<h2>THE DEFINITION</h2>
<p>A dictionary definition of sustainability is: &ldquo;avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.&rdquo; That sounds simple enough. The complication is in the number of ways you might choose to do that. But fear not, the United Nations is onto it.</p>
<p>THE 17 'SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS&rsquo; Recognising that we impact the ecological balance in so many ways, the United Nations has categorised no less than 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each one represents a target for how humanity can live on this planet, without damaging it.</p>
<p>Adopted by the United Nations in 2015, the SDG&rsquo;s are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. It&rsquo;s a broad scope. Which is why &lsquo;sustainability&rsquo; can mean something different to almost anyone you ask.</p>
<h2>SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU?</h2>
<p>Firstly it&rsquo;s good to know that people are thinking about this at a global level, in a strategic way. And meetings like the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow holds up hope that there is global action being prompted by this thinking. You might think there&rsquo;s not enough action. And it&rsquo;s not quick enough. But at least it is on the agenda of 197 governments.</p>
<p>Secondly, you can look at the 17 Sustainable Development Goals above and decide to make a difference yourself, however small, in one or more of them. That might be cutting your travel emissions. Going plastic-free where you can. Giving to a foodbank. Switching to clean energy. Eating less meat. Donating to charities that do good work in challenging places. The key is to take action, however small. Because whatever action you choose to take is one step towards better sustainability &ndash; and is probably good for you too.</p>
<p>Thirdly, you can look to the organisations and brands that are in your life. That might be your local authority; your employer; the place where you study.; the supermarket you prefer; the brand of washing powder you choose. What are they doing?</p>
<h2>WHY ARE ORGANISATIONS AND BRANDS SO IMPORTANT?</h2>
<p>Because:</p>
<ol>
<li>Almost every organisation or brand you come across has a sustainability target these days. It&rsquo;s a hot topic. Most are committed to taking action. So looking at what they are doing and deciding if they deserve your support is a powerful idea.</li>
<li>They can pool money from all the people they serve, or sell to, or&nbsp;represent, so that they have significant budgets that can make a bigger difference. And they can connect with all kinds of other organisations and communities to collaborate on improvements and share benefits.</li>
<li>They employ professional sustainability experts whose job it is to&nbsp;interpret the 17 SDGs and work out how they can do better. So many organisations and brands are designing meaningful actions now. But how many resonate with you?</li>
</ol>
<h2>WHERE DOES ONE STEP CLOSER FIT IN?</h2>
<p>One Step Closer gives you the ability to shape the actions these organisations and brands take. Whether that&rsquo;s minimising waste, reducing energy consumption, cutting emissions or using less plastic in their products or services. Or social projects to support local communities or level-up inequalities. You can help direct where&nbsp;you think they should focus their attention, in this broad world of&nbsp;Sustainability.&nbsp;</p>
<p>And by voting, you can extend your personal influence beyond the individual actions you&rsquo;ve chosen to take. You can help build momentum with something bigger. And each time you vote, you help to build a community committed to the change we all need.</p>

What is sustainability?

<h2>THE HISTORY&nbsp;</h2>
<p>&ldquo;When I was a student (way back in 2006), I came across some research that said most people wanted to do something to improve how we live on the planet. But the scale of it was overwhelming. Climate change. Plastics in the sea. Poor air quality. It was all too big. &ldquo;What can I do?&rdquo;</p>
<p>I began working in what businesses call &lsquo;sustainability&rsquo;, finding ways to improve the environmental or social impact of what businesses do. And many were doing great things. And some just wanted to do the bare minimum they could get away with, without really changing anything.&nbsp; And others just did it now and again, without any real focus. But all struggled to share the story of what they did with people like you and I, in a simple way.</p>
<h2>THE THINKING&nbsp;</h2>
<p>What I realised is that these two things &ndash; our personal ability to take action to reduce our impact on the planet, and the action of organisations and brands in our lives &ndash; are linked. Because every time we engage with brands and organisations, we leave a footprint. And it&rsquo;s a shared footprint of things like CO2 emissions, waste, plastics etc.</p>
<p>The problem is, as an individual it&rsquo;s almost impossible to influence that shared footprint. Yes, I can decide what to buy and what not to, and possibly where to live and work, but I can&rsquo;t really affect the actions of those organisations and brands.</p>
<p>So, I thought:</p>
<p>What if we let people vote on what organisations and brands do to tread lighter on the planet? If they share the choices of how they intend to minimise their footprint, I can make a difference. And when that is shared by lots of people who buy a particular brand, or work for an organisation, or study at a university, or live in a local area, or donate to a charity&hellip; that makes a powerful movement for change.</p>
<p>And what if the organisation or brand has to tell everyone who votes which choice &ldquo;won&rdquo;? That way everyone knows that their vote counts. So it&rsquo;s worth doing again. And again. And again. And if that&rsquo;s easy to do, from a smartphone, a tablet, or a computer, whenever it&rsquo;s convenient, why wouldn&rsquo;t I do it?</p>
<p>And finally, what if the organisation or brand has to commit to sharing the impact of each campaign? So, every time I vote, I know it will result in positive change. I get to see the difference I&rsquo;ve made. And because I can vote for lots of campaigns with lots of different organisations or brands, I can grow my personal influence, one vote at a time.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>THE HARD WORK</h2>
<p>Making this idea into reality took a whole lot of hard work. Five years of technical development, prototypes, trial and error has brought us to where we are today.</p>
<p>Which is One Step Closer.</p>
<ul>
<li>Enabling every single person to make a positive difference, whether that&rsquo;s through what you buy, where you study, what happens at work or in your community. Or just by joining One Step Closer and voting regularly.</li>
<li>Giving you the opportunity to influence how the organisations and brands in your life can reduce their impact on the environment and support communities.</li>
<li>Bringing us all together, campaign by campaign, so we&rsquo;re all One Step Closer to living and working in a better way.</li>
</ul>
<h2>OVER TO YOU&hellip;</h2>
<p>So now it&rsquo;s over to you. You can vote on any of our live campaigns. And join us to see the impact of each one, so that organisations and brands are held to account. You can vote on as many campaigns as you like. And you&rsquo;ll find a record of each campaign you vote for in your personal fingerprint, so you can see the difference you are helping to make.</p>
<p>And if you&rsquo;re a big fan of a particular brand, or you feel the place where you work or study could benefit from taking part, send them our way. Tweet, email or chat to someone in charge of their sustainability and ask them to get in touch. Most organisations have someone who is responsible these days: they might call it CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility); or they might call it ESG (Environmental Social &amp; Governance).</p>
<p>Thanks for reading!&nbsp;</p>
<p>Joanna Mulkeen</p>
<p><em>Founder</em>; One Step Closer</p>
<p><em>Mother</em>; to two children, who will inherit the world we leave behind.</p>
<p><em>Believer;</em> that the collective power of organisations and brands to make positive impact is stronger when more of us are involved.</p>

Our story is your story

<h2>THE EVIDENCE IS ALL AROUND US</h2>
<p>Summer 2021 saw so many indications of what we all know is happening. <a href="https://www.eurotopics.net/en/263970/nearly-50-degrees-in-canada-climate-change-in-action">50-degree temperatures in Canada</a>. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/villagers-evacuated-forest-fire-spreads-near-athens-2021-08-23/">Wildfires in Greece</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/02/nyregion/nyc-storm">Flooding in New York</a>. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/as-arctic-melt-sets-early-july-record-hard-times-lie-ahead-for-ice-studies/">Record lows in sea ice coverage in the Arctic</a>. The impact of climate change is upon us. And according to <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/climate-change-and-disasters.html">UNHCR</a>, abnormal weather events like these are already causing an average of more than 20 million people to leave their homes and move to other areas in their countries <em>each year</em>.</p>
<p>The trouble is, it can all feel a bit overwhelming, reading a list like that. Depressing even. You care about the planet and what we&rsquo;re doing to it as a species, but what can you do? You need to eat, work, create a home, get the kids from school, look out for family and friends. Escape, so you can recharge, before you do it all again. How can you make a bigger impact?</p>
<h2>OVERCOMING THE OVERWHELM</h2>
<p>One Step Closer creates a really simple way you can make an impact beyond the obvious things you do yourself.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In your everyday life, you buy certain brands along with millions of others. You live in a particular area with thousands of other people. You may work for a big firm; study with lots of others; give money to a major charity.</p>
<p>So, imagine, if each of these organisations or brands takes action to reduce their impact on the planet, and you have a say in what they do&hellip; Now you&rsquo;re reducing your personal footprint, creating an impact way beyond what you could do on your own. Now you&rsquo;re part of a bigger difference.</p>
<h2>BECOMING AN EMPEROR PENGUIN</h2>
<p>It&rsquo;s like <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/emperor-penguins">Emperor Penguins</a>. Really? Well kind of. While one parent goes off to hunt for as long as two months or more, the other stands on floating ice sheets in Antarctica, with their egg or hatched chick balanced on top of their feet.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s very cold. Minus 50 degrees, with up to 200 kms/hr winds.7 To keep warm, they huddle together in groups of up to 5,000 and very gently shuffle around, so no individual is ever on the outside of the group in the prevailing weather for too long. Individually, keeping themselves and their chick alive would be almost impossible. Acting as a group, it works.</p>
<p>By giving you the opportunity to vote on what organisations and brands do &ndash; and crucially seeing it through to the impact it actually achieves &ndash; makes you part of the change, and. It gets beyond the overwhelm and straight into action. It supercharges your personal involvement, amplifying the scale of the change you can influence. And gets you involved in real solutions. You&rsquo;re no longer a lone penguin with an egg on your feet, wondering what to do. You&rsquo;re now part of a movement that works.</p>
<h2>ONE STEP CLOSER&hellip; TO WHAT?</h2>
<p>Whilst Climate Change is a huge imperative for many of us, One Step Closer takes a wider view on the world. We want people to come together to improve environmental <em>and</em> social outcomes.</p>
<p>As well as impacts like reforesting the Amazon, campaigns on our platform have seen companies provide equipment for cancer charities, funding for local youth clubs and sports facilities. We&rsquo;ve enabled local authorities to prioritise community projects and launch cycling initiatives. And student votes have created wildflower meadows and plastic-free restaurants on their campuses.</p>
<p>So, if you&rsquo;d like to reduce your footprint and take One Step Closer to anything that&rsquo;s close to your heart, vote on our live campaigns today or join us.</p>

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