Be the change instead of expecting change or “blame the business”

Do you ever think about being eco-friendly or speaking up about sustainability and then think, “ How much can one person impact the entire world?”. We say, an awful lot. Everyone in the entire planet is a consumer in some form and over 72% of people will be involved in the production of goods, somewhere along the supply chain.

What does this mean?

It means collectively society has a voice and unfortunately this means that pollution is your problem. Being either a consumer, producer, or both, somewhere along the line, we’re all involved but somehow accountability doesn’t exist. The Guardian recently released an article with the title, “Just 100 large companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions,”. Although I must admit that I was a little surprised that this article was blaming an entity as though in its self, had an independent existence from humanity.

I’ll explain what I mean... what is a business? Businesses are organized efforts and the activities of individuals to produce goods to customers for profit. In layman’s terms, businesses are big hierarchical structures of people who sell to big groups of people. To condemn ‘businesses’ for causing our pollution problem sounds like society has firmly gripped this scapegoat like it’s separate from us.

It’s time to recognise that businesses don’t exist without you and I, whether you’re a consumer, producer or both. So, yes… you do impact the entire world and yes, it’s time to speak up, its time for change. Will you continue to be the cause or will you become the cure, is the question that ultimately we must all ask ourselves?