Just make sacrifices

Thanks to everyone who did yesterday’s 30-second survey (did it really take 30 seconds? Let me know, genuinely curious).

Here it is again if you’d still like to help out. Responses are anonymous.

For those who believe (that climate change is real), the answers to “how can we fix it” generally had a tone of using less, spending less, doing less – once I saw them all grouped together like that, the summary in my head was “We have to make sacrifices”.

While there is definitely a need to trim down our usage of stuff, expecting everyone to simply make sacrifices overall is unrealistic, and definitely not sustainable long-term. We humans need benefits or we won’t do stuff.

Solutions need to allow us to continue doing what we’re used to doing, as closely as possible, while offering an at-least-as-good, if-not-better outcome.

Three examples I can think of:

Electric vehicles – we’re used to refuelling petrol cars whenever we need, and getting a certain amount of distance out of a tank. With EVs, the charging options need to be plentiful, fast, and the range needs to be at least as good. Until they are, EVs will mostly be for early adopters and those not afraid of a little risk (though that’s already changing). The good news here is that all of those need-to-be’s are improving rapidly, so there will be a point where EVs are just an outright better option. They’ll also be cheaper!

Flying – unfortunately the most polluting mode of transport available to us (aside from rocketships), but also the quickest way to travel overseas. A UK organisation called Climate Perks encourages companies to offer a handful of extra “slow travel” days to staff, to allow them to take extra time to travel to and from holiday destinations by alternative means (trains or ships or whatever). Admittedly, this is easier in the UK and Europe where countries are closer, so for Aussies this might be a stretch for anything beyond domestic travel. But it’s a clever way of mitigating the harm of flying, by actually increasing a staff member’s time off.

Refurbished Computers – this one’s pretty specific, but I personally purchase computing equipment refurbished from one of a few stores near me. They run several-point checks on all machines, and offer a minimum of 2 years warranty (which is at least as good as the manufacturer) with options to extend that further. To me, refurbs are better in a lot of ways including being cheaper, creating less demand for new products, and often a better warranty than new products (but I realise this is a personal preference that won’t fly with everyone).

So it’s not all about making sacrifices. There are more examples in the business world that I’m keen to uncover – please share if you think of any around you.