Why is your idea important to change the world post COVID19?

Do you feel outraged when confronted with people and corporations who misuse and damage the environment? Do you always wonder why no one is stopping them? If you have the power to do things differently, what will you do? Do you have an idea to make this world a better, sustainable place? I am sure you have a story to tell, a message to spread, knowledge to impart, or a cause to convey. Here is an opportunity to change the world for the better. Make the planet sustainable. The problem is enormous, and we can't tackle it on an individual level. Let's join hands together to change the world.

World Post COVID19

The world is going through drastic changes with the COVID19. Several corporations will either get bankrupt or close operations. SMEs who operate honestly with their green products and with good intentions for their customers might be the ones who are going to bust first because they work on a thin margin.

Corporations who deceive people with fraudulent, unhealthy, and unsafe products may survive this massive tsunami because they created a deep pocket for themself over the years.

When the COVID situation settles, these companies will eat their competition pie as well. We might end up with these corporations who have the least interest in our mother earth and our society. Unless we wake up and create a better community, we will soon be creating a pretty bad ecosystem for us and our generations. COVID19 is going to reset the business world and is an excellent opportunity to redefine our lives and our expectations.

Sustainability Movement 

As a nature lover, when I gave up fighting with corporations and Governments, I ended up following Bill Mollison and joined his Permaculture community. I learned the same lesson which I learned in the path of spirituality. We can't change anyone; people need to be aware of their conditioning and come out of it. It's more an unknown-unknown for all of us. When it comes to the sustainability movement, this is true as well. More than Governments and politics, our lives now are ruled by corporations.

Human beings have been manipulated by people around us ever since the first set of Homo sapiens form. But never on a large scale, never at a global level, and never at the point, you don't even know that you are manipulated.

Never in the history of human beings, we allowed manipulators to do frauds on an unimaginable scale like what we see today. We are in the midst of the Data revolution, which is more significant than all the previous industrial revolutions we have seen. Fraudulent corporations are out there to make use of our data and use it against us in the name of doing us favors. We have seen these social data-holding companies win several cases filed against them. They found their loopholes. More such companies are expected to arrive in the upcoming years, and the game will only get complex.

The sustainability movement existed for decades. There are so many organizations that tried to do so many initiatives to bring green back into our world. Post Paris conference, 137 countries agreed to take action to reduce the temperature rising by 2 degrees. But nothing seems to be progressing. 

As a permaculturist, I see eradicating greenwashing is one way to save this planet. 

What is Greenwashing?

Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company's products are more environmentally sound. Greenwashing is considered an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company's products are environmentally friendly. 

• Greenwashing is an attempt to capitalize on the growing demand for environmentally sound products.
• Greenwashing can convey a false impression that a company or its products are environmentally sound.
• Genuinely green products back up their claims with facts and details.

Greenwashing Examples

• Irrelevance: An area rug is labeled "50% more recycled content than before." The manufacturer increased the recycled content from 2% to 3%. Although technically true, the message conveys the false impression that the rug contains a significant amount of recycled fiber.
• Lesser of Two Evils: A plastic package containing a new shower curtain is labeled "recyclable." It is not clear whether the package or the shower curtain is recyclable. In either case, the label is deceptive if any part of the package or its contents, other than minor components, cannot be recycled
• Fibbing: Claiming their products as "sustainable," "non-toxic," "biodegradable" without any basis.
• No Proof: Companies create their own Greenlist certification to place on their products instead of being verified by a credible party
• Vagueness: The company produces a small product that is eco-friendly to draw customers into their store. After the initial bait, customers are then presented with environmentally unfriendly products.
• Worshiping False Labels: A lot of car commercials feature vehicles in beautiful nature scenes when a new gas-guzzler isn't exactly the best for the environment.

Why should you act?

Greenwashing is impacting our sustainability movement extensively, not just because it's allowing greedy corporations to make easy money; it is also making it hard for the genuine green product manufacturers. Consumers find it increasingly hard to differentiate green products because of these greenwashing companies.

Allowing weed to grow along with the grain will lessen the chances for the grain to grow. Just by identifying and removing the weed, we can help the grain to flourish. If you can come up with a simple idea to identify and weed out these greenwashing companies, corporations with good intentions will flourish. When they grow, our mother earth will become green automatically.

You should make use of the Data revolution for your advantage. Now with COVID19, this is a perfect time. You are well educated, wise, capable, and experienced. Are you going to shy away from taking this in your hands to restore the mother earth? If not you, who? If not, now, when? 

What is your idea to eradicate greenwashing?

Is it possible to remove greenwashing entirely from our society? How can we do that? Is there a simple, implementable solution? If you are not planning to implement that idea yourself, then please feel free to share it, so someone in this forum gives your idea a life and makes you proud. Ideas worth nothing until it's implemented. Implementing these green ideas may or may not have financial gains. But it has a huge leap forward for the mother earth. Sharing your concept here may inspire someone to take this forward. I am one of those people too. I am seeing so many cases of greenwashing day in day out, and I feel why we as a society are keeping quiet. One person can't tie a bell to this gigantic cat. We all need to work together to #stopgreenwashing. Your idea may sound ridiculous to some, but it might spark relevant or implementable ideas to others. So don't hold back, write your idea here in the comments. Be an inspiration, and share your ideas to change the world. 

Support other's ideas in this thread with your likes as a symbol of your encouragement. I will shout out the name of a winner/s idea in this thread if I select to integrate that with our big data-based solution, which I am currently working with Lama Barhoush and jitendra singh.

Mark Twain says, "To do good is noble. To tell others to do good is even nobler and much less trouble." Why not take a less trouble path?

Share your idea to #stopgreenwashing in the comments.

#Changetheworld #stopgreenwashing #covid19 #bigdata #greenwashing #sustainability #greeneconomy