Consumption, recycling, and The Story of Stuff

When people know what I do for a living, or find out, some of them are often quick to tell me that they recycle at home. Some of them recycle more than others, or better than others, and those who do are quite proud of their efforts.

Don't get me wrong... recycling is great. I've been recycling pretty much everything I can since the mid-1980s.

But dealing with the post-use part of consumption is only one of many sections of the sustainability equation.

What if choosing a slightly different item would diminish the amount of recycling needed? Wouldn't that be better? What if choosing a different item all-together would eliminate the need for recycling?

Ultimately, the big picture has to be looked at in order to make more significant improvements in sustainability. And that means that our role in the entire chain of consumption must be examined.

So what's the entire chain of consumption? I still haven't seen a better explanation of it than "The Story of Stuff", an animated movie by Annie Leonard. It's about 20 minutes long, but its content and entertainment value make it well worth the time, especially you have similar political beliefs, or if your political skin isn't too thin.

http://thestoryofstuff.org

She's got other stuff on there, so make sure you get (or start with) The Story of Stuff.

But... She's cutting down on plastic bags...

Photograph courtesy of www.photoxpress.com

Man, there's just so much work to do...

A close friend, very green-minded, goes to a local mega-store to shop for groceries. After 20 minutes of shopping or so, she rolls into a check-out lane. Of course, being who she is, she pulls out 6 or 7 reusable bags to pack the groceries. The cashier sees the bags, and is annoyed beyond belief.

Now, to be fair, this is a high-volume place that keeps its cashier incessantly busy, and they have their bagging system pretty well figured out. The plastic bags are easily accessible to the cashiers, the bag racks are well designed, and the bags get filled up and moved out pretty quickly. I can see how reusuable bags would mess up the flow. But...

This is a store that has a surprisingly large collection of green goods and products. They've touted their commitment to the environment in advertising campaigns before. They even sell reusable bags themselves.

Choosing good quality reusable bags over new plastic bags is a no-brainer. The impact of plastic bags on the environment is not controversial. It isn't a politicized issue. It isn't a greenwashing confusion kind of thing. It's one of the most clear-cut decisions out there. You either don't use plastic bags, or you do and they end up in a landfill, in the ocean, or somewhere in the natural or urban landscape.

Some stores actively discourage the use of plastic bags. Others charge for them. Some jurisdictions have banned them. It's kind of surprising that such a fundamental matter would not only leave someone indifferent, but actually cause irritation. And it's also poor customer service.

But it's a snapshot of the present situation, still, in 2010. It's a reminder of the tremendous challenge we face in reaching out to the community, in educating, in changing habits, in establishing a new frame of mind, and in bringing about a paradigm shift.

Sustainability needs buy-in from the grassroots. Environmental literacy is painless in contrast to legislation. Arguably, a mixed system including both will be necessary in order to get us where we need to be. But I think that for all the work that has been done in promoting a more sustainable society, this is a reminder that there's still lots of work to do, and a lot of work at a very fundamental level.

Green Building Pyramid - starting points & priorities

Credits for this Green Building Pyramid go to Green Builder Magazine, and you can link to the original at: http://www.greenbuildermag.com/News/Headlines/Green-Building-Pyramid.aspx .

A brilliant chart I just had to pull up and share because it addresses one of the key questions people ask when they want to do the sustainable thing... where do I start?

Starting points and priorities are critical as part of a multi-step process that makes becoming more sustainable something that's more manageable, both in the mind of those involved in the project, and operationally. In fact, the objective to strive for is to be become more sustainable. It's a big order to get to claim to be sustainable. Shades of green... never quite totally green, but getting there.

An awareness of where to start and what the priorities are, being educated on the relative ROI of different changes, and benchmarking/measuring the changes in order to celebrate the successes, are key. And let there be no mistake about it... successes lay the foundation for more successes. Nothing will encourage people to move on to a larger initiative as enthusiastically as previous success in a smaller initiative.

So this why I like this chart so much, and why I think it presents an educational model well worth copying and imitating, in home building and in other areas.

Bridging the gap

Sustainability is becoming more affordable. Sustainability principles can be applied to more areas of our lifestyles. There is an increasing number of professionals available to provide advice and technical solutions in sustainability, and more businesses that cater to the need for sustainable products and services.

Sustainability is more accessible to the general public than it has ever been before. So why does it still feel like such a struggle to "sell" sustainability to members of the general public and to professionals that are not already involved in it?

As the number of "greener" cars increases, as more people have energy audits on their homes with the intention of making them more energy efficient, as the demand increases for "greener" product, and as organic products become more mainstream, one would think that sustainability would be gaining momentum. That new conversions, and converts, would come more easily.

But the reality is that the numbers are still small. More often than not, supply exceeds demand, and there is a feeling for many that the low-lying fruit has been picked.

The good news is that there are huge markets out there. Greener homes, greener cars, greener food, greener household products... all of them have such inroads to make into the general population. This huge potential is the incentive for providers/suppliers of green products and services for be perseverant. But there is still so much work to be done. There is still a gap to be bridged between those that find sustainability an urgent matter and those that do not, and it's not a small one.

It's not a small one because the gap is composed of a number of traps. Global warming has been so politicized. Up-front costs of sustainable solutions are still higher in most cases. Long-term savings are not often clearly, or credibly, presented. Benchmarks are far and few between. And being confused, or worse, burned, by greenwashing just makes people tune out.

Three factors will be key in a faster adoption of sustainability as a business standard and lifestyle common sense: education, performance measurements, and accountability.

Numbers and measurements provide a tangible sense of what is to be gained. If a non-sustainable benchmark can be used for contrast, all the better. Yes, there are many variables out there... maybe the summer will be warmer, and the family moving into a new home will like to keep the temperature lower, so the energy cost may have an element of uncertainty. But potentially bad driving habits, uncertain mileage, and the varying cost of gas, do not prevent cars in the showroom from having a sticker on them with an estimated mpg and cost of gas for one year. It remains that with some numbers based on what is an applicable average, the consumer will be able to make a decision based on comparison of those averages.

Accountability is necessary in order to be sure that the measurements provided are valid, and the justifications are based on good science. If measurements are to make a difference in the decision-making process of the consumer, and eventually, in the rate of adoption of sustainability by society, they have to be accurate and standardized. And this may mean that accountability needs to be enforced. In fact, it is likely that regulatory authority will be required for both measurements and accountability.

And finally, education establishes the means for communication. A certain level of "sustainability literacy" will help consumers understand the issues, the methods, and the solutions. It can provide a common language for people, experts and novices alike, to talk about and understand sustainability, and it can provide guide posts for people to make decisions.

The famous saying goes "Build it, and they will come". But sometimes, it is not enough to build it... because not enough of them will come. This is one of those situation where we must go out and pull them in. And if we do that, then it is important to have listened to, and understood, why they did not come in the first place, and to make sure we address their concerns. Providing a certain level of education on sustainability issues, providing measurements (preferably with benchmarks), and insuring a high-level of accountability will go a long way in addressing those concerns.