Climate Crisis and Social Impact from the Bottom Up

Climate optimism is a bit dim these days, I won't lie. Yet, in this particular case, failure is indeed not an option. It just isn't. I have been thinking a lot, trying to pick myself up and generally I am so passionate about this, that it does not take long (it might lead to a longer than usual article though).

A few months ago I stepped outside of my little focused bubble, the Phius team, the Phius community of practitioners and even the greater green community of practitioners to go look for amplifiers and levers to increase our work and mission's impact by connecting with the established business community. For those of us steeped in it, it is high tide for climate action. We need any capacitor we can find.

I decided to go back to school for executive education at the The University of Chicago Graham School ...I was chosen as one of 23 fellows for their Leadership in Society Initiative. So far it has been absolutely amazing and stimulating and I am in my happy place learning, conceiving and building new things. The program is one of a kind, different from its coastal siblings at Harvard and Stanford: In close collaboration with the The University of Chicago Booth School of Business it is uniquely positioned to spawn down to earth business oriented social ventures with significant scalable impact potential. The program designers and administrators at the helm are guiding us to explore innovative business approaches to social entrepreneurship. They know how to inspire and ignite already seriously accomplished business leaders to kick into gear and to leverage their global leadership experience to initiate systems change. Hats off to the University of Chicago which is incubating the program and clearly is taking invaluable steps towards creating truly impactful business solutions.

I find myself in the room with some of the smartest and most accomplished business leaders. I am extremely honored and humbled to be working with such an amazing group of people. Our individual and collective goals over the course of the year will come into focus by designing a or multiple purpose plans for societal impact by the end of the program year. These plans will ideally become reality either through start-ups or by building and expanding on existing ventures. And why not shoot for the stars - possibly we could do both - connect all individual plans to some overarching greater purpose aka the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

It will not come as a surprise that I am actively working on a purpose plan to design a major impact solution for the climate crisis. There is awareness amongst my fellows of what the climate crisis means but as is often the case, there is a lack of knowledge of the actual facts and the data that tell a story of imminent danger, that the red warning lights are on, that this moment demands massive action at an unprecedented scale. I'd like to help raise that awareness and would love to see all purpose plans connected in a way at the end to help bring about the five turn-arounds described in the Club of Rome sequel to the Limits of Growth. I've written about it here in this newsletter when it came out: Earth for All. I believe there is a common thread that runs through all ideas. It'd be very powerful to link them and to showcase how all are relevant to the bigger picture issues that are upon this generation to solve. And, we all work at the epicenter of the solution: the economy and new business models, that's what it all comes down to. A snow clone for you: It's the economy stupid.

Beyond those uniquely positioned to work on the business venture end of things, there is another really really important aspect to urgent climate action. Maybe the most difficult one and maybe not. I assume that most regular people lack the science and data or helpful tools that don't require becoming a scientist and data freak to make an impact. In their everyday lives most people likely feel no agency to do anything...to respond in a meaningful way...the problem just seems too big for any individual and the result is apathy and denial. What does the term 'Carbon footprint' even mean? How does one assess one's life style and its climate benign-ness and take meaningful action? Honestly, right now only through dedicated self study, interest and concern. There is no societal leadership that advocates for the general public moving in unison.

My friend, sustainable architect and new urbanist/activist Doug Farr, FAIA, LEED AP, CNU-A , was on it first in my circle, as he has been on so many things (his renovation of the Keller Center on the UChicago Campus is one of my favorite buildings of all time). Right before COVID he and I had started talking about life style choices every person can make and their potential impact on the greater decarbonization efforts: he was adamant that the change we needed had to be inspired from the bottom up. At the time this seemed impossible to me to inspire actions in everyone...but he did not stop...he single-handedly brought the Climate Action Museum in Chicago into being, note the emphasis being on ACTION, making a serious effort towards educating and motivating the general public to take meaningful steps in their own lives. He was making the point that this was as personal as it was urgent and that we all needed to take action collectively.

Inspired by him, I have now come to believe that the power of the people, from the bottom up, will play a decisive role in saving our livelihood on this planet. And I like to believe that if the story is told correctly, people will make the right choices to protect their loved ones, their families, their communities if they only understood how dire the situation is.

With no longer being able to rely on the government to do the right thing (and clearly maybe never were, scientists have been warning about this since the 80's, politicians have failed us all this time!) it is now up to us, every single global citizen at a time.

Economic stresses are starting to bite and to be felt globally as well as extreme climate events and this includes wildfires. This is our time, the time of the people.

Now, this seems more daunting than it is, actually. Some of us sit in a position of significant power and can wield it if they chose to. But the sum of all the rest of us from the bottom up is equally powerful and maybe even more so. That is, if...(please consider what follows, please, even if the ask seems a tall order at first...consider the alternative cost to life and society and try to think how you could possibly do what I am about to suggest).

1. Your home and living circumstances: find a way to get yourself and your family into a passive house as soon as humanly possible. Those homes can easily be taken to positive energy by adding solar. They will power your house AND your electric car that doubles as back-up battery for when the grid fails (and it will, don't ask me how I know this, topic for another article). Those homes offer no utility bills except the connection fee to the grid and life saving resilience during extreme weather events. They will be your best bet to keep you and your family safe, healthy and comfortable. They help to reduce the climate crisis and get us closer to where we need to be: The built-in level of conservation matches the global carbon reduction needed on a per person basis. You can't afford to build your current home again that way or purchase one? Consider to down and right-size...smaller, better designed spaces are delightful! It is the quality of space that counts, not the amount. Bonus, you'll have more land to farm and grow your own vegetables :). Can't afford to build a smaller home? In many cities there are multifamily passive buildings underway that offer the same benefit, try to rent or buy an apartment in those, or if not yet available, convince a developer friend or the affordable housing agency in your state to start building them. And lastly, co-ops. Get friends together and build a small multifamily building that way or a cluster of townhouses to cut costs. There are many creative ways to do this if we only decided that this is what we truly want and must do for our well being, the plant's and everyone's safety.
2. Food and water: Grow your own food as much as possible. Learn how to can and preserve like your mother and grand mother did. Become a vegan or at least a vegetarian. If you must eat living things minimize and eliminate at least red meat (yes, pork is red meat). There is lots of carbon in meats and milk and cheese. Buy locally and seasonally to avoid transporting things around the globe. Don't waste food and use everything to its fullest. Compost. Avoid "products", all foods that have been processed and are packaged as much as possible. They are no longer healthy food. Avoid plastic packaging (fossil fuel products, and global problem of a waste epidemic) as much as possible. All these actions will instantly improve your health. Water. There is lots of energy in water in many different ways. To bottle and ship drinking water - filter tap water at home, there is energy needed to heat it to shower with - limit times to where is still meets your needs and comfort. Use water as sparingly as possible and you'll make a big carbon difference. Don't just let faucets run unnecessarily, repair drips and catch leaks, use a water efficient shower head, spout, dishwashers, clothes washers etc. Use rain water to water your garden, think about a cistern etc...again, these things seem small, but if...we all do it it will have a massive impact.
3. Air and car travel, this is a big one: If you have an old fossil fuel powered car, it might be best to drive it until it is beyond repair (embodied carbon that has already been spent to make it). Already mentioned the electric car powered by your home's solar system, that's a good switch to make when your old car is done (yes, embodied carbon in batteries, but still enormously better than a new fossil fuel car). Air travel is tough. I used the 2000 Watt Society many moons ago to help me assess how much travel I as a person could still engage in while staying within my limits of minimized carbon fuels to qualify for a 2000 Watt Society if I lived in one. Assuming air travel is for the foreseeable future fossil fuel powered then two trips from Chicago, one to each coast per year and once every two years a flight back home to Germany would fit the bill, assuming I live in a passive house. This is a tall order request, I understand. This restriction is quite serious and the most difficult one to attain I find if you look at how much each of us are still flying. But, if we truly want to take collective responsibility, then that is what we need to commit to until others figure out how to decarbonize air travel.

If...you are reading this then, I am hoping, this means you are taking the climate threat seriously and are looking for information to do something. The above three topics are no longer theoretical. They should by all means be standard acceptable behavior in a society and communities that understand the power of the collective responsibility to take action to protect our commons.

I know it is difficult. I myself fight the old habits everyday. Some days are good days, some days not so much, but I can always give my best and I want to. It is hard to take the first step when about everybody else still seems to think "why me?'. Our current society is still in mass denial. It is difficult to take responsibility derived from science and intellectual reasoning rather than being asked to react to immediate, clear danger. It is hard as a society to face the fact that there actually was interest on the energy we already consumed. It turns out to be a loan after all. Now we have to pay for the consequences of having benefited from an extremely comfortable life thanks to cheap, abundant, powerful fossil fuel in most of the Western world for a broad general public.

But, here is the good news (climate optimism, right?). That fossil fuel created unprecedented wealth. And that wealth is still here. Not just for the top 1%, but for a broad middle class and societies' infrastructure. There is significant generational wealth in the Western world for families too. We can put that wealth to work.

If we all did our part now and used our wealth in responsible ways as I began to describe above, we can still pay off our debt. And best of all, we get something in return too: we can do so while increasing our comfort level, health, safety, switching to a sustainable economic model and in a funny way maybe we even end up with a more meaningful and happy life. I firmly believe this. My moments in my passive house surrounded by a micro farm, harvesting the most beautiful water melons, butternut squash or heirloom tomatoes or just collecting seeds for the next year from flowers that were especially pretty, are some of the happiest moments of my life.

Let's all touch the earth lightly, again.

Ps.:

This past Thursday, I was at a most amazing Thanksgiving dinner party hosted by one of my fellow fellows from the Leadership in Society Initiative. It was an all vegetarian meal...no turkey anywhere to be seen. And I did not even notice until someone mentioned it, it was done so well. The flavors, the spices, the textures and the variety of comfort fall dishes...it was a delight...and it gave me hope that we can do this as a species. I am grateful for that dinner, for amazing people I get to work and learn with and make a difference and for the hope that it comes with. Thank you, Pamela, for a beautiful dinner! Join me. Please.