The Only Way Out is Forward

Have you ever driven a car that has started skidding? There’s that sudden change in momentum as you feel the car begin to slide away from you, and the sickening feeling in your stomach as you realise that the steering wheel is no longer a reliable way of controlling the direction in which your big lump of metal on wheels is going to go. If you’re anything like me, your instinct is to slam your foot on the brakes on the basis that if you can’t move in a direction of your choosing, it’s better to stop moving altogether. Of course, jumping on the brake pedal mid-skid is the last thing you should do.  

At the moment, our planet and our species are skidding. As much as we might be doggedly clinging to the steering wheel in a bid to keep the path of human history marching in the same direction we’ve been headed for the last 150 years, nature and her reactions to our behaviour during that period are pushing our back end out wildly and we are perilously close to finding ourselves upside down in a ditch of rapidly rising water. As in a car, I passionately believe that the way out of the current crises in which we find ourselves is forward. 

There are those who advocate slamming our collective foot on the planetary brakes instead. Often the argument is presented by those who look to our past, rather than our future, for the answers. They look at the climate of the earth in the pre-industrial era and marvel at how our smaller, simpler lives co-existed so much more harmoniously with the Earth and our fellow living inhabitants. The answer, they say, is to take steps to return our human existence to something in that vein. Do away with flights between nations, and even regular travel beyond the distance across which your feet can carry you. Drastically reduce our consumption of meat and we rewind our diets to the plant-dominated fayre of that by-gone era. Consume less, see less, and (perhaps with a little poetic licence) be less. In a world where humans are smaller, such proponents argue, their impact on the planet and its climate will cease to be the recipe for disaster it is now. 

For me, whilst such an approach is as understandable as the driver who stamps on the brake as their car begins to skid, it is just as flawed. The pragmatic, honest reality is that there is no turning back the clock on history. Having grown into the rampant consumers we are today, none but the smallest minority of our global civilisation are willing to give up the pleasures of modern humanity, or to give up their struggle to attain those pleasures in those parts of the world we sometimes describe as “less economically developed”. 

Instead, I believe the only way out of our impending doom is forward through the tried and tested power of human innovation and creativity. For me, the fact that in the last 150 years we’ve gone from a society built on the transportation abilities of horses, to being able to launch rockets into orbit before landing their empty fuel tanks autonomously on remote-operated drone ships in the middle of the ocean suggests that the answers to our problems lie in more development, not less.  

For example, whilst it is certainly true that we need to see diets (especially western diets) transition rapidly away from industrially farmed meat, I don’t accept that necessitates the end of the burger as we know it. The remarkable innovations of start-ups like Beyond Meat prove how the cutting edge of human innovation can let us have our burger and eat it. Or in Beyond’s own words – “Uncompromisingly delicious plant-based burgers, sausage and beef, no sacrifice required”. 

This belief in progressive, innovation-driven solutions to our global crises is a huge driver for me and the wider team at The Good Box. Our model rests squarely on the presumption and acceptance that most consumers won’t be willing to change their buying habits if it means them spending more or getting less. So instead, we have innovated.  

By identifying that organisations have an increasing motivation to make their operations less harmful, we’ve been able to bring new money and new incentives into the consumer decision making process for their staff. Through The Good Box, households can get their hands on products that perform better than the market leaders, cost less thanks to the contribution from their employer, are more convenient thanks to our automatic deliveries, and do massively more good in the world. We don’t want our customers to consume less, we want them to consume better. 

As more and more corners of humanity come to recognise the stomach-churning signs of our planet skidding out of control, I’m certain that humanity has the potential to steer into the skid and get back on track without leaping to that brake pedal. 

If you’d like to read more of my articles, visit my blog, or to find out how you can get involved with The Good Box please leave a comment or drop me a DM and I’d be delighted to share more!