I'm Liz Christou, founder of the movement. And like lots of us, I’ve always been a lover of nature. But when I took a deeper look into the ecological crises we’re all facing, I was so shocked by the impact that our modern lifestyles are having on our natural home, I was convinced that I should be living differently. I struggled with where to start and how to do it, but in my day job I’d been solving big problems for a global brand, and I realised how perfectly the same approach could be applied to tackle this problem. The first core principle is getting to the real root cause of the issues to solve them. Einstein said that if he had an hour to save the world, he’d spend 55 minutes defining the problem and 5 minutes on the solution. So first I had to figure out what is really going on. I’m not the first person to realise that we’re living in an overconsumption trap. But the root cause of the problem isn’t actually the system. It’s how the animalistic part of the human brain, has created a system that focusses on maximising profit and forever producing and consuming more. And now the system keeps us trapped in a primitive mindset that always wants more. It’s the Consumer-Capitalism catch 22. Once I knew I had to break free of consumerism, I could change my mindset, and begin to spend my money consciously. But making big changes overnight is hard, and often leads to more problems, so I used another core principle from the techniques I practiced at work – bit-by-bit, or iterative, continuous improvement – to adapt my lifestyle. In the process, I reduced my carbon footprint from around the UK average of 7 tonnes per year to just 3, massively decreased my ecological impact, and increased my personal wellbeing. I wrote a book to share my experiences and give people guidance on what changes to make and how, by applying the same techniques that I had. It also aimed to shine a light on the issue of overconsumption, and highlight that when we come together as part of a consumer movement, our collective impact can create radical change. There was just one missing ingredient for this movement to speed up change and create a positive future. The power of community. As the owner or employee of a sustainable organisation - You already know how important it is to use our money as a force for good, and you know that people in the BCP community and beyond also care passionately about protecting our future. In fact, a recent study by The Global Commons found that 83% of people in G20 countries are willing to do more to protect and regenerate nature and halt climate change. The BCP Community-Led Movement aims to make it easy for people to shape the world with our wallets, by spending hard earned cash in the community, instead of giving it to people like Jeff Besoz. The movement aims to make it easy for people to support the creative and sustainable local economy, by making these organisations easy to find, use and connect with. Also to provide an incentive to shop local because people can replace meaningless profit driven transactions with ones that reflect their true values of personal wellbeing and the wellbeing of people in their community, as well as protecting and restoring the beautiful area we live in. Leading Economist Helena Norberg-Hodge said; “Economic localization is the key to sustaining biological and cultural diversity - to sustaining life itself. The sooner we shift towards the local, the sooner we will begin healing our planet, our communities and ourselves.” I need your help to build the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole community-led movement, to shape it into something that helps our local community thrive for us, and our natural home. The legacy we leave our children will be resilience against ecological threats, a cleaner coastline, better biodiversity, cleaner air, streets and parks, and the prospect of a fulfilling career. If you’re concerned about the future of our natural home, then sign-up to register your interest, provide feedback, and be a part of building the movement. Because as Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict the future, is to create it.”