Hello Reader,
In this week’s Interconnected, we have 5 perspectives on how decisions of all sizes have impacts—good, bad and unintended. Leyla is well-known for exposing unintended impacts, like in her 2013 TED talk and recent article on the hidden impacts of AI, as it's only once we uncover impacts that we can then make changes to address them.
As humans, we are limited by our perceptions, which are impacted by our experiences, values, worldviews, biases and available information. This leads each of us to make decisions every day that, like it or not, have impacts on the world around us. Companies are an even more impactful version of this, with the decisions made in corporate HQs often having far-reaching consequences that ripple across time and space.
So, how can we overcome those cognitive limitations and intervene into our decision-making in order to prevent negative impacts? For starters, we are big fans of exploring and recognizing cognitive biases at The UnSchool, as hacking your thought processes and building new mental tools is critical as a creative change-maker.
Many of the issues we need to rectify through sustainability and systems thinking are decisions from the past that created negative impacts today. Thankfully, over time, we can uncover these impacts, which creates the pathway to finding solutions. If only we had more hindsight or future thinking upfront, then we could avoid the challenges of tomorrow with the decisions made today!
Let’s dive in and explore how this is playing out in the world around us in this week's Interconnected.
READ
Triggering an e-waste tide
Let's get started with a recent corporate decision that is going to have really big impact for an already problematic area: electronic waste.
Globally, millions of tonnes of e-waste is generated and illegally trafficked around the world. It's a difficult waste stream to manage since it combines so many different materials, but the reality of our digital world is that for every piece of tech that is discarded, a new piece needs to be created, pulling lots of resources from nature. The UN reports, "A record 62 million tonnes (Mt) of e-waste was produced in 2022, up 82% from 2010,” with “just 1% of rare earth element demand met by e-waste recycling.”
It was announced last week that Microsft will be discontinuing its support for the Windows 10 operating system, which will result in “an estimated 240 million PCs across the globe set to worsen the e-waste problem.”
So the decision to no longer support the software will render millions of tons of hardware obsolete!
How can oysters affect the impact of a hurricane?
Ecosystems are developed to work together to achieve specific goals, and as parts of those systems are removed or damaged, it has flow-on effects within the system. Mangroves are vital to preventing land erosion and water infiltrating whatever is upstream, but this story is about the impact that over-harvesting oysters had on the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York. What’s amazing about this report is the way that they designed solutions once this interconnected impact was identified—the Billion Oyster Project is helping to repopulate oysters as part of a bio-solution for coastal and hurricane management in New York.
A note from Leyla: This example of how creative design interventions can really produce positive systems-based solutions is one of my favorite stories to tell because it shows the interconnection of human actions on the natural world and then, in turn, how that can affect us all.
Dead Zones
Moving on to the ways that our personal choices have impacts, let’s look at the food system, which we all participate in every single day. We humans have to fuel our bodies by putting products from nature into them, and over time, we have created an industrial food system that has far-reaching impacts.
The runoff from agriculture and factory farms, for example, leads to an increased amount of nutrients (from chickens’ and other animals’ poop as well as fertalisers) which ends up in bodies of water that then result in what's called dead zones.
These are massive areas in the world’s oceans caused by Eutrophication, which is when an excessive amount of nutrients cause excess growth of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. These are microorganisms that feed on the nutrients that flowed into the body of water from the farms, which then results in all the oxygen being sucked out of the water and nothing can live there.
There are solutions to help address this, such as reducing nutrient pollution at the source (which means less factory farming and better management of run-off from farms), wetland restoration and policies and programs that help ensure this is dealt with at a regional level.
"Fortunately, dead zones are reversible if their causes are reduced or eliminated. For example, a huge dead zone in the Black Sea largely disappeared in the 1990s following the fall of the Soviet Union, after which there was a huge spike in the cost of chemical fertilizers throughout the region. And while this situation was largely unintentional, the lessons learned have not been lost on scientists, policymakers and the United Nations, which has been pushing to reduce industrial emissions in other areas around the globe where dead zones are a problem.”
WATCH
How does AI threaten our environment?
A note from Leyla:
Each and every one of us causes impacts through the things we do, but many of the impacts are invisible to us. Take, for example, the rise of AI and the hidden planetary impacts caused by the rapid increase in server use. I was invited to share my research and knowledge of this on Al Jazeera’s Stream Program a few months back. You can watch the full episode here >
REFLECT + ENGAGE
Explore your food impacts & ecological footprint
To learn more abouot the hidden impacts in your life, there are a couple of actions you can take, such as exploring your food impacts and other personal impact areas in which you can make changes via our collaborative project with the United Nations called the Anatomy of Action.
Another activity you can do is measure your ecological footprint via an activity in our Introduction to Environmental Sustainability course. Here’s how:
- Log in or create an account on online.unschools.co
- Click on the pink “Free Preview” button for the Introduction to Environmental Sustainability course to enroll
- Scroll down to the 5th module, “Sustainability Key Concepts and Terms”
- Engage with the two free preview lessons: (1) Read: Ecological Footprint and (2) Activity: Measure your Ecological Footprint
Simple as that! If you enjoy the preview, then you can enroll in the full course, which is priced on a sliding scale* ($5 USD, $10 USD, or $25 USD in 1 or 2 payments) as part of our commitment to equity access.
*Please note that you’ll need to sign out of the course to change the purchase price from $25USD to another option.
LEARN LIVE ONLINE
Looking for tools to implement the ISO 59000 Circular Economy Standards?
There's still time to sign up for our next ISO 59000 Workshop Series cohort in Spring 2025!
- What is it? An advanced-level look at the new ISO Circular Economy standards, this Workshop includes practical guidance and activities that assist in the implementation of the standards and support consultants in delivering advice on the CE ISO 59000 series.
- When/where is it? Join from anywhere with wifi! Sessions will be on April 22, 24, 28 and 30 from 10am-12pm (GMT) / 5am-7am (EST) / 7pm-9pm (AEDT)
- Who’s it for? This workshop is for practitioners in CE and sustainability, business decision-makers, those who want to implement the standards in their businesses, and leaders who need to respond to international CE legislation.
- Key content covered: Aside from going through each of the 3 main standards, you will learn about additional advancements globally and locally, as well as systems thinking and life cycle thinking skills, which are now embedded in the new standards.
Tiered pricing is available, and if you need an invoice for reimbursement from your organization, just let us know. Click here to learn more and register.