This One Simple Rule Can Save Our Planet

We hear increasingly alarming news about our planet. The most recent news came last week, on September 25. The United Nation’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published a report showing that polar ice is melting and sea levels are rising at higher speeds than ever before and more than we already thought. The solution for stopping and reversing such developments is mainly sought for at governments and businesses. But what if the key to change is in our own hands?

This week’s IPCC report is just the next in a very long list of reports—by the IPCC and other institutions—providing evidence that climate is changing and that this is largely because of human impact. With the exception of few, people are now widely convinced that we have a problem with our planet and that it is a serious one.

The solutions are known too. They include alternative energies, recycling, smarter transportation, reforestation and so on, and so forth. In 2017, Project Drawdown presented a list of no less than 100 solutions based on existing technology that, so they argue, can together stop and even reverse global warming. While not all might agree with every solution, this project convincingly shows that the technology and solutions currently available can already save our planet.

The problem is in implementing these solutions. After all, someone must implement them, or make that they are implemented. The main responsibility, so it seems, is currently given to governments and business. We expect governments to come up with solutions at, for example, the UN Climate Action Summit. And as shown in a report by UN Global Compact and Accenture Strategy that also came out this week, CEOs believe that business contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are far from being on track and that they drastically should step up their efforts—including those regarding climate change.

But progress is slow and limited. This is largely because of the complexity of both the problems and the solutions. Not their technical complexity, but their organizational complexity. Reversing climate change requires the effort of many across the globe. Coordinating such efforts is close to being impossible. Interests, power and different views on who should be doing what, make that no individual, organization, or institution can make it happen alone.

As individual citizens and consumers, we can do even less. After all, with our minor role in the global arena, we can’t create the solutions and we can’t be more than the proverbial drop in the ocean as initiators of change. And, instead of putting the burden on us, poor individuals, "they" (governments) should target large businesses in particular because those are the real harm-doers. Furthermore, what is the point of behaving in a more eco-friendly way if at the other end of the world nothing is done? We can't do much about it.

Or so it seems. Of course, the actual solutions indeed need to come from businesses, NGOs and governments. As individual citizens and consumers, we can’t implement them. But as individuals we can make a difference. I don’t mean as protesters. Protesting can help too, but it is usually only a small minority who are willing to stand up in that way. We can’t all be Greta Thunbergs and we don’t need to be.

But we can be the driver of change as consumers. Collectively, we do make a difference. This is the key to democratic societies in which every vote counts and the votes together determine who is in charge and thereby affect what is going to be done. In our role as consumers, this works the same: whatever we ask from companies, determines which companies will flourish and what they will produce. That is the basic mechanism of the market economy.

This means that, eventually, an crucial key to stopping and reversing climate change is in consumers’ hands. If we buy and ask for eco-unfriendly products and services, it is those that businesses will produce. And if we buy and ask for eco-friendly products and services, it is those that they will produce. This means that, at its heart, the solution to climate change is simple: buy less eco-unfriendly products and services and more eco-friendly ones instead.

One can give numerous objections. Eco-friendly products aren’t available enough, they are too expensive, they are not really eco-friendly either, there is not enough information to tell how eco-friendly they are, and so on. All these objections may be correct. There often aren’t a lot of options, they are more expensive and really knowing whether they are more eco-friendly than other options over their entire life-span is hard.

But they are excuses too. There is virtually always a more eco-unfriendly option and a more eco-friendly option. And even though information may be too limited to find out what really is the most eco-friendly option, your guts and conscience provide enough of a compass to rely on. The key to change is to more often choose the more eco-friendly option. So, the key to change is applying this rule whenever you make a choice:

Always choose the most eco-friendly option that you can afford

Applying this simple rule can make a difference. Not today, and not alone. But tomorrow and when applied by many. On the short term it leads to selling and producing more of the eco-friendly options available. And on the long term it stimulates the production and selling of new and even more eco-friendly products and services. And this doesn't work just locally. Many of the products we buy are made elsewhere on this globe. Buying differently has a direct impact there as well.

Since this rule takes into account what you can afford, it can be used by anyone, also if your budgets are tight. Whatever you have to spend and whatever you choose to spend your money on, there always is a most eco-friendly option that you can spend your money on.

Admittedly, this is not always easy. Even though I try to apply the rule on a day-to-day basis, I still go for the more eco-unfriendly (and usually cheaper) option much more often than my conscience tells me too. So, I’m definitely work in progress. And of course, applying this rule alone is not enough. Governments and businesses need to take their responsibilities too. But this is what we can do as individuals. So, if we want to save our planet, let the conscience consumer in us speak more often by applying this rule.