Climate change is the challenge of our century.
Despite monumental impacts of a warming planet, these issues have yet to fully materialize in our everyday lives. Understanding this existential crisis through the lens of daily life, and normalizing manageable action, is key to scaled solutions.
HBO’s “Veep”, follows Julia Louis-Dreyfus (better known as Elaine, from “Seinfeld”) as the Vice President. In one episode, Elaine scores big when her “Clean Jobs” initiative is about to be green lit. To promote the win, her staff urges her to go to a local frozen yogurt shop with “the normals” and “normalize” her hallmark plan.
Wait… Politicians out of touch with real people?
Much like our very real and current battle with climate change, Veep’s attempt to promote clean jobs struggles to be normalized and devolves towards an uncontrollable disaster.
Clean jobs get off to a promising start: Veep and her team strategize during a lengthy, albeit comedic, debate on what flavor fro-yo is the best for Elaine and normalizing plan. Jamaican Rum wins.
Unfortunately, after identifying the perfect fro-yo choice, it all goes downhill:
- Elaine gets delayed at a filibuster reform meeting (exciting… not)
- With time against her, Elaine’s rushes off to the fro-yo shop hoping to normalize change
Eventually arriving at the fro-yo shop, it’s too little too late. The shop is past closing hours, the press has left and what little crowd remains is annoyed. Worst of all, a chain of events that was set in motion with the delayed filibuster reform meeting has reached an inescapable tipping point: the Jamaican Rum has melted… it gets messy… and Elaine’s early gusto to normalize goes down the drain.
“… we all scream for [fro-yo] ice cream ”
On many levels, Elaine’s clean job saga is alarmingly accurate with where we really are, and potentially heading, with global warming.
On both an institutional and individual level, the intent is there, but our awareness and follow through is lacking. On a scientific basis, climate change is widely acknowledged as occurring and we [generally] have the right sentiment about fixing it. Unfortunately, that’s [generally] as far as we get; ultimately, our execution is poor and we get sidetracked with things that aren’t as important.
… No disrespect to all the filibuster reform enthusiasts out there.
As a collective, we have normalized our altruistic intent, but have yet to normalize this into a demand for action.
Our opportunity is not too late.
We have the chance to support and promote climate action every day with what we buy and what businesses we support. Making deliberate choices has never been more important. More specifically, we need to be conscious consumers and we need more sustainable business. We need more Jamaican Rum.
As it was for Elaine – time is not on climate’s side. Our Planet’s own scientific chain of events has started and we need to take drastic action before it’s too late.
Responsible Business: Dishing up Jamaican Rum in the Billions!
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues at current rates. Because our planet is already heating up faster than a Joe Exotic vs. Carol Baskins Facebook feud, we can no longer rely on the ebb and flows of public offices that may -or may not- take a serious stance on climate. An constant is needed.
In the absence of strong climate policy, businesses are stepping up. Responsible environmental, social and governance (ESG) has emerged as a welcomed, and growing, tenant of our corporate calculus. First coined in 2005 with a study known as “Who Cares Wins”, ESG has continued to influence the way in which businesses operate and how institutional dollars are invested. In a climate battle where a new normal is required, ESG has been an encouraging source of stability.
The global warming train left the station way too long ago for sustainability to be a niche department stuck in the broom closet. Businesses need to operate with a less greenhouse gasses and produce more sustainable products. Only the consumer’s demand will drive these market changes.
No longer is environmental awareness reserved for the beloved sustainability OG, Patagonia. With a void of government enforced climate actions, companies of all varieties and size have made significant strides in ESG. Amazon, Walmart and Microsoft have all started to exercise massive stewardship in this effort and have brought sustainable initiatives to scale for consumers who want to see change and be apart of the solution.
Amazon
- In 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism announced The Climate Pledge, a commitment to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early
- 100% Net zero carbon by 2040
- 80% Renewable Energy by 2024
- Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, commits $10 Billion Earth Fund to address climate change
Walmart
- In 2017, Walmart created Project Gigaton created as an initiative to avoid one billion metric tons (a gigaton) of greenhouse gases from the global value chain by 2030.
- Walmart encourages and advises their suppliers to implement sustainability approaches and ultimately receive credits from Walmart based on meeting various goals
Microsoft
- Microsoft pledges to be carbon negative by 2030
- Remove their historical carbon emission by 2050
- Create a $1 billion climate innovation fund
Consumers who recognize and support initiatives like these enable continued growth for sustainability and decreasing environmental impacts throughout the economy. This is not to say that all businesses who claim sustainable initiatives are truly backing it up. “Greenwashing”, the act of falsely conveying environmentally sound business practices is unfortunately alive and well. Thankfully, The Mintly is here to help.
As consumers increase their awareness and normalize demand for sustainability, companies who truly support ESG will win, and lead, by:
- Identifying efficiencies and competitive advantages throughout their market
- Continuing to refine established green processes up and down the supply chain
- Enable, or require, other companies to operate more cleanly (i.e., decarbonize) and increase sustainability efforts to stay competitive
Your wallet has a vote. Dollars vote every day
That all sounds good, but what about the government?
Climate change will ultimately require the speed and trajectory that only the government can enact. However, legislation and policy will never appear unless there is a demand. This demand resonates strongest with the economic machine and the almighty dollar. If the machine runs on money. The consumer is the one filling the tank.
Our ballots are cast every four years, but our dollars vote every day. The most frequent and powerful vote that we have is with our wallets. Where partisan politics may fail, the informed consumer can succeed. The individual who makes educated decisions on spending their money with sustainable businesses is at the same time, demanding pro-climate legislation.
Break it down:
- Consumer A -to- Consumer B
- A: “Have you tried Jamaican Rum? Tastes good, feels good, looks good…”
- B: “Sounds great, I’ll buy that”
- Jamaican Rum = Normalized Demand
- Fro-Yo Shop C vs Fro-Yo Shop D:
- C: “A lot of buzz on that Jamaican Rum, let’s give the consumer what they want”
- D: “Shop C is really killing it with Jamaican Rum sales, we need to get in on that”
- C vs D = Competition
- Competition = Normalized Supply
- Normalized Demand + Competition + Normalized Supply = Good Business
- Politicians (aka Elaine): “Lot of buzz about this Jamaican Rum… good for the economy… looks good for me… let’s give these voters (consumers) what they want”
- Politicians + Good Business = Policy
- Normalized Demand + Good Business + Policy = Normalized (approved) Legislation
- Government:
- Good Business + Legislation + Government Action = Economies of Scale
- Economies of Scale:
- Jamaican Rum has: lower costs; incentives; better implementation; better distribution; increased consumption
TL; DR: Consumer demand for sustainable products and supporting environmentally conscious business encourages government catalysts -party agnostic- that will bring forward economies of scale for climate action: i.e., clean jobs; clean energy; strategic carbon pricing; tax incentives for sustainable business; emissions regulation … mo’ Jamaican Rum fro-yo… etc.
STILL TL; DR: Normalized demand for sustainable business = Government Implemented Scale for Climate Action.
Increased awareness. Actionable tools. Your wallet. Your vote. The Mintly.
The Mintly wants to spark the climate conversations that start at the dinner table, make their way to the board rooms, and eventually move on to our legislative branches.
We understand that the topics surrounding climate change can seem daunting, distant, technical and amorphous. More so, we realize that it’s easy to feel at a loss for what can be done to help. It’s our mission to break these issues down -in a conversational way- and provide the consumer a better understanding of where their money goes and how it is put to use. We’ll highlight climate action within business, emerging business trends and how these are influencing policy. Most importantly, we’ll identify the companies that are truly supporting our environment so that consumers can choose to be a driving force behind climate solutions on a daily basis.
–RM
Mintly Recs: Columbia Energy Exchange interviews Robert H. Frank to discuss the psychology and economics behind climate action. Digging into the theory of “behavior contagion”, they explain how individual action – solar panels, EVs, conscious consumption- can result in wide scale impact.
To learn more about making an impact …and Jamaican Rum Fro Yo… Follow along on Twitter @TheMintly and at TheMintly.com.