Making Sensible Changes Out Of The Covid-19 Tragedy
As we seek to leverage the unfortunate ‘pause’ in our economies due to Covid-19 pandemic, we would do well to not only rethink how we do things we have taken for granted, but also to admit that the ‘Blame Game’ sustainability professionals often engage in actually prevents us from gaining the needed buy-in to implement solutions.
People have noted the visibly cleaner air around the world as cities and economies have been forced to shut down due to Covid-19 outbreaks, but, if we are going to build a more sustainable future, we must avoid allowing people to present this as a false choice between a healthy economy and a healthy planet. And that means promoting the net-gain benefits of both.
If we are going to build a more sustainable future, we must avoid allowing people to present this as a false choice between a healthy economy and a healthy planet.
Cities like Milan are experimenting with re-configuring traffic lanes to encourage the use of bicycles and walking over cars when the city reopens for business. The key point is that they are looking to encourage alternative transportation rather than demonizing automobile drivers. As the article quotes Marco Granelli, a deputy mayor of Milan: “We worked for years to reduce car use.” I would add — without success.
Granelli goes on to say that, in addition to taking advantage of the lack of traffic to temporarily reconfigure the lanes and streets, they are also focusing on the fact that the results will be a better business environment as well as healthier air for residents and visitors.
Paris is aiming to create cycle routes along the routes of its three busiest (most popular) Metro lines. Washington, DC, which expanded its non-automobile lanes during Covid might do well to consider making the changes permanent.
The Time Is Now
This is an opportunity that businesses (and municipalities) must seize.
The pressure to ‘reopen’ economies is growing. Unless the ‘new’ (better) path is defined, in our rush to get back to ‘normal’ we risk going back to ‘business as usual.’
It is often easier to build something new than to ‘unwind’ or ‘undue’ something; such as when developing countries directly embrace mobile phones and ‘leapfrog’ over the wired versions.
The pause due to Covid removes the barriers of what is in place. (Just imagine the challenge if Milan were to have tried adding the bike and pedestrian lanes while traffic was crowding the existing streets.). Despite years of thinking ‘we cannot go back’ or ‘it doesn’t make a difference’ it is no longer theoretical. Today people are seeing and feeling the benefits of cleaner air, both aesthetic and health-wise. Views that have been shrouded for decades are visible. More stars twinkle overhead. The air smells better. People are breathing easier — which they will very likely want to maintain.
The tragedy of Covid has given us the opportunity — as businesses, cities, towns, communities and nations — to walk away from inferior, less efficient, more expensive or more polluting technologies and practices and move directly to more advanced ones.
While I have focused on climate and environment, the same holds true for social and governance issues as well. While no one wanted this, as we have had to RESTART, we also have the opportunity to ask; ‘if we had it to do over, what would we do differently?’
So, let us not focus on the mistakes (or things that turned out to have unforeseen consequences) of the past, and instead focus on what we can do better, smarter, more fairly. We can start by ensuring that we listen to science in the future to a) prevent things we can prevent, b) contain them when we cannot c) adapt when we must.
That is how we create a brighter future out of this global tragedy.