Strategic Consumption

WorldChanging Team
May 14, 2007 4:04 PM

Strategic consumption is the recognition that the immediate, or tactical, effects of our purchases are of such limited power as to be essentially meaningless.

Bill Rees, who coined the term ecological footprint, says individual behavior changes in the absence a broader strategy for creating change are pointless:

"We're all on the same ship and what we do in our individual cabins is of almost no consequence in terms of the direction the ship is going."

But we've all got to buy things, and we quite rightly would rather that our dollars do as much good as they can. Hence the concept of strategic consumption: the practice of basing decisions not only on the immediate qualities of a product or service, but also on the changes buying them is likely to have in the broader world.

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Time's global warming survival guide: Skip the steak

Full story: Time Magazine - March 29, 2007

Which is responsible for more global warming: your BMW or your Big Mac? Believe it or not, it's the burger. The international meat industry generates roughly 18% of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions - even more than transportation - according to a report last year from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. Much of that comes from the nitrous oxide in manure and the methane that is, as the New York Times delicately put it, "the natural result of bovine digestion." Methane has a warming effect that is 23 times as great as that of carbon, while nitrous oxide is 296 times as great.

There are 1.5 billion cattle and buffalo on the planet, along with 1.7 billion sheep and goats. Their populations are rising fast, especially in the developing world. Global meat production is expected to double between 2001 and 2050. Given the amount of energy consumed raising, shipping and selling livestock, a 16-oz.T-bone is like a Hummer on a plate. If you switch to vegetarianism, you can shrink your carbon footprint by up to 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to research by the University of Chicago. Trading a standard car for a hybrid cuts only about one ton - and isn't as tasty.

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Farmers Markets: Great, But Still Not Perfect

Having just returned from the local farmers’ market, i noticed a few things. As always, there was an abundant array of delicious and beautiful local produce on display. However, I was also struck by two things – an awful lot of cars, and a ridiculous amount of plastic bags. Don’t get me wrong, buying local food and supporting local economies is probably one of the most beneficial things you can do, but it doesn’t end there. Even when we buy local, we need to make efforts to do it in the most responsible way. That means refusing those bags and taking your own, it means biking, busing or carpooling when possible, and it means asking questions about how your food was grown. In some ways this highlights one of the biggest, but perhaps most intangible, benefits of the farmers market – communication. Because we come face-to-face with the people producing our food, and often the people organizing the market, we can form real relationships, and communicate our values to them. It’s not so easy to do that at your local big box retailer. Of course, these thoughts are probably nothing new to the reader, but I just had to get that off my chest. And for those wanting more guidance on greening your food shopping, check out this handy guide to greening your meals.

Is it OK to steal food from pandas?

From The Observer:
Globally, 1bn people rely on bamboo for shelter or income. In Tamil Nadu, in India, it is a critical housing material in post-tsunami reconstruction. But the idea that it grows like wildfire is a gross simplification. Harvest bamboo at the wrong time or on too large a scale and it can lead to irreversible forest destruction and possible shortages for the communities that need it most. Out of 1,600 bamboo species, commercial growers focus on just 38 of the fastest growing, leading to the spectre of more monocultures. The World Conservation Union's Red List of endangered species includes 27 species of woody bamboo, including that preferred by giant pandas and west African mountain gorillas.

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Packaging, Transparency and Sustainability Consciousness

by Laurie Demeritt

When we hear the term “sustainability”, any number of subjects spring to mind: global warming, carbon offsets, green building, packaging reduction, equipment recycling, alternative energy and corporate transparency. Many of these innovations and initiatives relate to the ongoing broad-scale “greening” of industrial and consumer packaged goods producers and retailers. Trade and consumer publications have devoted entire issues to the greening of suppliers and retailers, yet it is apparent the voice of the consumer in the midst of all this sustainability discussion is frequently missing or, at the very least, tends to be comprised of the greenest of consumers (as if they represent all of the public).

In order to better comprehend how the term “sustainability” fits with complex consumer lifestyles, over the past year The Hartman Group has focused on consumer perceptions of sustainability in an effort to better understand where the public is in the midst of all the media headlines, and what it thinks about issues like packaging waste, recycling and corporate transparency.

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Greening the Desert

This video tells the story of a seemingly impossible feat achieved by permaculture designer, Geoff Lawton, in which he trained a group of locals in the principals of permaculture, and together they transformed the "hyper-arid" land until it bore fruit, desalinated water, and created fertile ground which requires very little water to be productive. If it can be done there, argues Lawton, it can be done anywhere, and it can become a real tool for addressing pollution, desertification and global warming.