If you’re a serious environmentalist, you want to find like-minded people with whom you can work on making sustainable improvements in different areas of life. After all, sustainability isn’t a one-man show: the planet needs all the collective effort we can give it if we are to make real changes.
How to do this? There are several ways that you can look for groups and individuals to collaborate with. Many people are getting on the sustainability bandwagon these days; you just have to know how to find them.
It’s all out there if you look
Regardless of what you are looking for – be it large-scale cooperation, sustainable farming, or even just small groups in your area that you want to discuss issues with, you can find it these days. You might even get lucky and find that special someone who shares your interests. Fortunately, these days dating online has taken all different forms, and people can find matches based on any number of criteria. So you never know; your perfect match might be waiting for you online on an eco-minded dating site!
Look around in your area
Unless you live on a remote farm, there are likely people in your community that have either already started, or are interested in starting a sustainability movement. Here are some tips on how to find them:
- Go to where the action is. If you look around in farmers’ markets, eco-themed cafes, or even shops that have eco-related themes, they will likely have billboards advertising sustainable programs.
- Once you find these groups, make yourself available. You can offer to volunteer, take part in workshops, or even act as a guest speaker in relevant events. This is a great way to get your name out and make people know you are serious.
- Make a concerted effort to network. If you’re really serious about sustainability, treat it like a job. You could even have a business card made for yourself. Make it general or specific, depending on your goals. But try to make connections with people that you’ll be able to utilize later.
Search online
Looking online is also a great way to find people to collaborate with. Try the following methods:
- Search strategically. Take the time to research what the most potentially beneficial keywords would be for your purposes. Remember that the jargon used in the industry has been evolving for the last several decades (Remember when people’s biggest focus was on the ozone layer? While this is certainly still an issue, it is far from being a primary subject of sustainability efforts).
- Get involved on online forums. Online forums are created for a reason: to bring people together for a common cause. Even if you are making good progress in finding partners in your local area, it is a good idea to join online groups, too. Through them, you can gain insight into other people’s efforts and possibly get additional support for your own.
- There are also well-known platforms that you can use to find short-term volunteer opportunities. Worldpackers, The Nature Conservancy, and the Sierra Club are just a few of them. Take a look online and see what your area has to offer.
Consider getting involved in large-scale efforts
If you’re really serious about sustainability, you might even consider changing your whole lifestyle. Specifically:
- Look into joining an eco-village. These kibbutz-style villages are built entirely around the idea of sustainable living. This means that they likely use renewable energy sources, eat food that is locally grown, and expect residents to participate in assisting with various efforts. This is a great way to become fully immersed in a sustainable environment, but you should be prepared to put regular effort into it.
- Off-grid communities. A similar idea is to join an off-grid community. These communities aren’t necessarily collaborative, but they function with the understanding that residents agree to rely only on solar power, or whatever the common renewable energy source is. When people enter into these communities, it is with the understanding that they will have to limit their energy usage on a daily basis (e.g. not vacuuming and doing laundry at the same time, conserving light sources, etc.).
- Permaculture farms. If you’re particularly interested in sustainable agriculture, a version of the eco-living idea involves living on a farm that focuses on producing its own food. If you make the decision to live on one of these farms, you should be prepared for a lot of hard work as agriculture is a physically demanding activity. It can also be very rewarding, though, if you are sufficiently motivated to live this way.
Large-scale networking efforts
Networking locally or online can certainly be effective in helping build relationships and facilitate opportunities for collaboration. If you really want to effect change on a large scale, though, you should look into bigger, national or global networking events. Some of the big groups include:
- The United Nations. You can’t get much bigger than the UN when it comes to significant multilateral organizations. Every year, delegates from around the world get together to discuss climate change and adjust the goals for how to curb it.
- International Union for Conservation of Nature. The IUCN also holds a regular conference. These conferences go into a lot of technical detail about particular issues, so they could be useful if you have a specific area of interest.
- The World Wildlife Fund. If animal conservation is your issue, you should consider getting involved with the World Wildlife Fund. This is perhaps the most active group that works to protect endangered species around the world.
Get out there and search!
Again, any type of collaboration that you might want in your sustainability efforts is fully available these days. You just need to channel your efforts in the particular direction that you want to go. If you’re not sure whether you want to make sustainability your whole life, you might start small and see if you want to do more. Joining an eco-community can be great, but you have to be really committed to the idea. If you find that you are, you might just find your personal kindness community that will stay with you for life!