“… if I eat less meat or take fewer flights, that’s just me – how much of a difference can that really make?
Actually, it’s not just you. Social scientists have found that when one person makes a sustainability-oriented decision, other people do too.
Here are four examples:
- Patrons at a US cafe who were told that 30% of Americans had started eating less meat were twice as likely to order a meatless lunch.
- An online survey showed that of the respondents who know someone who had given up flying because of climate change, half of them said they flew less as a result.
- In California, households were more likely to install solar panels in neighbourhoods that already have them.
- Community organisers trying to get people to install solar panels were 62% more successful in their efforts if they had panels in their house too.
Social scientists believe this occurs because we constantly evaluate what our peers are doing and we adjust our beliefs and actions accordingly. When people see their neighbours taking environmental action, like conserving energy, they infer that people like them also value sustainability and feel more compelled to act.”
Read the full article by Diego Arguedas Ortis on BBC.com/future
And this is exactly why we believe that The Mindful Collective can stand near the front of the ‘how to make a change’ debate.
Our mantra in the team is ‘act locally, impact globally’ and everyone we share this with seems to be realising the truth in the simplicity of the message.
Tesco ran a marketing campaign with the strapline Every Little Helps and it surely does. If only a proportion of the 7.5 billion people on the planet were to make a small change, just imagine the combined effect.
Sustainability and ethics begin with you and me, right here, right now.
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Act Locally, Impact Globally, is becoming more fashionable and relevant by the day… I also like to remember MY mantra which is Think Smart, Start Small.
This helps me to remember that momentum doesn’t build through running at full pace through a wall, it comes from steadily increasing pace, the right pace, at a pace that can be sustained…
So if you have new year resolutions personally and/or in your business… how can you ensure you maintain them? What help and support do you need? This is one of the key values of The Mindful Collective… the answer is amongst us…
#keepsharing
I understand your points above, and agree with them on a personal level. However, in terms of Councils, if they try and make a change to a more greener or sustainable methods it is usually faced with backlash that they are trying to save money. An example is the reduction of grass cuts, helps the bees and plants as grass is left to flower etc – however hundreds complained that their road now looked untidy etc. Sometimes I feel there is a NIMBY approach – Not in my back yard – but someone else can do it instead.
I think you make a REALLY good point. In the (near) future it really will be a case that it’s down to us all as individuals, rather than a reliance on everyone else, but “it doesn’t apply to me”. We are just touching the tip of the iceberg with this subject because when you think about fashion for example, so few people consider what they are really doing when they go on a ‘shopping trip’… interesting article on Fashion https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/rsa-blogs/2019/06/make-fashion-circular-co-designing-a-new-fashion-system2