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With the reality of climate change, thinking about the future can be depressing. It’s far too easy to go down the rabbit hole of climbing temperatures, rising sea levels, mass extinctions, food shortages, and climate refugees.

That’s why I so appreciated two recent films that offer alternate views of what might be possible – A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough, and 2040 by Damon Gameau.

In A Life on Our Planet, Attenborough starts by sharing what he’s learned in his lifetime of traveling the world and exploring nature. He does share a darker vision of the future, of what happens if we continue the path we’re on. But in the second half of the film, he looks at some of the encouraging things people are already doing, and how we could expand on that moving forward.

In 2040, Gameau doesn’t imagine the worst at all. As he said, we’ve heard plenty of doom and gloom about climate change – and rightfully so. But he was more interested in looking at other possibilities. He also took an unusual approach of addressing the film to his four-year-old daughter and projecting what her future could be by 2040.

Both of these hopeful visions of the future are based on technologies and solutions that already exist today, with some key things to focus on.

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Like many high school teachers, mine loved big words, with “lugubrious” being one of his favorites. He enjoyed complex sentences and had no qualms about long paragraphs.

All of that is fine for English class, but it doesn’t work for marketing content.

Instead, with any content you produce these days, your goal should be to make it as readable as possible. This means forgetting what your English teachers told you and going back to some basics.

Before getting into tips on doing that, though, consider why this matters.

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I recently attended a webinar about how to talk to people in Maine about climate change, and it made a lot of great points. But one that stood out was the fact that you’re not going to turn a climate change denier into a climate change activist in one step. In fact, they may never get to the activist stage, but if you try to move them one step at a time, they could get to the point of acceptance. That alone would be significant.

And this doesn’t only apply to climate change. This happens with other changes, too, both big and small.

Taking things one step at a time even applies to selling your products or services.

For example, if you try to sell a heat pump to someone who’s never even heard of one, odds are good that you won’t make a sale in one conversation. But if you provide information and have conversations a bit at a time to explain what a heat pump is, how it works, how it helps, and more, the prospect might become a client.

With that in mind, here are some steps you can take to help move clients or prospects along until they’re more comfortable with the service, product, or change. This example will look at someone who has a big, drafty house, and the goal is to help them make the house as energy efficient as possible by weatherizing, installing a heat pump, and using solar energy.

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Until recently, I thought that people who were interested in helping the environment and fighting climate change were automatically nature-lovers.

But that changed when I heard someone talk about his interest in climate change even though he wouldn’t describe himself as a nature lover. He doesn’t mind it on occasion, but most of the time, given a choice between being in the city, perhaps at an art museum, or out on a hike, he’d take the art museum.

At the same time, he cares about climate change because he grew up in a place with poor air quality and knows first-hand how damaging it can be.

This got me thinking about how important it is to meet customers and prospects where they are, even if that’s not where you expect them to be. If you don’t do this and instead assume that you know where they’re coming from, you’re likely to misunderstand and alienate them.

If you take the time to understand their background, though, they’re more apt to find you and choose your product or service. Here are three tips to get started.

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The other day, I got a flyer in the mail for a neighborhood restaurant that said, “You’re invited to dinner!”

Even though I hadn’t been thinking of getting take-out or trying outdoor eating, the friendliness of the message caught my attention. Being invited for dinner felt personal, fun, and low-pressure.

I haven’t gone to the restaurant yet, but I still have the flyer out, and it got me thinking about how sometimes people are just waiting for an invitation.

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Until recently, I have to admit that I hadn’t given much thought to how racism affects sustainability work. Like many people, though, I’ve been taking a deeper look at a lot of things in my life recently.

And when I started looking for connections between racism and sustainability, it didn’t take me long to find out that the impact is significant. This is a big issue, with lots of layers, but one thing is clear.

We need to focus on racial equality if we want to have a chance of addressing climate change.

Here are just three of the reasons I’ve found about why this is so important.

People of Color Are Disproportionately Impacted by Climate Issues

While anyone can get COVID-19, we now know that people of color are more heavily impacted by the pandemic, for many reasons. These include:

• Higher rates of underlying conditions such as lung disease and diabetes
• Greater exposure to the virus due to working front-line jobs
• Less access to healthcare

What I haven’t seen discussed as much is that people of color are also disproportionately impacted by climate change issues.

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A couple of recent events reminded me of the complexity of the issues surrounding climate change. It’s such an overwhelming issue that it can be tempting to throw up our hands in despair and give up.

But that complexity doesn’t mean we can’t make progress or move towards better options. It does mean that we need to be creative and resilient, and while we shouldn’t ignore the realities of our situation, we also shouldn’t let them completely discourage us.

Planet of the Humans

The first thing that brought climate change solutions to mind was the new Michael Moore documentary Planet of the Humans. If you’re not familiar with it, it was released in time for the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, and I heard about it during an interview Moore did with Stephen Colbert.

In that interview, Moore said that the film wasn’t depressing but that it was about how we need to reconsider the path we’re taking in addressing climate change. He also implied that the film would offer some ideas about what we could be doing differently.

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The other day, I heard a salesperson comment that he’d heard some sales pitches recently that were trying to take advantage of our current pandemic situation. He said those pitches made him feel uncomfortable, and his goal was to take the opposite approach with his own sales calls.

I’m sure most of you have also heard about people trying to make a fast buck right now. The comment from the salesperson, though, reminded me of how being true to your values as a business – and a person – is always important.

And in these days of so much fear and uncertainty, it’s even more important.

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When you’re working on your business, it’s natural to have big goals and dreams. That’s likely part of what got you started working on it in the first place.

But if you wait until you achieve that big goal to celebrate, you could be waiting a long time. If it takes too long, you might get discouraged and give up, which is why it’s important to find some smaller things to celebrate in the meantime.

By acknowledging these small wins, you’ll keep yourself energized and motivated, and you’ll do the same for those around you.

With that in mind, here are three ways to celebrate those little steps along the way towards your larger goal.

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Happy New Year! I thought I’d do something a little different to start the year. Since we so often hear about negative impacts on the environment, I’d like to share 20 positive environmental stories from the past year.

1: Greta Thunberg Person of the Year

Greta Thunberg never asked for all the media attention, but with it, she’s drawing more attention to climate change than almost anyone else. Being the Time Person of the Year helps, and if you haven’t had a chance to read the article, it’s well worth it.

2: Gains for Clean Energy Use

One at a time, states are focusing on using clean energy, and Maine is one of the most recent to commit to 100% clean energy by 2050. It’s encouraging to see this action at the state level, even if not the federal level.

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