Our story

Project 90 by 2030 was established as a national project of the Goedgedacht Trust in July 2007. The project's main purpose is to challenge South Africans to change the way they live and the way that they relate to the environment. We focus particularly on lifestyle change that can be measured through carbon footprint reduction.

What does our name mean?

Project 90 by 2030 is working to get South Africans to significantly change the way they live by the year 2030. These figures stem from George Monbiot’s thesis in his book “Heat” - that Industrialised nations needed to reduce their carbon emissions by 90% by 2030. However, given that South Africa is a developing country (with admittedly very high emissions!) we decided to shift the focus slightly to focus on something we can all control – the way that we live. By changing our lifestyles radically we can ultimately significantly reduce our carbon footprints.

Vision

South Africans from all sectors of society doing their bit to preserve the environment, committed to changing the way they live by 90% by the year 2030.

Mission

To mobilise South Africans to reduce their impact on climate change by:

• daring to change the way they think and act
• cutting carbon and treading more lightly, responsibly and consciously on the earth
• lobbying law-makers, policy-makers and government officials to ensure that South Africa’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are dramatically reduced.

Given South Africa’s extremely high GHG emissions per capita and international climate change concerns, Project 90 by 2030 also aims to impact on the international agenda by engaging with international organizations, particularly those with existing relationships with our primary donor Misereor.

Activities

• Mitigation: Challenging all South Africans to live more consciously and ‘do their bit’ by voluntarily reducing their carbon emissions.
• Adaptation: Working with communities to enhance self-reliance and build climate resilience.
• Awareness-raising and advocacy: Providing practical information on how we can all use energy and water more efficiently. Participating in national policy development, providing information to our subscribers so that they can lobby for change to existing laws and policies governing the use of natural resources. We focus on initiatives to support energy efficiency and policies that can boost domestic renewable energy supply and security of water supply.