Sustainability has been on our minds at Beam with several important global gatherings happening recently. We’ve been following conversations from Climate Week NYC, the Qatar National Dialogue on Climate Change (QNDCC) for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and the Sustainability and ESG Africa Conference 2025 held in South Africa last week.

The key takeaway is that the sustainability conversation has shifted from why climate is changing and what can be done about this, to how and how soon this can be done. The conversation has therefore shifted to one emphasising urgent action.

In our October newsletter, we offer some reminders on what we can do as individuals and share insights on how behavioural interventions can be designed to accelerate climate action at scale.

Spotlight

Dr. Jane Goodall is best known for her work with Chimpanzees in Tanzania and was an outspoken environmental advocate for decades. Sadly, she passed away on the 1^st of October 2025 at the age of 91 years, leaving a touching parting message for humanity.

In the light of this message, are you wondering what role you can play in caring for our environment? Here are reminders of actions that are free to implement (apart from effort “costs”) and may lead to some savings for the household budget:

• Conserve water especially in water-scarce countries like South Africa: close taps properly, report water leaks, ensure loads are full before washing. Cape Town’s Day Zero taught us many small, important actions to conserve water that may now have fallen by the wayside.

• Reduce energy consumption to prevent load-shedding: switch lights and geysers off, and unplug electrical devices when not in use.

• Waste management by reducing, reusing and recycling. This also extends to food as reducing and composting food waste reduce landfill waste. As a Vegan, Jane Goodall also wrote a cookbook titled: “Eat meat less”.

• Limit CO2 emissions from transport by walking, cycling and planning car trips to save fuel.

• Participate in or spark community action with initiatives such as the examples shared under “Links we love”.

Showcase

While societal sentiment is generally positive towards caring for the earth, several barriers still exist for individuals[1] to adopt and maintain “green” actions that would benefit the environment and future generations. For example:

We need assistance to overcome these barriers. Collective effort is needed from governments, corporations, non-profit organisations, communities and individuals to address the wicked problem of climate change. There are four levers[2] that target individuals’ internal and external choice environments to inspire and sustain behaviour change. Interventions can be very effective to drive behaviour change when all four these levers are included in its design by:

In a world where we are constantly bombarded by bad news on the climate, it is easy to become despondent. You may feel at a loss about actions you can take to preserve and even improve climate and its impact on nature. In the words of Jane Goodall, there is hope for great change when small, daily actions are taken by millions.

[1] https://www.cowryconsulting.com/newsandviews/on-the-brain-esg-edition

[2] Park, T. (2020). Behavioural insights for conservation and sustainability. Conservation research, policy and practice, 293-308.

Links we love

1. Hennopsrivier Revival

2. Potchefstroom Cleanup Crew

3. Honeybee Heroes

4. Jane Goodall Institute

1.  Actions for a healthy planet

2. Ten simple choices for a healthier planet

3. You want to save the planet? Change the way you think

4. A kid’s guide to saving the planet