All Commonsense stores will be closing their doors between 11am-2pm on 27th September to allow staff to attend the Global Climate Strike, a movement led by students demanding urgent action on climate change.
This decision follows a plea from the striking students for the general population around the world to join their action and the question posed by Greta Thunberg on Twitter – “where are the adults?”.
We have made this decision knowing that many of our staff would want to be part of the strike action. The students’ message aligns wholeheartedly with our own values as a business, in particular our commitment to environmental sustainability in order to preserve the earth’s resources for future generations and other species and we want our staff and the students to know we support them.
"Where are the adults” is a fair question from a young person who really shouldn’t have to shoulder the responsibility of this climate emergency. As an organisation of adults, we wanted to be able to stand with the students and say – ‘we’re here!’ We also wanted to give a clear message that we’re not too busy for this. This is the most important thing in all of our lives right now, and we acknowledge that.
Sophie Handford, of School Strike 4 Climate NZ says they’re “thrilled” to see Commonsense declare their support for the strike. “This fight for climate justice will take all of us and it concerns all of us” she said.
Commonsense stores will give plenty of notice to customers so the strike action does not cause unnecessary inconvenience, but we are confident that they will understand why we are closing the stores a few hours as we know that many of them share our concerns around the need for a meaningful response to climate change.
We also completely reject the stale narrative that taking steps to curb climate change is anti-business. Every business will be impacted by climate change and we’re already hearing from our farmers of the effects of climate change. Our current economic model has got us to this point so “business as usual” just isn’t an option. The evidence suggests that we are in a critical point in time where we can still take action to turn the bleak prognosis for our economic future around. It is not only our responsibility as a business to accept this challenge - it is completely in our own interests to do so!
On this basis we are encouraging all of our partners, suppliers, customers, staff and wider community to join us in supporting our striking tamariki on September 27. They are fighting for their future and the future of all humanity and it is past time for us – the adults – to stand by their side.
Find details of a School Strike 4 Climate event near you here:
