Do what is right not what is easy

It hast been again long time no see. I have to admit that I only suceed to write from time to time (as you might already have noticed ;)).

I got inspired by supply chains this time, sounds boring I know. I believe in the importance of this topic regarding sustainability. The germans discuss the Lieferkettengesetz, France has already a law in place that obliges firms to disclose their supply chain and to make it transparent.

An industry where it is crucial to look at the beginning is electronics. The production of mobile phones is an interesting example. One needs precious ressources such as Cobalt and Platin. The Democratic Rebuplic of the Congo is a country rich of those highly demanded ressources. Unfortunately, this is not valued at all... An interesting documentary in German can be found here: https://www.daserste.de/information/politik-weltgeschehen/weltspiegel/videos/kongo-das-schwarze-gold-fuer-handys-102.html.

All in all, they state that there is a difference between certified mines and non-certified ones. In the former there is no violence anymore, no child labour and no pregnant women, they say to be “without conflict”. The latter is lead by armed rebell groups. Nowadays, only certified mines can export. It is dangerous to mine Coltan due to landslides, still nobody is wearing helmets or boots. At least the working conditions got better in that sense that they mine now above ground, before they had to climb down in shafts. Many young persons work as day labourers in the mines. The documentation takes the example of a young guy called Mathis. He gains 1,70€ per day and lives with his mother and 4 siblings for whom he is responsible for. It is impossible to provide food and pay the school fees for Mathis. The laws from the US and Europe are going in the right direction and are a first step to more fairness in the trade of the minerals but this can only be the beginning!

There are manufacturers paying attention to these hot topics. One of them is the german company shiftphone. Compared to Fairphone, the most popular one, shiftphone has even it's own manufacturs in Hangzhou, China. To manufacture in China is currently best or the environment and the employees there also get paid fair wages by shiftphone. Regarding materials like Coltan the founder Carsten Waldeck travelled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to judge the situation himself. He visited certified mines. You can read more about the values of shitphone and their approach here: https://www.shiftphones.com/impact-2/. I talked and had an interesting discussion with Carsten about supply chains on the Global Social Business Summit 2018.

I own a shiftphone (5me) myself and am pretty satisfied. Only the camera is not sooo good...

Still, I think they are doing a great job and they are revolutionising a whole industry!

Another example regarding supply chains is jewelery. Gold is often sourced under bad ecological and also social conditions. There was an interesting interview in the enorm magazine with Marleen. She tells that there is often child labour and toxical processes ongoing. Thats why its best to use recycled materials. For example in each mobile phone there are raw sources. This makes it important to not store them in an old cupboard but to donate them so that they can get recycled (See former blog post from 27.08.2019, sometimes repetition is crucial ;)). Also Thomas Becker is preoccupied by using either recycled or ecofair gold from mines that he visited himself, knowing the living conditions and the families. More about this great initiative can be found here: http://www.tbschmuck.de/ecofaires-gold/was-bedeutet-ecofair/.

Utopia is a great german platform with lots of information about sustainability, they really talk about almost every daily life aspect in combination with sustainability. After having talked about phones and jewelery, a less popular topic is defintely grave stones. It is estimated that half of the in Germany sold grave stones are sourced from child labour (https://utopia.de/ratgeber/grabstein-sarg-beerdigung/). Incredible, isn’t it? A solution are the certifications Xertifix or Fair Stone that ensure no child labour. Even better are grave stones from stonemasons who use local stones.

I hope this short excursus in the supply chains wasn’t finally to boring for you :)

Societies most pressing problems cannot by solved by nonprofits and governments alone. The B Corp community wants to achieve reduced poverty, reduced inequality, a healthier environment, stronger communities and higher and more purpose driven employment. It aims also to create benfit not only for the shareholders, but rather for all stakeholders. The title is one of the slogans of the B Corp movement. The B stands for benefit. It is a “new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment. This is a community of leaders, driving a global movement of people using business as a force for good” (https://bcorporation.net/).

I wrote my bachelor thesis about the relevance of B Corps basics for companies and consumers in Germany. I did interviews with consumers and companies which was super enriching. Companies that you might know that have this certification are for example Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, Danone North America and Ecosia. The B Corp movement incorporates five areas:

- Community

- Workers

- Governance

- Environment

- Customers

So the certification does not only focus on assessing one product but rather assessing the whole company behind it. Even the legal governing documents are changed in a way that the board of directors will balance profits and purpose. The certification is given by the non-profit organisation B Lab.

I am currently reading the book: “A world of three zeros” by Muhuammad Yunus (winner of the nobel peace prize). Yunus mentions in his book a survey by experts at Harvard University which shows that just 42% support capitalism while 51% say they do not (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/26/a-majority-of-millennials-now-reject-capitalism-poll-shows/). So in my opinion and according to the majority of the youth there should be a change of our current economic system.

Corona is changing the world. Waldemar Zeiler, founder of Einhorn (B Corp) has wirtten a great article on how to unfuck the economy (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unfuck-economy-jetzt-erst-recht-waldemar-zeiler/?trackingId=XvAXcH%2BPS%2B6wsJSDJtfSSw%3D%3D). In the following you will get a short summary of the article:

He states that Germany has decided to support the economy with a protection umbrella of over 353,3 Billions euros. To compare: after the financial crisis Germany got 44 Billions euros. This investment represents an incredible chance for sustainability! Waldemar asks whether we want really to return to the economy before Corona. We will see bigger suffering than Corona, as we saw during the fires in Brasil and Australia and about 200 Million people will be forced to flee until 2040. Furthermore, by 2050, we might have more plastic in the oceans than fish:

26 persons own half of all wealth worldwide.

The economy before Corona was not even always as efficient as it seems. The estimated global market value of 10 trillions per year in Agriculture for example. However, hidden costs are estimated of 12 trillions per year. In Germany the proportions are 21 billions turnover against 90 billions costs (BCG).

Also a lag of diversity is part of our current economic system. Only every 10th board member is female.

Regarding the happiness of people a german health insurance found out that  the number of days of employees being on sickleave due to psychlogical issues tripled compared to the previous 20 years. The GDP might not be the right indicator to measure the success of a nation.

According to Waldemar Corona is showing us how fragile our economy is. After decades of economic growth we have to stabilize our economy with massive financial investments after a few weeks of a pandemic. Billions of people lost or will loose their job and companies will go bankrupt due to a lack of savings. “All this because people only buy what they really need to live!?“ Think about it...

Possible solutions could be based on for example the B Corp philosophie, the Purpose Economy, non-violent communication or the Common weal economy (Gemeinwohlökonomie).

I needed some time for myself the last months. Now I am back!!

Today I want to show you sustainable alternatives to conventional products. There are so many good companies out there to replace Nestlé & Co. In my Bachelors we had to prepare a presentation about “ethics in our daily life”. I chose the topic responsponsible consumption. Consumption is power!

The german demand of strawberries is covered by imports mainly from Spain. The working conditions there are terrifying. Seasonal wokrers from Marocco or Rumania get 25-30€ per day. 28 out of 100 women indicated that her supervisor already groped or even raped her. The women don’t react because they are afraid to loose their job... This is not only the case with strawberries and SPain but alsoo in Italy or Marokko and products such as tomatoes, melons and oranges (1).

One solution would be to buy the local organic strawberries. However, there is often a slew in sustainability: If we don’t buy the conventional products the seasonal workers will loose their job and might live in worse poverty than before.

Another task concerning consumptions is to safe ressources. A good example is our current wear of electronic devices, especially mobile phones (me included). I imagine that almost everybody who read this has an old mobile phone lying around at home.

The phone has a lot of ressources in it: 8g copper, 25 mg gold, 170mg silver, 8 mg palladium (2)

So please bring you phone to one of the collection points, for example the Telekom or also often the “Weltladen” or the muncipality. Here the german website of the Telekom: https://www.telekom.de/hilfe/geraete-zubehoer/umwelt/recycling/handyrecycling?samChecked=true

To buy second hand is also a great way to safe ressources. I try since some years to buy my clothes either second hand or fairtrade. The nice thing about second hand is that it is super cheap, so it is a win-win situation!! :)

Also renting platforms make the task easier. The german outdoor company vaude for example has a website to rent outdoor stuff.

In the following I present some alternatives to some everyday products:

Ecosia vs. Google

Ecosia is a social busines which plants trees from 80% of the advertising income. Each User can see how much trees he or she already planted. for me it is currently at 4.257 onn my laptop.

With 100 google searches, plus two ten minutes YouTube- Videos and an one hour research we produce 1660 gramm Co2. (3)

Lemonaid (0,33=1,49€) vs. Coca Cola (REWE 0,33=0,69€)

Coca Cola gets the sugar partly from plantation in El Salvador where childlabour is still present.

LemoinAID prooducts are fairtade certified and they support social project with every bottle sold.

Amazon is super popular for all persons who order things online. From time to time the company is in the news regarding bad working conditions, and still the offer is so great that people don’t stop buying there. One alternative is avocadostore which has a big product range. They value the product based on social and ecological criteria. The process is very transparent. Another interesting platform is fairmondo. I know that for example amazon prime is tempting, but just try other platforms or you buy the products in your town and support the local retail (That’s what I do by the way).

When I told a friend of mine that I was looking for sustainable shoes she looked at me and said: “ I didn’t even knew that sustainability can go until the shoes.” Yes, it’s possible! One of my favourite brands is the french label “Veja” which works closely with farmers from brazil to get their raw material. Compared to white adidas sneakers (which are trendy at the moment) the price is the same (from 99€ onwards). Other labels are ...

(1) 

https://correctiv.org/blog/2018/04/30/er-kommt-am-abend/

https://utopia.de/reportage-erntehelferinnen-auf-spanischen-erdbeerplantagen-ausgebeutet-vergewaltigt-89750/

(2)

http://www.handy-aktion.de/hintergrund/entsorgung/

(3)

https://ethik-heute.org/die-klima-diaet/

(4)

https://www.hrw.org/de/news/2004/06/09/el-salvador-kinderarbeit-auf-zuckerplantagen

My second blog entry will deal with interessting movies concerning the topic of sustainability (of course again mostly the positive side ;)). My favorite movie is called “#Demainlefilm” ou en allemand “Tomorrow, die Welt ist voller Lösungen”.

“After a special briefing for the journal Nature announced the possible extinction of a part of mankind before the end of the 21st century, #Cyril Dion and #Mélanie Laurent, together with a team of four people, carried out an investigation in ten different countries to figure out what may lead to this disaster and above all how to avoid it.” The focus lies on the following areas:

Agriculture, Energy, Education, Economy and Democracy

They travel to India concerning democracy and show a village where they overcome caste-based society. Another stop is in France regarding Permaculture. Obviously, Finnland is a pioneer in terms of education, so the movie team asks teachers there. One states: “Instead of spending money and time in competition of schools and students, we invest in the persons (that’s the content I remember, but of course not literally correct). For the economy part the team choose the UK where the village Totnes introduce a local currency to support local stores (there a lot more examples of local currency e.g. Tübingen). I defintetly recommend you to watch this movie about our world of tomorrow :) Especially, because a second movie called #Afterdemain will come out in December (I just read about it and I am really exited!!).

For further info about the film just visit the website (https://www.demain-lefilm.com/en/film) or ask #Ecosia (https://www.ecosia.org/search?tt=mzl2&q=demain+le+film) where you can watch it ;)

There are so much other supernice videos including sustainability (and not all are hard to digest or even depressing...). I just started to watch documentaries about this topic but each time after I have watched one of them I feel a thirst for action! I am sorry that some of them are in german (but it stays my mother tongue :D) To mention the ones I know:

- Videos of the World Economic Forum: https://www.facebook.com/WEFvideo/ or on https://www.weforum.org/agenda

- TwentieFour - Fix the world and make money: http://twentiefour.com/

- Thank you for the rain (https://thankyoufortherain.com/)

- Zeit für Utopien: http://www.zeit-fuer-utopien.com/

- Die stille Revolution: https://www.die-stille-revolution.de/#

- Das Leben ist keine Generalprobe: http://www.daslebenistkeinegeneralprobe.at/

- ZDF - plan b: https://www.zdf.de/gesellschaft/plan-b, for example “Wir sind die Stadt” (all are super interesting!)

Of course there are the movies/documentaries which are hard to digest but very helpful as well (For example “The True Cost”). Just ask me if you want to have more video/movie/ documentary recommendations :)

At some point in my life I thought about starting a blog. The first time was during my volunteering in Toulouse after high school. I ended up writing some spare emails to friends and family. Back then I would have written about my life in this amazing city and the freedom I felt.

Nowadays the reason of writing this blog is another one. Over the years I developped an interest for sustainability or however you want to call this topic (super trendy word, but explains it quite well and most people know what I am talking about). I can’t say when it started it just sneaked into my daily life. My family, roommates and friends surely have contributed. The crucial point of changing my mindset was the decision to do an internship in the social business start up “soulbottles”(https://www.soulbottles.de/en). I am very glad about this period of my life :)

The question was also in which language I would write the blog. Firstly, I wanted to write in german (because obviously it is the easiest), but then I deciced to write it in english because most people can then understand what i am trying to put across. So, don’t expect perfect english, just sayin...

There are so many topics I want to write about that I don’t even know where to start. I chose this title for my first blog entry because the statement is true for now and for the most times in my life. I had the chance to move a lot during my studies and I learned to do the best out of it and to adjust quickly to the new place. I took it from the song “Here I am” by Bryan Adams :D

Enough about me (I did not want to write that much, but I thought it might be nice for some of you to know the background of this blog). But now really about sustainability, I promise. This blog will show you mostly the positive aspects of sustainability, because medias focus in my opinion to much on the bad things even though there are so much amazing initiatives taken to solve the challenges of the 21st century. Some cool media concerning positive news that I am aware of are the following (I am sure there are a lot more!):

#goodimpact (https://goodimpact.org/)

#enormmagazin (https://enorm-magazin.de/)

#corporateknights (https://www.corporateknights.com/)

In the times of globalisation, the giants such as Nestlé, Coca Cola, Inditex (Zara, Bershka etc), Unilever are facing more and more challgenges. I think that they are currently not dealing well neither with environmental nor with social issues. That’s why I like the idea of social business a lot. I think it is part of the solution for all those problem (of course it is not the only one and politics, corporates, consumers and a lot more stakeholders should change their mindest as well). The social business “eyd humanitarian clothing” (https://www.eyd-clothing.com/e-vendo.php?shop=human_en&a=catalog) is one of my favorite examples. It is a company situated in Stuttgart which has built its business around the people. What does that mean? It means that they created a fashion label to help people and not to do fashion (and make profits) in first place. “ With [eyd] we provide long-term perspectives to women that have been freed from human trafficking. Wearing an article by [eyd] means playing a vital role in their rehabilitation.“ The company provides fair wages and education in e.g. english and mathematics to provide them with skills these women need to build their new future. The interesting and amazing thing is that the clothes are affordable. T-Shirts start at 25€ (a basic one). eyd is very transparent about the price in their following blog entry: https://www.eyd-clothing.com/Blog/Preistransparenz.htm?shop=human_en&SessionId=&a=catalog&p=526 (only available in german). In my opinion TRANSPARENCY is one of the main issues in the whole sustainability topic. The big corporations disclose a lot of information (Inditex has more than 200 pages about CSR in their annual report), but the press is telling a totally different story. Eventhough nowadays we have acess to so much information the transparency is not given (you only have to look at the ingredients of our food and all the fake news in general).