Strengthening individual and collective action
GoZero believes that it is possible for every citizen, value-based business, community and organisation to make a meaningful contribution to the collective effort to address the climate and ecological crises. We believe that together we can redesign our economy and systems to prioritise care for people and the planet.
Humans are part of nature. Our economy is rooted in nature, but people have designed our economy to prioritise profit and growth over people and the planet. Similarly, many climate solutions have been designed to enable business as usual and the ongoing pursuit profit and growth.
Wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few. Income inequality and disconnection threaten social stability and reduce community resilience.
GoZero's approach is to strengthen individual citizens' and value-based businesses' efforts to reduce their ecological impact, alongside strengthening community and collective connection and efforts to deliver systems change.
A good economy is good for people and the environment we all rely on. It supports everyone to lead a meaningful, fulfilling life. Authentic, credible action on the climate requires an end to hyper-consumption and approaches that use limited resources wisely and deliver impact at the lowest ecological cost.
We are building ways to empower people and businesses with meaningful individual ecological impact reduction strategies. We seek to strengthen support for local groups and businesses that provide value to our communities. We work to empower people in our government to put the wellbeing of people and the planet at the heart of our economy and systems.
Alongside helping individuals and SMEs to address their carbon emissions, we are launching GoZero Challenges to help citizens take individual and collective action to drive systems change. Completing the challenge unlocks donations to nature regeneration projects by GoZero and our alliance of businesses and organisations.
Beyond Carbon and Climate
GoZero was set up to accelerate action to reduce carbon emissions due to the growing threat of climate change. However, climate change is just one facet of a wider ecological crisis. We therefore take a holistic approach that takes into consideration all planetary boundaries and resource overshoot when looking for effective ways to address humanity's ecological predicament.
According to Stockholm University's Stockholm Resilience Centre, "Planetary Boundaries are the safe limits for human pressure on the nine critical processes which together maintain a stable and resilient Earth. Crossing boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes."
A 2023 assessment by the centre concluded that the following six of nine boundaries have already been transgressed: climate change; freshwater change; land system change; biosphere integrity (biodiversity); novel entities (such as microplastics and other pollutants); and biogeochemical flows (disruption of the flow key elements that sustain life, such as nitrogen and phoshorus). We are also close to breaking through the ocean acidification boundary, which risks seeing global marine ecosystem collapse. See more information about the planetary boundaries here.
Ecological Overshoot is when humanity takes more ecological resources from the planet than it can regenerate. If everyone lived like we do in New Zealand, we would require three planets worth of resources each year. We cannot keep up this rate of resource depletion and environmental damage without causing ecological collapse.
Addressing Overshoot and Planetary Boundaries
Many popular technology-based solutions to the climate crisis require significant resources that risk worsening overshoot and transgression of planetary boundaries.
For example, the resources required for EV and home storage batteries require resource extraction that risks significantly worsening freshwater depletion and biodiversity loss. Resource extraction is reportedly responsible for up to 80% of biodiversity loss globally.
Furthermore, the advent of AI not only requires significant new energy production, which prevents new renewable energy sources from displacing fossil fuels, but also causes increased resource extraction and biodiversity loss as well as the depletion of fresh water.
While it is imperative that we urgently reduce carbon emissions, we must find ways to do so in ways that contribute to reducing ecological overshoot and respecting planetary boundaries. New Zealand has significant existing and potential hydropower and storage assets, which can provide a fully renewable grid with far less resource extraction and ecological damage than if individual household renewable systems, for example.
We need to consume less and better, waste less, and innovate to ensure that any technologies developed to address climate change do not do so at the expense of other natural boundaries.
Tracking your progress with GoZero
We have developed the Carbon Points system to incentivise actions to reduce carbon emissions by individuals and businesses. We have now expanded that system to include actions to address overshoot of other planetary boundaries, so individuals and businesses that take action to reduce their plastic and chemical pollution, waste, water use or impact on biodiversity also generate points. Additionally, points can also be earned by supporting community groups working on these issues and supporting collective action to strengthen public policy and an economy that puts people and planet above growth and profit.
We have shifted the onus of Carbon Points beyond business and climate to incentivise and reward actions on planetary boundaries and systems change, and will continue to innovate in this space. As part of the challenge to hit their Carbon Points target each month to gain rewards from local businesses, GoZero members can top up their accounts with Carbon Points genereated by our ecological and carbon projects.
Our ecological and carbon projects
To generate Carbon Points that can be used to top up reward campaigns and member accounts, GoZero supports projects that deliver measurable positive outcomes concerning planetary boundaries.
Concerning carbon emissions, we exclusively use high-integrity, Gold Standard carbon credits from projects that reduce emissions, such as those from cookstove projects. Leading climate organisation Project Drawdown, ranks efforts to promote clean cooking as amongst the most impactful global climate solutions.
These deliver emissions avoidance at source as well as certified co-benefits, such as improved health and livelihoods, under the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We are also looking to identify credible projects that support the protection of biodiversity, waste and pollution reduction, and water use reduction, and will add these to the Carbon Points system.
Improved Cook Stove Project, Uganda
Under this Gold Standard-certified project, improved cook stoves (ICS) have been provided to families in three districts in Uganda. Cook Stove projects produce amongst the most credible types of carbon credits.
These replace traditional cooking methods, increasing efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They also improve family members' health and reduce the need for them to collect firewood.
This project has certified SDG impacts, under SDGs 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and 13 (Climate Action).