Spend Green and Save The World: Tackling Climate Change Through The Consumer-Led Movement

By Liz Christou

Climate change is the most important issue facing the world today. But are you left wondering what more you can do, personally?

This book is a practical guide on what you can do to make a difference. And the amazing thing is that it only takes 3.5% of a population to act in order to create cultural change, and a mindshift in wider thinking! By coming together and using our consumer power – as part of The Consumer-Led Movement – we can influence businesses and government policy, and rapidly shape a better future. All through consciously choosing how we spend our money.

Making changes can be challenging even when we have the best of intentions. Instead of massive, overnight changes – incremental change is the key. By applying principles from psychology and problem-solving techniques, this book shows readers how to embark on a motivational journey of actualising climate change solutions. These provide the means to live in line with environmental values, and improve overall wellbeing.

- Dig into the true causes of climate change.
- Learn why government policy is too slow and indebted to big business to implement profound, speedy change.
- Understand how to take personal action to improve your carbon footprint, even when life is full of other priorities.
- Use Lean/Agile techniques to actually implement change in your life.
- See how one person can make a difference, by being part of a small network of change.
- Learn from an author who has walked the walk, not just talked the talk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bennion Kearny
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781914066023

Book preview

Spend Green and Save The World: Tackling Climate Change Through The Consumer-Led Movement

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Liz Christou

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Other Books that Might Interest You

Dedication

Acknowledgements

About the Author

1 | Understanding the Problem and Being the Solution

Section 1 – Our climate problems

The problem, part 1 – our inner struggle

The problem, part 2 – our external surroundings

The problem, part 3 – our ‘big-picture’ issue

Section 2 - The real root cause and what it has to do with us

Failing government

So what about big business?

We’re stuck in a Capitalism Catch-22

Section 3 – The Consumer-Led Movement

Good buy to climate change

Individual actions add up

(A minority of) People Power

Let’s come together – right now

The information age

Key takeaways from this chapter

2 | How to Navigate and Apply this Book Successfully

A new approach

Goals and measures

1. Primary goal

2. Secondary goal

3. Stretch goal

Key takeaways from this chapter

3 | Consumer Products

Overconsumption

Cutting consumption down

1. New clothing

The solutions

Host clothes swapping parties

Rejuvenate wardrobe faves

Poppin’ tags

Capsule wardrobe

Cut down bit by bit

You are what you buy

2. Household furnishings

The solutions

Don’t be an Ikea sheep, shop second-hand

Restore/Upcycle

Built to last

3. Gadgets/electronics

The solutions

Consolidate your devices

Buy second-hand/refurbished electronics

Eco-friendly devices

4. Books/magazines

5. Household appliances

The difference that coming together can make

Key takeaways from this chapter

4 | Transport

Our journeys determine our destination

Flying high

Flying for pleasure, don’t waste time off

Weather the storm?

The sky is the limit

Continuously improving

Flying for business

Offsetting – can we pay the problem away?

Driving

Don’t stall - carpool

Update your style

Walk that walk, peddle that bike

Public transport

Should we all buy electric cars?

Drive on?

A final thought

Key takeaways from this chapter

5 | Food

Cognitive dissonance – we can be sure we’re stubborn

Animal foods and health

Animal foods and cruelty

Cognitive dissonance and the CC22

Eating animal foods and climate change

A positive climate tipping point

Solutions: the size of the footprint prize

Plant the seeds of progress

Origins

Food waste

Solutions: Lean away from waste

Shop smart: buy little and often

Storing isn’t boring

Get creative

Plan meals

Veg boxes

Eating out

For a nice aftertaste

Key takeaways from this chapter

6 | Energy Use at Home

Easy, not sexy

Being dirty isn’t all bad

The future can be bright

How much carbon do we produce at home?

Switch your supplier

Fifty shades of green

Suppliers with social goals

Gas

Energy-efficient home - retrofitting

Lighten up

Insulation

Temperature control – passive or massive?

Energy smart

Systems thinking

Generate to be regenerative, and help create a positive future for all

Key takeaways from this chapter

7 | Recycling

Recycle last

Reduced, reused, now recycle

Not where we need to be

Recycling solutions

Plastic

Recycling plastic - solutions

Use an alternative scheme

Food

Paper

Steel cans

Aluminium

Glass

Everything else

Getting going

Key takeaways from this chapter

8 | Continuously Improving

1. In your home and on your phone

How to cut back on tat

Eco-friendly everything

Decorating your home

Household supplies

Personal hygiene

Think outside the gift box

Choose (experiencing) life

Toilet paper

Packaging

On your phone (or tablet or computer)

Streaming

Emails

Plant trees while browsing

2. Travel

Other types of travel - you cruise you lose

Learn how to fly

Extra resources

3. Localisation

Local food

Local clothes

Feel the wellbeing benefit

A final thought on a climate-considerate lifestyle

Key takeaways from this chapter

9 | Building a Better Future and a Better World

A closer look at the system

The damage is being done

Are billionaires to blame?

Government failure

What about us?

Innovation and the profit-making incentive

Capitalism = prosperity?

Thank you and goodbye

Shrinking down to size - growth alternatives

A note on ‘Green Growth’

Building a bright future

Out with the old

Stop waiting, start creating

Hope for the future

Key takeaways from this chapter

Appendix | The Lean/Agile Approach

How to be successful

Lean and Agile

Goal setting

Continuous improvement

Scrum - Sprinting

Prioritisation

Scrum summary

Other Lean ‘tricks’ - ‘How to’ with less fuss and no muss

The 5S System

‘Poke Yokes’

Motivation

Money and happiness

One thing at a time

Share the love

Quick productivity tip

A lot is at stake

Copyright

ISBN: 978-1-914066-02-3

First published 2020 by Hawksmoor Publishing

Kemp House, 152-160 City Rd, London, EC1V 2NX

www.hawksmoorpublishing.com

Liz Christou has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this book.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Hawksmoor Publishing does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites mentioned in or on this publication.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that it which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Illustrations: Hernán Parente [[e-mail]]

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Dedication

For Athan.

Acknowledgements

To my friends and family who have supported me with my efforts to write this book and replied to my constant requests for feedback. I thank you for this, and for supporting all my endeavours. I am blessed with the feeling of deep gratitude every day, because you are in my life.

About the Author

Liz Christou has been solving complex problems for one of the world’s leading brands since 2014. Before completing her MBA, and being selected for the esteemed graduate programme, she explored careers as diverse as city bar and restaurant manager and police officer, after leaving school at 16.

Liz has never followed the obvious path, or been put off by challenges that others have suggested are too difficult. Her journey to writing this book has been no different. She combined her educational and career experience with her aptitude for taking on tough challenges, and life-long love of the natural world, to tackle one of the biggest challenges we’re facing today – climate change. Specifically, what we as individuals can do about it with the potential to make a real impact.

Liz used her experience in problem-solving – namely principles from Lean Thinking and Agile – to decrease her carbon footprint to 3 tonnes per year, from the UK average of around 8 tonnes, within 5 years, whilst having a positive effect on her wellbeing. Now, she has translated the journey into the motivational techniques and practical suggestions in this book, so that you can do the same.

1 | Understanding the Problem and Being the Solution

Section 1 – Our climate problems

The problem, part 1 – our inner struggle

If you’ve picked up this book, you already know that there’s a tsunami coming at us in the form of climate change. It’s threatening to wash over the face of the globe and leave nothing, and no one, untouched.

If you’re like most people who are engaged in the climate change issue, you know – on some level – that we all have a responsibility to avert this disaster, and you want to participate. You want to live in a way that respects the severity of the issue, and which demonstrates a suitable response. It’s that you just don’t know where, or how, to begin.

Whilst researching this book, I’ve come across many concepts and theories. Books, organisations, and charities talk mainly about political change, with only a small number giving guidance on what individuals can do. I’ve not seen anything that gives practical guidance on making both manageable and realistic lifestyle changes; all the while, juggling other priorities in our busy lives.

We need practical solutions that can pull us back from the brink of catastrophic climate change. But we also need direction, a method, and a goal to reach the lifestyle changes required. The purpose of this book is to help you navigate to the lifestyle changes with the biggest impact. And, to successfully reach the goal that can really make a difference.

The problem, part 2 – our external surroundings

The aim of this book isn’t to go into detail about what the climate models predict for our future. There are lots of papers, books, and articles out there – not to mention YouTube videos from climate scientists – who will tell you first-hand what we have in store.

However, the stakes are so hard to swallow that it is worth reiterating what is at risk; because we want the reality of the situation to be at the forefront of our minds. It will prevent us from mentally logging it as something we ought to give more thought to… when we have more time.

There is no more putting this off. The outcome depends on what we do now.

Climate models show that by the end of this century, our current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions will have warmed the Earth’s climate by 3-4°C. This is the overall global average temperature, not whether a particular place is a bit cooler or warmer on a certain day. This means that we are moving the Earth out of the stable climate of the Holocene period, (experienced for the last 12,000 years, and which has allowed civilisation to thrive), into something more unpredictable and much less tolerable.

From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production, to rising sea levels that increase the risk of catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale.[1]

The UK is thought to be one of the lesser affected areas. But on our current path, no country is predicted to bear a resemblance to today. More action is needed to prevent flooding, droughts, and significant threats to our natural capital and the goods and services it provides, from timber, food and clean water to pollination, carbon storage and the cultural benefits of landscapes and wildlife.[2]

Let’s be clear, we’re talking about a struggle for clean water and food, and this type of struggle isn’t pretty. People have no choice but to go into survival mode, which leads to wars, violence, and crime. We’re seeing these impacts around the world already. George Monbiot explains that the effects are already visible, In Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, devastated by Cyclone Idai, in Syria, Libya and Yemen, where climate chaos has contributed to civil war, in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where crop failure, drought and the collapse of fisheries have driven people from their homes.[3]

No one knows exactly how bad it could actually get. The climate models give us an idea, and we can hope that they’re overestimating future impacts. However, as we’re dealing with something completely unprecedented, they could be underestimating the scale and timelines.

Melting ice caps, sea-levels rising, ocean acidification, and extreme weather events are already proving worse than previously predicted.

The problem, part 3 – our ‘big-picture’ issue

Climate change is waking us up to the huge void that lies between modern society and our natural world. It’s a void between our behaviours and what is best for the planet, and it has a profound impact on our wellbeing.

Our lifestyles centre around one thing – consuming. Unsurprisingly, those of us who have taken a step back to think about that – and even the ones who haven’t – realise, on some level, that this should not be our primary function as human beings. In fact, it’s largely unfulfilling and causes immense environmental destruction (including climate change). Overconsumption is distancing us from a life that is connected to nature.

But would we really be better off if we lived in a way that respected our natural habitat? It sounds a bit ‘fluffy’ to many (or even most people) because we tend to accept the world from our current view, rather than challenge it.

The answer, though, is a resounding yes! It’s becoming harder to ignore that our distance from – and lack of respect for – nature has come back to bite us. It’s now all too evident, from climate change to rising mental health issues to the diseases caused by the food we eat.

We inherently need to be close to nature to fulfil our wellbeing needs, which we all know go well beyond the financial. But the only measure of success in our society is making more money to buy more stuff. So, we keep doing it, despite the negative effect it’s having on us and our collective home. Getting richer and buying things will never fulfil us.

Before we delve into how and what we can do about it, it’s important that we understand the root of all these issues. We need to know and understand the underlying cause of overconsumption which is creating climate change. And why we feel a block to taking individual action. Then we’ll have an awareness that will empower us to put the right solutions in place.

Section 2 - The real root cause and what it has to do with us

If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution. Albert Einstein

The following chapters in this book focus on how we, as individuals, can reduce our carbon footprint. They offer a way to do this collectively so we can begin to turn the dial on climate change in our favour. But before we can do this successfully, we should explore what’s been blocking us so far.

We need to discover why we’ve cooked up a society that is not only causing climate change but which tolerates growing social injustice and is negatively impacting our wellbeing. As many writers, including Naomi Klein, and organisations like Extinction Rebellion and Greenpeace, attest, these aspects are deeply interwoven. This means that when we understand the underlying cause of climate change, the changes we make don’t just tackle one of these issues, they can have an impact on all of them.

Failing government

New governmental policies on climate are a must, and will undoubtedly have a huge impact on climate change issues. Take charging for plastic shopping bags, for example. It’s a tiny ‘windbreak’ in the ‘environmental hurricane’, but charging a measly 5p per bag in the UK has created a mindshift that transcends money. Plastic