Be the green you wish to see in the world

BY KELLEE K. SIKES

Is green a new economy fact or marketing spin fiction? Believe it or not, dear consumer, the power to decide is up to you.

Yes you, as in you and me and every consumer exchanging money for goods and services. No granola crunch here. As a fair trade capitalist and business strategist, I would not suggest you become a Freegan (even if it was on Oprah) or start a zero consumption lifestyle. If even 50 percent of us dropped out, 100 percent would face devastating results.

Responsible consumption meets basic needs, empowers the lives of those we love, and fulfills dreams around the world. That couch you love to veg out on – someone designed and made that couch. Your favorite TV show you watch while relaxing on your favorite couch – someone’s dream was fulfilled by producing that show. Both are likely enabling food on the table, a roof overhead, and a sense of purpose and contribution for their creators, not to mention a moment of relaxation for you (and me). After all, life is meant to be enjoyed. Can it be enjoyed in a way that preserves the planet and lifestyles of abundance?

Except for big important purchases, the home of the credit-card freewheeling and the brave are most frequently loyalty and convenience-based shoppers. We convince ourselves we earned our throw-away lifestyle. We work hard. We deserve it. We also deserve the waste dumps, dirty water ways, extinct flora and fauna, sweatshops, and slave labor that go with it. Green is more than marketing spin; it is our future if we want a future that includes a planet we can inhabit. In the checkout line, when the credit card says chag-ching, and as we collectively sign on the dotted sales-receipt line, green is a consumer choice.

Dr. Peter Raven, Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, said recently that if we stopped population growth today and provided every person on the planet with the average American life, we would need one and a half planet’s worth of resources. If population growth progressed per usual, we would need four planets. Even if we had four inhabitable planets, where would we put all the disposable stuff we consume and discard? Again, it’s up to you.

Admittedly there are days when Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream, shows my reaction to this almost primary color. It seems so hard to identify. Too many companies with no real environmental substance co-opt green for higher profit margins. I prefer the less co-opted and more meaning-endowed term sustainable. Either way, going green and sustainable is a commitment to a life style that strives for limited or no negative impact on the planet and its inhabitants.

Big business would like us to keep our focus on green political propaganda side shows and get dizzy on a tilt-a-whirl of green spin. While we are distracted, lobbyists scurry around with campaign cash for deals and marketers hype even more shades. But we can wake up from our collective consumer comma and vote with our strongest asset. We have consumer dollars to spend. We have a voice that influences new product research and development spending. If we use our green to buy green, they have no choice but to make green.

What does going green really mean to us as consumers? It does not mean wearing a hemp gunny sack, joining Greenpeace, and eating raw, organic, vegetarian meals unless you want to. Eradicating a lifestyle that serves you well is not the answer either.
Modify your thinking and your shopping list from conventional loyalty-based convenience to conscious consumerism. Use this column and all the other resources greening it around to become a knowledgeable, conscious consumer. Hey – it is the planet and your lifestyle at risk.

On your next visit to the grocery store consider organics, if not for your own health, for the health of the field workers, animals, and soil infesting toxic pesticides and herbicides that make your conventional fruit and vegetable purchase possible. When you next replace your favorite cotton T-shirt, remember that a pound of those same toxic chemicals are used to grow the cotton in one conventional T. If either the field or factory worker who produced your purchase was an exploited migrant worker or sweatshop worker, toxic chemicals are only part of our collective consumer coma misstep.

Conscious consumers and responsible business owners started the green movement to preserve people and the planet we love. Now we ought to purchase consciously, as needed, to the tipping point of responsible social and environmental change. With a little knowledge and a better shopping list we can wake up and vote with our strongest asset. We have consumer dollars to spend. Believe it or not, dear consumer, the power to decide is up to you.

Kellee K. Sikes is a business strategist working with organizations focused on people, profits, and the planet (P3). Reach her at Pioneer Technologies Consulting, ksikes@pioneer-technologies.com or www.progressionary.com.