behavioural change, Culture shift & community action
We need to change our behaviours as consumers to reduce the stress on global resources and to reduce waste resulting from consumption. As improvements in technology are unlikely to move at the rate needed to curb demands for natural resources, lifestyle changes, both physiological and psychological, are required. The consent for the transition will come from the people, and it is vital that there is involvement of local communities.
- Culture: Embed a community culture of climate and environmental action in the public’s mind, as well as in business and scientific practices.
- Tracking: Provide the public with intelligent and interactive tools that allow them access to environmental information about their consumption, for example, clear product labelling, and real-time reliable and accredited carbon footprint tracking.
- Education: Through schools and universities starting at primary level, provide a platform for a national conversation on how lifestyles can and will change within a generation to achieve net zero-C consumption.
- Self-perception: Modify the way we talk and think about ourselves, moving away from terms such as ‘consumer’ and instead perceiving ourselves to be part of a precarious biosphere that requires to be maintained rather than consumed.
- Collaboration: Technological innovations must ensure a balance between supply-side and demand-side investment, and must engage with consumers’ choices via citizen’s assemblies (housing, energy, food, transport etc.)