NOvember 14, 2023
The Ubuntu Climate initiative is a BIPOC-led campaign targeting the reduction of non-essential consumer products and their associated greenhouse gas emissions through a coordinated strategy of education, marketing, and advocacy. Launched by Denise Fairchild (Awardee 2021) through the Climate Breakthrough Award program, this bold project is addressing the climate change through cultural transformation and challenging the foundations of American consumerism.
The Challenge
The problem is stark: Western consumer economies produce 25% of carbon emissions directly, while importing another 20% of unreported emissions from global supply chains. The apparel and footwear sector alone accounts for 8-10% of global carbon emissions, while the electronics sector’s emissions surged 53% between 2014 and 2020.
Shifting the consumer culture is not easy. It requires a multi-scalar approach, including changing the structures (government and corporate policies) and the systems of thought that support consumerism, and the inspiration to do something different. Such a root-level shift will not come from the top. It must be a bottom-up strategy. This means a fairly radical shift in consumer awareness and environmental consciousness, alternative experiences of joy and way of being.
The Initiative
The Ubuntu Climate initiative approaches this challenge through multiple interconnected strategies. At its core is a network-based approach that brings together energy democracy organizations, climate justice groups, youth organizations, and historically Black sororities and fraternities—collectively representing over two million members across the United States and abroad.
The initiative’s cornerstone is the Ubuntu Folk Schools program, modeled after the Highlander Folk School that trained civil rights movement leaders. These schools, both online and in physical hubs, seek to train 2,000 “cultural disrupters” annually with a target of 20,000 over ten years who can help reshape cultural norms around consumption.
A national marketing and communications platform forms another crucial component, including a Climate Arts Competition to stimulate nationwide conversation about consumerism and resilience. On the policy front, the initiative targets ten cities for community-driven campaigns to implement consumption-based emission policies.
The Vision
The Ubuntu Climate initiative envisions a fundamental shift in how Americans define progress and well-being. Rather than measuring success through GDP and material wealth, the initiative promotes an eco-ethos economy grounded in indigenous worldviews and principles of community resilience.
The timing appears strategic. With rising living costs, growing income inequality, and younger generations earning significantly less than their predecessors, the initiative sees an opportunity to capitalize on existing cultural shifts. The post-COVID “Great Quit” and “Quiet Quit” phenomena suggest a growing receptiveness to prioritizing quality of life over consumer culture.
The ambitious scope of the initiative reflects the scale of the climate crisis it seeks to address. Notably, this approach differs from traditional environmental initiatives by placing cultural transformation at the center of climate action. Rather than treating reduced consumption as a sacrifice, the initiative frames it as an opportunity to heal both communities and the planet—a return to values of sufficiency, interdependence, and harmony with nature that many Indigenous cultures have long embraced.