Ask any parent, teacher, sports coach or line manager, and they’ll say the same thing. 

It’s easier to criticise than it is to praise. But the latter is far more likely than the former to produce the outcomes you want to see.

Of course, there’s a place for both the carrot and the stick, but all too often we get the balance wrong. Our in-built bias towards negativity means the tendency to blame comes much more naturally than the urge to encourage.

The oil companies

Take climate change, for example — and, in particular, what different companies are doing to tackle the problem, or indeed to exacerbate it. 

The big oil companies have rightly borne the brunt of criticism from environmentalists. True, they are, at least, finally acknowledging the need for action. Yet the resources that they invest in alternative energy remains only a tiny fraction of their expenditure on traditional oil and gas.

Calling out those firms that fail to match their words with action is of course important. But we also need to acknowledge the good guys — companies that are genuinely playing as part in addressing the climate crisis.

Several such firms were highlighted at The Values-Based Adviser, which IFAMAX helped to organise.

In his presentation, Dr Jake Reynolds from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership highlighted two firms in particular that are really getting their act together.

Setting the standard

The first was the confectionery company Mars. Each year, according to the United Nations, an area the size of Bulgaria is lost to drought and desert. That’s enough land to grow 20 million tonnes of grain a year. To help reduce pressure on natural ecosystems, Mars has set as its goal freezing its land footprint, even as its business grows.

The second company singled out for praise by Dr Reynolds was Ikea. The Swedish flatpack furniture maker has substantially upped its game on the environmental front in recent years. As well as becoming climate positive, Ikea is committed to regenerating resources, protecting ecosystems and improving diversity.

Other firms that Dr Reynolds believes deserve recognition are the following:

Unilever (committed to sourcing all agricultural materials from 100% sustainable original by the end of next year)

Pirelli (improving methods of rubber extraction in Indonesia to extend tree life and reduce deforestation)

Fuji Xerox (now operating a closed-loop recovery system through product take-back, reuse and recycling, which is 99.5% effective)

Iberdrola (providing energy access to 4 million disadvantaged people by 2020, producing 50% less carbon dioxide by 2030)

Novo Nordisk (working with cities round the world to map and analyse the root causes of unsustainable planning) 

Balancing price with environmental impact

So, what are we saying? First of all, we’re not saying you should go out and buy these companies’ products and services. From a sustainability point of view, the less consuming we do the better.

But you should consider factors other than price when making a purchasing decision, and they should include environmental ones.

Remember too that you can support the efforts being made by responsible companies to tackle the environmental challenges we face by investing in a sustainable fund. 

The GSI Global Sustainable Value Fund, for example, which we at IFAMAX use, considers a company’s approach towards environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues; companies with higher ESG scores are given a larger weighting than those with lower scores.

Seeing through the gloom

And one more thing. That negativity bias we referred to earlier also helps to explain how the climate crisis is covered in the media. There are so many more negative stories than positive ones that it’s not surprising that many of us find this whole issue depressing and overwhelming. 

The true picture is actually more positive. There are companies out there who are talking climate change very seriously. They deserve our support and encouragement.

Check out more of the latest news from IFAMAX:

Pay less attention to weather forecasts

How women view money and investing differently

Weekly round-up: Week 48, 2019

Pictures: Ankush Minda and Adrià Crehuet Cano via Unsplash

2019 will doubtless go down in history as the year that Britain became obsessed with Brexit. Just now, there seems to be no escaping it. But is the media’s fixation on relations with Europe obscuring the fact that Britons are becoming increasingly concerned with a potentially far bigger issue? Climate change.

A survey in July by ComRes, commissioned by Christian Aid, found that 71% of the UK public think that, in the long term, climate change will be more important than exiting the EU. Six out of 10 adults said the government was not doing enough to tackle it.

In fact, several polls in the last year or so have produced similar results. An Ipsos MORI survey for the Evening Standard, published in August, for example, showed that 85 per cent of adults are now concerned about global warming. That’s the highest figure since the pollster started asking the question in 2005.

The impact of news coverage

What has caused this shift in opinion? Well, climate change has certainly featured prominently in the news. We’ve seen heavily publicised demonstrations by Extinction Rebellion in London; 16-year-old Greta Thunberg hit the headlines when she sailed to New York on a zero-carbon yacht to New York to address world leaders at a climate change summit; and the hottest July ever around the globe reinforced concerns that the effects of global warming are starting to escalate. 

In truth, however, opinions were changing before any of those news stories broke. Responding to a survey commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and published in March this year, 80% of the public said they were either fairly concerned (45%) or very concerned (35%) about climate change. The overall proportion of the population concerned about the issue was the highest since the study started in 2012.

It’s not just women and young people

Another interesting takeaway from these surveys is that old stereotypes appear to be breaking down. For example, a long-held view is that those most concerned about environmental issues tend to be either young or female. It’s still true that marginally more women express concern about global warming than men, but according to both the Ipsos MORI and BEIS polls, the gender gap is narrowing. Both studies also showed that levels of concern with climate change do not differ greatly by age.

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised that the views of younger and older people are less polarised now than they were, as the older generation dies off. But academics have been pointing out for several years now that older people are actually more interested in environmental issues than is often assumed. 

In 2013, for example, a study called Age and environmental sustainability: a meta-analysis collated the results of multiple studies between 1970 and 2010, in order to “determine the magnitudes of relationships between age and environmental variables”. The researchers found that “most relationships were negligibly small”. They also concluded that “small but generalisable relationships indicated that older individuals appear to be more likely to engage with nature, avoid environmental harm, and conserve raw materials and natural resources”.

Walking the walk

That last finding is particularly significant. After all, it’s one thing to be concerned about the environment and quite another to do something about it. Studies have shown that, very often, people who claim to have green credentials fail to match their words with action. 

Another area in which older people are more likely to act in an environmentally sustainable way is in investing. Around the world, it’s generally the over-55s who are contributing the most to the sustainable investing market. Triodos Bank predicts they will continue to do so in the UK in every year until 2027.

Summary

In short, all the evidence appears to be pointing to an increase in interest in the environment and to a growing willingness to act on it. Nor is it just certain sections of the population whose attitudes are changing. 2019 may just be the year that, in Britain at least, the tide of public opinion finally turned on climate change.

Check out more of the latest news from IFAMAX:

Pay less attention to weather forecasts

How women view money and investing differently

A little encouragement goes a long way

Picture: Jeremy Bishop & Kartsen Würth via Unsplash