In times like this, it’s easy to feel defeated by the avalanche of negative events that are tumbling in around us. I know I struggle with it.
But it’s during these times that I find positive action is most needed, even if it feels small and trifling. The actions of one person (or one small business, as the case may be), may not change the world, but we can at least hope they’ll change the way we feel about the world and give us the motivation to continue on in the right direction.
As the father of a four-year-old girl, I can’t help but think of a scene from Frozen 2 (parents of the world, I feel your pain!) Overwhelmed by grief and feeling thwarted in her mission, the hero of the story comes to the realisation that in the face of such adversity, the only course of action is to ‘do the next right thing’. And she’s right.
Last year, feeling despondent about the state of the climate change debate here in Australia, I decided to take the small but symbolically significant step of making 99th Monkey carbon neutral. We are still a tiny business, so offsetting the 100-odd tonnes of CO2 that we produce in a year is not going to make any real difference on a global scale. I know that. But this is the right thing to do. And if every business and individual took ownership of this issue and their contribution to the problem, we would be well on our way to finding a solution.
At the beginning of this year, with the bushfires ravaging so much of our country and facing the prospect of a future for my two daughters where summers are no longer something to look forward to, but rather something to dread, I decided to do more. Hence the Nuts to Carbon initiative, whereby for every kilogram of nut butter sold, we offset an additional kilogram of CO2 through our favourite offset scheme, With One Seed.
With One Seed are a truly amazing organisation and I highly recommend you check them out. They work with farmers in East Timor (our nearest neighbour and one of the poorest nations on earth, which also has a huge issue with deforestation caused by colonisation and ongoing poverty) to plant trees and offset greenhouse gases.
Through this program they have employed almost 1000 farmers, planted more than 200,000 trees and offset more than 80,000 tonnes of carbon. What a bunch of legends!
They also have a great product whereby individuals can offset their average annual emissions (18.4 tonnes per Australian on average). Check them out!
Anyway, in the first three months of 2020, we sold 9,738 kilograms of nut butter, so we have rounded that up to an even 10 tonnes of CO2 offsets through With One Seed. It may not be a lot in the grand scheme of things, but at a time like this I am proud that our little business is continuing to do the next right thing.
Stay safe and well!
(Picture credit: Magnus The Great)
