How to reduce your ecological debt...
It's easy...
Our only planet does not need huge, magnanimous gestures.
It doesn't need you to donate every spare cent you have to a worthy cause.
Neither does it need you to make large sacrifices or throw yourself prostrate on the environmental alter.
It just needs small things from you.
Small actions.
Everyday actions.
What you buy, where you buy, how you act, what you ask.
You don't need to wear sandals and you don't need to grow your hair long.
Of practical day-to-day positive impacts you can have, one of the greatest is in simply looking out for "good"* labels on foods and other consumer goods.
And if you can't see a label, ask the store's staff.
You would be amazed, but in simply asking if a store stocks responsibly produced this-that-or-the-other, you are creating a perceived demand.
And you know what the world's biggest and most influential businesses love to do? (The same businesses that can have HUGE impacts on the environment and our ecological debt.)
They love to satisfy our demands... because they want us to buy their products.
So even though your one request may only be a whisper in the global marketplace - the fact is that as more and more of us do the same as you - your whisper will join our whispers and emerge as a murmur. An undercurrent. A trend.
And these companies are no fools – they are constantly looking for ways to satisfy us – they look out for trends - and they will eventually listen.
* What are "good" labels? What can I trust?
Go to the website of your local WWF office, or any other environmental organisation that you trust in your country, and see what they say and recommend.
A reputable and trustworthy label that can be found in many countries is Fairtrade.
There are also 2 global labels that aim to ameliorate the destruction of our forests and oceans.
A reputable and trustworthy label that can be found in many countries is Fairtrade.
There are also 2 global labels that aim to ameliorate the destruction of our forests and oceans.
- One is the the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)
- And the other is the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council).
Is that really enough?
For me to simply buy "good" products?
It's a start. And it's a great start.
There are of course always more things you can do - we have a whole section dedicated to it :-)
But there is an old saying in England... if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves.
What you are doing in looking for and asking about "good" labels is looking after those pennies.
