Sustainability begins with an "i"!

Last night, WWF Dir-Gen Jim Leape spoke to us at GIBS about "the future of the world is my business". And I realised once again that change at individual level remains a factor of how individuals can adapt to change - i.e. employ our personal resources in such a way that we can survive and thrive with our conscience intact.

Bear with me for a second while I explain:

The Corporate Vista

Recent Worldwide Forum for Nature success stories hail from the big corporates - not wealthy individuals, NGOs or governments. While Unilever, Coca-Cola and Lafarge improved their production techniques and supply chain monitoring, making massive cuts in their carbon emissions, their "green" innovations are slow to acquire consumer acceptance. Take for instance a cold water detergent that uses less water and energy... but are housewives convinced? No... So, while it certainly helps that they monitor who they procure from, and how responsible these suppliers are, we - the end-users - are the required game-changers. 

Consumerism: The Big Picture 

Fact is, the biggest change needed, is in consumption patterns i.e. consumerist behaviour.This is why the retail environment - at the root of consumer appetite creation - is now at the forefront of the WWF's agenda. 



One example: as long as our protein addiction continues, tuna fisheries will cover 35% of the Earth's surface (with 7 tuna companies owning 70% of the market) and our addiction to tuna will continue to be the biggest destroyer of bio-diversity on Earth.

Cattle ranches will continue to cause havoc in East Afica and South America. And yet, governments cannot manage their constituents while unemployed, disenfranchised and angry.

Steven Cohen pictured the scenario beautifully in his year-end reflections on the Huffington Post when he wrote: "A great threat to political stability is a situation where young people receive an education and then are unable to find a meaningful way to use what they have learned. They are wide open targets for cynical political manipulation by unscrupulous political leaders. All unemployment is politically destabilizing: of the educated or uneducated, of those young and those no longer young. People without work have less of a stake in society and are less concerned with its breakdown. Work is not simply a source of sustenance in the modern world, but a key part of an individual's identity. With the population increasing on the planet, reduced consumption could lead to increased unemployment. So in order to assure full employment we need to increase rather than decrease economic consumption."

Energy Not Our Only Destructive Addiction

There's only so much that renewable energy can do. In fact, in all projections, renewables only incrementally affect the curve that will see us requiring 3 planets to sustain ourselves before the Century is out.

Consumer behavioural change (i.e. a tippling point in the number of individuals leading by example) will be the curve-flipper that ensures our survival. This is where being educated and able to read this blog automatically makes you responsible in some way. 

Why? The higher your level of development, the higher your ecological footprint - and exponentially so. Have a look here for some eye-opening research results!
 
Re-thinking Economic Value

Think of this: 300-500 companies now control 70% of our choice. This is why the retail giants have the most power to effect change: in their sector, their communities, end-user audience and in collaboration with other big players. 

Which is why the WWF is lobbying for the political will through the Consumer Goods Forum (for the paper, pulp, soy, palm oil, beef & timber industries), Market Transformation Initiative, China Sustainable Retail Roundtable, Marine Stewardship Council and promoting voluntary independent product certification that can be globalised (such as above-mentioned MSC, the FSC) aside from the more traditional strategic corporate philanthropy... 

If you consider that we'll have to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we did in the past 8000 years, the ask of us each becomes clearer.

What does it mean to be an Economic Unit?

Not enough of us have it in our DNA to think "reductionist" - we are always expanding: our minds, our empires, our families, our options... We are social creatures and thus open to suggestion when it concerns our "fellow man". We understand threats and generally respond as survivalists. We are filled with energy from our sun and we are spirited creatures with enquiring minds.

We are living longer and being cleverer owing to our inventiveness. We are more connected and well-informed owing to the technology that we enabled, and which enables us. 

These two factors simultaneously increase our awareness of, and apprehension to, the anomalies of automation versus job security, longevity versus lifestyle, choice versus responsibility, and finally knowledge versus wisdom.

The more things change, the more we can't remain the same. While we may not be able to change the way we are, we certainly have to change the way in which we express ourselves.

No matter whether you are an economist predicting futures, a business leader projecting growth forecasts, a politician structuring policy, an environmentalist doing impact assessments, an innovator creating solutions, an engineer structuring plans, a spiritual leader carrying people's hopes and fears, a father or mother guiding children into the future, an individual - unique, like the rest of us... 

Constructive Creation, Collaboration and Caring are the 3 C's (maybe 4) that our creativity up to this point has co-enabled. I, for one, believe  I have everything at my disposal - access to history's lessons, access to state-of-the-nation updates from anywhere on Earth today, and access to many solutions towards a better future - to enable me to make a positive contribution to the world my four-year old daughter and I share with so many loved ones.  In this lies power.