Throughout the journey of Simply Zero, it’s always been a goal to not only find more sustainable swaps in our everyday lives, but also to take a look at the bigger picture. It’s important we take a step back at why we make these changes and how they can impact the world around us, as well as what are the larger changes that are needed on a more national and global level.

As a female-founded brand, we’re particularly interested in the role that women play when it comes to sustainability and climate change, which is why the findings from Project Drawdown have caught our attention. In 2017, a team of scientists, economists, policymakers, researchers, and business people published Project Drawdown, an ongoing review and analysis of climate solutions to reduce excess greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. The initial output of this project was a list ranking 80 practical solutions that could help slow down climate change. 

The top of the list included lots of the usual sustainability suspects – such as eating a more plant-based diet and more solar farms. However, within the top ten solutions were two lesser talked about solutions: education of girls & family planning. It may seem interesting that these categories ranked so highly, but the project’s research has shown that there is a major ripple effect when it comes to these things. When more girls are educated, they have more opportunities, they likely make more money, have access to family planning, marry later, and have fewer children. These smaller-sized families help decrease overall consumption and therefore also decrease pollution. On top of all of this, education opens doors to more jobs in science and government, where women can be involved in helping to solve climate change. 

As we celebrate Women’s History Month (and International Women’s Day on March 8th), we’re feeling extra empowered to call out what an important role women can play in climate change and how important supporting women around the world is in order to drive that change. Family planning can help lower the carbon footprint of communities with less unplanned pregnancies and smaller families. These smaller families will produce less waste. Girls who are educated are able to better prepare for natural disasters and help their communities. Possibly most important of all, by providing education and family planning girls have the opportunity to be a part of the conversation around sustainability and climate change. They have opportunities to be a part of the science and politics that help to create even broader global change. We were particularly inspired by this TEDtalk from Katharine Wilkinson sharing three key ways that equity for women and girls can help stop global warming, as well as this PBS feature that calls out “Want to stop climate change. Educate girls” 

We’ve vowed to use our platform as a way to lift up the voices of those who need to be heard and now more than ever, we know that women (and the world) need this message lifted! In our shop, we support women by curating products from female entrepreneurs and makers – you can click here to shop all our woman-owned brands!

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