The Art of Green Finance

This is idea borrows heavily from Yvon Chouinard’s 1% for the planet project but applies the idea to individuals. The Patagonia businessman’s model is based on his basic belief that, as companies use Earth’s resources to generate profit, businesses should therefore protect those resources. Businesses can sign up to give 1% of their annual sales to various different environmental projects. Yvon Chouinard has created a huge network which includes some great projects, but this didn’t feel very relevant to my circumstances (UK based, no business experience). However, I liked the principle.

On an individual level, it’s also fair to say that we each utilise Earth’s resources and should therefore protect those resources. Using the same principle as Yvon Chouinard’s project, I decided to simply donate 1% of my net income to organisations that have a positive impact on the environment.

So where to donate? I found limited information available on which UK based organisations have the biggest impact. However, Tythe is a non-profit organisation that distributes funds to environmental organisations that they consider are having a big impact and this is a reasonable starting point for your research. You could simply donate via Tythe or choose a selection of the charities they have listed. Project Drawdown also has an interesting table of climate change solutions that one can rank by impact and might provide some inspiration.

Charities that I have personally chosen to support in this way include Surfers against Sewage, the World Land Trust, Client Earth and the Their World (might not obviously seem climate related but Project Drawdown’s climate solutions table suggests that education of women is an important intervention on a global scale).

There are 33 million people in employment in the UK and the average salary in the UK is £27,000. Imagine what impact 1% of that could have….