Time for 3Es

We have all heard of the 3 R’s and even the 5 R’s. And they have a critical role to play in solid waste management and usher in conscious consumerism (does this make sense or is it something we say to comfort ourselves that we needn’t change at a fundamental level? Topic for another post).?

Over the past year, GHGs in the atmosphere continue to grow leading to continued rise of global temperature (we even had a glimpse of how life would be at + 1.5 degree centigrade earlier in 2024). And pleasingly, consumption of sustainable products / solutions has risen like never before. However, as we bask in his ‘green glow’, shouldn’t that also alarm us a bit? How can things continue to be the same even if there is some non-trivial action happening at the same time??

Well, there are many reasons and we need to address all that. However, this post is about a critical thing - how do we scale and sustain action and make it holistic??

I would like to introduce the model of 3 E’s - Engage - Empathise - Empower

Homo sapiens are the only species which has steadily desensitised ourselves from understanding our role as a member of the ecosystem on Earth. Every species has and fosters a symbiotic relationship with everything else in this ecosystem. In that, they take what they need and contribute what they can to the rest of the ecosystem. However, we continue to foster a relationship fraught with ego-driven and imbalanced thought process. The surest sign of it being the save the Earth mantra to adopting sustainable living. As if, we are doing it a favour and that we can simply reverse it all. Earth has survived 3.5 billion years and all kinds of life forms have survived, thrived and gone extinct over this period. In its remaining 3 billion years many more will go through this cycle, Homo sapiens being one such. So, if any, we are saving ourselves.?

This mindset hasn’t come overnight, but has been systemically entrenched into our psyche over a period of time, sometimes unknowingly, many a times well planned. And it has led us to build apathy towards nature. We believe we can curate nature and the rest of the ecosystem to our likes and desires any time.?

To address this issue, we must transcend apathy and cultivate Empathy.

How do we do it? We need Engagement. We need to engage at every level with all kinds of stakeholders and it needs to be continuous and not a one-off activity. Social media, education, music, tangible information - there are umpteen ways. At Smarter Dharma , we realised that using tangible data as a way to inject empathy at multiple levels would be a way. Others look at education and work with schools, while still others do citizen engagement. Every and all of these are required. It might seem futile sometimes and frustrating many a times if we don’t see action. This is a common lament amongst educators and stakeholder engagement professionals. I believe this is because the focus mostly has been towards awareness which looks for quick action. What we need is to step away from focusing on action and use all tools at hand to building empathy.?

Empathy focused Engagement is the need. Now, the question is how do we know Empathy is built? Well, it isn’t an overnight process NOR is there a empathy barometer I have heard of and can be deployed (I am sure many a psychologists would be happy to invest in one such tool :-D). And key to building empathy is to do with compassion. Compassion is critical in building lasting empathy. And it also requires patience. Without patience one cannot achieve it. This is required on both sides; for, far too long we have weaned away from nature on a daily basis in our lives.

Now, there can be key parameters and attributes one can use to gauge the effectiveness of these engagement activities. Behaviour and attitude shifts as well as time spent along with social media focus are just some ways to measure.?

Once Empathy is built, the onus moves to service / solution providers to provide right information, tools and technologies to Empower and ease decision making. The focus again is on EMPOWERing decision making. And NOT on action. My firm belief is that when rooted in EMPATHY towards holistic, sustainable living - which is in a harmonious relationship with the ecosystem, every individual is ready to make the right choices. We need to just EMPOWER them. Whether one needs to purchase a t-shirt, approve budget for Renewable Energy source to power a new hotel OR go the extra mile in taking public transport, it would be come naturally. This means we need to just ensure they have the following -

1. Easy to use tools & data driven decision making capabilities.
2. Dependable sources.
3. Belief in the system that the user is not unintelligent.?

When these are done and there is mass progress in the way more sustainable choices become default choices, policy makers WILL help normalise such behaviour.

#climateChange #sustainableDevelopment #empathy #3Es #climateAction