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The invisibility of the impact of our personal actions to mitigate climate change results in decreased motivation, and belonging towards a sustainable lifestyle. Let's fix that.
There is a dichotomy between awareness and involvement relating to sustainable actions. During the awareness stage, there are no tangible results, less motivation and inherently, greater resistance to change at an individual level. Why should I change if nobody else is changing?
Transitioning to the involvement sta
ge has a lot of impediments, partly rooted in natural and instinctive human behaviours, but also at a structural level. The structural impediments mostly relate to the intangibility of results, the lack of information on how to integrate sustainable actions into our daily lives, and a slight aversion to sacrificing comfort for the sake of the planet.
Behaviorally, changing our course of action makes little sense. However, the most crucial part of understanding change is acknowledging that positive action is not a destination, but rather a direction that we chose to follow every day. Eventually, sustainable lifestyle decisions which require an active effort will become instinctive, the sacrifices won't seem that significant, and hopefully more will think the same. So how do we get there?
Step one is access to information. Step two is building habits. At Colectivo, we ponder over these issues a lot, and we want to share some of our thoughts and resources that empower more individuals to lead positive change, and for those concerned to inform themselves of their impact.
The United Nations Climate Change Carbon Footprint Calculator helps address the information lackings we care for in Colectivo. Although it is virtually impossible to trace all of our inherent effect on the planet and societies, racking up the footprint on (1)Transportation, (2) Energy Consumption, (3) Food Choices, and (4) Purchasing Decisions, we can get a rough estimate of your footprint as a result of your lifestyle. Why does this matter?
Hopefully, it sparks reflection on your personal decisions, and how they impact the environment. Secondly, it provides a perspective for you to make more informed decisions in the future. The dichotomy can be broken, instead of confirming that there is a problem, rather fixing it might be better.
Here is the link for the United Nations Climate Change Lifestyle Carbon Footprint Calculator.
Let us know what you score and what actions you are going to take in the future!
A special mention to @Alessandro Armillo from @AWorld, and @Nerea Mendinueta from @TheGoodGoal, who we had the pleasure of seeing and learning so much about becoming net zero citizens!