What Can I Do?

Tackling climate change as an individual, a family, a neighbourhood or a business can feel daunting.

Find Your Bearings

In his book ‘The Checklist Manifesto’ Atul Gawande outlines how to make decisions that generate effective action for highly complex problems.

In “Regeneration, Ending the Climate Crisis in one generation’ Paul Hawken shows how Gawandes method can be applied to the climate crisis and offers this list to help guide our endeavours; the questions are either yes or no, the actions either move us towards a desired outcome or head us away from it

  1. Does the action create life or reduce it?

  2. Does it heal the future or steal the future?

  3. Does it enhance human well-being or diminish it?

  4. Does it prevent disease or profit from it?

  5. Does it create livelihoods or eliminate them?

  6. Does it restore land or degrade it?

  7. Does it increase global warming or decrease it?

  8. Does it serve human needs or manufacture humans wants?

  9. Does it reduce poverty or expand it?

  10. Does it promote fundamental human rights or deny them?

  11. Does it provide workers with dignity or demean them?

  12. In short, is the activity extractive or regenerative?

As Hawken says “How you apply, score or evaluate these principles is up to you. Most of what we do does not tick all of the boxes. However, like a compass, it shows us the direction and where to go.”

Make A Checklist

Try applying them to your life when assessing what you are buying, what are you eating, what you are wearing, what is happening in your community right now and from the answers create a checklist of things you can, want and will do. Here’s an example:

  1. Switch to an electricity source which is 100% renewable - ASAP!

  2. Set an annual clothing budget of three durable garments per year - 2023

  3. Learn to mend clothes in need of repair - June 2023

  4. Reduce food waste - Ongoing

  5. Buy local food in season - Ongoing

  6. Create a composting system in the garden - April 2023

  7. Gather and donate all unnecessary belongings and provide for the needs of others - one room per month

  8. Take annual holiday in the UK - September 2023

  9. Volunteer for a local charity / activity supporting sustainability / regeneration - May 2023

You’ll find ideas to make small changes on our blog page and there’ll be more in the weeks and months to come.

We’d love to hear your ideas to, just email sustwells@gmail.com and tell us what you’ve been up to.
You’ll also see below updates on local projects.
If you’d like to know more about them or to volunteer your time some of your time, again please let us know at sustwells@gmail.com - we look forward to hearing from you.