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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>

Updates

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At Ecologi we’re often reaching for the celebration klaxon for our community’s impact milestones, but it’s a little different this time around.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve taken on £4m ($5.7m) of investment led by <a href="https://www.generalcatalyst.com/">General Catalyst</a> to follow our dreams and grow Ecologi to the scale needed to take on climate change in a significant way.
General Catalyst has a knack for turning their investments into household names: AirBnB, Deliveroo, Snapchat, Stripe, and Monzo to name just a few.
We know there’s room for the Spotify of Sustainability, and it’s with the resources of a leading investor that we can make this a reality, in a timeframe suitable for turning the proverbial Titanic around and reversing climate change over the critical decade ahead.
Before we started Ecologi, the idea was that we’d be set up as a non-profit organisation. Our mission is altruistic and that non-profit model aligned with our vision. As half of the world’s emissions have happened within the <a href="https://ieep.eu/news/more-than-half-of-all-co2-emissions-since-1751-emitted-in-the-last-30-years">lifetime of a 30-year-old</a>, there isn’t the luxury of time to grow traditionally through donations and slower ‘organic growth’. But, it didn’t take long to understand that to achieve Spotify-level scale, then you need Spotify-level capital to fulfil our potential impact.
It’s not just a sum of money that we were looking for, but a partner who wholly understands the delicate conditions which Ecologi needs to thrive: putting the planet first; complete transparency; keeping operational costs minimal; and staying ethical (see our decision to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/withdrawing-tech-nations-net-zero-elliot-coad/">withdraw from TechNation</a>).
Amongst 50 or so investors we spoke to, it was General Catalyst who fully understood this ethical tightrope with our long term plans to raise the bar on what it means to be a social enterprise. They gave examples of supporting one of their investments to donate over <a href="https://www.warbyparker.com/buy-a-pair-give-a-pair">eight million prescription glasses</a>; they set up a non-profit fund with excess profits from an ethical investment; also they understood that the future of Ecologi should be part-owned by our community via crowdfunding &#8211; an exciting development to own a stake in Ecologi and our planet too (more details at the end of this post).

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As we approach our 2nd birthday, we enter a new chapter with Ecologi that will be characterised with scale. Up to now, everything has been done on the tightest of budgets with our wonderful but tiny team. We look forward to progressing our climate impact exponentially as we race towards our target to reduce 50% of global emissions by 2040.
There is plenty we have in store. We want to actually show you the impact you’re making through storytelling and technology. We want to support projects that rewild our planet and fund innovative carbon removal technology. We want to show you your carbon footprint in real-time. We want to make good on the opportunity that can come out of rounding up the world’s pocket money and putting it into the world’s most impactful climate solutions.
Now we can, so no excuses! Let’s grow. 🌿
From Elliot, Lucy, Alex and the team here: thank you for your part in supporting this ray of climate hope 💚

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We showed a draft of this announcement to a few of our Ecologi subscribers and friendly critics and asked them what questions they had:
What will you spend the investment on?
Now’s the time to scale up our teams to enhance the platform, grow our climate projects procurement and reporting team, and expand our marketing and partnership teams. We’ll be a company of 40-60 people over the next 12 months. 
The investment will also allow us to buy larger quantities of certified carbon offsets and tree purchases upfront meaning we can plan better, get access to some projects we’d otherwise not be able to, and sometimes access better prices.
Some of the existing staff will be now paid the going rate for their level of expertise. None of the investment is to go on bonuses or dividends. 
Will we still operate Ecologi as we have done?
Absolutely yes.
If we are to be massively successful in our objectives it’s because we took on board everything that you needed us to be.
Is the source of the investment from profits of fossil fuel or high carbon industries?
No. It’s from a combination of pension funds that make investments in technology, and previous technology company profits. 
What is the investor expecting in return?
They will be looking to make a return on their investment, multiple times the amount they put in. And this is something that we can achieve and be entirely compatible with our journey. 
At some point in our future we’ll expect to come to the end of investment rounds and have a few options to suit us: be acquired and taken under the wing of a major future sustainability company; float on the stock market and be publicly owned; or even Ecologi makes their own investments in early-stage climate projects which yield their own returns. It’s far too early to say which financing route will come into effect but be assured that it’ll be a decision made with our mission in mind.
Investors will be expecting no dividends during this journey as any profits are to be reinvested back into the company.
How is Ecologi going to stay ethical?
As we grow, we will have the resources to upgrade our <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dACvzjE5nBE1cKZBAhYzsUa7rIiLJqCWXVgY4bNS8_Q/edit#gid=1742437033">transparency docs</a> and be a lot more verbose about what we’re up to. A quick run-through of what’s coming up: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">In the queue to be B Corp certified, all prep governance work is complete; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A bonafide social enterprise with mission locked into our company documents; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Increased detail on our quarterly financial reports such as director salary info; </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Regular “our door is always open”-style drop-in to chat with Elliot, the CEO, over Zoom;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Lifting the lid on what we’re up to with a “Building Ecologi” blog series.</li>
</ul>
Every person on the team and now investors included knows that we have our hearts fully set on creating a company that reimagines what it is to be a social enterprise. 
It’s going to take some doing, and bear with us as we get there. But please <a href="https://ecologi.com/pages/contact">drop us a line</a> on how we’re doing, as well maybe subscribe to our new <a href="https://medium.com/building-ecologi">Building Ecologi</a> series where we’ll talk about our plans out in the open and welcome your thoughts.

And finally, we’re thinking of running a crowdfunding campaign later this year. We’d love to <a href="https://ecologi.typeform.com/to/DMMimqA9">ask you five questions</a> that should take less than a minute to answer.

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Do you remember, somewhere in the fog of 2020, that period where the pandemic had seeped into every area of our lives but its exact contours and consequences hadn’t yet been established? That point after the initial panic was over, where people had begun to accept this new reality, and had started to consider where we might go from here? Somehow, amidst the horror of news screens filled with ventilated bodies and death counts scrolling ever upward, hope began to spring. Thoughtful, poetic articles began to emerge online about the deeper meaning of this event. Humanity had been given a chance to pause, to reflect, and perhaps &#8211; against all odds &#8211; change course. There was a cautious, quasi-spiritual sense that the planet was sending us a message, as if Mother Nature had realised that humans were not going to bring themselves back from the brink and was now taking the matter into her own hands. These visions of a better society were complemented by a raft of personal resolutions towards self-improvement: goals were set and new habits were inculcated, with the aim of returning after the pandemic a better you in a better world. It was as if we were all given the opportunity to zoom out, from our own lives but also society as a whole, to decide what was really important.
This sense of optimism seemed to be supported by palpable changes in our environment. Global emissions were down 7%; flights had dropped 96%; there were dolphins in Venice! These cracks of light in the gloom sustained us, made us feel as if the pandemic was really for something (beyond, well, surviving a pandemic). That is, there seemed to be a goal we were working towards, by which we could orientate our present reality, giving it some sense. And this was important. Hope sustains us in times of difficulty. It is the voice which reminds us no pain lasts forever, that the sun also rises.

But it seems that somewhere along the way, this optimism began to give way to something else. Weariness. Disillusionment. As lockdown 2 almost imperceptibly melted into lockdown 3, as the term ‘wave’ began to lose all meaning because the Covid tide had never gone away, darker realities began to set in. Not only did we witness our governments continue to vacillate and send mixed messages, we saw huge opportunities to restructure our economy missed, the same old mistakes from the 2008 financial crisis repeated as ‘too big to fail’ industries such as aviation and steel were bailed out, with no climate-change mitigation requirements built into the rescue packages. Rather than being <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-leveller-trfn-idUSKCN21R30P" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘The Great Leveller’</a>, we saw this pandemic exacerbate existing inequalities, the wealth of the top 1% rising by $8 trillion during the pandemic whilst many ordinary people were reduced to government handouts. Working from home also removed access to an equal workspace and put increased pressure on those facing challenging circumstances in their home environment. And everywhere we looked we found ourselves adrift in a sea of plastic: the take-out diets triple-plastic wrapped to avoid contamination, the delivery packages ordered to punctuate the boredom of lockdown living, and of course the proliferation of that once unknown acronym: PPE. And perhaps most deflating of all, it turned out those dolphins had never been in Venice, that it was a piece of <a href="https://www.2oceansvibe.com/2020/03/23/sorry-but-the-dolphins-that-appeared-in-venice-is-fake-news/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fake news</a> exploiting the sense of hope in the air.
What happened here? Were we deluded to dream of a better future? Did we imagine something that never really could have been? 
No. It is never wrong to hope. And it did sustain us in those interminable lockdown months. Our error was in putting our hopes on an external event, in this notion that Covid had come to save us, as if it were some sort of geo-biological defense mechanism, the natural arc of history correcting itself. But an event can only be as significant as the responses which it generates. Which is to say, the significance of the pandemic was in the million daily acts of kindnesses which it elicited: the grocery collections for elderly and infirm neighbours, the selfless bravery of the frontline workers putting themselves and their families at risk for the greater good, the proactiveness of those who organised events and other forms of support for the most vulnerable. Without even realising it, without waiting for a sunny day where we would have the type of society that we wanted, we were building it in front of our very eyes. One based on solidarity, equality and community concern (all of which happen to be the very characteristics needed to pull us out of the climate crisis &#8211; since we are all sharing increasingly limited space and resources on this planet). What we needed wasn’t a deus ex machina to solve the problem. What we needed was to see that the world around us is a result of the values we hold as a society, and it is this we need to change. This means remembering that the same essential ties that bound us through the pandemic persist and it is along these ties that change is effected, not some grand narrative happening out there. After all, the planet doesn’t care &#8211; it is humans that will perish, not nature.

The pandemic certainly has and will create short term change. The US government has just initiated an unprecedented $1.9 trillion stimulus package which stands to halve national poverty for example. But if we forget the lessons that Covid taught us about our own ways of life, such socially-minded policies will quickly fade into memory. No cataclysm will prevent business as usual from returning. As the Cree Indian saying goes, “Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.” We cannot wait for further wildfires, droughts and floods to jostle us into wakefulness. It is only through a wave of individuals coming together into communities, into a global movement, encompassing economics, energy, agriculture, and politics, that a truly sustainable way of life will be achieved. Outward events can point us in the direction, but we must walk the path. The steps need not be huge, but we must continue to take them. Reading or sharing this article. <a href="https://ecologi.com/plan">Subscribing to offset the carbon we produce</a>. Reducing meat consumption, <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/one-small-step-for-you-one-giant-impact-for-humankind">greening our finances</a> or <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/activism-how-the-drops-inside-the-ocean-are-breaking-down-the-dam">joining a movement</a>. Every step counts. But never question that it is you who must walk those steps. Far from being a lonely journey, the more you do, the more you will find the others who are walking it with you.

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Looking for some more info on our George The Poet video? You’ve come to the right place! It tells the story of the importance of sowing seeds of hope for the future generations and inspiring people to be part of something bigger: a community, a movement, a change… 
 
Lots of work went into the creation of this video &#8211; 11 crew members were involved in the overall production, through the creativity of Bristol-based agency <a href="https://www.enviral.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enviral</a>, who helped turn around this project in just 14 days.

George The Poet was our first choice for this campaign. He’s a firm favourite of both the Ecologi and Enviral teams, and we were so excited at the possibility of working alongside him. Putting aside his ability to produce and deliver incredible spoken word pieces, and the huge body of work that he can put his name to, he is a true champion of sustainability. 
That&#8217;s why we loved working with the team at Enviral on this project; because of their storytelling abilities. They understand the importance of conveying a genuine, engaging narrative. They knew George would be able to create something amazing, which oozed purpose and which reflected the passion of our Ecologi team. 
Having a lead who truly cares about the planet was vital. We wanted to inspire viewers to take action, and we couldn’t think of anyone better to get this across than George The Poet.

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With limited time, finding a suitable location was a bit of a challenge. We knew that the audio was the lead in this film so we had to find a location away from roads and airports so we could ensure crisp sound. Whilst we can’t reveal exactly where the film was shot, the countryside between London and Bristol proved to be perfect!

The video was directed by the Envival team, a sustainability-focused agency who were stoked to be working on a campaign they were so aligned with. The full Enviral production crew was brought together for the shoot including Joss as the Director, and their camera crew, audio team and photographer.

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What we did to comply with Covid regulations

Covid is real. Whilst we&#8217;re so happy to be back on set again, it&#8217;s super important to make sure that everyone is safe and comfortable. By following the industry guidelines, ensuring that everyone wore masks, respecting social distancing, and by shooting outdoors, we were able to mitigate the risks as much as possible and ensure a safe and successful shoot.

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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">George did 12 takes over the course of just 2 hrs</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We had 11 crew on set in total</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The final video took 6 hours of colour grading to make it look perfect! </li>
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