Reduce Transit
Are you willing to fly less? Drive less? Are we as a society willing to make those changes? There was a moment in 2020 where people seemed to realize we could travel less.
We hoped Zoom might make a dent in our love for our cars and plane trips. It seems we travel more than ever. What might make us desire to change our habits?
We can’t wait for everyone to wake up one morning and have the realization “oh, you mean me?!”
We need a real plan—one for local communities and one to change our social norms about travel.
20 Minute Neighborhoods
Can we create the ideal 20 minute neighborhood where people desire to walk or ride a bike? Here are some efforts to inspire you.
Blog Post – Could Findhorn Ecovillage be a model for the 20 Minute City
Rethinking Car Travel
Often, the burden is put on citizens rather than finding societal solutions. Yet, we know that car travel is one of the major sources of air pollution that leads to global warming. We know that people could find ways to drive less, use public transit or switch to electric cars. But the transition seems dangerously slow. How can we rethink it? Through hackathons, Xprizes, “Moonshot” programs?
Share your ideas with us!
Shipping Water
We bottle and ship a lot of water. It has become so normalized to ship water that many don’t feel safe drinking tap water. We don’t have to accept that. If we can improve tap water up to any standard we desire, we can eliminate a lot of transportation of water and a lot of plastic (which is also made from oil).
Here are some steps you could take now:
- install a water purifier at home
- buy a reusable bottle
- encourage your work to install purifiers instead of buying bottled water
- promote this concept at events
- join nonprofits that promote moving away from single-use plastic, such as WeTap and The 5 Gyres Institute
Shipping Food
Similar to water, we have gotten used to shipping food from all over the world to keep all options open at all times. What if we made it easy to only buy what was locally produced. How much transportation could we eliminate? Would that help keep work local?
Resources
- WRI Blog Post – 3 Ways to Reimagine Public Transport for People and the Climate