Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The sustainable choice: changing the way consumers think


Lucy Yates is principal policy advocate at Consumer Focus.


Businesses must stop waiting for consumers to take the lead to mainstream sustainable consumption.

I came across this excellent article that captures the need for companies and corporates to do more and be proactive and follow the sustainability conscious consumer and make it easy to do the right thing. 
The idea of a sustainable business has developed to be something of a chameleon concept – it can change to mean different things in different settings and at different times.
Traditionally, business has tested itself by asking: "Is the business sustainable? Will it make a profit? Will it grow?" But for some companies, sustainability means behaving in an economically sustainable way that protects the environment and includes ethical behaviour, social justice and fairness.
But it still feels that business is holding back, waiting for consumers to take the lead. Of course, where consumers lead business needs to follow – an increase in demand from certain companies and a palpable decrease from others is as direct a message as businesses can get.
It is a hard ask of consumers. Those who make an effort to live more sustainably can often find themselves coming up against barriers in their daily lives and end up as a niche group. We know that many people want to do their bit for the environment, but the sustainable choice is often more difficult, more expensive or harder to find.
Despite consumers saying they are interested in sustainability issues and being willing to change their behaviour, we are not seeing mainstream behaviour change or engagement with enough sustainability issues. In the context of high consumer concern but low levels of action, the idea of integrating sustainability through business action makes sense.
A solution lies in making sustainable choices easier for consumers by making them part of everyday life. That means moving away from the current emphasis that is often placed on the niche of consumers to buy our way out of unsustainable practices.
When people are making purchasing decisions, they expect some issues to have been dealt with and may not be aware that retailers are delegating to them much of the responsibility to make the "right" choice. As a result, people's concerns are not always reflected on their shop floor choices.
Sometimes consumers want less choice rather than more, safe in the knowledge that certain issues have already been dealt with. People can then choose between a range of sustainable products and services.
That is clearly where business comes in. Businesses need to be a positive catalyst for change. One way they can do this is by choosing the products they make available for consumers to buy.
Business can bring out the responsible consumer in all of us by making sustainable products and services mainstream, not just niche. Consumers benefit from the assurance that the issues they care about have already been considered, rather than having to grapple with all those complexities themselves.
Further mainstreaming of sustainability will be achieved through companies fully incorporating these issues into their business models. That means developing businesses that minimise the negative impacts and preferably have positive impacts - on the global or local environment, community, society or economy.
Many leading companies now understand the strategic value of a robust sustainability strategy that is translated into tangible action programmes and taken to the frontlines of commercial activities.
Unilever, for example, has developed its Sustainable Living Plan, and Proctor and Gamble recently announced their sustainability vision. The fact that these businesses are no longer just talking about individual environmental products but about their entire business, is a powerful message on the progress being made. It also acts as a signal to the market and hopefully, in time, to consumers.
More businesses need to follow. Companies such as Unilever and P&G have a lot of influence over what consumers buy and what standards are expected by consumers. With proper engagement from companies, the impact of improving the sustainability standards inherent in business as a whole could be huge.
This takes some of the responsibility away from consumers who find it difficult to navigate their way through excessive amounts of complex information and decision-making. In addition, there is also a clear benefit to business. Once they look at their operations through the lens of sustainability, business will find the reputational, commercial and investment benefits as well as benefits for the community and the environment.

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