3 Important Benefits of an Environmental Protection Mentality
How our way of thinking supports reaching a more sustainable future
Credit: This article is based on the scientific article “The costs and benefits of environmental sustainability” by Paul Ekins and Dimitri Zenghelis. (Full citation and link available at the end of the article)
In my previous article 4 Costs of a ‘Grow Now, Clean Up Later’ Mentality, I discussed the disadvantages of a mentality that neglects environmental protection. So, an interesting next question is why the opposite mentality — an environmental protection mentality — is important.
An environmental protection mentality is a way of thinking that assigns the environment a high priority. This is important as we are currently facing three planetary crises at the same time: climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. These crises cause increasing numbers of disasters. Without major changes to stabilize our temperature, reduce pollution, and support biodiversity, these issues will become worse.
“Humanity either manages the transition to temperature stabilisation or nature does it for us by depopulating and deindustrialising the planet.” — Paul Ekins and Dimitri Zenghelis
Despite the urgency of our transition to environmentally friendly practices, our conversion to environmentally sound products, industries, and practices has been slow. This is because standard economic models have discouraged rapid progress by focusing on economic growth instead of well-being (further reading: 6 Ways We Need To Change Our Global Economy To Save Our Planet). Also, the costs of conversion are overestimated, as those economic models fail to for example take into account rapid technological developments.
As standard economic models are unsuitable, economic models that embrace change and are more flexible are better suited. For example, they can incorporate the flow of resources from declining industries to new sectors. As a consequence, an environmental protection mentality also gives societies a competitive advantage. This is why:
Stimulating innovation
The first benefit of an environmental protection mentality is that it stimulates and empowers innovation. Innovation is essential for our future ability to limit environmental degradation and resource use because it helps us replace environmentally unfriendly practices with more environmentally sound alternatives.
To empower innovation, an innovative idea needs to be followed up by research and development, a way of manufacturing or putting the idea into practice, and a network to distribute and sell the resulting product or service, where selling does not necessarily involve money. This means that innovation requires support, which is more likely provided by others who also have an environmental protection mentality. And when innovations are successful, they can trigger further investments in further ideas that can build on these positive experiences.
For example, knowledge from wind and solar power projects spreads more widely than knowledge from projects related to conventional energy sources. This further improves innovation in the energy sector but also in other industries such as the transportation industry.
Building new industries and technologies
The second benefit of an environmental protection mentality is that it stimulates the building of new industries and technologies. This is because having an environmental protection mentality makes it more likely that we are open to change.
Building new industries and technologies can be supported by governments by subsidizing research and development. They can also cover the initial costs of switching to new technologies through grants. This support is helpful for initiatives towards a healthier planet, as it allows focusing on creating change and initiating growth instead of being limited by challenges. Once those new industries and technologies hit a tipping point and are adopted, government support can shift to new initiatives. As a consequence, countries that invest early in environmentally friendly solutions have more success in future green markets.
And while new industries and technologies can be initiated from scratch, it is even more likely to be successful when a country invests in green technologies that are similar to their existing technologies. This is because this strategy allows taking advantage of existing factories and trained workers, using knowledge and technologies they already possess. As a consequence, an environmental protection mindset guides each country differently and encourages it to leverage the country’s history and resources. A great practical example of the saying “standing on the shoulders of giants”.
Changing decisions and behavior
The third benefit of an environmental protection mentality is that it changes our decisions and behavior. Decisions and behavior often only focus on how they benefit us. But when taking the environment into account as well, we are more likely to make decisions that improve the well-being of everyone, including nature. For example:
- an environmental protection mentality can inspire us to share more knowledge to stimulate further thoughts and innovations. That is for example why I did a 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge and shared how I made my daily life more environmentally friendly: by sharing ideas from my daily life, others got inspired and adopted some of these changes in their daily life as well (further reading: 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge).
- an environmental protection mentality can inspire us to shift social norms. Social norms define acceptable group behavior. This is because an environmental protection mentality exposes ourselves and others to environmental concepts more often. This can trigger different decisions and behavior, which in turn contributes to changing public opinion and social norms. Such changes can be supported for instance by building cycle lanes and high-quality public transport, as they invite people to embrace new opportunities.
- an environmental protection mentality can inspire us to invest differently. Investments that once seemed safe to investors, pension fund managers, and insurance companies are becoming less valuable. For instance, investments in fossil fuels, including coal, become less valuable due to the transition to green energy sources.
Further reading: 7 Reasons Why We Aren’t Making Faster Progress Toward a Healthier Planet
Conclusion
So, an environmental protection mentality provides important benefits by stimulating innovations, building new industries and technologies, and changing decisions and behavior.
How we can take action
Here are practical ideas of what you and I can do to encourage an environmental protection mentality:
- Advocating for stronger pollution control laws at all levels of government
- Talking to others about environmental issues and solutions
- Encouraging new perceptions about environmental issues by expressing pro-environmental thoughts and concepts to friends and family.
- Being a good example to others by looking for and applying ideas on how to make your daily life more environmentally friendly (further inspiration: 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge)
- Buying environmentally friendly products instead of environmentally unfriendly alternatives, as this supports further development and acceptance of these products
Which one of these can you implement in your daily life? And do you have further ideas of what you and I could do? Thank you in advance for putting them into practice and sharing them in a comment to this question to inspire all of us.
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