Lauren RabainoThroughout history, consumer movements have been central to revolutions. The French Revolution was brought to a boiling point over the demand for bread. On Feb. 1, 1960, four African American students made history by sitting at a segregated lunch counter at a North Carolina Woolworth’s store in the seats reserved for white customers. Gandhi rallied the Indian nation against imperial British rule and their salt monopoly with the simple and radical call for the Indians to march to the sea to make their own salt.
Do not underestimate the power of the consumer. Private consumption expenditures in the United States represent about 70 percent of the GDP. We live in a consumer-driven economy. We can choose to either deny it or to put all of that leverage to good use.
Today, we live and work in a world of vast complexity, where the apparently simple acts of buying and selling have repercussions on people’s lives around the world and the ethics of our livelihoods must be accordingly reevaluated. The implications of even driving a car or drinking a cup of coffee have social, environmental and economic consequences far beyond the limits of our immediate experience, which we are morally obligated to take into account. It is time to re-examine some of the deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.
Corporations and consumerism can be vehicles for change. The question is what type of change that will be. Green is good, but it frequently breaks down as a strategy when it hits the marketplace. Not surprisingly, there’s a sense of green fatigue amongst many consumers, largely because it’s being promoted as a cure-all in ways it doesn’t deliver. The common definition of environmental sustainability is mainly concerned with the fate of the planet and how that affects our lives. To many, “green” means choosing the environment, nature and the atmosphere over all things. But I’ve come to believe that changing the way people look at the world is more important in the long run than focusing only on the seemingly marginal ecological impact of the individual actions they take. We need to meet most people where they’re at today: as busy, complex humans looking to do the best thing for their family and themselves.
Our primary challenge is to inspire people to make better choices. We need to invest more time in making a difference through our routine activities and the things we buy every day. To achieve this we need a broader platform than ‘green.’ That’s where Adam Werbach steps in. We’ve all got our role models, and he’s one of mine. Werbach is an environmental activist who was elected as the youngest-ever national president of the Sierra Club in 1996 when he was just 23 years old. In late 2004, he wrote and presented the now-infamous speech”Is Environmentalism Dead?” This widely-circulated speech suggested that advances in environmentalism had stalled, due to outdated thinking and approaches. He challenged the environmental establishment to tackle the issues differently, by linking environmental goals with other broad social and economic goals. Werbach also formed a company, Act Now Productions, to consult non-profits and work with corporations that wished to green their enterprise, including clients such as Procter & Gamble, Cisco Systems and General Mills. In 2006, he controversially began to work with Wal-Mart to help lead their efforts in sustainability. His company, Act Now, has merged with the global advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, which has over 7,000 employees in 84 countries and strives to be the world’s most powerful sustainability advocate. As Werbach puts it, “I’m not asking you to give up on green – far from it. Green is the beating heart of the emerging ‘blue’ movement. Green represents the simple and inarguable wisdom of ecology: that all things are connected. Blue brings together a broader set of human concerns, from practice to price, from nature to society. Blue integrates all four streams of sustainability: social, cultural, economic and environmental. Blue puts the way we treat ourselves and each other at the center of our focus.”
There are three desired outcomes for the blue movement. First, to measurably improve the quality of life of the people who join. Second, to engage as many people as possible in the effort, and third, to increase the effectiveness of their activism.
But how do we bring our aspirations for the world into what we buy? Nano-practices are the thousands of tiny things you do each day that make up your lifestyle. What you eat for breakfast, the type of shoes you wear, your daily commute, etc. Instead of trying to change the big things about your identity, start by finding daily or recurring practices that can express your values. A personal sustainability practice, at its most basic level, is a repeatable action that’s good for you, your community and the planet. A lifestyle movement requires the construction of a set of practices that make up the way we wish to live our lives.
The primary goal of the blue movement is to inspire one billion people to invent their own ‘personal sustainability practices’ (a.k.a. PSP).
We live on a planet full of consumer choices and yet we largely fail to choose well. Start by setting your own PSPs if you don’t have already. It can start as simple as committing yourself to buying locally-grown produce at Farmers’ Market every Thursday. The process of personal improvement is never-ending, and if you already have a practice, recommit to it or begin another. Once you have your PSP, share them with a friend. The possibilities for PSPs are endless.
Blue needs you to invent it. No one owns it; it’s a platform. Everyone is welcome to catalyze action around it, as long as it improves life at a personal, community and planetary level. Start now.
Ben Eckold is a business senior and a Mustang Daily columnist.