Creating Change With Your Wallet: Harnessing the Power of Personal Economics for Good

Money is a Powerful Tool

Money has long been a driving force behind human history. Wars have been fought over trade routes. Businesses have crushed their rivals. Friendships have been lost to debts.

But at the end of the day, money is a tool, and like all tools it can be used for good or for bad. So, how can you consciously and intentionally use the power in your pocketbook to make the world a better place?

You can start by evaluating your own personal finances in these three areas: 

1. How you spend money

2. How you invest money

3. How you earn money

How You Spend Money

Have you ever thought about how every single piece of plastic you’ve ever purchased still exists somewhere in the world? With today’s global economy and supply chains, the products you purchase can have far reaching effects. 

The good news is, there are companies out there that are working to do good in the world! Unfortunately, there are also many that employ unethical business practices to shave dollars and pennies off the final purchase price to make their products more attractive to consumers, with these unpaid corporate costs usually getting passed on to society in many forms, such as greater pollution and illegal labor practices.

Through conscious consumption, thoughtfully spending your money on ethical products, you can help the good companies succeed and limit the success of the bad actors. By switching your purchasing decisions towards good companies and products, you can have a huge positive impact, including:

• Bringing success to businesses and companies that strengthen their local communities.

• Supporting ethical business practices, such as paying fair, living wages to employees; while reducing the use of practices such as prison and child labor.

• Sponsoring the use of better materials and ingredients that simultaneously help renew Earth’s resources, while limiting deforestation, illegal dumping and other types of destruction to nature.

• Reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants that disproportionately affect minority and disadvantaged communities.

• Limiting plastic consumption, which can bog down waterways and kill vulnerable wildlife (according to the EPA, only 8.5% of plastic was actually recycled in 2018).

The point of conscious consumption, at least in my mind, is not to spend endless hours researching every product to understand the full implications of purchasing it. Very few, realistically, have the time for this. Rather, the point is to bring a sense of intentionality to the products you ultimately buy, instead of simply deciding upon the lowest cost or the flashiest marketing. This will help nudge the market in the right direction.

Here are some actions you can take:

• Purchase organic and other natural products whenever possible.

• Learn about sustainable and ethical product certifications to make an easier, more informed decision.

• Limit your personal plastic consumption by switching from products wrapped in or stored in plastic, purchasing refill sizes instead of single use, and refill grains, cereals, and many other goods from the bulk section of your grocery store.

• Reduce your consumption of meat, especially higher environmental impact meats, like beef. Personally, I have not given up meat consumption, though I am steering my diet towards flexitarian (My personal rule is to primarily cook vegetarian at home and enjoy meat when I eat out).

• Purchase renewable energy to power your home, either by installing panels on your home or by choosing a renewable energy option for your electricity supply, which many utilities now offer.

By taking these actions and using your best judgement, you can help nudge the world in the right direction.

How You Invest Money

The point of investing is to earn a rate of return on your money. By its very nature, this means that the companies you are investing in are also aiming to financially benefit. Are they using this money responsibly?

Your investment allows companies and other beneficiaries of these funds to turn around and make their own investments in the future success of their business. Companies and financial professionals traditionally target projects with the highest Net Present Value (NPV), to maximize their returns. However, finance majors and MBAs (my educational background), are typically taught to limit a project’s Return on Investment (ROI) time horizon to pay back within the next 5 years to reduce long-term risk and uncertainty. 

What this means is that your personal investment has an impact on what sort of projects, technology and infrastructure will be built with it over the next several years. By choosing more sustainable and socially responsible investment options, you can help empower communities, reduce pollution, and make the world a more equitable place.

As the climate crisis continues to worsen, sustainable investments may also prove to be lower risk investments, with less exposure to natural disasters, volatile energy markets, and supply shocks.

Here are some actions you can take:

• Choose a responsible bank, which ensures that the loans they make and the business they support consider things like sustainability and diversity. This article from NerdWallet can help think about factors to consider.

• Match your stock market investments with your values. This is easier today than ever with the rise of socially responsible Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), allowing you to invest in a fund that allocates your investment across the publicly traded companies that match the fund’s filter criteria, which may consider factors like a company’s impact on climate change, natural resources, pollution and waste, human capital, and corporate governance, as this resource from Schwab helps define. With any investment, do your due diligence. And to maximize your personal return on ETFs, it can be wise to choose a fund with a low expense ratio.

• Invest with an impact investing company, which factor in social and environmental return on investment in addition to financial returns. While impacting investing options are still limited, this is a rapidly growing industry. A great resource I found on companies working with individual investors can be found here.

Sustainable investing strategies are not only helping to make the world a better place, they are also proving to be highly effective as consumer conscience grows; investors are demonstrating that they can even beat the market as a whole, a feat that less than 10% of investment funds can claim. Both the world and your nest egg will thank you.

How You Earn Money

The last factor to consider is the company you work for. Your talent is helping your company succeed at something; are they doing good in the world?

Before continuing, I would like to acknowledge that taking action here requires a high level of privilege. For many, finding a job and making ends meet is already a great enough challenge and time commitment. However, if you do have the capacity and privilege to act, then you may find this to be one of the most rewarding and impactful challenges you can take on.

By working for a good company or helping to steer your company in this direction, you can have a powerful and measurable positive impact on the world, including:

• Demonstrating in the marketplace that doing good can be financially successful

• Driving thought leadership to guide other companies in this direction

• Inspiring people, organizations, and communities to amplify the impact

There are several questions you can think about when evaluating whether or not an employer may be a good fit:

• Do they treat their employees well and pay living wages to everyone? Today, there are numerous online resources to help answer this question.

• Do they give back to the communities they are a part of? Do they allocate their people, brand, and financial resources towards this goal?

• Do they have a sustainability/ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) plan? Smaller businesses or startups may not have the resources yet to develop one; but for larger, well resourced companies, the lack of such a plan can be a warning sign that they aren’t thinking about or don’t understand the wide-reaching impacts of their business.

• Does the very nature of their business do good or does it do harm? For example, renewable energy companies reduce emissions while fossil fuel companies directly cause them. There can obviously be shades of gray here, so use your best judgment.

I built my early career in renewable energy and am now fortunate to work for Slalom, a purpose driven consulting company. One thing I have found in working for companies that correctly answer most of these questions is how great all the people have been to work with. Good, thoughtful companies attract good, thoughtful people. This can provide you with the chance to both earn your money in a better way and enjoy the journey. That should be a win-win in anyone’s book!

If a company doesn’t check all of those boxes, or if they check many, but could be doing even better, then an important follow up question would be, “do they afford the space to, or would you feel comfortable engaging in the type of activities that can help guide the company in a better direction? Are you empowered to make it happen?”

For example, if it seems like your company doesn’t follow the best diversity practices, do they offer the ability to create an Employee Resource Group (ERG) to help educate and advocate throughout the company? Do you feel safe to raise your voice without getting in trouble?

Shortly after joining Slalom in 2020, I helped co-found Slalom’s Seattle Sustainability employee group along with several passionate teammates. Together we’ve helped grow our team and our impact, making our local office more sustainable, educating our colleagues on sustainability and ESG, and are now launching go-to-market consulting offerings.

It’s important to reiterate that I couldn’t have done this alone, and I’m grateful for all the collaboration with our team along the way.

You Have The Power

When you think about how big the problems in the world are, it’s easy to lose hope and think that you as an individual can’t possibly make a difference.

The ideas I've included here are certainly not the only options you can do, and there are more opportunities than ever today to make a positive difference. I chose these ideas to share, as I think they are both accessible and have the capability to positively nudge the system as a whole in the right direction using the power of personal economics.

It’s important to remember that each one of us represents a pixel making up the portrait of life. One by one, if we each make the conscious decision to earn our money, invest our money, and spend our money more wisely. If we factor good values into our decisions, then slowly the tapestry will start to change colors. It will become brighter. More vivid and meaningful. The edges will no longer fray. It will look like the world we could have. The world many of us are already working to build. A world filled with prosperity. Maybe you’ll even find the joy and happiness in yourself along the way, like I have.

As always, I'm always happy to have a conversation if you're interested in talking further. I've found most people passionate about or working in sustainability to be among the most welcoming, understanding, and intelligent people I've had the chance to interact with, and they would similarly be ready and willing to discuss.

I hope you’ll join me in this endeavor.

The Not So Great Salt Lake: Yet Another Victim of Climate Change

Over the 4th of July weekend, I had the chance to visit The Great Salt Lake. But what I found at the Salt Lake can only be described as saddening and depressing.

As I kid, I learned about the lake after watching the famous matchups between the Jordan era Bulls as they took on the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals. The Great Salt Lake sounded like such interesting place to visit with a unique natural feature found in very few other places on Earth.

The supposed “Great” Salt Lake can only now be described as “Mediocre” at best. In fact, the lake has shrunk by over two thirds of its once “Great” size last seen in the 1980s. As the lake dries up, it leaves beyond the clear sign of where it once extended to. As the water evaporates, the salt is left behind leaving wide expanses of white ground.

During my visit, I camped on Antelope Island, which was once the largest island in the lake. Though due to the shrinkage of the lake and emerging land bridge, it’s been many years since it has been a true island.

The weather there was torturously hot, topping over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. From a scientific standpoint, the lake should act as massive evaporative cooler during the summer, cooling the surrounding area as the air absorbs the moisture from the lake. Though this is now only acting at one third its original cooling capacity, further amplifying the warming effects of climate change in the area.

Following my visit and reading further, I have since learned that the reduction in water volume is set to unleash what the New York Times calls an “Environmental Nuclear Bomb” in the coming years. As the wind erodes the hard, salted crust left behind by the water, it will start to expose arsenic and other heavy metals hidden underneath, which will eventually be picked up by the strong mountain winds and carry them into the heavily populated Salt Lake City urban area.

I saw the salty remains of this once great lake as a glaringly obvious example of climate change. It’s not something that’s coming. It’s here. This is especially so in the Western United States, where the drought keeps getting worse and worse every year. Yet we as a people still we don’t act, even in the face of all the scientifically predicted, hellish forecasts now coming true, year after year.

Meanwhile, our elected officials and our corporate “leaders” continue to fail us. How bad does the situation need to get before they stop lining their pockets getting rich off the status quo and start to act on the future? Will it take an entire city breathing in arsenic on a regular basis? Or dying of heatstroke? Or people forced to move from the places we each call home as our water supplies fully dry up?

I’ve been working towards solving climate change for most of my professional career. And one thing people often bring up as a reason not to act is how big the problem is. How can you possibly make a difference in the face of such a monstrous problem?

And then I read that just 100 global companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. So maybe the problem isn’t as big as they want us to believe. If just 100 companies lead by 100 “leaders” can get us into this problem. Maybe a handful of true leaders can lead us out the other side.

The 4th of July is usually a time when so many American families come together to barbeque, embrace the summer, and celebrate or shared history. But for me I’m left with so many mixed feelings. How can I be truly proud of our nation when it’s so easy to look through the façade and see so many leaders that only seem to care about campaign contributions and maximizing shareholder value?

But the history of America is also rooted in rebelling against a strong power that is wrongfully imposing its might to extract profits at the cost of the people. I would argue one of the most American thing you can do is to find your voice and use it to make peoples lives better. This is at least the America I would be proud to be a citizen of.

I have a lot of thoughts on what the rest of us can do to help solve the problem, which I will continue to share moving forward, because first and foremost, the answer is to NOT BE QUIET. If you’re confident, capable, and have the privilege to do so, RAISE YOUR VOICE. Or if you don’t feel comfortable, help amplify the voices of those who have this privilege. Get out and vote for true leaders that will ACT. And push the leaders that you have to do more and be more so we can solve this together.

Can Spending Time in Nature Improve Your Work Performance?

“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean “ - John Muir

On April 5, 2016 I was lying in the waiting room of the Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Francisco waiting for a second surgery to repair my shoulder that I had separated in a skiing accident. Seeing I was anxious, the nurse brought me a few magazines to read, one of which immediately caught my eye; National Geographic had a featured article Call to the Wild - This is Your Brain on Nature. I was amazed by the scientific experiments backed with modern brain scanning technology; science was beginning to quantify the value that nature has on your psyche.

Long story short, spending time in nature has a lot of positive benefits for your physical and mental health. Getting out of the city and spending time in the natural world can have a positive impact on the parts of your brain that allow you to maintain focus, control stress, and be optimally productive; we are able to function at a higher level, be more empathetic, and live happier, more fulfilling lives when we are more in touch with nature. In today’s ultra-competitive working world, many of us are trying to figure out how to improve our capabilities, and maybe the key is to “...break clear away, once in a while...”

Following surgery, I spent many months isolated in my apartment, uncomfortable with venturing out of my safe environment - any accidental bump from someone on the street, any minor stumble might send jolts of pain into my healing shoulder. I was worried that this surgery might fail like the first one had. 

As an analytical introvert, I can’t help but psychoanalyze everything, myself included. I noticed myself becoming increasingly anxious, antisocial, depressed. This wasn’t the normal me. While I was removed from many important human activities, such as regular exercise and socializing, which certainly contributing factors to my state of mind, I kept thinking back on the article I had read and wondering what impact the lack of nature was having on my well-being. The outdoors have always been an important part of my life, and I wasn’t able to get out and enjoy it! Several years later, I’m incredibly grateful to all the people that supported me through this tough time, especially my wife Allison. I’m back to doing the things I love, I’m much happier, and more productive than ever.

Growing up in suburban New Jersey, I was fortunate to have easy access to nature. My hometown of Summit, NJ is already very green to begin with and we had easy access to neighboring nature reservations. I joined an active Boy Scout troop, going on monthly camping trips and quarterly backpacking trips. There’s something amazingly special about sitting on top of a mountain, seeing the world unfold before you in all directions. A cool wind wicking away the sweat off your forehead. The fresh scent of the pine forests below wafting up the slopes. The sound of birds chirping and a brook rolling gently bubbling down the mountain. It reinvigorates you.

I grew up appreciating, frequenting, and enjoying nature, but I also took it for granted. I didn’t realize how privileged my upbringing was and that others didn’t have the same opportunities as me. It wasn’t until I moved to Jersey City after college (across the river from Manhattan) that I think I began noticing the adverse effects that occur from lack of nature. New Yorkers are notorious for their grumpiness, which at least, in part, might be attributed to how far away access to nature is (it’s a 1-2 hour drive out of the city). Central Park offers some respite and is probably the primary reason why I Am Legend is still a fictional, post apocalyptic representation of New York. However, Central Park gets crowded and doesn’t offer the same stillness you would find further in the wild; the stale air, noise, and scents of the city still manage to waft in from time to time. Perhaps I’m putting my personal sensibilities on New York, but I think most New Yorkers have a love / hate relationship with their city. It comes with the territory. New Yorkers are unapologetic for the full range of emotions bestowed on any topic. It will always be my home city and there’s a part of that I’ll keep in my heart, but I recognize that it’s not the best long-term fit for me.

Personal story, rambling, and a blatant attempt to piss off every New Yorkers aside (a New Jerseyans’ second favorite pastime. #1, of course, forever belongs to BRUUUUUUCE), let’s look further into positive impacts of nature. What does the science say? 

In the past decade, there have been increasing efforts to study the positive impacts of nature on your brain. Much of the conversation and studies have been driven in the Psychology community around the Biophilia Hypothesis. The Biophilia Hypothesis builds on the theory of evolution - essentially, both our physical bodies AND our minds evolved in nature and are in their optimal state in nature. Your first thought in response to this might be, “my physical body is fine living in the city.” But did you know, for example, that people in urban environments, where most surfaces are paved and flat, have higher rates of flat foot than people living in rural environments, where walking surfaces are less even (aka more natural)? Our physical bodies work better in nature. It makes sense that our minds would too.

Life sustains life, and as a human, we have a biological need for food, water, and shelter, all of which nature provide to us. The Biophilia Hypothesis stipulates that as humans evolved, this love for nature is into built the foundation of our psyche; nature allowed us to survive by seeking out abundant natural areas, and our brains evolved with psychological rewards for being in nature. Biophilia further hypothesizes the following with increased exposure to nature:

• Our cognitive systems work quicker and better 

• Our senses are optimized

• Our emotions and biological systems are optimized at a neural level

• The neuro-endocryne and immunological systems function better

In the National Geographic article, they reviewed research from David Strayer, a psychologist at the University of Utah who specializes in attention. One of the things he is studying is nature’s impact on the prefrontal cortex, the command center of the brain with strong links to planning and decision making, attention, personality, social behavior, and your will to live. 

Strayer specifically studies what is called the “three day effect”; essentially after a long, continuous exposure to nature, such as what you might experience on a three day backpacking trip, our brains are able to reset to their more natural state. Strayer calls this Attention Restoration Theory (ART). This theory states that long exposure to nature helps our prefrontal cortex relax, which is a good thing for it (this is what happens when it’s too active). When your prefrontal cortex is relaxed, your executive attention system improves. 

Strayer ran an experiment where a group of Outward Bound (a wilderness expedition organization for students) participants were given a Remote Associates Test (RAT), “which has been widely used as a measure of creative thinking and insight problem-solving.” After their three day expedients, participants performed around 50% better on the RAT than they did before embarking on their trips.

That’s amazing! In our modern, consumerist world, so products claim to offer the ability to make you your best self - “take this pill and focus better”...“put on this makeup and look your best”... “buy this Ayurvedic Oil for $85 and experience pure energy!” You’re saying I can be my best self by spending more time in nature? Yes please! I’ll take two.

If you don’t have experience in backpacking and are seriously interested in giving it a shot, my recommendation would be to go with an experienced friend (who promised not to leave you behind if when you start asking, “are we there yet?”) or join a beginner backpacking group. In the US, companies such as REI offer guided beginner trips and gear rental so you can give it a shot before buying the gear. The gear can be an expensive upfront investment, that can cost anywhere between hundreds and several thousands of dollars, depending upon the level of performance equipment. The good news is, once you make this investment, each individual trip is fairly affordable (Hello 5 Star views for $0! Take that Hilton!). The easiest way to kill your fun on a trip is to get a blister or accidentally stepping in that stream you were trying to cross, s make sure to have a good pair of waterproof boots and proper clothes before you go. Plus whatever else your guide recommends.

If your not interested in backpacking, even a walk in the park can have a significant upside. In a study done at Stanford University, they sent two groups of participants on 90 minute walks. One group walked through a nearby park while the other walked through an urban environment. Brain scans were given to each participant before and after their walks to examine the impact, with the group going to the park showing noticeable reduction in prefrontal cortex activity - the same part of the brain mentioned before (remember, less activity = good). Committing time to experience nature can pay big dividends. Even adding nature to your home can have a big impact on your health, mood, and mental state.

And let’s not forget some basics. In modern city-living, many of us don’t venture outside enough (damn you Netflix! But yes, I do want to continue watching). It’s estimated that over 1 billion people worldwide have a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is produced naturally in an internal biological process catalyzed by sunlight hitting your skin. It’s recommended to spend at least 15-20 minutes outside with sun exposure on at least 40% of our skin. However, this exposure recommendation is impacted by sunscreen (which limits Vitamin D production by up to 90%) and geographical location (there is less UVB radiation further from the equator, which is the sunlight required for Vitamin D production). Vitamin D can have a huge impact on your physical health, especially as you get older; research is ongoing, but deficiency is linked to increased chance of cancer, organ health, bone brittleness, and immune system strength. A healthy body is crucial to enjoy to the fullest all that nature has to offer.

Around the world, rates of depression continue rising. So are rates of deforestation and species loss; in fact, scientists believe we are now in the middle of Earth’s sixth mass extinction. Modern scientific research is starting to show there’s a strong link between nature, human cognitive capabilities, and happiness. It’s incredibly sad to think that we might be destroying something so core to our humanity.

But maybe the solution is to get outside and encourage others to join you. Feel the power of nature yourself and remind others how valuable it to them. You’ll return refreshed, reinvigorated, and ready to take on any challenge your boss throws your way. You’ll have less stress in your life. You’ll be a better, more empathetic leader. You’ll be your best self.

Additional Sources:

ishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefrontal_cortex;  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051474;  https://news.stanford.edu/2015/06/30/hiking-mental-health-063015/;  https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/people-places-and-things/201802/benefits-the-indoor-plant;  https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamins/vitamin-d/;  https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/04/what-is-depression-and-why-is-it-rising;  https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/06/deforestation-accelerating-despite-mounting-efforts-protect-tropical-forests