Collective action for systemic change

In a world increasingly destabilized by climate emergencies, social inequities, and corporate-driven resource extraction, it has become painfully clear that we can no longer settle for superficial fixes. Individual workplaces might win important concessions—slightly better wages, safer conditions, or modest emissions targets—but these localized gains are ultimately constrained by the deeper systemic forces that shape our entire economic and political landscape. Without challenging and transforming these foundational structures, every change we pursue risks being watered down, rolled back, or rendered irrelevant.

Over and over, we are told that corporations can be “greened,” that profit-driven entities can be convinced or inspired to take the lead in saving the planet. Yet the reality is stark: public corporations operate under a legal imperative to maximize shareholder returns. This design is not merely an incidental detail; it is the defining logic of capitalism. Whenever profits clash with environmental or social goals, companies choose profits. Even when executives appear sympathetic, they can be replaced by boards of directors eager to ensure profitability. While a handful of well-intentioned initiatives might temporarily brighten a corporation’s image, they rarely disrupt the core profit-seeking machinery that continues to exploit labor, pollute communities, and degrade ecosystems.

This is why attempts to “green” corporations without also overhauling the rules and incentives under which they operate are bound to fail in the long term. As Max Wilbert notes, you cannot negotiate with a sociopathic system that, by design, has no moral or ecological conscience. We have tried relying on voluntary corporate commitments for decades; meanwhile, carbon emissions have risen unabated, and ecological indicators have deteriorated worldwide. Expecting businesses to spontaneously prioritize the common good ignores the fact that they are legally and competitively bound to deliver financial returns above all else.

Building collective power

Recognizing these hard limits of corporate-led reform highlights why genuine solutions must take shape at the systemic level. Derek Brower, writing for the Financial Times, has urged governments—not corporations or tech investors—to lead a massive “Marshall Plan” for the energy transition. When we shift our focus to public institutions, regulation, and democratic engagement, we begin addressing the root causes of our crises rather than merely their symptoms. Through binding legislation, reoriented investments, and robust enforcement, governments can intervene where markets fail and override the race-to-the-bottom dynamics that trap even earnest companies.

Nor is government action a top-down solution in isolation—it requires sustained pressure from civil society, labor unions, community groups, and everyday people. History reminds us that major social shifts—from labor protections to civil rights—did not occur because elites felt generous. They were provoked by collective organizing, mass demonstrations, and a groundswell of public outrage that made old ways of doing business untenable. The same holds true for our ecological predicament: we need a force powerful enough to counter the entrenched interests of corporations and the inertia of business as usual.

The reduction roadmap: a systemic approach in practice

An illustrative example of mobilizing across an entire sector to demand systemic, rather than piecemeal, change comes from Denmark’s building industry. Rather than urging each individual company to adopt greener construction processes on its own, the Reduction Roadmap initiative created a unified framework and campaign that gathered the entire sector—suppliers, builders, architects, engineers, and more—around one central demand: that politicians enforce an emissions cap per square meter aligned with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. By asking companies to support a collective call for regulatory standards, the initiative shifted the focus from voluntary, company-specific improvements to changing the rules of the game industry-wide.

This move was critical: if just one firm were to adopt low-carbon materials or methods, it could be at a market disadvantage compared to peers that continue using cheaper, higher-emission practices. But when an entire industry stands together and pushes for mandatory limits, the “race to the bottom” vanishes. Everyone must comply with the same stricter standards, fostering widespread innovation and investment in sustainable alternatives. In effect, the Reduction Roadmap campaign accelerated a social tipping point—demonstrating how coordinated action can reshape an entire sector’s baseline and make systemic transformation not just possible, but inevitable.

Degrowth and economic democracy

Efforts like the Reduction Roadmap reveal how we can address climate breakdown by rethinking the very logic of economic growth. As ecological economist Timothée Parrique bluntly puts it, “We. Must. Urgently. Dismantle. Capitalism.” The relentless pursuit of growth is pushing our planet beyond ecological limits. While mainstream discourse often assumes that “green growth” can reconcile economic expansion with sustainability, mounting evidence suggests that this is more wishful thinking than reality. If we are serious about averting climate catastrophe, we must confront the structural drivers of environmental destruction—namely, our dependence on perpetual corporate growth and consumerism.

Proposals for degrowth or post-growth futures recognize that we already consume far more resources than our planet can regenerate. Reducing aggregate consumption while guaranteeing universal basic services—healthcare, education, housing, public transit—can help decouple negative pressures on the planetary boundaries from GDP, while increasing wellbeing for all. We can only achieve this if we embrace economic democracy on a massive scale, reining in or dissolving corporate power, and placing more productive capacity under public or cooperative control. Enacting shorter work weeks, ensuring job guarantees, and instituting living incomes for those unable or unwilling to work can further disentangle livelihoods from unchecked economic growth.

None of these solutions rely on the goodwill of polluting industries. Indeed, many businesses will resist any move away from growth. But with robust regulations—amplified by collective mobilization—entire sectors can be either transformed or phased out in favor of genuinely sustainable alternatives. While corporations will forever prioritize shareholder returns under the status quo, democratic governance can prioritize social and ecological health.

From incrementalism to systemic transformation

Ultimately, recognizing that corporations can’t save us from the crises we face is liberating because it shows us where to direct our energies. Rather than hoping executives will “do the right thing,” we can demand systemic changes that align industries, governments, and communities with the common good. Instead of tinkering at the edges of an inherently destructive system, we can push for legislation, infrastructure investment, and cultural shifts that make it impossible to continue business as usual.

Yes, short-term improvements in single workplaces or local communities are still meaningful stepping stones. But if we neglect the larger economic frameworks that consistently undermine such gains, we are doomed to repeat the same Sisyphean struggle. Only by coming together—across sectors, across movements, and across borders—can we apply the level of pressure necessary to break the grip of profit-first logic. In doing so, we create the conditions for a social tipping point, where genuine systemic transformation becomes not just conceivable but inevitable.

This is the task at hand: a collective, sustained effort to reimagine and redesign the rules of our economy, our governance, and our culture. Anything less will keep us locked in the cycle of corporate-driven “solutions” that fail to address the heart of the crisis. Together, however, we have the power to shift from an unsustainable status quo to a model of shared prosperity—one that respects planetary boundaries and upholds the dignity of all people.