The Climate Handprint: An Effective New Approach to Climate Action

Want to make a real difference on climate change?  We’ve long been told that saving the planet means buying local, switching to LED bulbs, using less plastic and cycling more. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: no matter how much we cut down our individual carbon footprints, it won’t be enough to stop global warming. It’s time to move past feelings of guilt, powerlessness and frustration. Instead of tweaking our lifestyle, we need to pull the levers that drive real change on a systemic level. Enter the climate handprint – a bold, positive approach that helps you cut far more CO₂ than you personally produce. Whether at home, at work, or in your community, you can use your resources, skills, time, money and influence to create impactful change. Introduce plant-based meals at your workplace canteen – saving dozens of tonnes of CO₂ per year. Get your company to install solar panels – saving hundreds of tonnes of CO₂ per year. Push your local energy supplier to switch to renewables – saving thousands of tonnes of CO₂ per year. By shifting from carbon footprint frustration to climate handprint power, you’ll start making impactful changes and feeling better about your contribution to curbing the climate crisis. Gabriel Baunach reveals how to move beyond small personal changes and start making a genuine impact – with strategies that are effective, empowering, and full of hope.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, p7 1. My climate journey to the handprint, 11 2. With the carbon footprint from oil advertising into The Matrix, 27 3. The Haphazard Doers and their footprint errors, 41 4. The Internally Torn and their guilty conscience, 51 5. The Temporarily Frustrated and their feelings of powerlessness, 69 6. How to do it better: Making Footsteps with Big Points, 91 7. Enlarging the Handprint in Private Life, 101 8. Enlarging the Professional Handprint,119 9. Enlarging the Social Handprint, 139 10. Enlarging the Political Handprint, 153 Epilogue: Beyond the Handprint, 169 Thanks, 175 Appendix, 179 Endnotes, 183

About the Author :
Gabriel Baunach, born in 1993, began engaging with the climate crisis at the age of 14. He studied at Boston University, RWTH Aachen University, the London School of Economics, and Stanford University, earning a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on energy technology. He took part in the UN Climate Conference COP25 in Madrid as part of the UN Climate Secretariat. Since 2020, Gabriel has been producing climate-focused podcasts and giving talks on the climate crisis and the concept of the climate handprint. In 2025, he joined the German NGO Mehr Demokratie, promoting more democratic participation.