Hello to all you anti-consumers! 😯
Have you already taken to the shops? If you haven’t, then I’m delighted to present 5 shop-free social suggestions to while away your Friday – do enjoy! Before we dive in, a big thank you to all of you (and you were many!) who generously donated to the Gaza Emergency Appeal I shared a couple of weeks ago, I was blown away by your generosity! Now, let’s go.
1. An (anti) Black Friday quote: Buy Nothing Day – “This Friday, keep the credit card holstered. Keep your cash in your jeans. Don’t buy. Just breathe. Step outside. Feel the pulse of the planet — the earth beneath your feet, the sun on your face. Listen to the wind. Watch a bird fly by. Give five bucks to a homeless person. Have a heart-to-heart chat with a friend. Focus on what matters and watch as the everyday grey slowly returns to the colours of real life.” – Adbusters Media Foundation
2. Charity analysis I’ve appreciated: UK Civil Society Almanac – It feels like every single call I have with friends and colleagues focuses on the challenging times faced in the civil society sector. Increasing social needs and decreasing funding is creating a perfect storm. Every week I hear of another great organisation having to close down. This Almanac demonstrates on a national scale the challenge facing charities – especially small ones. Aside from that, I love that it provides graphic representation of key statistics without having to wade through a long PDF!
3. Insightful documentary series : America and the Taliban 3-part documentary – What with so many evolving crises around the world, I sometimes wake up months later thinking, ‘what’s happening now that it’s not in the headlines?’ I had this feeling with Afghanistan: thankfully, this brilliant extensive 3-part documentary by PBS Frontline did an excellent job not only of bringing me up to speed, but giving the full sweep of the country’s history over the past decades. It has an unprecedented number of interviews with current Taliban leaders which provides for very interesting perspectives. Strongly recommended!
4. Article I’ve co-authored: Good practice for MEL in partnerships – Dos and Don’ts for the charity sector – Much of the work I do is supporting charities to develop their approaches to monitoring and evaluation. MEL can so often take a ridiculous amount of time, distract from the ‘important’ frontline work and seem to go nowhere. I’m still learning how best to tackle these issues, but have put together this article on behalf of Refugee Action with my learnings on helping partnerships of charities do just this.
5. Powerful new research on pet diet environmental impacts: The relative benefits for environmental sustainability of vegan diets for dogs, cats and people – I’m often sharing information on this topic, but this landmark research paper is making big waves, assessing US and global impacts of pet diets on livestock and the environment. Here are the the top-level numbers: transitioning the world’s cats and dogs to nutritionally-sound vegan diets would save 8.8 billion animal lives each year; it would free up arable land equivalent to the size of Mexico and Germany combined; and the food energy savings could provide food for a population larger than the entire European Union. So, are you ready to swap your pet’s diet to a nutritionally-sound vegan one? Here’s a really useful resource if you’re considering it!
📣 3 Callouts from me and my network
✏️ Wikipedia writers wanted! – I’m looking for a Wikipedia contributor to help me out! Email me!
👨💻 Need an awesome website? – check out GSF Creations, my new sustainable web design agency
🧡 Fundraising Trustee at Refugee Biriyani & Bananas (where I’m also a Trustee)
📱 Honest Mobile – use referral code jacobwarn1994 to join the UK’s most sustainable network
That’s it for this fortnight. As ever, please let me know your thoughts and feedback – and send anything you’d like me to include in upcoming editions this way.
