Why imagining my 80th birthday has made me see green

At the end of January, I celebrated my birthday. On the day itself, someone asked me to imagine something I’d never considered before: my 80th birthday party. Who would be there? And what would the world be like? Then – more importantly – they asked me to think about the youngest person there. Perhaps it would be a grandchild. Imagine, they said, what the world would be like on their 80th birthday.

It’s hard to accurately visualise something so far into the future, but I tried to picture the scene. How would we be celebrating? Would balloons still be around? Will Colin the Caterpillar be the centrepiece of every great birthday by that point in time? I doubt it. The real point of the exercise is, of course, to think about our legacy: what will we leave behind for these people we truly love and care about and how will this impact their future?

It’s something that’s been playing on my mind ever since. A week or so later, I dragged myself on a run and was listening to a podcast that hosts and interviews business leaders. The guest that episode, who will remain nameless, made an offhand remark about the fact that the world is dying and it’s so dry in California that you don’t need to own an umbrella anymore. The ease with which he chucked the inevitability of the decay of our planet into the conversation really got to me, so I decided to write something about it.

But I want to be honest: writing about this topic makes me nervous. Why? Because I’m as fallible as the next person when it comes to climate. I don’t yet own an electric vehicle; I’m no vegetarian and I dream about jumping on a plane to a sunny destination with real regularity at the moment!

Yet I truly believe that when it comes to our planet, the worst thing you can do is nothing. And that was the starting point for the discussion I had with colleagues at Confused.com a few years ago about how we could do better and be greener. At our end of year review in 2019, I asked everyone the question: is this something you care about and something you’d like us to do more to address?

It generated significant levels of interest. Whilst there wasn’t 100% engagement or a unanimous view, it was enough for me to realise we had to do our bit. So, we did our research and properly investigated what makes a successful green initiative. We decided to go carbon neutral: reducing and neutralising our carbon footprint, firstly as a business and secondly for our employees.

I am proud of the fact that we’ve taken this additional step to provide all of our staff with the opportunity to offset their personal carbon footprint. We don’t enforce it – I’m more of a fan of nudge theory. If you agree to fill out the WWF Carbon Footprint Survey and let us offset your carbon, you get a green stamp on your email signature.

In providing this opportunity, we hope to give our team a sense that they’re helping on an individual level. I’m sure many can identify with the overwhelming feeling you get when you consider the climate crisis in its entirety. It’s very easy to doubt the meaningful impact that you, or your small business, can have to combat the issue.

Yet it’s important to recognise our privilege. We are in a position where we are able to do something – and in my case, work with others to drive progress forward. I’ve got a tonne of green ideas but I know these won’t come to fruition whilst they’re sat within the confines of my mind. I need to speak to others, seek out sources of inspiration and pool resources. It’s why I’ve signed Confused.com up to Terra Carta, a new charter that puts sustainability at the heart of the private sector, driven by HRH The Prince of Wales. We’re in great company and you’ll no doubt recognise the names of corporations on the growing list of supporters.   

There's much more work for us all to do, not least at Confused.com. By 2030, all new cars on the road will be electric. I want to investigate interest-free financing for EVs to encourage take up. Meanwhile, we're working to ensure our partners are as passionate as we are about their carbon footprint. We are reviewing our due diligence and procurement practices to ensure that our major suppliers are taking sufficient steps to reduce their environmental impact. I would also love to work more closely with our insurance partners on their net zero roadmap and highlight those on our panel who are greener than others.

We haven’t got there yet – but the 80th birthday exercise has really got under my skin. I can’t file these initiatives away in the ‘too difficult to handle’ cabinet: I need to crack on with activity that delivers meaningful, positive impact.

There are some major hurdles that we all face when confronting climate change[1]. The first is that we all work on a basis of temporal discounting. We overvalue benefits in the short-term versus the long-term. The number of chocolate digestives I consume in the space of a minute speaks to this (and I’m a Type One diabetic!).

The second is that we react to linear trends that we can judge easily. If a scary dog comes towards you on a street, you might choose to cross the road. Climate change is a good example of a non-linear trend that increases slowly at first and then accelerates, making it easier to ignore until there is a significant problem. It’s a bit like smoking: it’s not a few cigarettes but the culmination of years of smoking that leads to significant health problems. Yet some people smoke for years without engaging properly until suddenly there’s a problem. 

The third issue is one of distance. The massive bushfires that plagued so much of Australia last year; the ongoing droughts in East Africa that wipe out crops and livestock; the devastating floods and landslides in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In the UK, we see these distressing scenes on our mobile phones and televisions, yet it often feels far removed from our everyday lives – and we fail to recognise our personal implication. We choose to keep these issues psychologically distant.  

The power of the 80th birthday exercise is its ability to bring the future mentally close. It forces you to look in the mirror. If I’m choosing to enrich my life in certain ways at present, it materially damages the lives of future generations – and by that, I mean the grandchild at my 80th birthday, and the grandchild at theirs. A grandchild I know I will love with such force, as I love my own children today, that it resolves in me the need for action. As a business leader, the responsibility is even greater because I know I have a platform and the opportunity to take more action. The only wrong thing to do, is to do nothing. Because that birthday will come around sooner than we think.   

[1] https://hbr.org/2018/10/why-people-arent-motivated-to-address-climate-change