Aren’t we forgetting something?
By David Thompson,
Sustainability – it’s pretty hard to read a corporate report, listen to a business guru or attend a business forum without hearing the word. BMW claim “sustainability isn’t a buzzword for the BMW Group, but is deeply anchored in the corporate strategy”. Fonterra proudly announce they are “serious about sustainability”, and even good ol’ NZ Post reckons “sustainability sits at the heart of our business”. In the universities academics are working long hours to define, understand and operationalise the concept, with enough papers published to wipe out half a forest. It seems that everybody is talking about it, thinking about it and either doing it or claiming to do it, and that is fantastic because without a massive shift towards sustainability in business practices there will be no business to practice.
We’ve known for a long time that the planet is in trouble. In 1987 the Brundtland commission saw what had to happen, gave it the name ‘sustainable development’ and described it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Then John Elkington came up with the triple bottom line in 1998 that gave us a framework we could work with: businesses could be profitable while being a productive and positive member of society and ensuring the environment wasn’t being depleted. The business and academic communities know this and take it seriously, but what about the public?
How many of the men, women and teenagers queuing up at the malls have heard of the Brundtland commission, or know what a triple bottom line is? How many people reading claims about sustainability actually know what it means, or why it’s important? Do they think it’s just another buzz word to sell hybrid cars or soap that’s kind to dolphins? Are business claims about sustainability influencing consumer behaviour?
Research has shown the majority of consumers would rather do the ‘green’ thing, especially if the barriers aren’t too high. Most people want the world to be a better place for their children, and it could be said that the overwhelming majority of people are greenies, even if they don’t realise it. Most people would really like the concept of sustainability, but there has been very little research on public understanding of the concept. So how do we know what they think about those claims the business community makes? Do they understand that it’s more than just recycling paper, or using their own shopping bags? The public must be able understand that business sustainability is more than just doing a couple of good things — that it’s about changing everything for the better and that it’s a constant process of improvement which means we can have what we want today without stopping our children from getting their needs met tomorrow.
Businesses that take sustainability seriously and are making the required changes deserve to be rewarded by their customers, which means we must stop talking amongst ourselves about sustainability and assuming everyone else understands us. We need to find out what people think sustainability actually is, that way we can begin to communicate the concept effectively. Only then we will see the change that's really needed.
Comments
Der_Golem
I hate to say it, but I think the only thing that will capture the public imagination, and get them to act, is a crisis - the time when humans tend to respond well.
Thing is: how do you get “crisis” out of something as ponderous as climate change when the required response is to change the way we manage the entire world and abandon a lot of the economic models that have driven us to this situation?
David Thompson
Unfortunately by the time we get to crisis it will be too late, but fortunately we don't need a crisis. The research is pretty conclusive in presenting that people generally want to “do the right thing”, and very few people actually want to harm the environment and even less want to harm their children's prospects.
What needs to change, and urgently, is how people see sustainability/sustainable development. There is a sense that sustainability is all about sacrificing and cutting back on our ability to enjoy our lifestyles, and that it's kind of a dour and Calvinistic way of living. That has in part been created by the commercial sector in an attempt to entice people into consumption, but the green community haven't helped. a lot of the general public see greenies as vegans on bicycles wearing homespun hemp clothing (or variations on the theme), and see sustainability as doing without.
However sustainability means having what you need today and managing things in such a way that you will still have them tomorrow, and then your kids will have them after that. Sustainability is the only way any of us will have a half way decent lifestyle in the medium term, but most importantly it's how we will have a good lifestyle in the future.
Business understands that, but do the public?
Florian
You are right, David, and I'd almost say that mass media plays a crucial role in getting this message across. New Zealand seems to have a shortage of quality, investigative journalism. It takes a lot of media goodwill and -independence to get us closer to a more sustainable future (check www.sustainablefutures.info for more on that).
For New Zealand, just like the US, the transition will be particularly hard due to the fact that its current system runs on pure market capitalism and a highly individualist consumer society.
Jennifer Nickel
Absolutely spot on David and Florian!
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