Taking Action in 2021

Had things gone according to plan, 2020 was to have been the Year of Climate Action. The UK was set to host the much-anticipated UN Climate Change Conference (commonly known as COP26), and the world was set to mark not only the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement but also ten years to the deadline for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

While the COVID-19 pandemic caused numerous delays and disruption to climate action, we also saw a groundswell of new commitments from businesses and governments, and a recognition by many that the existential threat of the pandemic was a ‘warm up’ for the climate crisis. In some cases, lockdowns actually meant positive gains for the planet, as people travelled less and spent more time in their local areas. Amid the dark moments, 2020 was also a time for reflection and a year in which we learnt a lot about our priorities as individuals, as businesses and as a global society.

As we enter 2021, while the immediate need to tackle the pandemic remains, it is important that we learn from this and play our role in bringing about the change we want to see in the world.

At BRITA, we’ve always believed in the big impact of small sustainable choices that we can all make every day. Our research last year found that almost half (48%) of all adults are now more conscious of making these choices every day, and 69% are willing to change their behaviour to help manage a global crisis.

This year, we are going to be working hard with our partners, including Keep Britain Tidy (KBT), to understand how we can help consumers to not only maintain existing sustainable habits, but to support further actions in the community to reduce waste. This work will champion the waste hierarchy, the system which effectively ranks waste management options according to what is best for the environment. The top priority is to prevent waste in the first place, which is what we are focusing on with KBT.

Whilst plastic pollution is a really important topic for us, this year, we will also be broadening our efforts to champion sustainability; doing more to promote the importance of the waste hierarchy, while also looking at challenges around carbon emissions and climate change. We look forward to sharing more on this work as it develops over the course of this year and beyond.