How to Move From Personal Responsibility to Collective Action

For a long time now, climate action has been framed as a largely personal responsibility. People have been encouraged to recycle, buy less plastic, take fewer flights, have Meatless Mondays. Some people are even reconsidering their plans to have children.

But is this lens of personal responsibility actually serving us in the fight against climate change?

Let’s be clear: personal trade-offs play an important part in fighting climate change. Humans are consuming natural resources at an unsustainable rate, and many of the systems we benefit from daily, from fast fashion to factory farming, feed the flames of climate change. Taking personal responsibility is important, and individual actions do matter.

But there is a limit to how much we can accomplish on our own. As Emma Marris explains in Nature, “The average person in an industrialized country is responsible for around 10 tonnes of carbon emissions per year, so that’s a rough limit to what anyone can accomplish by addressing only their own footprint.”

You can buy exclusively zero waste, go vegan, and forego a car to limit your footprint — but unless larger systems change, the effect you can have stops at your 10 tonnes of carbon emissions. A government-led push to transition from coal-powered to nuclear power plants, however? That could make a tangible difference in CO2 emissions worldwide.

Taking personal steps to reduce our impact on the planet can help us feel in control, but to turn the tide on climate change — which the United Nations has now deemed “code red for humanity” — we need sweeping, systemic changes. We need governments that limit carbon emissions, roll out green job programs, and incentivize sustainable entrepreneurship.

And yet… if we wait for governments and corporations to simply decide to take action on these issues, we might be waiting all our lives. So, what can you, as a single individual, do to try and push for collective action?

Start by looking at your spheres of influence. Where can you command influence? Where might you be heard? Where can you use your privilege or your network to push for a larger change?

This will look different from person-to-person, but here are a few places you can get started:

1. Make your vote matter. At every level. Get informed on politicians’ stances on climate change, and vote for those who are willing to take courageous action.

2. Audit your company’s sustainability work. So often, sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues end up living within companies’ marketing and PR departments — when they should really be ingrained across the entire company. Explore this framework from McKinsey to discover how you can better organize your company for impact.
   
   (Don’t have the power to make these decisions yourself? Talk to your employer about what your company is doing to become more socially just and sustainable. You could even push them to divest from fossil fuels: in recent years, individuals and institutions have moved over $6 trillion from fossil fuel investments to sustainable funds. Get informed, educate your colleagues, and then advocate for the same shift at work.)

3. Lobby your local government. Lobby a government agency to include the impacts of climate change in their decision-making. You have a right to communicate with your elected officials, and this is one of the most pressing topics of our time. Speak up.

4. Attend council meetings. City council meetings are open to the public, which gives you another opportunity to speak up and let officials know which issues matter to their constituents.

5. Support organizations lobbying for climate action. Whether it’s through volunteering or donating, consider supporting organizations that are lobbying for systemic change. These organizations will often have boots on the ground and know exactly what kind of pressure to apply in order to enact change. If you can, support them with your time or your budget.

6. Share calls to action far and wide. Whether you’re sharing research from climate researchers or the communiqués of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance, help spread the word and inform others. There’s power in numbers — and by adding your voice to others’, you can help create the change that we need.

Take the next best step

Stay tuned! We’re constantly looking for new ways to move from personal responsibility to collective action, which is why Ange is joining the G20 Youth Entrepreneurship Alliance at this year’s 2021 Summit.

Each year, the G20 YEA convenes to share recommendations with leaders on the best way to support young entrepreneurs — who, in turn, are supporting critical social, economic, and environmental goals.

"It's an honour to join hundreds of the world’s top young entrepreneurs at a Summit to share our policy priorities with the B20 and G20 leaders to catalyze global change,” says Ange. As she explains:

“As I recommit to creating change at scale, I realize now more than ever collective action is the way forward; I'll focus my leadership over the next decade in community with activists and advocates, along with targeted business efforts to challenge the future of consumer culture. Together, we can make contributions at national and international levels for transformations that will co-create economic dignity, a new prosperity of sustainable livelihoods, and a regenerative future, for all.”

Join us by signing up for the AWIA newsletter, where we’ll be sharing the G20 communiqué and our call-to-action to local and international leaders. Because the next best step we can take is a collective one — together.

© Angela Wallace Impact Agency 2021

Authored by content co-conspirator Kenza Moller: professional story-telling for impact-oriented companies, agencies and thought leaders.