This blog is about environmental hope. We all need step up to the challenge of environmental sustainability and do our parts. While developing my new business, OurPlanet365, these last few months, I was reminded how the environmental space can be immensely intense, stressful and overwhelming.
The issues are huge. We have created a lot of ugly havoc on this vibrant planet of ours. Greta Thunberg, one of my environmental activist heros and all of 17 years old, is right when she says we should all be ashamed of ourselves.
I am going to stop short of reminding you of all the chaos we have created as I trust you know it by now. (And if not, it would be wise to study up. This is not going away anytime soon.) The environmental challenges are not for the timid or the hopeless types. They are for the bold, the intelligent, the innovative. This is where the hope comes in.
We need big, visionary ideas. We need brilliant minds to come up with disruptive solutions. And we need everybody to rise up and do whatever they can. This can include voting for the right political candidates, activism, philanthropy, personal changes, voting with your dollars and whole host of other activities.
Recently, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man and Amazon CEO, committed $10 billion of his personal money to set up the new Bezos Earth Fund, which would support “scientists, activists, NGOs—any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world.” I think this is fabulous. If you like him, dislike him, whatever, $10 billion is a heck of a lot of money. Not only can it make a dent in fighting climate change, it sets the right tone for other billionaires and multi-millionaires to step up to support our planet. And, I for one, love that his visionary mind is thinking about how to fight climate change.
We started OurPlanet365 to help mid- to large-sized companies create an environmental sustainability platform for their business. In previous work, we discovered that many businesses wanted to do more to help the environment but they simply weren’t sure how to go about it. Most had disjointed and fragmented programs at best. Some were pretending to care, but not really involved in our planet at any deep level, if at all.
Developing OurPlanet365 has been invigorating and rejuvenating for me. It has created a much bigger purpose in my life. OurPlanet365 is a way to make a much, much greater impact than I can do as an individual. And there are so many potential business benefits for companies including increased revenues, cost savings and risk management.
I gave up eating meat on January 1, 2020 because the shame got to me (both morally and environmentally). It has been difficult, but I like the guilt-free part of it. I am also a recycler, composter, drive very little, eat mainly sustainable seafood, etc. I am not perfect, very far from it, but have made many climate-sustaining steps along the way.
But these are baby steps compared to what I want to do with OurPlanet365. It will be an exciting journey and, as I mentioned to my friends, I am diving in headfirst.
