Community Spotlight: Our Co-op & Climate Change

By Kate Sederstrom

Well, it’s April and Earth Day is just around the corner--on Thursday, April 22. It’s a time to appreciate this truly wild planet we live on. As far as we know, there’s nothing else in the universe quite like it with its delicate equilibrium that fosters life, which is bonkers. 

And yet, humankind is currently doing a bang-up job at destroying it. As a sustainability minded community, we know we need to do something about it. Sure, we can eat less meat, we can reduce our plastic use, we can compost. But when we zoom out to see the broader picture of sustainability, does it really matter how many uses you get out of that metal straw when we’re facing the juggernaut of climate change? 

In an episode of How to Save a Planet, journalist Alex Blumberg and scientist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson dive deep into this daunting idea. It’s true: the impact of our individual choices is infinitesimally small; it really is up to big corporations to turn climate change around. So why then, do we commit ourselves to making sustainable choices and reducing our carbon footprint if it doesn’t really matter?

Blumberg and Johnson argue that although our individual choices have virtually no impact, there is real power in collective action — both in creating boots-on-the-ground climate programming and also in the smaller ways we might foster a contagious culture of sustainability that’s welcoming to all. 

In our little corner of the world, we at the Co-op are doing it. We’re committed to upholding standards of sustainability with the brands we stock like Rhapsody, a small family-owned farm in Vermont — and nixing brands like Tate's Bake Shop when their actions don’t align with our values. But more than that, we’re creating a community of climate-conscious Brooklynites who foster this idea that we all have collective responsibility to our planet and those around us. 

Take BK ROT, for example, NYC’s first bike-powered food waste hauling and composting service with whom we partner to dispose of the Co-op food scraps. In 2012, the City Department of Sanitation was offering curbside compost pickup in parts of Brooklyn, but not in BK ROT founder Sandy Nurse’s Bushwick neighborhood. Nurse was making food deliveries on her bike when it dawned on her: what Bushwick needed was food pickup, not delivery — food scrap pickup, to be precise. BK ROT quickly grew into something more than just composting — they work to combat food deserts, increase access to local, healthy food options, counteract environmental racism and more. 

When we partner with and support organizations like BK ROT, we’re working alongside them in their mission and we’re creating a demand for sustainable infrastructure in our own communities. If people didn’t buy into this idea that composting food scraps was a good, sustainable idea, there would be a heck of a lot more food waste rotting away in landfills rather than enriching the soil of our local farmers, and that is worth something. Already, BK ROT has composted 320,000 pounds of waste in Brooklyn and generated $100,000 in income for young workers of color.

Now, I’m not saying that we all need to go and create our own 501(c)(3). I’m also not saying that the buck stops when we support organizations like BK ROT with our wallets. There’s a lot of work to be done in the middle, in our own micro-arenas — our families, our friend groups, our workplaces — whether that’s inspiring your sister to try a new Rhapsody tempeh recipe or finding out where the recycling in your office really goes, and advocating for change. What I’m saying is: When we all foster a culture of sustainability, we can inspire others to do the same. 

This Earth Day, in the spirit of that episode of How to Save a Planet, I challenge you to consider three key things and make a Venn diagram: What are you good at? What brings you joy? What climate work needs doing? (Hint: there’s a lot to choose from!) At the cross section is where you can play a pivotal part in the fight for a better future for our planet, on a big scale or a small one. The important thing is that we all work together, doing what we can… and that really matters.