2023 is year of the rabbit — here’s to new fluffiness and good hearing!
But before we hop ;) into a new year, here’s a positive look back at 2022 with gratitude for some of the good people who have successful put sustainability into the spotlight and put ideas into action- here are 5 excellent examples of sustainable heroics to lift your heart and keep you hopeful for 2023!
5) Greta Thunberg’s Legendary Twitter Take-Down
One of the most viral examples of sustainability in 2022 happened this week on twitter at the end of December: Greta Thunberg’s take-down of Andrew Tate which led to his arrest. I think this story shows among other things that even as one of the most important climate activists of our time, it’s still important to have a wicked sense of humor.
It all started with Andrew Tate, an ex-kickboxer famous for hate speech and misogyny, trolled the world’s leading climate activist by boasting his unsustainable life choices.
According to Reuters report of Tate’s arrest on 12/30,
Tate gained notoriety for misogynistic comments and hate speech. He has said women are partially responsible for being raped and that they belong to men.
Greta’s reply was so good and may in fact be one of the top tweets of 2022 and has had over 4 million likes & 80,000 replies so far:
Tate then replied to Greta’s burn, but gave away his location to Romanian authorities who had been searching for him. Authorities found him because the picture showed the QR code of the pizza box address and led to his arrest. When they raided his houses, they found six women who were imprisoned, raped and forced to perform pornography.
This was a shocking but not unexpected turn of events and many people who followed the story- which has been covered by mainstream media worldwide — have became more aware of the huge problems of human trafficking.
With an estimated 24.9 million victims worldwide at any given time, human traffickers prey on adults and children of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities, exploiting them for their own profit. US State Dept
Greta’s tweet after his arrest is on-brand & priceless:
Greta Thunberg has never shied away from confrontation as she tells the truth to power in government and business and even to unethical abusers online. Her social media savvy gives her more worldwide recognition and this time helped raise awareness of human trafficking worldwide.
There are a lot of people around the world doing great work for people and planet over profits, but without recognition, they won’t survive if they don’t get the attention they need to get support for and be able to continue their good work. A key aspect of sustainability is to be resilient and survive.
I hope everyone who hit ReTweet and Like on Greta’s tweets is also seeking out her inspiring talks on YouTube like her speech at Glastonbury music festival and pre-orders her book, The Climate Book- which Greta talks about on the BBC’s channel 4- which will be published in 2023.
If anyone can get people to read a book on climate change, then Greta Thunberg can and that is thanks to her social media savvy. Twitter replies are certainly not a typical business-as-usual messaging strategy, even for activists, but that might be the point. Being brutally honest may be what works in getting people to listen and to get the call-to-action out.
The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.
— Greta Thunberg
* Support the Greta Thunberg foundation
The Greta Thunberg Foundation works to support sustainability from a holistic perspective, promoting ecological, climatic and social sustainability.- the Greta Thunberg foundation
*Support Reaching Out Romania
Over the years we have assisted 470 victims, mostly Romanian women and girls who have been enslaved and abused in many European countries. — Reaching Out Romania org
4) GLASSroots Entrepreneur Franziska Trautmann
I think many of us felt frustrated in 2022 as we were still being stopped by business-as-usual practices, poor management and out-of-date governance to live, travel or work as sustainably as we want. Research shows that we are in good company around the world.
For example, in 2021 the Booking.com survey of travel industry consumers found that,
..over half (53%) have admitted that they get annoyed if somewhere they are staying stops them from being sustainable, for example by not offering recycling facilities.
And more recently a 2022 Footprint.com survey of consumers in the UK, US, France, Germany and the Netherlands found,
72% are dissatisfied with the amount of plastic food packaging waste they end up with at home
80% say takeaway restaurants need to act faster to get rid of plastic packaging and utensils
86% say grocery stores should do more to reduce the amount of plastic packaging being sold
Franziska Trautmann and her partner took that frustration and turned it into a meaningful career by starting Glass Half Full NOLA. In the PBS video above, Franziska talks of the typical frustration many of us feel while having a glass of wine and looking at the bottle knowing it will end up in a landfill because there is no glass recycling facility in the area.
I had the same frustration in Hawaii and kept asking storekeepers, why is this even allowed to be sold here if it can’t be recycled?! There are many areas around the world like Hawaii that bury glass bottles in landfills instead of making use of it as a resource material.
Franziska knew that the material of glass could be reused in a way that would be a valuable resource for the local area- sand! (C’mon Hawaii — don’t we have beaches that need sand?)
Glass Half Full shows how turning glass back into sand can be used to mitigate erosion by sandbagging flood zones, sand for gardens, art, beaches, education and a variety of other uses.
Of course diverting the glass from landfill is a huge win, but from a circular perspective — also making sand from glass instead of mining sand from the sea and rivers also reduces use of fossil fuels and wildlife habitat destruction. Reuters discusses the climate impact of mining for sand here adding,
Experts also note a need for more materials recycling. Already, the mass of all human-made materials is greater than that of all living things on Earth.. Reuters: The Messy Business of Sand Mining Explained
By choosing to reuse the glass material, recycling organizations like Glass Half Full can also be a profitable business as well as create jobs and build better communities.
Our challenge is to take this idea and apply it to better recycling and reuse in our homes, workplaces and communities. Sweden recycles the most glass at 95% and Japan is at 75% but creating sand instead of recycling into new glassware and bottles may be more efficient. I look forward to researching this more. Do they recycle glass efficiently where you live?
3) The Power of Refilling Your Bottle — MyMizu
MyMizu is an app launched in Japan in 2019 to help thirsty sustainably-minded folk find locations to refill their own bottles with clean, safe water. There are two ways the idea works, from the business side, joining the app helps the business elevate their brand and gain new customers by offering their shop as a refill location.
It’s exciting to see which ethically-minded businesses appear as fill-up spots offering clean drinking water — like PATAGONIA stores. From the user side, it fills the few needs for hydration and saves you money. But it also allows an opportunity to avoid single-use plastic bottles and reduce your negative carbon impacts. If you download the free app you can start logging in your refills and adding new spots for others to use.
The free mymizu smartphone app connects people to over 10,000 places all over Japan and 200,000 globally where they can refill their reusable water bottles instead of buying bottled water — it’s good for the body and the planet! MyMizu
See the positive impacts MyMizu has made in 2022 on their newly released video below. The positive impact is beyond simply filling up bottles- they are raising awareness of social and environmental issues in Japan, hosting regular beach clean-ups which raises awareness of our plastic pollution issues (while also taking out some nasty plastics out of the oceans). The MyMizu co-founders also act as sustainable consultants to organizations and businesses as well as collaborate with educators across Japan.
I had the chance to catch up with MyMizu’s Robin Lewis in 2019 just after they launched MyMizu and again in 2020 (& fingers-crossed for a follow-up in 2023). Each time I read something new about MyMizu, it’s clear that it is much more than just an app- it’s a movement.
- Read sustainability updates and on-point reports by co-founder Robin Lewis here on MEDIUM.
- Support MyMizu with a monthly membership
2) The Ocean CleanUp — Plastic Pollution Cleaning for Extraction, Research & Awareness
While organizations like MyMizu and GlassHalfFull tackle pre-waste solutions by reducing waste before it gets to the bin, landfill, incinerator, or haphazardly tossed into the environment- the OceanCleanUp has been tackling the huge and growing problem of waste in our oceans.
By cleaning up the failed culmination of unethically wasted opportunities for reduction, reuse and recycling around the world- with a focus on extraction from polluted rivers and the Great Pacific Garbage patch- The Ocean CleanUp are doing a great service in pollution reduction, marine life support, and environmental education.
The Ocean Clean Up non-profit has been on most of our radar for a while as CEO Boyan Slat founded the non-profit organization in 2013 with a Big Idea for how to tackle our common ocean plastic pollution problems. Over the last 10 years they have been researching, reassessing and developing bigger and better extractors more efficient than ever at taking plastic pollution from our rivers and oceans without harming fish or wildlife.
It was shocking, but not surprising in their video below, Where Does Plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Come From that they found most of the pollution’s origin came from industrialized nations with big economies. The most plastic pollution originated from JAPAN, CHINA, USA.
Seeing the river extractor at work in California and the reaction of locals to how effective it was is really heartwarming- reminding us that it’s the people+planet duality that we need to focus on in effective social media campaigns to raise awareness of key sustainability issues.
I hope we can see extractors at work in Japan and China as well in 2023!
1) 2022- the Year of Appreciating Old Houses
One of my most popular themes on my Seek Sustainable Japan talkshow and podcast is the reuse and renovation of old Japanese houses. My most watched video of 2022 was my talk with Japanologist Alex Kerr as he shared his passion for MINKA (old Japanese homes) as important vessels of Japanese history, culture, tradition and sustainability. Renovating old homes can help rural communities survive, keep traditional craftspeople and local people employed, while preserving these assets for the future.
Dr. Shelley Clarke was another popular talk as she shared tales of restoring a complex of traditional houses, a shrine and garden into a guesthouse, home and cafe to bring in visitors and new residents to rural Shizuoka also highlighted the value of renovation for community building.
Jon Stollenmeyer, a talented traditional Japanese architect and carpenter in Okayama, invited me to his open-house this year to see the renovated home and showroom that he has been working on. It was so exciting to be one of the first to view this stunning renovation project of a 100-year old house. Amazing detailing of his work and beauty of the old beams.
2022 was the first year of the MINKA SUMMIT event where Alex Kerr, Shelley Clarke, Jon Stollenmeyer and I spoke on the value of old homes to a passionate group of entrepreneurs and MINKA advocates gathered in rural Kyoto from far-and-wide across Japan. Lots of great talks, but also a chance to visit MINKA that were for sale and talk with owners about rennovations.
When I had a chance to go and see family in Hawaii, I was excited to find the good folks at ReUse Hawaii who graciously gave me a tour of their facility and shared information about their good work diverting quality house materials from landfill into future homes and renovations.
Happy New Year!
These are just 5 of the many reasons to feel good about our sustainable progress in 2022 and hopeful about an even better 2023!
What were your favorites from this list? Or do you have any others to share? I look forward to hearing from you!
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