From flames of chaos, can business and capitalism emerge like a phoenix, leading the green revolution needed to save people and nature?

People, businesses, communities, third sector, schools, all of us, can make a huge difference, and together we have an opportunity to save people and nature from a catastrophic near term future.

The 'leadership' from Government is bewildered and confused, the 'system' is broken and transformation is happening, led by changemakers, purpose driven people and organisations. Together we can create a tipping point of awareness and action can't we?

Remember this?

Thanks Brenna Quinlan .

Now is the time to embrace change and reimagine a better future!

It has been hard seeing the chaos ensue, and the governments and cops fail us, but the only choice that makes sense to me is action, and determination. Let's remember the climate crisis has cost many lives already. If you are reading this you are one of the lucky ones.

For a dose of reality let's remember recent events that have barely made headlines, and be inspired by young climate leader Clover Hogan , this video is moving, thanks.

33 Million people lost their homes in Pakistan

Devastating floods this summer and autumn displaced 1.5 million Nigerians and killed 612

10 Million people die from #airpollution every year.

6.6 million have died from the pandemic. 10 million per year from pollution, the same pollution warming the climate and killing nature.

We changed together once, did what was never done before. The climate and nature crisis, is our opportunity to heal people and planet. Changes are happening and needed, but unlike the pandemic, the solutions and changes are better, less wasteful, more natural, like energy from wind and sun, not dinosaur juice!

Energy & Net Zero

Good news out of horror? World Energy Outlook 2022 from the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows the global energy crisis can be a historic turning point towards a cleaner and more secure future.

Net Zero or Net Confused?

You may remember back in December 2020 the UK Government released its energy white paper, setting in law the UK including your organisation must be ‘net zero’ by 2050. Well they recently dropped plans to appeal against a High Court ruling from July that found the government’s net zero strategy was unlawful. The UK government has conceded that its plan to cut carbon emissions is inadequate and must now come up with a better one. It has cemented the victory of environmental lawyers from ClientEarth , Friends of the Earth and the Good Law Project, who are calling the decision “an embarrassing but welcome climbdown”.

In the wider context, this is good news and shows that whilst the idea was good, the substance not, oh it was during the Boris era wasn’t it!? But seriously, climate justice in action and exposure of government failures leading to improvement is a big victory.

2050 net zero is still relevant, but the coming years even more so.

We know that failure to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy will lead to accelerated and catastrophic climate damage, loss of biodiversity, and economic, social, and political instability.?

The flawed plan relied too heavily on technology that doesn’t adequately exist yet such as carbon capture, direct air capture, blue and green hydrogen. It failed to proportionately focus on restoration of nature and biodiversity, or the potential positive impacts this could deliver for climate resilience and carbon reduction.

Many experts agree that we know how to use existing and known technologies to harness, store, and transmit energy from wind, water, and solar sources to ensure reliable electricity and heat supplies worldwide.?

Further good news is the rapid deployment of renewable energy generation to supply the national grid. Zero-carbon power in Britain's electricity mix has grown from less than 20% in 2010 to nearly 50% in 2021. In contrast, power provided from fossil fuels was down to roughly 35% in 2021 compared with over 75% in 2010.

The current energy crisis and price shocks in Europe are really hurting businesses. The energy crunch, partly created by and now exposing flaws in the system, its policy, governance, and regulation has delivered a sizeable stick to go alongside the green carrot in the form of eye watering costs. This has really stimulated and scared many businesses, to really focus on energy / operational efficiency and on-site generation such as solar PV.

If you are a UK business needing help with gas and electricity costs, saving energy and generating it, contact me for information and support.

Offsetting - just tree planting or greenwashing?

The net part of zero, relies on Offsetting, planting trees in its simplified form, but with a wide spectrum of ways this can be done, the impacts and reliability vary widely in credibility. Offsetting can polarise opinion, some use it to greenwash, but if we reframe the solution into ‘investing in nature’ we should all do it. But also look at our organisations impacts on nature, exploring opportunities to enhance nature across supply chains and product lifecycle impacts.

Sucking up carbon using trees, or sea grass, or mangroves, or soil – all of these ‘nature-based solutions’ rely on being part of a healthy ecosystem. There are many truly amazing initiatives funded by offsetting or carbon credits, but with the phenomenon having spawned a new poorly regulated market selling solutions, another layer of complexity exists.

Carefully selecting projects, which through habitat and ecosystem restoration and carbon removal credits can in theory offset emissions which can’t be removed and most importantly protect and restore biodiversity.

There is a huge opportunity to also help nature in your own back yard and sites, to where you get the stuff you turn into your products and value, to the impacts your products and services have on people and planet.

Helping nature, should be front and centre, with simple and even free help available, from many nature charities, community groups. There are local green and blue spaces waiting for your company to ‘offset’ through carbon removal, whilst engaging and enriching local communities.

Digital Carbon - Dark Data

A missing piece of corporate reporting and Net Zero strategies?

According to online carbon calculator website carbon, the average website produces 1.76g of CO2 for every page view; so a site with 100,000 page views per month emits 2,112kg of CO2 every year.?

A companies digital carbon footprint, all the emails, attachments, dark data, the energy costs to store and cool servers, the websites and digital content all have a carbon and energy cost.

Optimising this is powerful, reducing carbon, energy, increasing load speeds and in turn SEO. Furthermore an organisations customers may download website pages millions of times, so a more efficient site, reduces the data, energy and cost burden on customers.

Reducing data size can be done without impacting quality. I am working with an innovative leader in this space Shrinker Digital UK who can benchmark your web and digital footprint, provide a solution framework which your web person can deal with and fix, then benchmark your reduction and support with ongoing optimisation. Contact me to find out more, this is going to be big!

#Biodiversity?is increasingly creeping into the corporate vernacular, which is a good thing.

Vital, unlike distant "Net Zero" plans, we see real impacts now.

Corporates, and also SME's who are focused on biodiversity need to appreciate it's about impact in the here and now, reducing harm and being nature positive must be a key part of strategy.

Jobs focusing on preserving and regenerating nature are on the rise. The focus: mitigating risk and seizing opportunity.

Businesses committed to address the biodiversity risks and opportunities associated with their activities increasingly need information about the status of species and habitats found across their operations and in their supply chains.

Check out the IUCN guidelines for businesses committed to improving their biodiversity performance.

A user-friendly framework for the verification, design and scaling up of Nature-based Solutions https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2020-021-En.pdf

The?International Union for Conservation of Nature?( IUCN ) is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. Created in 1948, IUCN is now the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network, harnessing the knowledge, resources and reach of more than 1,400 Member organisations and some 15,000 experts. It is a leading provider of conservation data, assessments and analysis. Its broad membership enables IUCN to fill the role of incubator and trusted repository of best practices, tools and international standards.

Elsewhere a global cross-disciplinary team of scientists led by?UNSW Sydney?researchers has developed the first comprehensive classification of the world’s ecosystems across land, rivers and wetlands, and seas. The ecosystem typology will enable more coordinated and effective biodiversity conservation, critical for human wellbeing.

Habitat / ecological restoration projects are proliferating.

Can your business support a local nature group or lead a project in partnership with a sustainable food group?

Helping nature and biodiversity starts at home, at work, and includes cities and urban spaces. Think less chemicals and pollution, more green and blue!

It is time to make cities more rural isn't it?

Love this article from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

"scientists like Bousselot are investigating how designers and planners can ruralize cities, greening roofs, and empty lots. The concept is known as “rurbanization,” and it could have all kinds of knock-on benefits for ballooning populations, from beautifying blocks to producing food more locally. It dispenses with the “city versus country” binary and instead blends the two in deliberate, meaningful ways. “You don’t have to set this up as a dichotomy between urban and rural, really,” says Bousselot. “What we should probably focus on is resilience overall.”

On a local level, I am grateful to have been able to help create Green Circle Nature Regeneration CIC , a project which has delivered impactful change, creating beneficial outcomes for people, biodiversity and our interconnected communities. Thanks to a nature first philosophy and dedicated volunteers, the stewardship of the places we manage has created an urban nature reserve and biodiverse oasis, which is enjoyed by our community – both human and all manner of wonderful creatures. The urban blue and green habitats we have restored balance the needs and dynamics of people, their safety, and biodiversity. The below is a site which in 15 years of neglect (rewilding) and then sensitive stewardship over recent years has seen us record IUCN red list species, and others new or lost to the city.

Opposite here is Little Mead, a public green space and part of the Soar corridor. It is an important transportation link for sustainable travel such as cycling and walking, with the latter now being transformed. Working with Leicester City Council Parks & Open Spaces?we removed approximately?200 syringes?that had built up in an urban ‘drug den’ and set to work at opening the space with sightlines, reopening a derelict path and restoring to a biodiverse habitat.

Funding remains a challenge and one that with your help could support even greater and quicker impacts, are you, or do you know a #Leicester based business or volunteer who can support?

On a larger scale, this is an exciting project....

Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef (ReMeMaRe) (pronounced “re-memory”), is an ambitious habitat restoration initiative, so called, as it aims to address baseline shift and reverse centuries of decline of three of of England's priority estuarine and coastal habitats, seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and European native oyster (Ostrea edulis) reefs.

In England, over recent centuries, we?have lost:

• ???Seagrass meadows from 50% of the water bodies where it was once found
• ???85% of saltmarsh
• ???95% of native oyster reefs

By restoring these precious estuarine and coastal ecosystems, they are enhancing society's connection to the natural world, whilst delivering Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that address issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, sustainable food, health and well-being, as well as the socio-economic benefits of recreation and tourism that can help to alleviate deprivation in coastal towns.

Sustainable Food

Couldn't agree more we need awareness and a change in narrative. Binary messages like vegan is the only way, or meat is bad, alienate people, miss the nuance and reality. This article from Forbes is insightful "Newspaper coverage of dietary change is reminiscent of widely criticised coverage of climate change earlier in this century, the study says, which presented the human causes of global warming as debatable long after scientists had reached consensus."

Plant based diets are what we need more of, and to stop factory farming. But meat is good, Cows are good, for the environment and food systems, just not factory farming relying on chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other man made inputs.

Take Venison, here in the UK we have too many (bring back the Lynx & Wolves I say!) they eat baby trees and prevent habitat diversity in the absence of predators. I have been arguing for a while, we should eat more of them. Here are some interesting articles from 1) The Ethical Butcher | B Corp and 2) Riverford Organic Farmers

On a local level, I am grateful to have been able to support Terri Mowle build the #permaculture start-up VEGVAN COMMUNITY FARM CIC

Check out this amazing feedback from a session Terri led...

"The activities that have been created for us are based around holistic planning of eyes, heart, hands and head so the children can think about what they see, how they feel, what they can touch/do and what they think.

They are also based on the permaculture ethics of Earth care, People care and Fair shares and the principles within them.

For our first session we split into colour groups – relating to the vegetables growing at the farm. We then in our groups checked what month it is and what seeds could be sowed, we all planted some seeds; we also dug some beds ready to plant out later in the season. We watered the seeds, counted the vegetables and harvested Squash, Marrow, Nasturtiums, Lettuce, Rainbow Chard. Chilli’s, Tomatoes and Chives.

We brought the vegetables back to make soup.

We then had our fruit and collected the peel and cores for the compost heap.

The children had an amazing time and learnt a lot about how to grow vegetables, learning lots of new vocabulary."

Are you, or do you know a #Leicestershire or #eastmidlands business looking to support and collaborate, creating meaningful CSR with a community farm doing this kind of thing? Contact me or Terri to find out more!

Do you have spare garden space? Or no space and want to rent a garden patch?

This cool company AllotMe ?? has created a a?digital?platform to help more people to grow their own food in the city. "We'll?pair local residents with available space and gardens in their area.?In London, less than 40% of us have their own private garden space, but still want the?opportunity?to eat healthier and more sustainably from our own patch. At AllotMe, we want finding a vegetable patch to be as easy as ordering a taxi or booking a b&b."

Something fun - Easiest way to grow tropical fruit salad from seed! Cool video

Something to try - Incredible Garden Hacks to Save You Time and Money | Investing.com Magazine

So, are you, or will you become a Regenerative business?

Regenerative business, not just another buzz word?

With the current system unsustainable and being disrupted, seeking to sustain, is like treading water in the ocean, it is impossible to stay still for long, so we must do more and swim against the current, playing a part in redefining what is possible, healing and nurturing the environment and communities.

Local impact is key! Rebuilding our connection with food, consumption, investing in nature and ecosystem restoration, through meaningful impacts, reduces carbon, cost, transportation, and waste.

Regeneration is the opposite of the current system which extracts and depletes, and a reason for huge optimism are the changes happening in farming, away from chemicals and monocultures... back to nature based power.

#Agroecology is about applying ecological principles (biodiversity & symbiosis) to agricultural practices and systems. This includes the design, development, and management of these systems.

It includes things like?permaculture, regenerative agriculture, organic farming, food forests, and other innovative ways to farm while also helping to build biodiversity and prevent ecological harm.

Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems.

Regenerative businesses looks like a rehabilitative approach, finding commercial and strategic opportunities in replacing negative impacts on nature, biodiversity, people, and climate with impacts that enhance and protect people and nature. What could be more important?

Whether a growing small business or a large complex organisation, challenges are diverse, yet successful pathways are clear. As always, recruiting, retaining, and developing people whose purpose aligns with business values is key.

This is a great time for reviewing mission, vision, and values, through a green lens.

By involving your people, co-creating and delivering authentic, impactful brand propositioning and stakeholder engagement strategies, underpinned by clear communication across HR, Operations, Sales and Marketing

Where does sustainability and environmental impact fit in?

Contact me to explore

What is coming up?

If you have not yet heard about Circle2Success Ltd check them out - some great networking and marketing opportunities, and culture. "Better connected through our marketing, advertising, magazine, social media & C2S online and In person events. Better informed through our forums, C2S Leadership Development Programme, thought leadership, focus groups and workshop programme."

Angela Edwards Director and Co-Founder at Circle2Success Ltd suggested I write an article for their next digital and printed magazine, you can see it online, pages 74-75, or register for a printed copy

We will report on the carbon footprint of digital v print in another newsletter :)

I would love to explore your questions!

What challenges?or opportunities are you navigating across energy, cost management, business development, sustainability and biodiversity?