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Climate Emergency

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Industries and sectors driving deforestation: what you need to know

We recently had a deep-dive into the industries and sectors driving deforestation. We were curious: do all sectors contribute to deforestation? And which industries have the biggest impact? 
We learned that<a href="https://forest500.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> every six seconds</a>, an area of forest the size of a football pitch is destroyed to make way for the production of commodities such as soy, beef, timber and palm oil. Here’s the full scoop:

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Forests cover <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/ca8753en/CA8753EN.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">31% </a>of the land on our planet and they are critically important for stabilising our climate. They regulate ecosystems, protect biodiversity, support livelihoods, and play an important part in taking carbon dioxide out of our atmosphere. Approximately <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/forests-and-climate-change#:~:text=Approximately%202.6%20billion%20tonnes%20of,America%20%E2%80%93%20offer%20opportunities%20for%20restoration.">2.6 billion tonnes of CO2</a>, one third of the CO­2 released from burning fossil fuels, is absorbed by forests every year and the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2019 IPCC special report of Climate Change and Land</a> stated that planting forests and protecting existing forests is key to all pathways for limiting global warming to 1.5°C.  
Forests are also home to <a href="https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/forests-and-climate-change#:~:text=Approximately%202.6%20billion%20tonnes%20of,America%20%E2%80%93%20offer%20opportunities%20for%20restoration." target="_blank" rel="noopener">80% </a>of the world&#8217;s terrestrial biodiversity and provide critical ecosystem services that are important to both people and the planet, such as healthy soil, clean water sources, habitats, erosion control, crop pollination and  flood control.
Globally about <a href="https://www.un.org/esa/forests/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/UNFF13_BkgdStudy_ForestsSCP.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.6 billion people</a> (nearly 25% of the world’s population) rely on forests for their livelihoods, many of whom are among the world’s poorest. Over<a href="https://www.un.org/esa/forests/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/UNFF13_BkgdStudy_ForestsSCP.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 200 million people</a>, including many indigenous people, directly depend on forests for their survival. Forests produce more than 5,000 types of wood-based products and generate an annual gross value add of just over<a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/forests" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $600 billion</a>.

Forests are critically important and must be protected. However, they are being cleared and degraded at a rapid rate, causing carbon loss as well as negative impacts on ecosystem services. Deforestation is the second largest source of anthropogenic emissions on the planet, causing <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/forests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15% of global greenhouse gas emissions</a>. 
The clearing of forests also leads to the loss of habitat and brings humans and wildlife into closer contact, increasing the risk of spill over of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola and HIV from animals to humans as they come in closer contact. 
Global forest loss continues at a rate of five million hectares a year. This is an extremely alarming rate, and studies have found that even with all other anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions phased out, ‘business as usual’ deforestation alone could still drive global heating above <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa836d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2°C by 2100</a>.

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Globally the loss of tropical forests has continued to increase. This is largely driven by the commercial production of the four forest-risk commodities: cattle, soy, palm oil and timber. 
Cattle ranching to produce beef, leather, gelatine and tallow is the leading driver of deforestation in Latin America and is responsible for destroying an average of <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/forests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2.71 million hectares</a> of forests a year (equivalent to 3.25 million football pitches).  Soy production is another of the key drivers of deforestation in Latin America. This soy is used for personal care and medical products, fuel and food and most significantly as animal feed.
 Palm oil is a vegetable oil that is derived from the fruit on the African oil palm tree. The production of palm oil is linked to deforestation and climate changes as well as other issues such as habitat degradation, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuses. Palm oil production is the largest cause of deforestation in SouthEast Asia and other tropical regions, and is used in a wide range of food, personal care, and household products, as well as to produce biofuel. A recent study found that palm oil contributed to more than <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837717301552" target="_blank" rel="noopener">14% of forest loss</a> over 2005-2015. 
The production of timber is another major driver of deforestation and forest degradation across the globe and is used for a variety of products from construction and furnishing, to paper and fabric goods.

The problem is that often people only associate deforestation with agriculture or food production. However, the four forest-risk commodities described above are found in many value chains covering a large number of sectors. The average company has <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/research/global-reports/global-forests-report-2016">24%</a> of its revenue dependent on these four forest-risk commodities.  
These products are used as key ingredients across a range of products from burgers to lipsticks, to construction materials and car seats. However, the link between deforestation and the goods we buy are often hidden by the structure of global supply chains. 
A recent report by CDP (a charity that runs the global disclosure system, allowing companies to report and manage their environmental impacts) found that some companies report they are still unaware of the presence of the four main forest commodities in their supply chain or operations, or they are unaware of their impact. Below we highlight a number of sectors, and how they use these products.

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Agriculture 
The single largest causes of deforestation and forest degradation globally is agriculture, with large-scale commercial agriculture accounting for <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">40% </a>of tropical deforestation, and local subsistence agriculture for another <a href="http://www.fao.org/state-of-forests/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">33%</a>. 
Forest is cleared at alarming rates to grow crops, particularly soy and palm, and to provide grazing land for livestock, especially cattle. Agriculture is the clear cause of deforestation to produce the four forest risk commodities. However, the sectors where these commodities are used is often less clear.
Both export-driven, large-scale agriculture and small-scale agriculture have impacts on deforestation. If you take the Amazon as an example, commercial, large-scale agriculture, particularly for animal feed, and biofuels using soy and palm oil, is a key pressure that has been responsible for the <a href="https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_living_amazon__report_2016_mid_res_spreads_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">largest losses of natural habitat</a> in the Amazon in recent decades. However, small-scale agriculture and legal and illegal settlement of small-scale farmers is expanding and is also impacting on forest loss.

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Food and beverage
The majority of deforestation in this sector is linked to meat, soy, and palm oil. Meat production is the most significant driver of deforestation, because as well as the vast clearance of land for grazing livestock (particularly cattle), huge amounts of forests are removed so that the land can be used to grow soy to feed the pigs and chickens that we eat. 
Soy is one of the four major forest risk commodities, and more than <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2017-10/Risky%20Business%20-%20October%202017.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">80%</a> of soy grown globally is used to feed animals- particularly poultry, pigs and dairy cows.  Therefore, deforestation is often rife in the animal products that we consume: meat, dairy and eggs.
Soybeans also contain approximately <a href="https://www.bothends.org/uploaded_files/document/Soy_Barometer2014_ENG.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">18%</a> oil which is refined and used as vegetable oil for cooking in a wide variety of processed food. A valuable by-product from crushing soy is lecithin. This is an emulsifying agent in food products such as chocolate, cookies, peanut butter, and coffee creamers. About<a href="https://www.bothends.org/uploaded_files/document/Soy_Barometer2014_ENG.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 6%</a> of the global soy production is directly used in food products, predominantly in Asia: soy sauce, tempeh, tofu, soy flour, soy milk, textured vegetable protein and edamame. 
The most well known cause of deforestation within the food sector is palm oil. This is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet and found in margarine, chocolate, pizza dough, instant noodles, ice cream, cookies, packaged bread and many more!
Food packaging is also a culprit, as pulp and paper used to make them come from timber. Not all items appear on the shelf in cardboard packaging, but almost all would have arrived at the supermarket packed in a cardboard box. Wood is also used in the processing of some foods, for example smoking.
Automobile
Leather for cars comes from cattle. The non-profit organisation <a href="https://phys.org/news/2020-09-european-carmakers-leather-fuelling-deforestation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Earthsight</a> have revealed that some of Europe’s biggest car makers, including BMW and Jaguar Land Rover use leather linked to deforestation in South America. These automakers buy leather for vehicle industries that is originally sourced from cattle ranching on illegally razed land in Paraguay. 
The automotive and tyre industry is also the biggest consumer of rubber. Almost <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/forests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">90%</a> of natural rubber is produced in South East Asia, where it has become a leading driver of deforestation.

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Textile
The leather from our shoes, bags and belts comes from cattle. Often the word ‘cattle’ is synonymised with ‘beef’, leaving leather to be labelled as just a by-product of the meat industry and meaning that the environmental impacts of the leather industry avoid scrutiny.
 A report from <a href="https://forest500.org/sites/default/files/forest500_annualreport2019_final_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forest 500 </a>in 2019, found that 81% of the 64 most influential companies assessed for leather had no commitment to source deforestation-free leather, including Prada, Zara and Michael Kors.
Deforestation is also present in the supply chain of materials made from plant-based cellulose, such as viscose, rayon, bamboo and lyocell fibres. These fibres are made from timber, by processing wood until it forms pulp, adding inorganic fibres and spinning it until it forms fibres. Over <a href="https://forest500.org/analysis/insights/hidden-deforestation-fashion-industry-how-sustainable-sustainable-fabric" target="_blank" rel="noopener">150 million trees </a>are logged annually for cellulose fibres for clothing.
Chemical
Many perfumes and flavourings, drugs, cleaning products etc contain palm oil or soy. A valuable by-product from crushing soy is lecithin. This is an effective emulsifying agent used in paints, coatings, and waxes.  Palm kernel oil is also used in many chemicals for industrial use.  
Personal care
Many personal care products such as toothpaste, soap, and lipstick contain soy or palm oil. A valuable by-product from crushing soy is lecithin. This is an emulsifying agent that is used in cosmetics. Palm kernel oil is also used for making soap, toiletries, and cosmetics. Tissues, toilet paper, sanitary towels, tampons, and diapers are all made from wood.

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Retailers
Most retailers will sell items that have some of the four forest-risk commodities within them, whether that is furnishings, clothes, noodles, meat, dairy or confectionary. 
An example is retailers that sell furniture. Most furniture is made from timber, varying from softwood furniture (e.g. pine) and plywood/laminate flat pack furniture to luxury hardwood (e.g. mahogany). These all have the potential to include damaging deforestation in their supply chain, unless it is ensured that they are sustainably sourced. 
The same goes for leather furniture, sourced from cattle. Timber is also used to make musical instruments, tool handles, decorative items and for the packaging that most products will come in (e.g. pallets, cardboard boxes).
Forestry
Perhaps the most iconic symbol of forest destruction is wood production. Products made from wood can be divided into two categories: pulp and timber. Pulp is made from tree fibres and used to produce paper and related products. This is particularly an issue in Indonesia, where native forests are cut down for monoculture plantations of fast-growing tree species. 
Timber is used for construction or high end-products like furniture and is linked to forest degradation, where valuable tree species are harvested, and the rest are left. These degraded forests are then <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01338.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more likely</a> to be targeted for deforestation and conversion to other land use.

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Print Publishing
The print publishing industry uses paper made from timber in newspapers, books, magazines, office paper, packaging tissues and labels. Timber is also often used to create advertising billboards.
Construction
The construction industry uses timber for both interior and exterior materials including timber frames for houses. Timber is also widely used as a construction material in flooring (solid wood; laminate or parquet blocks), window frames, doors and doorframes, skirting, decking, garden buildings, telegraph poles, fencing, boat building, railway sleepers etc
Energy
Worldwide, <a href="https://wwf.panda.org/our_work/our_focus/forests_practice/forest_publications_news_and_reports/living_forests_report/energy_forests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2.6 billion people </a>use traditional biomass, mainly wood and charcoal, as a source of energy. Most wood fuel is used in its country of production, particularly in rural areas and in developing countries, for heating and cooking, usually on open fires or in simple cookstoves. In recent years, there has been an expansion of ‘bioenergy’ in industrialized countries, where biomass such as timber is burnt to generate energy.
Finance
Many investments within the finance industry involve financing forest clearance. Data from the latest <a href="https://forest500.org/sites/default/files/forest500_annualreport2019_final_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Forest 500 assessment</a> of the 150 biggest financial institutions investing in companies in forest-risk supply chains shows that two thirds do not have policies in place to address this risk. 
Fuel
Biofuels are fuels that can be used to drive our cars and other forms of transport, that are made from biomass. This has the benefits of reducing emissions associated with fossil fuels, however there are associated risks, including the effects on the world’s forests.  Biodiesel is a type of vegetable oil that is produced from crops. Most biofuel is made from soy or palm oil, both of which are leading causes of deforestation.
Pharma
Soy, palm oil and even timber are found in a number of medical products. An example is aspirin, which is made from the bark of the white willow tree. The pharmaceutical industry is also an industry that is likely to be affected by deforestation. Of the 50,000 known medicinal plants, which are the basis of more than<a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/01/13/la-deforestacion-un-dolor-de-cabeza-para-la-medicina-natural" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 50% </a>of all medications, up to a fifth are at risk of extinction at the local, national, regional, or global level due to deforestation.

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Deforestation is a corporate responsibility issue that companies must address. The first step is to understand the risks in their supply chain. Could their suppliers be linked to deforestation? Companies need to be more transparent about how they are using cattle, soy, palm oil and timber to enable the deforestation embedded in global supply chains to be publicly tracked. They can address these risks by working with their direct and indirect suppliers to ensure they are not driving deforestation and to promote sustainable production.
The Paris Agreement states that since companies are responsible for such a large percentage of emissions, they are also responsible for delivering the necessary reductions. By eliminating deforestation, the business community can deliver emissions reductions equivalent to <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/575ecca7b654f9dd886dec23/t/576c39fdd2b857d28be73608/1466710526653/The+Business+End+of+Climate+Change.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">0.5-1.2 billion </a>metric tonnes.

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Deforestation is a global problem; and its reach extends far and wide into many sectors and industries. However, by recognising this issue and working with suppliers, businesses can ensure that they are promoting sustainable production. 
We also need to work to restore the forests that have been degraded and destroyed. Ecologi is a subscription service that is focused on planting trees to restore forests worldwide, as well as investing in <a href="https://ecologi.com/about">certified carbon reduction projects</a>, and we have already planted over 5 million trees!  Our goal is to avoid 50% of all global greenhouse gases by 2040, through tree planting and carbon reduction Gold Standard climate solutions. Learn more about <a href="https://ecologi.com/business">carbon offsetting for business.</a>

In Depth

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In the <a class="cq lu" href="https://medium.com/building-ecologi/putting-down-roots-grounding-our-climate-impact-in-scientific-knowledge-1e46fe766522" rel="noopener">last article</a>, we discussed how we use scientific knowledge to guide our impact decision-making, and also introduced the concept of the Ecologi Climate Committee.
Here at Ecologi, we work closely with our Climate Committee to ensure that all the money we receive via the Ecologi platform goes as far as it possibly can to have the greatest possible climate impact.
The Committee is made up of academics and industry experts across many different sectors, and meets once per month for a formal discussion, chaired by myself. At our monthly Committee meetings and in between, the group discusses the latest developments in climate action, helps to answer challenging questions that arise from our work — or fed back by our community — and sets out the scope and direction of our climate impact.
Together with our Impact team, the Committee is also helping us to develop our Climate Impact Strategy Framework — a public-facing strategy document that will set out and explain our impact decisions, discuss the mechanisms for maximising impact, and show how we intend to reach our goal of reducing 50% of global emissions by 2040. We’ll be publishing this document later in 2021.
Let’s meet some of the team…

<h2>Nicoletta Piccolrovazzi</h2>
Co-Founder &amp; Chairman — Applied Sustainability GmbH
Nicoletta draws on thirty-plus years’ experience leading diverse organisations and developing sustainability-driven business and collaboration programs with leading corporates and NGOs. Recently, she founded Applied Sustainability GmbH with the purpose of helping organisations “make sustainability real”.
<h2>Miranda Gorman</h2>
Project Drawdown
Miranda Gorman, Ph.D. is an environmental engineer and Senior Research Fellow for Industry at Project Drawdown whose research focuses on the sustainability of material resources. She has published peer-reviewed research papers and presented at international conferences on the topics of material flow analysis, resource availability forecasting, the circular economy, and non-fuel mineral mining.
<h2>David Markowitz</h2>
Ecologist and Sustainability Expert
David has two degrees in biology and ecology with additional specialisms in forestry and carbon accounting. With experience from the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and working with satellite imagery to analyse protected areas and wildfires, David provides support to the Ecologi team regarding new and existing forestry-related projects.
<h2>Daniel Keir</h2>
CyStellar
Daniel is the Climate Change, Natural Perils and Sustainability Project Manager at CyStellar, a SpaceTech company using remote sensing data to deliver natural hazard and weather insights to various sectors. Day-to-day, he works with climate and weather data to aid companies monitoring natural hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and wildfires. He previously co-founded the sustainability consultancy, Ecofye.

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<h2>James A. King</h2>
Research Associate, University of Sheffield
James King, Ph.D. is a climate scientist and Research Associate at the University of Sheffield, whose work mainly focuses on climate models; investigating reasons why their performance varies in some parts of the world, developing ways to identify what makes a model more reliable, and using models to understand the ways that humans might be able to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Now, James’ research focuses on the broader impacts on the Earth system of nature-based carbon dioxide removal strategies.
<h2>Amelia Crews</h2>
Climate Advocate &amp; Energy Innovation Co-ordinator
Amelia is Energy Innovation Co-ordinator at Your Co-op Energy, working on many projects focused on community development utilising renewables. She actively engages the voice of youth in pivotal conversations around climate change: in 2021, she was an ambassador for the G7 Youth Summit (‘Y7’) in Cornwall.
<h2>Andrew Ritchie</h2>
Director, ALR Business Solutions Ltd
Within previous roles, Andy managed validation and verification activities relating to EU ETS and the UNFCCC’s Clean Development Mechanism, plus a number of other schemes. More recently, he works in assessing forestry management against certification standards and is working with large organisations developing sustainability frameworks to help effectively manage their environmental and social challenges.

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<h2>Melissa Hobson</h2>
Sustainability communications consultant
Melissa Hobson is a consultant working in the sustainability and for-purpose sector. In communications, Melissa has worked with companies and charities big and small (both in-house and agency side) for over 11 years. She is passionate about marine conservation and has been a certified SCUBA diver for 13 years.
<h2>David Dennison</h2>
Climate &amp; Energy Advisor
David is an experienced climate change advisor with a strong technical background and deep knowledge of the energy sector, including renewables. He is particularly passionate about climate trends and impact on the environment. His goal is to help business, government and the community navigate a successful transition to net zero.
<h2>Rebecca Dobbin</h2>
Ecologist &amp; Environmental Scientist at Victoria University of Wellington
Rebecca has a BSc in Ecology and Biodiversity, and a Master’s degree in Climate Change Science and Climate Policy. Her research is focused on climate science and modelling, mitigation, adaptation, conservation biology and carbon markets. She write reports on opportunities for mitigation and adaptation in New Zealand, and assists Ecologi with climate research.
<h2>Nicolien Van Zwieten</h2>
Geoscientist
Nicolien works as a geologist specialising in ground hazards, having completed degrees in BSc Physical Earth Science, and MSc Structural Geology and Geophysics. Her experience also includes GIS work addressing biodiversity loss and the climate crisis, and researching carbon capture and storage initiatives.
<h2>Stefanie Kaiser</h2>
Communications, forestry and sustainability expert
Stefanie works at the intersection of communication and sustainability. She specialises in sustainable land use and forestry, but spends most of her days thinking about the wider implications of sustainability solutions. In previous work, Stefanie worked in impact investing, and she also previously trained as a biologist.
<h2>Chris Webb</h2>
CEO, GreenGrowth
Chris is an environment and sustainability expert and currently CEO of GreenGrowth investments, helping people have a positive environmental impact with their money. He is well experienced in evaluating and improving business’ sustainability profiles both in the UK and abroad. His work in carbon reduction, circular economy and resource efficiency has received national and international sustainability awards.
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Next time in this series, we’re going to talk about the key external, democratic and market forces that impact our work in finding and funding the most effective climate solutions.

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Environmental activism: your first steps

<h2>It’s not too late to start making a positive impact on the environment</h2>
<h3>We know that it’s easy to become overwhelmed when thinking about the state of the environment.</h3>
You’ve only got to look at the news or the latest David Attenborough documentary to know that the environment needs us to take action now more than ever. The recent<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report</a>, which spells out a ‘<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/10/code-red-for-humanity-what-the-papers-say-about-the-ipcc-report-on-the-climate-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">code red for humanity</a>’ has sent shockwaves across the internet – there are some startling truths, and while it seems hopeless at times, scientists have said that if we take urgent action to address greenhouse gas emissions, this would minimise the likelihood of further tipping points occurring.
Feeling helpless is a normal reaction when it comes to our environment, as the scale of the problems can seem huge. But, there is hope.
Greta Thunberg hits the nail on the head with her poignantly titled book, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. Activism has to start somewhere. From the civil rights movement, women’s suffrage or gay liberation, social change has one thing in common: a group of like-minded people get fed up with the way things are done and collectively decided to take action to solve a social problem. Climate change is no different.

<h2>‘Slacktivism’ vs ‘activism’&#8230;</h2>
Sometimes it can feel that you’re doing enough just by supporting a political or social cause via social media or online petitions, but the truth is this involves very little effort or commitment. This is why these actions have been dubbed as Slacktivism, with many feeling that they want to do and achieve more. Activism isn’t as hard as you think it is &#8211; in order to be an activist you just need to take action to achieve a political goal. It’s really that simple, and while online petitions can be useful, we want to help you understand how you can help in a bigger way. 
Want to know more? Here are some steps to get you started on your own environmental activism journey.

<h3>1. Make your bank and pension green</h3>
Did you know that 35 of the world&#8217;s major banks have provided in excess of<a href="https://www.ran.org/bankingonclimatechaos2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $2.7 trillion (£2tn) to fossil fuel companies</a> since the Paris Agreement? Did you also know that according to a 2020 report from Rainforest Action Network, they found that fossil fuel financing had actually grown each year since the Paris agreement?
So while you think that the cash in your bank account, pension and personal investments may not seem to be doing any harm, the truth is that in most cases it’s the opposite. Your money could be used by the banks to make investments in fossil fuels, and you might be completely unaware.
It’s easy to assume that one person can’t make much of a difference. But we have to remember that money talks, and if more people opt to leave the major banks, or switch investments to other options, the louder the message is &#8211; because ultimately, your decision to leave affects their profits. Banks and investment companies care about their brand image <a href="https://www.ran.org/bankingonclimatechange2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and work hard at being portrayed in a good light.</a> Meanwhile, putting your savings into an ethical fund will mean that they are no longer used for high-carbon investments, and are instead used to support renewables or other sustainable industries.
When it comes to pensions, switching to an ethical option isn’t as hard as you’d imagine. You can do this yourself by using your online login details most of the time. For example, the likes of <a href="https://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/nest/aboutnest/investment-approach/other-fund-choices/nest-ethical-fund.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nest</a>, lets you change your settings in just a few clicks.
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<h3>2. Stop supporting fast fashion </h3>
We live in a society where clothing can be made cheaply, and we’re encouraged to buy as quickly as we dispose. It’s unsustainable, not just for the workers who are forced to create garments in unbearable conditions, but for the earth&#8217;s resources that we use to generate just one garment.  Did you know that around <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1952/full-report.html#heading-8">300,000 tonnes</a> of used clothes <a href="https://www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=will-fashion-firms-stop-burning-clothes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are burned</a> or buried in landfill each year? And on top of this &#8211; fashion is the world’s second-largest polluter after the oil industry, and it’s thought that this will only increase as our appetite for fast-fashion continues to grow.
Much like living frugally, investing in your wardrobe’s statement pieces with the intention of keeping them forever is key. A good pair of jeans and a classic button-down shirt are timeless staples that never go out of fashion, so why keep replacing them? Alternatively, check out pre-loved websites, charity shops or auction sites. For clothes, you can even try online apps such as Vinted and Depop, and you can find out more about<a href="https://goodonyou.eco/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> clothing ethical ratings here</a> if you’re unsure of a company&#8217;s ethical credentials. If you want to learn more about the footprint of devastation that our fast-fashion addiction leaves behind, you can watch ‘<a href="https://truecostmovie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The True Cost</a>’, and read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3289140-to-die-for" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘To Die for: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World?</a>’ by Lucy Siegle.
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<h3>3. Contact your local Member of Parliament </h3>
Ecologi is based in the UK and here, elected representatives are Members of Parliament, or ‘MPs’. If you’re outside the UK, your representatives may be called something else &#8211; but the advice still applies.
Here, the key to success is patience and perseverance. While some may feel like there’s little to no point in contacting your local MP, imagine a day where a number of other like-minded constituents also did the same thing. Soon enough it becomes more frequent and develops into an unavoidable topic that your MP has no choice but to deal with. 
Writing to your MP is an effective way of creating public pressure. It’s also a personalised voice coming from a local constituent. MPs care about votes, which means they become answerable to the majority in their area. What’s important to you and your neighbours eventually becomes unavoidable, especially around the time of elections. 
If you’re unsure about what to do or what to say to your local MP:
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/how_to_write_to_your_mp.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Here’s a great template to start you off</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.writetothem.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Here’s how to find your local MP</a></li>
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If you’re not convinced that your MP will deal with your climate concerns, you can publish your correspondence to them in an ‘open letter’ on social media &#8211; often representatives and organisations take far more notice of issues when they are being called out in public online.
Remember that it doesn’t matter if you didn’t vote for your local MP and if they don’t align with your preferred party or political views, they’re still in place to help voice the opinions of all constituents. 
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<h3>4. Subscribe to Ecologi and grow your own forest</h3>
We’re on a mission to reduce half the world&#8217;s emissions by 2040 through Collective Action. <a href="https://ecologi.com/collective-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Our timeline is clear</a> and our Ecologi Community is hard at work spreading the word.
While it may seem simple, <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">starting your monthly subscription</a> with Ecologi is one of the easiest ways to tackle climate change. For the price of a coffee and pastry a month, our Ecologi subscription is here to responsibly plant trees across the world and to support the very best in verified climate solution projects. 
Through our tree-planting partners, Ecologi supports tree-planting projects across the world. You can even choose to plant trees here in the UK. In addition to tree-planting, an Ecologi monthly subscription also supports Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard certified carbon reduction projects, ranging from protecting the Amazon rainforest, funding wind farms, biomass and hydropower solutions, or energy-efficient stoves for rural communities. 
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<h3>5. Arm yourself with plenty of knowledge</h3>
Read lots of books on the matter – especially from fellow environmental activists and leading experts on climate change. Understanding the complexity of the situation, and seeing the problems from more diverse perspectives allows you to speak up, challenge opinions and add to the conversation surrounding climate change. Knowledge is power, and it’s a great way to dive into a specific interest even more so.
Here are just some of Ecologi’s recommended reading for the budding environmental activist:
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://naomiklein.org/on-fire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal</a> – Naomi Klein</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52275335-how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need</a> – Bill Gates</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5571.Cradle_to_Cradle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things</a> – Michael Braungart and William McDonough</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55996032-climate-action-challenge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Climate Action Challenge: A Proven Plan for Launching Your Eco-Initiative in 90 Days</a> – Joan Gregerson</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://penguin.co.uk/books/314/314671/this-is-not-a-drill/9780141991443.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This Is Not A Drill</a> &#8211; Extinction Rebellion</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7230015-how-bad-are-bananas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How Bad Are Bananas?: The carbon footprint of everything</a> &#8211; Mike Berners- Lee</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="http://www.zedbooks.net/shop/book/why-women-will-save-the-planet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Why Women Will Save the Planet</a> &#8211; Friends of the Earth</li>
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<h3>Start small and set your own goals</h3>
Activism doesn’t always mean protests and boycotts. Ripples make waves, so start small with your efforts. You’re also more likely to adopt them if they’re smaller and easier to do. The key to success is little and often. We all know the basics; reusing your coffee cup, opting for a meat-free diet, and consciously using less plastic throughout our daily lives. So, we’re not going to preach to the converted here, so if you’d like to know more on small goals, you can <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/29/50-ways-to-green-up-your-life-save-the-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read this great article to get you started</a>.

<h2>Collective Action: the key to environmental activism</h2>
Being an environmental activist is all about making small changes. The very fact that you want to help, and are willing to make changes to your lifestyle, is a good foundation for you to start your journey. You’re also not alone. Right now, there are tens of thousands of like-minded people who want to make a positive difference and change the world for the better, just like you.
Ecologi believes that the key to successful change is through <a href="https://ecologi.com/collective-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Collective Action</a>. We know that we’re facing the biggest challenge of our lifetime and that by coming together we can make a difference to the planet for generations to come. We believe that with a little input from a lot of people, we can create real, tangible change. 
 
This article demonstrates just a few, simple ways that environmental activism takes shape. Outdated notions of ways to protect the environment are a thing of the past. The average person can take a few positive steps to make a huge difference. 
Whether you’re planning to switch banks and invest your pension in cleaner energy, adopt a vegetarian lifestyle or <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">subscribe to Ecologi every month</a>, there’s no wrong way to save the planet. The important thing is to make changes and move forwards with action and purpose.

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If we were going to be serious in our ambitious mission of reducing 50% of global emissions by 2040, we would need to ground ourselves firmly into climate science.
Ecologi’s humble beginnings were more fuelled by motivation and enthusiasm for the cause, than by knowledge of the complexities of Earth systems science. In order to truly maximise our climate impact, we would need to tap into a whole wealth of climate knowledge, from leading experts in the field.
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Two years into running Ecologi, committing to use peer-reviewed climate science to inform the way we do what we do is ingrained in our organisational identity — but before that, it had also given us somewhere to start, as we began to build our subscription service to restore the planet. Fundamentally, it gave us the ‘what we do’ part in the first place.
When Elliot, Lucy and Alex first sat around a kitchen table pondering climate solutions that they could channel funding to — if they could build the platform to scoop up the world’s pocket change — there were obvious avenues to start down: we’d support a broad array of renewables and other carbon reduction efforts, and we’d plant lots of trees.
By that time, it was already well-established that growing trees is a singularly fantastic thing to do. Quite aside from drawing down carbon, trees provide habitats, stabilise soil, purify air and water sources, provide income to local communities, and much else beside. Re-greening our surroundings also has a measurable positive impact on our mental health.
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Purchasing credits to offset personal carbon footprints is altogether more controversial. Some influential climate thinkers don’t like offsets. Some people think that carbon offsets make us complacent, and leave us living our heavily carbon-intensive lives, just with less guilt. This might be true (although I’ve never seen it studied formally), though my hunch is that people offsetting their footprints probably already lead lower carbon lives than those who don’t. Corporate offsetting is perhaps a different matter, but I imagine the same probably applies, perhaps with a slightly weaker correlation. Conjecture. Anyway: I also see the carbon market through a slightly different lens.
Carbon credits are a mechanism for exchanging cash for verified emissions reductions. That, fundamentally, is what they are. They are a vehicle for moving money from you, to a climate project that will have (or has already had) a real-world impact.
This vehicle is imperfect — and, sure, choosing to buy carbon credits requires some due diligence (which we’ll take a look at in this series). But the same is true for any method of climate action — <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://ecologi.com/articles/in-depth/growing-trees-responsible-reforestation" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://ecologi.com/articles/in-depth/growing-trees-responsible-reforestation">including planting trees</a>. Used well, carbon credits are a powerful tool for dragging down emissions — and this is the position of scientists much more qualified than myself, who readily admit that offsets make them feel uneasy. Offsetting isn’t going to solve this on its own; and it is <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/publications/reports/Oxford-Offsetting-Principles-2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/publications/reports/Oxford-Offsetting-Principles-2020.pdf">a necessary but not sufficient condition</a> for solving climate change.
In the not-too-distant future, we are hoping to expand ‘what we do’ to include lots of other areas in climate action, and allow our subscribers to choose certain topics within climate that they’d like to contribute to. For our beginnings though, the science was behind us as we started out by offering subscribers two things: offsetting a footprint’s worth of CO2e emissions through purchasing verified carbon credits, and, separately, funding the planting of an awful lot of trees.
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<h3 class="graf graf--h3">Required reading</h3>
With Ecologi now up and running, our impact team set out establishing what scientific research would form the wider basis of our understanding of the climate problem. Nothing other than a broad, solid foundation of peer-reviewed, cutting-edge climate research would suffice to get us where we need to be.
We were already familiar with <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://drawdown.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://drawdown.org/">Project Drawdown</a> — ‘the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming’ — who are firm favourites, and nowadays firm friends, of ours. Drawdown compiles a list of around 100 climate solutions, and sorts them according to their maximum emissions reduction potential, assuming universal global uptake. In the Ecologi office, Drawdown is roundly considered a real ‘north star’ of climate knowledge.
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Over time, we established more links with other voices in the climate space, uncovered more existing and new research, and developed a network of trusted authority figures across the movement.
In building the operational machinery that runs climate impact here at Ecologi, we have leant on a number of sources, institutions and research pieces, including:
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<li class="graf graf--li"><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" href="https://stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html">Rockström et al on planetary boundaries</a>;</li>
<li class="graf graf--li"><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" href="https://www.sei.org/publications/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.sei.org/publications/">Stockholm Environment Institute</a>;</li>
<li class="graf graf--li"><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/">The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi)</a>;</li>
<li class="graf graf--li"><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" href="https://www.bcorpclimatecollective.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.bcorpclimatecollective.org/">B Corp Climate Collective</a>;</li>
<li class="graf graf--li"><a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" href="https://climate-laws.org/legislation_and_policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://climate-laws.org/legislation_and_policies">Climate Change Laws of the World</a>;</li>
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Further, we’ve also been keeping our fingers on the pulse across the climate sphere through professional bodies like IEMA and CIEEM, as well as the works of our favourite climate researchers, writers and activists, like Emily Atkin, Wawa Gatheru, Jon Foley, Kate Marvel, Naomi Klein, George Monbiot, Mary Annaïse Heglar, Eric Holthaus, David Wallace-Wells and many, many others.
We also kept in touch with a number of the climate leaders who kindly took part in our <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://itstime.earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://itstime.earth">It’s Time</a> event in 2020.
Upon this foundation, it was time to start building an impact strategy.

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<h3 class="graf graf--h3">A committee for the climate</h3>
Resource constraints in our early months as a start-up meant that we weren’t likely to hire a whole team of scientists straight from the off.
The solution was to tap into the expertise of scientists around the world who were able and willing to donate some of their time voluntarily. Thus, the Ecologi Climate Committee (ECC) was born, populated initially by just a small handful of climate academics.
In thinking about how we work with our Committee, I’m reminded of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/about-us/media/press-releases/why-we-disagree-about-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/about-us/media/press-releases/why-we-disagree-about-climate-change">Mike Hulme’s fantastic explanation</a> in Why We Disagree About Climate Change, of three common approaches to the use of scientific knowledge:
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<li class="graf graf--li">Decisionist: where the policymakers (in this case, Ecologi) make decisions to reach certain ends, and consult scientists (in this case, the Committee) to produce scientific knowledge to provide the means to reach these ends.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Technocratic: where the scientists (the Committee) provide an informed consultation, and the policymakers (Ecologi) build policy which is tightly based on that.* This approach relies on the assumption that everything can be discovered and decided through the establishment of scientific fact, and also relies heavily on a competent and unbiased scientific community to produce ‘politically neutral’ ends.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Co-productive: where the policymakers (Ecologi) and the scientists (the Committee) recognise that both policy ends and their operational means arise through the co-creation of shared knowledge encompassing both the scientific (the responsibility of the Committee) and the non-scientific (such as the commercial, the value-driven, the political, and the democratised; the responsibility of the Ecologi team).</li>
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*Consider the claims of ministers during the COVID-19 pandemic to be ‘following the science’. These kinds of claims point towards a technocratic decision-making system, where the role of policymakers is simply to do whatever the scientists tell them they ought to do. Whether that is actually what happened in that case is a question for another day.
Historically, the approach we have employed in working with the Committee since its inception has evolved, touching all three categories and leaning mostly toward the decisionist and the co-productive.
Commercial constraints — like budgets, market forces, commercial risk, and our reliance on some degree of democratisation to maintain subscriber satisfaction — mean that establishing a hard technocracy with our committee isn’t particularly realistic. This means that we are always walking a delicate balance between following what the experts are saying, and allowing our subscribers some degree of agency over the way their subscription is being used.
Some examples are below, to illustrate the kinds of things we might bring to the Committee agenda, with their approaches given in brackets afterward:
We are building a subscription for the planet which incorporates the purchasing of carbon credits to offset personal footprints. Which project types would be suitable, and which should we avoid? (Decisionist)
We’ve come across this new experimental negative emissions technology which is making bold claims in the headlines. What does the Committee think about these technologies, and are there any that have emerged so far which have some backing from the scientific community as a viable way to artificially sequester carbon? (Technocratic)
We need to come up with a robust methodology for producing a risk profile for the projects available to us each month — some kind of automated risk engine that we can put our projects through, which will present us a snapshot of the risks relating to a project of its type in its location — and then we can use this snapshot to inform our project decisions. Let’s discuss what this should look like, and then let’s collaborate on the build, so that both the Committee and the Ecologi team are happy with the outcomes and we can use this as a regular tool to assess project risks. (Co-productive)
It was established in our Climate Committee meetings in late 2020 that in more or less every decision we make over which climate solutions to put our subscriber revenue behind — whatever policies and processes we have, and whatever microscope we scrutinise them under — there will almost always be some form of value judgement to be made at the end.
For example, take our monthly decisions about which carbon reduction projects to support. Say, one month, we are presented with two projects:
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<li class="graf graf--li">Project A is a small forestry-related project in a country in the Global South. It has a handful of <a class="markup--anchor markup--li-anchor" href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">SDG co-benefits</a>, and also has a decent side programme attached to it, which supports local biodiversity. These types of projects specifically within this host country have recently gotten a lot of bad press, because some similar projects elsewhere in the country have been mismanaged. This project itself seems to be managed and monitored very well, but the bad press about similar projects may be reflected in poor feedback or a loss of trust from our subscribers if they have read the articles and we can’t convince them that we believe this project to be solid. And, if it turns out that there’s something we’ve missed, it could be that this project ends up hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons as well.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Project B is a large solar project in a different country in the Global South. It has fewer co-benefits than the first project, but has a fantastic community outreach programme, making a huge contribution to just a couple of the social and humanitarian SDGs. There’s nothing controversial about the project, but it’s also not particularly exciting. It’s ‘just’ a solar project, after all.</li>
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Purchases from either project would be of equal volume (in terms of tonnes of emissions reductions), and both purchases would be for credits measured to the same carbon standard.
Which project should we choose?
Hard scientific facts aren’t going to make the decision for us. The verified tonnes of carbon we’d be purchasing as credits are considered quantitatively the same, after all. At some point, we have to make a judgement call, a trade-off, relating to the many questions that arise when taking these projects side-by-side. For example:
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<li class="graf graf--li">How do we rank or prioritise community co-benefits and biodiversity co-benefits?</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">If we select the ‘riskier’ but ‘more interesting’ project (A), is this better than picking the ‘safer’ but more ‘boring’ project (B)? Is the ‘boring’ project too uninspiring to motivate our subscribers? Is the ‘riskier’ project too risky to justify supporting?</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">Should we support the smaller project, where our funding will be more vital to the project itself, or should we support the larger project, which ultimately has a far greater potential for climate impact?</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">What else have we supported recently? Have we supported too many of the same project types lately? How do these projects match up to our wider impact strategy framework? Would there be any negative feedback from our community if we go for yet another solar project, or yet another forestry project? The same questions also apply to the project host countries.</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">What is the price difference between them? Is one more expensive per tonne than the other? Would a higher price indicate better quality? Does a lower price mean nobody else wants to buy the credits?</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">How well monitored are the projects? Are we satisfied that they meet our internal requirements for what constitutes a well-run carbon reduction project? What about additional third party monitoring?</li>
<li class="graf graf--li">What about social proof? Have other similar organisations supported these projects before, and how did that go?</li>
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This is why a full technocracy cannot work in this setting. If I, as the Committee chair, were to put these questions to the Committee during our regular meeting, I’d be met by shrugs — and quite rightly. “All these factors aren’t directly comparable,” they would tell me. “We can give you advice and pointers, but there will always be trade-offs, and it’s a value judgement that eventually you’ll just have to make.”
I know this, because we have discussed it in the Committee. And that is what they said.

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For this and similar reasons, in early 2021, we began to understand that not everybody on our Climate Committee should be a scientist, because not everything we need to do is science.
When, in June, we put out posts online seeking out new members to add to the Climate Committee, we sought out more climate scientists and ecologists, yes, but also science communicators, commercial sustainability experts, disaster risk reduction (DRR) experts, PhD students, and even environmental ethicists.
With this, our recent Committee expansion gave us a broader field of individuals to consult, and would help bring more perspectives to the table when we are co-producing knowledge that guides the climate impact Ecologi has.
The science is still there, undiluted — but now we also have a broader range of perspectives to help us consider the non-scientific considerations as well.
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<h3 class="graf graf--h3">Knowing our limitations and identifying where improvements can be made</h3>
I’m very proud of our Climate Committee, and I consider it a great honour to work with experts right at the top of their game, every month. Each time I come away from our Committee meetings I feel like I’ve learned something, having enjoyed an interesting, productive and friendly discussion among a set of talented and warm individuals.
This all said, all that we’ve built, and that I’ve described in this post, is not necessarily a perfect formula. Consensus does not always come easily, and following each meeting sometimes I’m left with as many questions seeking answers as I had when we started — which can be taxing. But we are Ecologi — and we are always looking to improve.
To highlight one key area I’d like to improve upon as we grow: I’d like to better accommodate climate scientists, leaders and thinkers located in Eastern time zones. Our regular Committee meeting is held over video link, and is set at 5pm UK time on a weekday, which is reasonably comfortable for most people West of about GMT+3.
But it inevitably leads the Committee to be exclusionary for those based in time zones further East than this — because this would potentially require them to join a Committee meeting late in the evening (e.g. New Delhi) in the middle of the night (e.g. Singapore), or in the small hours of the morning (e.g. Melbourne or Auckland).
This will improve. As our Committee grows, we’ll host multiple meetings per month, at different times of day, to accommodate a truly global expert community.
Another improvement that I’m fond of, is that we recently committed to offering a fee to all Committee members for their time. It is my belief that we should pay Committee members for sharing their valuable insight, and also that being financially comfortable enough to support the Committee for free should never be a prerequisite to taking part. Some members have opted to waive this fee and donate it instead as climate impact on our platform, and that’s fine too — but I’m glad that the offer is there. And I’m proud that Ecologi is established enough now to be able to afford this.
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There will continue to be bumps in the road, I’m sure. But I also believe that our Committee is a truly vital piece in the Ecologi puzzle. We won’t always get it right, but that’s okay. If we stumble, then we’ll be open and honest with our supporters, hold ourselves accountable, and learn our lessons. Then we’ll dust off our knees to get back to work.
And what an honour and a pleasure it is, to bring the group together remotely each month. Together, we learn and we grow.
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Next time in this series, I’ll be introducing you to some of our Committee members, to lift the lid on who these experts are that are supporting us to build Ecologi’s climate impact strategy.
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