think ALL the people can make ALL the difference.

Because it isn't just individual people that are causing the problem. In fact, individual life choices hardly move the needle in the sustainability world. Business, industry, and our built-up world has an impact that is causing an insurmountable problem. This is what has to change. Society has to change.

It's a hard pill to swallow, I know. When we care about something, we want to feel like the work we individually put into it makes a difference. In this case, it mostly doesn't.

We, the average human wading through this world, make changes so that we can demand that same change throughout the world. So that we can be on the side of history that acts as a steward of this planet. So we can sleep better at night.

I can totally see why, after the green glow wears off, people start giving up.

What Can We Do, Really?

Well, of course, everyone's capacity for sustainability is different. But I say, "do what you can - and share what you're doing with your network."

If that means reusing jars, fixing old clothes, decreasing your food waste, and starting a home compost bin, do that. And then talk about all of it at a dinner party with your friends, offering to teach them what you know.

When we teach our networks how to care about taking sustainability into their own hands, we also teach them how to share the information with their own networks. The more people we reach, the better chance we have of reaching people in decision-making positions at businesses.

So, Is it Worth It?

I personally think working in sustainability is worth it - if you look at the picture past your own hands.

If you can pass what you know forward. If you can share solutions, build networks, and change the minds of your community.

The real work here isn't glamorous, it's tedious. You'll have the same conversation over and over about why you switched to induction, why a heat pump, why you're not taking the flight, or why you're missing the destination event. And eventually, these conversations will be normalized.

Sustainability will be a mainstream consideration.

And we can start seeing real, massive change.

And in the meantime, I'm still going to celebrating the small businesses making strides like Undesert Corporation , Soil Heroes Foundation , Aquaria , Cano Water? , B'ZEOS , Climate Farmers , Tomorrow University of Applied Sciences , Zero Waste Strategies , STROODLES - ECO TABLEWARE , CHALK REBELS , Re/generatie , TAKK , Cambium Carbon LLC , Planboo , Disruptor London , and the hundreds more that are playing their part in making the technology for meaningful change available.

What do you think? Is it worth it?