Fishburn Hedges

05.05.2010

With the recent UN Commission on Sustainable Development meeting in New York, Jessica Morris, a New York-based communications consultant and Adjunct Lecturer at Columbia University, looks at how corporate America is rebuilding momentum in facing up to change.

2010 started with deep-rooted uncertainties. The high-energy mobilization that accompanied the Copenhagen climate conference was seriously deflated, following the conference’s disappointing outcome. 

This was particularly acute in the US, where sustainability champions had been pinning their hopes on a deal that might help shift public opinion in a land notorious for its distaste for telling anyone what to do, let alone cut their consumption of goods and services. 

Rebuilding momentum

But a UN-sponsored sustainability conference recently in New York shows how momentum amongst all those promoting sustainability agendas is starting to rebuild, increasingly rapidly.

Headlining the conference was Helio Mattar, CEO of Brazilian charity Akatu which promotes conscious consumption. Helio is a former government trade secretary and captain of industry. Perhaps more pertinent is that he managed to persuade Walmart (i.e. Asda) to part with $1 million to allow his team to train its entire Brazilian workforce in conscious consumption.

Walmart: beauty and the beast

The story of Walmart’s love affair with sustainability is a classic tale of beauty and the beast. The corporation enjoys a special place in the US psyche as the archetype of low cost consumerism.

When the company announced it was going to invest in creating a sustainability consortium to create the world’s first sustainability product index for consumers, it caused shock waves in the green movement. 

This was tangible, progressive change from the most unexpected quarter. But Mike Duke, President and CEO, sees it as simply a logical extension of Walmart’s business model: “Like everything we do at Walmart, this commitment ends up coming down to our customers and helping them save money so they can live better.”

Conscious consumerism

Recent research substantiates his argument. According to the latest BBMG Conscious Consumer Report, more than one-third of Americans say "conscious consumer" describes them very well and nearly nine in ten say the term describes them well.

Even more encouraging is the impact of the recession, with public attitudes and demand for sustainable products remaining remarkably constant through the recession. A recent GMA/Deloitte Study found that some 95% of American consumers say they are willing to “buy green”, and more than one-third report that they are more likely to buy sustainable products.

Consumer trends and corporate innovation

Exploiting this consumer trend from within companies is not just being driven by CSR or sustainability departments. Encouragingly, some of the most innovative developments are happening right at the core.

Take California’s Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Failure to influence customers to use less energy led to rethinking what buttons to press in American minds. And the competitive drive to ‘keep up with the neighbors’ was chosen.

Last year it sent statements out to a random selection of customers, rating their energy use compared with that of similar households using the same heating fuel, as well as those who were most efficient. 

High scoring customers got two smiley faces on their statements, while those consuming most got frowns.  The frowns had to be dropped after some of the customers got upset.

After six months the targeted customers had reduced their energy use by 2 per cent compared to those who received the standard statement, exceeding the utility’s expectations.  Utilities in ten major metropolitan areas, including Chicago and Seattle, are now following suit.

Entertainment, competition and change

Harnessing competition is the key to ‘Energy Smackdown’, a Massachusetts cable show produced by the BrainShift Foundation, and which pits towns against each other in a race to conserve waste, heating fuel, electricity and food.

Donald Kelley, executive director of the BrainShift Foundation, said the conservation outcomes of the competition had been far greater than he had predicted, with households reducing consumption up to 66 percent.

“As Americans, we are good at entertainment and competition,” Mr. Kelley explained to the New York Times. “It’s why on ‘American Idol’ they get 40 million voters. It’s the part of this culture that people really understand, and we should be harnessing it.”

Global trends in consumer attitudes?

Promoting sustainable consumption habits requires clever reading of national psyches. A key question to consider in light of the UN conference will be whether we can start to see global trends in consumer attitudes that will help deliver more sustainable lifestyles, while governments continue to ponder emissions targets.

Jessica Morris is a strategic and operational communications consultant, Adjunct Lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs, and Fishburn Hedges alum. She has recently completed a global media strategy for the United Nations, aimed at accelerating moves to more sustainable ways of consuming and producing. She is part of the Like Minds network.