For my Earth Month Action Plan, I am doing what I can to help fight the palm oil crisis. For week one, I am going to read through and sign petitions that help stop the destruction of forests for palm oil and also to protect orangutans. This will be challenging because I have to find petitions that combat the palm oil crisis and provide enough information for me to fully support their causes. For week two, I plan to educate my friends and family by crafting social media posts that are visually appealing and educate people about the palm oil crisis and what they can do to help decrease the demand. This will be difficult, since I have to find the key points to tell others without losing their attention. For week three, I plan to go through all of my household items that contain palm oil. The task of going through the items will be easy but finding sustainable alternatives could be difficult. I am not sure what to expect when going through items because palm oil can also be listed under other names. For week four, I plan to go through foods and try to stop eating palm oil. This is difficult because when I eat at the dining halls and restaurants I do not know what is in the food. This is also going to be hard because of the other names that palm oil can be found under. I have already given up Nutella since palm oil is the second ingredient in Nutella. I will not throw away the items I find since that would be wasteful, I will try to donate them but know not to buy them again and inform others.

Previously, I always thought of social enterprise as targeting the people with more influence, such as corporations, but Kenny and the TED talk showed me that you could also target the small people and still have an influence. When considering my issue, it is important to consider that it is not as obvious of an issue as human trafficking. Therefore, not only does change need to be made to end the crisis, but awareness needs to be spread. Palm oil used to be a hot topic, but for a reason I have yet to figure out, it has been tossed aside. I also really enjoyed what Kenny said about creating a loving work environment with a mission of love. He was right when he said you cannot train nice. Ever since I was a child, I knew I wanted to work somewhere where I would be happy and feel like I am making a difference. Kenny’s coffee shop provides people that opportunity, and I think all social enterprises should adapt their current models to be more loving.

My biggest take away is that people want to help if you give them an easy way to get involved. For example, Kenny not only draws people into Roosevelt Coffee Shop with his coffee, but also his mission of supporting clean water, fighting hunger, and fighting human trafficking. Most people live busy lives, but his business provides convenience and a window for everyday people to support those issues. I always thought that I could do a lot of things to make a difference, but that it would be hard for me to get others involved, but if other people can, then why can’t I? If I had the ability to open my own store, I would totally open up a store of completely palm oil free products. People love orangutans and the other animals that are getting killed by the palm oil crisis, but they are not passionate enough to check everything they buy for palm oil, but if all the items were not mixed together, then there would not be an issue. Overall, I think if people are passionate and do not give up; they have the power to influence communities.

Social enterprise is when commercial strategies are utilized to make improvements that will affect the well being of humans and the environment. In Indonesia there are social business schemes that revolve around the idea of social enterprise. The plan is to have industries get there seeds from small farmers in turn helping small farms get new technology so that in a few years the small farmers can become sustainable farmers. The main plan is to get large companies to use sustainable practices to manufacture their goods. Companies control a large chunk of the palm oil industry, making them the prime target for decreasing the use of palm oil and minimizing the crisis. I can get involved in my issue through social enterprise is to join the groups that are speaking out to large companies and striving to prove the benefits of sustainable products. The major challenge is that most large companies are not headquartered near me and it can be hard to get companies to listen to people and find a reason to change what in their eyes is not a pressing issue. The most important thing to consider about the palm oil crisis through the social enterprise lens is that these companies need to feel that change is worth investing in and that people will still like their products if they are manufactured differently. It can be easy to think that a single person can make the whole world change, but even social enterprise involves the collaboration of a lot of people with a common end goal.

On the personal responsible citizen level people cannot support companies that use palm oil by not purchasing their products, even if they have some products without palm oil. On the participatory citizen level people can boycott companies that use palm oil and get others involved through things such as protests. On the social-justice oriented citizen level people can meet with companies and try to convince them that they can be sustainable. The key is to get more people to be on the third level so that larger changes can be implemented.

Jason Clay has a TED talk titled How big brands can help save biodiversity which addresses the palm oil issue. He begins by simple talking about grocery stores and whether or not buyers have the right to chose between buying sustainable products versus unsustainable products or if they should all be sustainable. I am not sure there is a right answer to that dilemma. He presents the idea that getting companies to work together and invest in sustainable practices has a bigger push than producers or consumers. Working with the companies is social enterprise because it works at a commercial level to get improvements for people and the environment. Cargill funded research that showed that palm oil usage could be doubled without cutting down any more trees by sustainable growing palm oil trees in Borneo on land that is already degraded. This is only one example of a way that companies can be the leaders of change. The key takeaway of the entire TED talk is that getting companies to think differently and invest in sustainability will lead to change.