For more than a decade, Connect4Climate has dedicated itself to advancing global climate consciousness, building coalitions to drive ambition, and spurring robust climate action commitments from international policymakers, private section organizations, and on-the-ground citizens.

C4C tackles this mission with four key approaches:

1. Amplifying youth climate stories and empowering young leaders

2. Harnessing creativity for climate action

3. Leveraging the power of partnerships

4. Supporting the international climate agenda

Amid the uncertainty and isolation of the COVID pandemic, C4C united a worldwide audience around climate action like never before with an ambitious series of youth-focused virtual dialogues, empowering competitions for young creatives, multilayered social media strategies, and a renewed commitment to the cultivation of meaningful partnerships, cementing its status as a powerful partner and youth ally in the climate space.

C4C will continue its rich tradition of engaging storytelling as it forges into a new era, amplifying the voices of youth and marginalized communities on the forefront of both the climate crisis and global climate action. It will support this effort by nurturing strategic partnerships, cultivating lively platforms, and spearheading activations at major international climate events. Fresh C4C advocacy campaigns will channel the talents of the creative economy toward effectively communicating climate solutions and inspiring action, centering youth as key partners in the transition to a zero-carbon future.

Whether you’re traveling to work, vacation, or just for a night out, before you reach for those car keys consider these eight benefits of using alternative transportation. Jumping on a train, saddling a bike, or sharing a ride could have payoffs for your health, the planet, and your pocketbook.

The world is experiencing unprecedented population growth, and, so too are the demands being placed on our environment – including increased production, accelerated use of natural resources, and spreading urbanisation.

Landfill sites globally are filling at a rate that we cannot sustain, and the great pacific garbage patch continues to increase in size every day. The role that waste plays in Climate Change are many, including toxic runoff into waterways and ground water, and methane emissions that are up to 23 times more dangerous that carbon dioxide. The incineration of waste releases carbon dioxide and dioxins into the atmosphere, all of which add to increasing levels of greenhouse gases.

In order to mitigate these issues, we need to reduce consumption and reuse and recycle waste.

While it is extremely important to be aware of the issues around Climate Change, it is also important not to focus on them too much as it can halt action, by disempowering people at the very thought of the scale of the problem. I want to promote the positive actions that people are taking right now to stop Climate Change, to inspire a more sustainable planet.

Back in March of 2012, I was lucky enough to win the “How are you greening your life?” competition, held by Connect4Climate. This was a great stepping stone for me personally, to be a part of a strong community that gives us all the chance to have a real impact on Climate Change by working together to find solutions and act. Being recognized for my work gave me the added motivation to continue on my project, and inspire as many people as possible to live more sustainably. This is an area that I am passionate about, and I have dedicated my life to for the last three years. 

Dan Phillips builds entire houses from recycled materials for single mothers and low income families.

My project is called Retrash, which is a book with a simple goal – to inspire the world to rethink waste, and in turn create positive social change in better spending habits.

The book is a result of a collaboration of 82 designers and artists from 20 countries around the world who are leading the recycling and upcycling movement. This movement of people is more than just about reusing waste, they each have a philosophy and a way of living that is sustainable and creates awareness around the impact we humans have on our environment.

Jennifer Lara creates stunning tank tops from reusing old T-Shirts.

Each entry in the book features the story behind the creator, detailing why they do what they do, where they source their materials, and the ideas behind why they reuse waste. I have been an avid recycler/upcycler myself since I was young, and I feel very honored to be a part of such a positive and inspiring movement.

Through the book we can reach people globally, with ideas on how to reuse waste so we can all take action and integrate these ideas into our everyday life. We can also then change spending habits to reduce consumption of packaging and excess products that we don’t really need.

Gilles Eichenbaum creates these gorgeous lamps from old kettles.

You can be a part of this movement and take direct action against Climate Change by helping us get this book to print. We only have seven days left to raise funds to make this project a reality. Show your support by pre-ordering the book here.

Nathan Devine is based in the Blue Mountains, Australia as is the founder of Retrash.com – a platform dedicated to inspiring a more sustainable planet.

The New Year is a perfect time to reflect on the past year, imagine a better future, and think up resolutions to make that better future a reality. This year, why not dedicate one of your resolutions to taking 15 climate-friendly actions in 2015?

Tweet your New Year’s resolution to act on climate change with the hashtag #Action4Climate or post it on our Facebook page.

What's your #Action4Climate?

 

See our 15 Highlights from 2014

While official policy-makers and intergovernmental bodies struggle to establish the agreements and frameworks that could, in a few bold strokes, free us from our carbon dependency, a revolution by 10,000 cuts is already taking effect in the private sector.

It is happening in the supply-chains of some of the world's largest corporations. Companies that in the past regarded sustainability and the green agenda as anti-business are beginning to embrace these concepts as a necessity for survival and an opportunity to build competitive advantage.

According to calculations by the CDP, the scope 1 and 2 emissions of G500 companies equates to roughly 10% of global emissions. For most companies, scope 3 emissions, including their supply-chains, are far bigger still. So maximising efficiencies across these supply-chains, re-engineering them as closed energy and resource loops, would make a huge difference. Fortunately, this is already happening, not by implementing a few big, silver bullet reforms, but by making thousands of small changes.

Adapted social media technology is enabling what we at 2degrees call "fully-linked collaboration". This is where anybody in a company with a problem or challenge can quickly and easily find someone else from another company with relevant experience, or even the very solution that they need.

This new, super-connectivity allows best practices to be identified, shared and disseminated very rapidly. In food manufacturing, in Europe alone, it is estimated that €22.5bn could be savedin this way by implementing best practices in energy management across the supply chain. (See 'Joining Forces – the case for collaboration').

However, this is not easy. It requires large-scale sharing of experience, know-how and insights, often between competitors. It requires an online platform, facilitation and processes to enable fully-linked collaboration.

Here are eight non-technology lessons we have learnt from doing this with our clients (including Asda-Walmart, Bord Bia, GlaxoSmithKline, Kingfisher, Royal Bank of Scotland, Tesco) that we believe are critical to making fully-linked collaboration work within a supply chain. They are written from the perspective of the business customer at the top of the value chain.

1. Fully-linked collaboration programmes need to be built from the perspective of maximising value for your suppliers. Get that right, and communicate it effectively, and you will drive engagement by the suppliers. Focus primarily on your needs and you make it hard for yourself. Ever wondered why asking for data from suppliers is so difficult?

2. The most important stakeholders to get involved are the operational managers (those practical folks with responsibility for energy, factory sites, production lines, packaging, waste, etc.). These are generally the out-of-sight individuals with the responsibility, challenges and collective know-how to unlock the hidden savings and reduce impacts. Make your programmes solve their problems and unlock their wisdom.

3. To be really effective, programmes have to be focused on a common measurable objective that all suppliers can get behind. This is where you, the customer, must lead. As an example, in our work with Asda-Walmart's Sustain and Save Exchange, the focus is on making its food supply chain the best-invested, most resilient and sustainable one out there with a clear target of $1bn cost reduction.

4. Benchmarking peers and competitors, as a group, is a very powerful way to get skeptics engaged. Suppliers tend to pay attention and join in if you can show them they are less energy efficient than their direct competitors and promise to share the best practices they are missing.

5. To be in a position where companies are prepared to share their best practices with competitors you need to have commercial teams leading (not CSR), providing a compelling incentive for suppliers to share. The incentive could be a reward in the form of: better terms, longer contracts, more time spent on joint promotions, etc.

6. Only so much happens without active facilitation. This is best done by a third party (we would say that, but see below). You need someone who understands the suppliers as companies and individuals, is trusted and can constantly connect the dots, link people up and encourage participation.

7. Use collaborative purchasing to solve common problems within the supply-chain and take advantage of the potential scale to drive down the cost of solutions. This also creates an important focal point of action for all the knowledge-sharing. As an example, Tesco's Buying Club saves its suppliers on average 25% off the cost of installing LED lights retrofitted into distribution centers. (LED lights cut the cost of electricity and carbon for lighting about 60%.)

8. The big breakthroughs (like Tesco's Buying Club, above) won't happen openly in front of the customer. Suppliers are too nervous that any savings they might make will be stripped away in negotiation if their customers know about them.

This is a further reason why you need third-party, trusted facilitation, that can enable, what some call, blind collaboration where data is collected anonymously so that suppliers feel they can keep most, if not all, of the savings they make.

When all eight of these principles are applied, fully-linked collaboration takes place and something remarkable happens: Firstly, engagement and collaboration levels amongst suppliers soar, with often more than 70% of the key operational management participating, at least once a month. Secondly, suppliers make investments in energy, waste and water reduction initiatives that they would not otherwise make.

In fact, we now have evidence that for every $1 the customer invests in managing fully-linked collaboration programmes, suppliers can invest up to $20, and make savings of $40 (over five years).

If we do this on a large scale, we will soon be removing billions of dollars in costs and related impacts from our supply chains. These cost reductions, as well as the energy and resource efficiencies put in place, will go at least part of the way to make up for the lack of attention to environmental care-taking from our public policy-makers.

Article was originally posted on the Guardian

Connect4Climate joins with Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Sustainability Department and Fluminense Federal University for the Crackle Cinema Green Project to inspire young filmmakers.

WATCH ALL OF THE VIDEOS ON CRACKLE GREEN

 

The World Bank’s Connect4Climate initiative is joining Sony Picture Television’s multi-platform entertainment network Crackle and Fluminense Federal University (UFF) in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, to launch the Cinema Green Project, a series of five short films airing on Crackle’s platforms in Brazil. With the aim to nurture the talent of Brazilian cinema students and raise awareness about environmental sustainability, Crackle funded five short films presented by UFF film students. This is a first step towards a global initiative.

A committee of Crackle’s programming team and professionals in the film industry, including filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, and actors Alessandra Negrini and Rodrigo Santoro, selected the scripts for the short films. According to Academy Award nominee Fernando Meirelles, “The Cinema Green Project is an exciting opportunity for young filmmakers to engage in environmental defense and help change the usual production practices of the film industry.”

Crackle’s seed initiative, Cinema Green Project, strives to motivate the public to take a more conscious attitude towards the environment. There are three documentaries and two fiction works that address issues such as responsible consumer practices, environmental preservation, and sustainable transport.