We can’t be perfect. But we all try. There are things we do, like taking an airplane to visit relatives far away, that we can’t really do in other ways. For things like that, we don’t have to just say: shit happens, but even then we still can do something.

For example we can offset the carbon use we can avoid for now (1). So for a plane travel that pollutes by putting some carbon shit in the air, we can give money to people who will plant trees, do research, that will in some way eat that carbon back over time.

For this, I use the service Wren. It’s a tool that lets you get a sense of your carbon footprint, gives you tips on how to reduce it, and a way to fund climate solutions (2) for the parts you don’t know yet how to fix yourself.

Action question

What are the things you can’t do well according to your values today? How can you find alternative ways to at least start doing something in the direction of your values?

Footnote

(1) This doesn’t mean because we can offset it, it’s a free buffet. It’s more like a last resort band aid. Nobody likes to have a fucking band aid on his face. But sometimes you don’t have a choice. That’s what carbon offset are there for.

(2) I’ve started using the service in April 2022, and from there to today (August 2025) I’ve offset 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per month which is a total of 62.8 tonnes which they say is like avoiding 65,3 flights from Los Angeles to Paris or 2 886 pine trees absorbing CO2 for a year.

Daniele's notes

• This is the first shitty draft of this principle

• This principle might one day make it in the fifth book in the "Service Design Principles" series that explores how to better serve humans and the planet.

• If you're curious about service design principles, you can get the four previous books in the series, with proofread principles and less grammatical creativity.