Barrier and enablers for environmental sustainability in the humanitarian sector - New Report

The Red Cross Red Crescent Green Response Working Group has with funding from Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) conducted a research about the barriers and enablers for green practices and implementation of environmental sustainability in the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.

As the sustainability coordinator of the Swedish Red Cross, I was one of the participants being interviewed, among many other staff from different National Societies. Many of the findings in the report are similar with my own personal conclusions after been working with sustainability for three years in the humanitarian sector.

Just like any other sector, the humanitarian also needs to transform. It has to become more diverse, more inclusive, more effective, more financially sustainable and of course more environmentally and climate friendly. The humanitarian sector impacts the climate and the environment in several ways. Everything from energy, water and material use at offices to local operations.

My understanding is that the humanitarian sector is starting to wake up and there are many good examples of “greening work”. This report do not go into details of what kind of practices those are, but it is highlighting that greening is not only about reducing the carbon footprint, it’s also about greening the supply chain and other operational work.

Here’s a summery of some of the conclusions for successful implemensation from the report, in combination with own personal experiences. I believe many of them are equally true for other sectors and businesses. And I hope that more leaders and board members had these insights. Today many companies and organisation wants to operate in a more sustainable way, few however, knows how to do it. My advice is to listen to the experts and the research that has been conduced and you'll have a far more successful implementation.

• Sustainability or other terms and concepts used, must be defined for consensus about there meaning. For example in a policy or a strategic document.

• Clear goals with a time schedule must be in place.

• All staff needs to be informed and educated.

• The funding must be long termed and not based on “project money”.

• There needs to be trained staff and experts facilitating the work.

• The responsibilities and roles must be specified and there must be mandate to implement the action plan.

• Do a proper baseline that covers the whole organisation/company so you now where the “low hanging fruits are” but also where the largest climate and environmental impact it.

• The environmental action plan and strategy must be imbedded in other strategies and plans, not a separate one.

• The reporting must be embedded in general/annual reporting.

• The leading group and the board member must get training on why making their organisation/businesses more environmentally sustainable is essential for their businesses.

The humanitarian sector has a long way to go until climate and environmental thinking is integrated in the general work. However, this report is very promising though it provided guidelines and checklists for successful implementation based on existing experiences within the sector.

You can read the whole report here!

The film you must start your 2021 with

This film is presented by Plant Based News and sponsored by abillion. It summarises what happened in 2020 related to the pandemic and animal production. The film talks about the linkages between virus spread and human relationship with animals. It highlights come of the research that has been published this year on health, diet and sustainability. It is more clear than ever before how they way we eat do not effect only our personal health but the health of the whole society. The more animal products we consumer the higher risks are at stake.

The most important thing one can do to stop animal cruelty, lower carbon footprint, stop the risk of future pandemic and restore ecosystem is to go for a healthy and organic vegan diet.

My year in 2020

This year has been above anything else a remarkable year. For some 2020 has been a less hectic year with more time for family and less travels, meetings and work. It is the year where physical conferences moved into our living room and kitchen through the Zoom and Teams. Some people might have reflected upon what truly matters, what they’re doing for living and how they want things to change for the better. Most people would probably agree that going back to normal is not a good option and that we should instead strive for less hectic lives with fulfilling work and days.

For others this has been the most hard working and hectic year ever. Hospitals has been crowded with sick and health workers have been on the brink to collapse. For some this year has been the most difficult year financially. Several people have lost their jobs and it has been an impossible situation for youth to enter the labor market. The financial stress might have skyrocket and some people might have lost everything where poverty rate have in poorer countries reach new record breaking levels.

Some might have lost someone dear this year. Some have not been able to say goodbye. Others has been isolated from loved ones and we all probably miss hanging out with someone by now. We haven’t been able to hug, meet or kiss and the loneliness might be stronger than ever before.

We have also seen the environment in some places heal. We have seen how emissions have decreased and how consumption and eternal increase in GDP growth is not essential when it comes to saving lives. We have witness which jobs are essential for a functioning society and I believe many of us are asking how we are contributing and how we can create a society with an economy that reflects the society value?

How have this year impacted someone working with sustainability in Sweden?

Swedish Red Cross

As a part of the largest humanitarian organisation, I joined the crisis management to help to assist our humanitarian work in relation to the needs in Sweden due to Covid-19. In my case I helped with donations, in terms of hospital material, from the private sector to hospitals. It was a few hectic months and it was an interesting journey to see how we could assist with these donations.

As the thematic advisor for sustainability I have also continued coordinating our sustainability work related to specific sustainability goals and our annual plan. This year we have for example:

• Hold several seminars and events related to the climate crisis and it’s humanitarian effects. Not at least during the Red Cross and Red Crescent movements virtual Climate:Red Summit where we held several seminars related to greening and so on.

• We have kept on sharing our best practices on greening of offices, green humanitarian response and sustainability with other national societies in the movement.

• We have mapped years of our human diversity work and implemented improved strategies for future work.

• We have educated the leading group, head of offices and the board on diversity.

• We have launched second hand online, so more people could safely shop pre-loved items.

• We have recruited new volunteers as sustainability ambassadors.

• We have educated volunteers on Fairtrade and sustainability, digitally.

• We have investigated climate compensation and chosen a strategy forward.

• We have communicated the sustainability advantage of second hand and participated in the international campaign Circular Monday.

You can read more about the Swedish Red Cross sustainability work in the upcoming Annual Report in 2021. It will be available in Swedish.

A Sustainable Closet

Less than a year ago I thought about the little blog I had started in the autumn of 2019 with the purpose to share my joy for sustainable fashion. I thought, why not develop a proper fashion platform for people who love clothes but want to avoid consumerism? I thought, why not letting others define what a Sustainable Closet is and guide people do learn for themselves what their sustainable closet would be?

Since then I have worked to improve the platform and it’s content. I also got some help from Nicole who have written some blogposts, Emma who have launched our Instagram page and Lotta who is the producer for the upcoming A Sustainable Closet Studio. This year we have:

• 21 interviews with people we define as Change Makers. People from a diversity of backgrounds and fields, with a diversity of style and expressions that have shared their perspectives on what a sustainable closet is.

• 11 interviews with stores that offers costumers rental services, second hand or more ethically produced clothes. Several of them are start ups, such as Cirqular, Hyper, Hack your Closet, Rerobe and Tise. They are eager to contribute to a massive change in the way we enjoy clothes.

• 9 interviews with brands. These brands has put sustainability at the core of their business model. Several of them work with up-cycling such as Cornelia Sun, Reused Remade and Elvis & Kresse.

• Published 71 blogposts since the re-launch in May 2020. Our posts has been about the sustainability issues related to the fashion industry, new ethical brand, inspiring change makers to follow, tips on movies and documentaries and ideas for outfits available second handed.

• Mapped the best digital platform for pre-loved consumption in Sweden. There’re currently 19 ways to circulate fashion digitally in Sweden.

• Mapped the best second hand and ethical stores in 5 Scandinavian cities such as Malmö, Lund, Gothenburg and Copenhagen. With the help of influencers such as Jeanbosco Nzubaba and Tess Waltenburg.

• Reached 2500 monthly readers in average. This is done without any marketing, investment or team behind the platform.

• Launched our Instagram page.

Sign up for our Newsletter and find all the content here!

Youtube, podcasts and seminars

Several events and conferences has been cancelled which has definitely been evident in my sector and my calendar has been less booked than it normally is. Honestly, I miss meeting people physically, discussing sustainability issues and inspiring each other to find ways to move forward. However, I have done a few things this year digitally even though my focus has been the work I’m doing at Red Cross.

• Published 21 blogposts on sustainability facts and reports. I read a lot so I have decided to share some of that information on this blog format, Educate Yourself.

• Collaborated with my yoga teacher in India. The yoga community has been highly negative effected by the pandemic so me, and the best yoga teacher I know, launched a digital yoga training with students in Sweden and my interview with him has been published on YouTube.

• Held a seminar on sustainability with Svenska with Baby.

• Interviewed by Fairtrade Sweden on sustainable consumption.

• Interviewed by Evolution Chanel on our train trip from Stockholm to HongKong.

• Interviewed by WWF Youth on sustainability.

• Held a seminar on reduced travels and climate impact of the Red Cross at Zero Mission.

Here are links!

Academic

This year we have continued on our academic paper about Socio-Ecological Prosperity for sustainable development, which unfortunately won’t be finished as planned this year. I’m very much looking forward to have my first academic article published and the content of this article is truly the most interesting I know. It’s about how to measure development and progress within the Planetary Boundaries.

Personal growth

I would probably say that I’m definitely have grown as a person and become a much happier and resilient person. My health has been my major priority this year. I have done yoga, meditation and exercise on a regular basis. I have slept the hours I needed and have in general stressed less. I have definitely made sure my days are not stressful and I have almost became an expert on not planning my days and take the day as it come. I have been on some lovely retreats, deepening my meditation, practice gratefulness and in general been more kind and present. I have read several books and practiced more of what I preach.

It feels wonderful and I can’t wait to see what the future holds in terms of moving from brightness to brightness, as the vipassana teacher N. S. Goenka says.

What have I learned?

• How to design a website. Honestly, I had no idea 1.5 years ago and what you are reading now and A Sustainable Closet is my own design and work.

• Deepen my knowledge in the Paris Agreement and the need of capturing CO2 and science based reduction.

• There’s no point and criticising leadership. Be the leader you wish to see.

• When others complain, don’t join.

• The world might collapse but it is where it needs to be.

• Mother Earth will hit back if we don’t start to put things right.

• Looking after your health is not only a service to yourself, but also to the society.

• Make sure your loved ones don’t feel lonely.

• You don’t know whats good or bad and each moment is an opportunity to grow.

• You know nothing, and keep on being humble and educating yourself is the key.

• Stay true to your values and say no to whatever doesn’t serve you.

• You are true manifested and whatever you dreamed of has almost come true to 100%.

• A good laugh is never a waste of time.

• If the world is going to be a sustainable place. We need to be able to present the vision and communicate that better world.

• People won’t join a change they can’t see how they will benefit from.

• Veganism is here to stay and soon the rights of nature and animals will be a part of the sustainability paradigm.

What do I’m looking forward to in 2021?

• Finishing my book about mental illness and roads towards happiness.

• Start writing on my second book.

• Contribute more to economics and research about welfare measures.

• Keep on making the humanitarian and development sector more sustainable.

• Launching my own updated content with videos and graphics related to sustainability.

• Take A Sustainable Closet on a new level.

• Launching A Sustainable Closet Studio.

• Contribute as a volunteer and board member in organisations in line with my values.

• Become a better sustainability investor.

• Meeting more Change Makers. Networking especially with inspiring women.

• Keep on learning and becoming a better version of myself.

I’m excited for 2021 and I’m looking forward to contribute to more change. Let 2021 be the year we definitely take climate, environmental and social action to create a better society for all.

Happy New Year.

The latest science on Climate Change - are we destroying the planet?

This seminar was hosted by the Academy of Science in Swedish. The professor Johan Rockström, director of Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research are presenting the latest research and findings on climate change. He gives us a scientific historical background of the development of our planet’s climate and what the current global warming means in an historical context. He talks about the uncertainties and risks, current increase in temperatures can be.

This is a seminar that all humans should see. This is what everyone needs to know to understand what the choice of inaction actually means. This is about us, our survival and climate justice.

The organisation that will safe-guard Footprint Data

Since 1990 the global Ecological Footprint has been measured from 1961 until today. Since 2003 the Global Footprint Network are publishing the national footprint and bio capacity account for each and every country thanks to help of UN statistics. This year demand exceeds planets ability to renew by 60%, which means we’re are not within the planetary boundaries and definitely use much more resources than what is sustainable.

To guarantee non-biased and objective gathering of data the Footprint Data Foundation (FoDaFo) has been founded to keep on steward of the accounting and reproduce them with the support of York University and a broader academic network.

It’s very important that data is being save guard and objectively measured and analysed. Please check out the website of the organisation where they also have a blog and commitments from several countries on #movethedate and don’t miss out the data illustrations on the Footprint Networks data website.

It's time for EU to create a Wellbeing Economy

In september WWF published a report Towards an EU Wellbeing Economy - a fairer, more sustainable Europe post Covid-19, for EU to adapt to a wellbeing economy approach that serves people and the environment rather than “business as usual”. The report is a response to EU and it’s member stats focusing on conventional economic growth as the best method to stimulate society and move us out from the current crisis. The report claims that current policies might risk investments needed for a green transition and might end up in fossil fuel energy or intensive agriculture. The reports says that instead we should measure what we treasure.

In the report you can read about how GDP growth per country has played out in relation to other measures such as Gini Index, Happy Planet Index, Human Development Index and Ecological Footprint, which shows that high GDP does not correlate with high happiness index and so on. The report is therefore questioning “green growth” and mean that decoupling is inefficient.

The report is mentioning a few examples who has chosen other measures, indices or index in their budget. New Zealand, Finland and Iceland being among them. And are calling for EU to develop indicators for a Wellbeing Economy.

Read more about the insights, the reasons and the specific calls for EU to implement here!

Can technology save us from climate disaster?

At SVTplay program, Vetenskapsvärld (the world of science), you can now watch a documentary (in Swedish) about the technology that seeks to solve the climate crisis. The question asked is, if technology can stabilise the climate again?

For all non-Swedish speakers, here comes a summery:

We are currently emitting 37 gigaton CO2 into the atmosphere every year. If you add all the carbon that has been released into the atmosphere we’re talking about 1000 gigaton CO2 since pre-industrial time. If we want to halt the effects of climate change we need to stop emitting CO2 and we need to start finding ways to reverse the climate balance by storing CO2.

“There’s 3 trillion trees on the planet. More than stars in the universe.”

Some of the technologies and companies presented are:

• CO2 capturing by Climeworks (that sucks CO2 out from the atmosphere). The vision is to capture 400 million tons CO2 (1% of the atmosphere).

• Capturing CO2 and then turned it into metanol liquid (also in relation to Climeworks, by energy from solar power). It can be used for transportation resulting in neutral CO2 emissions (since the carbon is captured from air and released into the air). If all climate neutral fuel projects, that is currently being tested, can be and will be used, they can lower the carbon footprint per year with 1 billions of tons.

• Carbon storage methods, such as those presented by Xprize. One of the technologies wants to lower the carbon footprint of cement production (8% of global footprint comes from cement production) by storing carbon and turn it into a material that can be mixed with other materials for cement production. If 20-30% of the cement would use this method a larger part of the yearly 37 gigaton would be cut.

Despite these promising technologies and even if they are scaled up to largest possibility, they won’t be able to capture all the 37 gigaton released every year. But in combination with moving away from fossil based energy into renewable energies, we can actually stop emitting CO2.

But that doesn’t mean that the problem is solved. We still need to capture more CO2 even if we do not emit anymore.

Other technologies presented to deal with this problem is:

• Adding sea salt particles to clouds to increase the reflection of sunlight (with the purpose to cool the planet). It’s going to take 15-20 years to know if this method works and its side effects.

• Increase of forests to capture as much CO2 as possible. NASA has developed a method to measure the carbon storage of a forest. There’s currently 3 trillion trees on the planet. More than stars in the universe (based on what we know).

One can wonder if tree planting really is a technology, but to be able to know which trees to plant where, technology is a good tool to maximise carbon storage, biodiversity and in combination with socio-economic development too.

These new technologies won’t solve the climate crisis, it’s the combination of technologies and new practices that’s going to highly reduce the emissions. But in the end, we all need to change they way we live and the structure of our society since demand is increasing and technology is currently not keeping up.

48 action points on how to reduce the environmental and climate impact of consumption in Sweden

This seminar is about the Trade Union (Handels) program on the sectors climate and environmental impact. The report has interviewed members and employees from a diversity of companies in Sweden. Some of the findings presented are:

• 9/10 thinks the sector should reduce its environmental and climate impact.

• 90% think the companies should take more responsibility.

• 85% asks for political regulations.

• 45% would like to contribute to their employers sustainability work.

Facts about the sectors environmental and climate impact:

• The consumption based emissions in Sweden are twice has high as the territorial.

• Within Sweden the sector is responsible for 2-3% of the national emissions.

• The products these companies sell represents 50% of the consumption based emissions.

• 40% of the emissions comes from food.

Suggested actions (there’s total 48 of them):

• Make sure employees has the right knowledge.

• Politicians should create consumption based targets on reduced emissions.

• All companies should declare the products climate and environmental impact.

• Targets and limits based on the declaration, too harmful products shouldn’t be available on the market.

• Politicians should invest in solutions for circular economy, to facilitate renting, repairing and so on.

• Bann products with a consciously chosen short life-span.

• Label products after their lifespan.

• Reduce use of emballage.

• Harder actions to reduce fossil based transportation.

• All companies should pay for transportation, this is something they compete on and not good for the environment.

• All products should be labelled with information on where they have been produced.

• Support farmers to transform to organic farming.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this trade union manages to push for change and action on all this 48 action points. Watch the seminar in Swedish.

Is our economy making us sick?

The New Economic Foundation has a launched its second issue of The New Economics Zine, this time about economics and mental health. We knew before the pandemic that mental health was a problem only getting worse. According to the issue, new research in the last few weeks has shown that anxiety has trebled in young adults since 2008, affecting 30% of women aged 18-24. Our experience of mental ill health is however not equal – factors like race, economic class, gender identity and disability all affect our likelihood of struggling with mental illness. The issue further explains that The Health Survey for England has consistently found that the poorest people have the highest risk of having a mental health problem.

This is why economic crisis makes health inequality worse.

Except the inequality aspects of mental illness, specially during a pandemic, the issue are also bringing up the aspect of stigma and governmental spending. While mental health accounts for 28% of the burden of disease in the UK, mental health services receive only 13% of NHS spending. The issues says; “it’s a reminder that awareness alone is not enough and that, while each of us can make a difference, we need structural not just individual action”.

The first article is just about that, how individualisation and neoliberal thinking makes us believe that it’s just all up to us as individuals. Actually, antidepressant prescriptions have almost doubled over the last 10 years, with a 34% increase in people being detained under the Mental Health Act. As of 2018, one in six of us (UK) is suffering with a mental health problem. 

This should indicate a larger societal and structural problem than just individuals not doing enough to keep themselves healthy.

The issue also include articles about climate anxiety and measures of wellbeing. It is a magazine that really captures several aspects of sustainability, mental illness and economics in relation or not in relation to current crisis. It’s easily read and there’s a diversity of writes with different background and expertise.

Read the magazine here!

The new tool: Life Cycle SDG Assessment

It’s already 2020, and what a year this has been. The current pandemic has (with all its right) put a shadow on the long-term issues and problems we need to solve. The 2030 Agenda för sustainable development only have 2/3 of its time left. 5 years has passed and only 10 more years to go and there’s 169 goals to reach.

The life-cycle impact framework, also known as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), is a common tool for companies to assess environmental and social impact at a product level. With this tool you can for example see in what areas of a products life-span it has the highest climate impact. In many cases we might for example think that transportation is the major polluter, but it might be components or crops produced or grown elsewhere that has the highest impact. LCA helps designer and decision makers take evident based actions.

The global goals are not always quantitative (even though the goals has 230 indicators) and LCA is based on quantitative data. The global goals are also meant to be used at a global and national level while an LCA is for a specific product.

Despite these differences the project “Linking the UN Sustainable Development Goals to life cycle impact pathwayframeworks” was initiated by the UN Life Cycle Initiative to create robust links between the global goals and LCA and to develop a methodology for measuring and reporting on companies’ contributions to the global goals.

The result is a tool that can help companies to understand in what ways their product might contribute to the global goals and in what state of the production line. It also helps with understanding what goals the product might harm. The scope of this measure is identified.

This tool will in 2020 and 2021 be applied on some Case Studies and based on the results improved.

I believe these kind of tools are very helpful since they take something very abstract and problematic and turn it into something useful for decision making. This can help consumers and producers to go beyond greenwashing and take evident based decisions. I’m looking forward to see the upcoming case studies and what they can teach us.

Read more here!

From September 20th to 27th Pacific Islanders around the world are calling for decisive climate action

A year ago 7.6 million people took the streets Global Climate Strike. Today is the big global climate strike, however we can’t meet physically as last year and several actions are now being done digitally.

The 350.org network of Pacific Climate Warriors are organising their regional week of climate action, with focus on Matagi Mãlohi – A Just Recovery. There are several events you can join as a pacific islander but you can also stand in solidarity as a non-pacific islander. For example signing these principles for a just recovery!

Their message is “a just recovery from this pandemic and the climate crisis means planting seeds, literally and figuratively, that future generations will harvest.”

This video has a very important message and we need to realise for some people the 1.5 degree is a matter of having your homeland or not.

What a Fridays For Future activist have to say about Climate Activism

Many people know about Great Thunberg, the girl who started the Fridays for Future movement, by striking from school every Friday to create awareness of the climate crisis. She quickly in the autumn of 2018 gain attention and more and more people started to join in Stockholm but also in other country’s. Fridays for Future was born and climate strikes happened all over the world mostly by young people. It’s easy to believe that Greta is the only person behind this movement, but of course many young people who joined early in the start of the movement has contributed to the creation of Fridays for Future.

Luisa Neubauer has been mentioned as the German face behind the climate strikes. She’s one of the persons who has organised the demonstrations and she has also been involved in several other projects such as pressuring University of Göttingen to divest from fossil fuels. In this speech she talks about how you can be an activist too. She reminds us of that we are all voters and no one know all the facts but we can all impact media, friends and politicians to act.

This is how wikipedia describes activism:

“Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct, or intervene in social, political, economic, or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range from mandate building in the community (including writing letters to newspapers), petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage (or boycott) of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.“Based on that note, we can all be activists for climate action.”

Based on that note, we can all be climate activists.

The biological apocalypse is here - The latest Living Planet Report

According to the Living Planet Report, 68% of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have decreased between 1970 and 2016. Which is unbelievable when you really think about it.

The report use the The Living Planet Index (LPI) which as been in use for two decades. It gathers data from 4000 sources of 21 000 populations. This year 400 new species are included but far from all species and populations in the world. The LPI shows us the average decline in population size not % decline in populations or individuals or number of species lost.

Since its difficult to collect data, the author are also stating that what’s available in the report is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

In some areas the biodiversity has decreased more, as in sub-tropical areas such as South America, where the report says a 94% decline. In Africa it’s 65% and in Asia a 45% decline.

The reason why this is happening is the lost of habitat due to logging, agriculture, transportation and so on. Pollution is another factor, global warming and invasion of invasive species. Further, overexploitation can be direct, such as hunting, or indirect such as fish that comes as a by-catch when fishing. The major threats variates among the continents where habitat loss, change in land and land degradation is the major problem in Europe.

Population in fresh waters are also declining rapidly (84% since 1970) where 1 of 3 species are threatened to extinction.

“Until 1970, humanity’s Ecological Footprint was smaller than the Earth’s rate of regeneration. To feed and fuel our 21st century lifestyles, we are overusing the Earth’s biocapacity by at least 56%.”

Further, there are several other measures except the LPI. According to UICN Red List Index humanity has extinct 680 vertebras since 1500. According to the Mean Species Abundance Index and Biodiversity Intactness Index, an index that estimate the intactness of animal and plant communities spatially (composition), has also decreased (with a span of 1-100) where both of these are falling with around 1 % per decade. The Species Habitat Index captures changes in species range and incorporates information about species habitat preferences with observed or modelled data on habitat loss and restoration, habitat fragmentation and climate change. This index also falls with 1% per year and has done so since 1970.

“Seventyfive per cent of the Earth’s ice-free land surface has already been significantly altered, most of the oceans are polluted, and more than 85% of the area of wetlands has been lost.”

According to the report we can reverse this trend by changing the way we produce food. Agriculture is responsible for 80% of the deforestation. Agriculture use 70% of fresh water and 58% of agriculture production land is degraded.

Bending the curve initiative explores different scenarios for actions on how to restore biodiversity. It is clear from their different models and change in consumption and conservation is crucial where one scenario mentions a 50% decrease in meat consumption. This part of the report is what’s mostly interesting and what everyone should read because it says something about the way out if this huge crisis.

The report also include information about risk for human health and wellbeing, information about seed banks and how to shift our mindset and relationship with nature.

“This highlights that a deep cultural and systemic shift is urgently needed, one that so far our civilisation has failed to embrace: a transition to a society and economic system that values nature, stops taking it for granted and recognises that we depend on nature more than nature depends on us.”

— The general director of WWF International, Marco Lambertini

Read the report here! Your life depends on it.

The most sustainable country, according to Sustainable Development Index, and it's not Sweden

When I wrote my master thesis I was investigating different ways of measuring welfare in relation to the concept of socio-ecological resilience and the global goals. There are many measures that has been developed by organisations and scholars, all with the aim to go beyond GDP and find measures that captures what progress really means to human kind. Some of these are Human Development Index, Gross National Happiness Index, Sustainable Society Index and so on. I looked att different indicators and how well the measures took into account that sustainability has to be within the ecological limits beneficial to human society. It was clear to me that the several measures didn’t find the ecological or environmental domain as a condition rather as a component easily aggregated and exchangeable to social sustainability.

How the measure aggregate its result is essential. In many causes these measures actually include GDP as a factor and they might put a larger weight on social sustainability, such as years of living or years of schooling. That is way several of them are misleading, since those country’s can still live beyond their recourses. As for example the Scandinavian country’s. If everyone lived and consumed like Swedes do, we would need 4.2 planets, and no measurement really capturing what sustainable development really is, would suggest Sweden to be a sustainable country.

A measurement that seeks to address this problem is Sustainable Development Index. It starts with each nation’s human development score (life expectancy, education and income) and divides it by their ecological overshoot: the extent to which consumption-based CO2 emissions and material footprint exceed per-capita shares of planetary boundaries. Maximum score is 9 and no country reaches it. But maybe to your surprise, the country that performs well is 1. Cuba, 2, Costa Rica, 3 Sri Lanka and 4. Albania. Not Sweden, it’s not even in the top 20.

Maybe keeping us within the planetary boundaries and scoring high on income, years of life and schooling isn’t the most essential but my point here is that we have to start with keeping us within the ecological ceiling and in that case, Scandinavian country’s are not role models, Cuba is.

Why Overshoot Day has been moved forward in 2020

The overshoot day is the day when the human demand for Earth’s ecological recourses and services exceed it’s capacity to regenerate. It simply means that if the overshoot day happens before the year is over, we are living on recourses we don’t really have. We are basically undermining Earth’s capacity to provide ecosystem services in the future.

The overshoot day is calculate by Global Footprint Network. They calculate a global average but also on a country base. If everyone consumed and lived like that country, the overshoot day can happen before or after the global average. Both supply and demand on biocapacity is measured within each country.

The overshoot day is an initiative by Andrew Simms from the UK and New Economics Foundation, which partnered with Global Footprint Network in 2006 and since 2007 WWF have been a part of the campaign. The overshoot day has however been calculated all the way back to the 70s. Sadly the day has fallen sooner and sooner on the year, from October and, as now, in August. This means that we are using more and more resources in a non-sustainable manner.

In 2020 the overshoot day was the 22h of August.

In 2019 it was the 27th of July.

If you look at the graf of the yearly overshoot days you can see that it’s not a straight increasing line, rather it sometimes seems to decrease, or go down. This is because during an economic stagnation, recession or setback, consumption and production decreases. Earth simply get an opportonity to breath. In 2020, Covid-19 came and put countries and partly economies into lockdown. Activities decreased and less ecological rescues were needed.

However, economic stagnation or putting a hold of the economy is not a sustainable solution. A crisis, like the Corona-virus, can never be a solution of a system fault. There’s several research indicating that a short crisis normally leads to higher activities afterwards. And even if we didn’t stimulated the economy the social and economic impact wouldn’t be beneficial for the investments that needs to be done to remove our societies away from fossil fuels and a consumption based society.

That the date happen later this year, is nothing to celebrate, but it do tells us something. It says that we simply need to cut on the activities. We need to produce and consume less, which also means that we can’t have exponential growth. This is the system fault that needs to be corrected and focused at. Everything else would only mean addressing the symptom of the sickness, not the cause of it.

Learn more on overshootday.org

The world fails to protect the climate and environmental defenders

Environmental and climate defenders are the people being on the forefront protecting wetlands, forests, rivers, oceans, skies and biodiversity hotspots against reckless governments and companies. They’re playing a crucial role in protecting those lands and increasing awareness of the vital role environment play. Many of the defenders comes from local communities and/or are being indigenous people who are suffering a disproportionate number of attacks.

On average 4 defenders per week are being killed since 2014. In 2019 212 people were murdered. Most murders happened in Colombia and Philippines, where peace negotiations with land reforms and “war on terrorism” are contributing factors. The Amazons in Latin America were the place where 90% of the killing in Brazil took place. This according to the organisation Global Witness.

This must stop and defenders needs to be safe. You can contribute by supporting organisations that support defenders. You can ask your bank and companies where do they get their products from and in what ways are they protecting human rights?

Read more here and spread the word.

This is the greenhouse gas you should be worried about

Global Methane Emissions has risen nearly 10% the last two decades. Methane has a global warming potential 28 times stronger than carbon dioxide. In 2017 the methane levels where 150% above pre-industrial time. Methane is actually responsible for 28% of the global warming so far. The lifespan of methane is 12 years, compared to the carbon dioxide who can remain in the atmosphere for 100 years.

Methane comes from several sectors and most of them have emissions that are rapidly increasing. Where the methane from agriculture, driven by increased production of read meat, has increased with 12% in 2017. It is mostly increasing in South Asia, Middle East, China and Africa while it’s declining in Europe, thanks do lower numbers of cattle and agriculture policies.

If methane emissions continue this way we will meet an average 3 degree Celsius of global warming which is a catastrophic scenario for humanity. Methane must go down.

Personally I found the alternative to stay off meat and encouraging others to do so as an alternative everyone can do, here and now!

Source: Future Earth

Circulytics - the new tool that helps companies to become circular

The new tool Circulytics by Ellen MacArthur foundation helps companies to measure their overall circularity. It has been developed with 13 strategic partners and member companies and has been tested by over 30 companies during 2019.

It help companies to:

• Measures a company’s entire circularity, not just products and material flows

• Supports decision making and strategic development for circular economy adoption

• Demonstrates strengths and highlights the areas for improvement

• Provides optional transparency to investors and customers about a company’s circular economy adoption

• Delivers unprecedented clarity about circular economy performance, opening up new opportunities to generate brand value with key stakeholders

A company can apply to participate and when approved you can log in to the platform, upload your data and get an overall score.

I definitely believe tools like this are the future baseline of decision-making if you want to have a successful and profitable business.

Pandemic, wild animals and ecosystems

In times of CoVID-19, saving lives is of major importance. At the same time we must not forget what caused the virus in first place and how we create resilient social systems to cope but also to reduce the risk of another pandemic. We can develop early-warning systems, create better health care systems and put more funding into developing vaccines. However, we will never be prepared enough to always be able to save all lives. It’s impossible, since we don’t know what vaccines are needed until the virus is here.

What we can do is to restore ecosystems, protect wildlife and minimise human interaction with wild animals. This report from WWF are discussing what risks they see and how we need to consider the role of human-nature interactions!

“Human activities have signicantly altered three-quarters of the land and two-thirds of the ocean, changing the planet to such an extent as to determine the birth of a new era: the “Anthropocene”. Changes in land use that bring wildlife, livestock and humans into closer contact with each other facilitate the spread of diseases, including new strains of bacteria and viruses.”

“While we do not yet have conclusive evidence about the source and path of the SARS- CoV-2 infection, it is highly likely that the origin of this new virus is in part linked to trade of live wild animals and their body parts. This often illegal or uncontrolled practice is a vehicle for spreading old and new zoonoses, increasing the risk of pandemics with enormous health, social and economic impacts.”

“Of all the emerging diseases, zoonoses of wildlife origin represent one of the most significant threats to the health of the world population. Three- quarters of human diseases known to date come from other animals, and 60% of emerging diseases have been transmitted by wild animals.”

Read the report and ask yourself what you can do to highlight this issue and put pressure for new legislation. This can save lives.

Future Earth on how digitalisation can help with climate change

If you are interested in Sustainability Science - please follow the community Future Earth. Recently they launched a report Sustainability in a Digital Age. It explore the opportunities and challenges of the Digital Age from the lens of sustainability. I recommend to read it!