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Encouraging Signs of Change
The first speaker, Vicki Robin, is co-author, with Joe Dominguez, of Your Money or Your Life, an indispensable tool for people striving for a simpler, more frugal lifestyle. Robin said readers can follow a very simple process of tracking and evaluating their expenses. When people follow the nine-step program, their expenses go down within a year by an average 20 to 25 percent. They report that they have more time, and a greater sense of control over their lives and money, than they had before. "Lowering consumption in North America is the most important thing that can happen on this earth. We are transforming the planet into products and then into waste. We are doing this to ourselves," Robin concluded.
Elizabeth Fay, Director of Manufacturing Plastics for Monsanto, described changes in the internal consciousness at Monsanto in the past 10 years. While Monsanto has made great strides toward reducing emissions, she and other employees grew dissatisfied: It was not enough for Monsanto to simply stop doing terrible things. The employees argued that Monsanto should be a force for making consumption and production more sustainable. "Right now it is words on a piece of paper, but there are also actions we can take," Fay told conference participants. "Not just end-of-pipe changes, but reaching out into the whole economic subsystem, and helping society, our customers, employees, and our employers understand what we can do to reduce consumption." She said the shift would be incredibly difficult for people in traditional for-profit industries that exist not only in America but around the world. "Our job at Monsanto is to sell plastic," she said. "Somehow profits must be de-linked from consumption. You can't ask a company like Monsanto to do something like this for altruistic motives." Top Monsanto executives have stated a corporate commitment to reach zero emissions by the year 2000.
Manus van Brakel of Friends of the Earth (FOE) Netherlands described the Dutch initiative to address consumption by abiding by the equity principle: Each country has a right to the same amount of environmental space per capita. By environmental space, the Dutch mean "the total amount of pollution, non-renewable resources, agricultural land and forests that can be used globally without impinging on the access of future generations to the same amount." Since consumption must be reduced globally, he asked, who has to do the reducing? The very poor will say, "We want to produce and consume more." Even the governments would say, "We have a right to grow to your level." "There is only one solution," Brakel said. 'We have to reduce our consumption level to such a point that it can be repeated globally by future generations.'
As a first step toward this goal, researchers determined how much environmental space each person in the Netherlands can legitimately claim. Assuming that one generation should be sufficient time to transform consumption patterns to a sustainable basis, FOE Netherlands chose the year 2010 as an intermediate target. van Brakel said they found the Dutch could reduce the average environmental space by a factor of 2 to 4 with the technological means they have now. Van Brakel argued that rich countries can partially reduce or totally compensate for reduced access to environmental space through a revolution in efficiency and technology.
Some other positive activities referred to by participants and shared in participant survey forms include the following:
- The religious community is increasingly concerned about society's consumer
excess and preoccupation with materialism. These issues are causing an
active dialogue among clergy of many denominations as they explore ways in
which consumption and environment relate to equity and fairness, and to
"stewardship of God's creation." This effort is advancing in individual
denominations, congregations, and synagogues, and through the work of groups
such as the National Religious Partnership for the Environment and the North
American Coalition on Religion and Ecology.
- A national network of groups and individuals working on consumption issues is emerging. There are now dozens of newsletters such as The Tightwad Gazette, Live Better for Less, Penny Pincher Times, Use Less Stuff Report, Quality of Life Unlimited, and Saving Green that help people simplify their lives. Global Action Plan (GAP) has helped approximately 8,000 households in 13 countries participate in an eco-team program that helps households change lifestyle habits and reduce resource consumption. The New Road Map Foundation is helping individuals across the nation reduce the cost of living and increase their quality of life.
- Many business networks and publications now advocate sustainable production, a prerequisite for sustainable consumption. These include: Business for Social Responsibility, the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, Public Environmental Reporting Initiative, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Global Environmental Management Initiative, Responsible Care Initiative, Greening of Industry Network, Management Institute for Environment and Business, Business and the Environment, In Business, and Business Ethics. Many businesses also are changing their production and distribution practices. The conference heard from Patagonia, Monsanto, Sun Company, Inc., Ciba-Geigy Corporation, Quad/Graphics, Inc., and others about innovative changes in business practices.
- A vibrant network of groups is focusing on sustainable communities as the rubric for organizing on a variety of ecological and social issues. Groups in Seattle, Chattanooga, Portland, Chicago, Madison, San Francisco, and elsewhere have been in the forefront of this network. Journals such as Neighborhood Works and In Context and groups such as Global Cities, Earth Island Institute, and Community Sustainability Resource Institute help link this informal network.
- A variety of initiatives are designed to transform the "built environment." Groups working on transportation policy, housing, empowerment zones, and the redesign of cities are actively pushing for changes at the local and federal level that will counter the unsustainable design of most urban areas. Sustainable consumption is impossible without changes in the nation's infrastructure. Some of the lead groups working on these issues include the Surface Transportation Policy Project, World Resources Institute, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Institute for Local Self Reliance, and Urban Initiatives.
- Technological advances promise to help diminish resource consumption and improve quality of life. Conference participant Joe Romm of the Department of Energy reported on a new light bulb "a sulfur lamp with mercury but no electrode. One bulb will replace two hundred 100 watt light bulbs and could reduce electrical consumption by 75 percent because of the bulb's unique design. Other advances are emerging in the marketplace and are being promoted by groups including the following: Rocky Mountain Institute; Architects, Designers, & Planners for Social Responsibility; Solar Energy International; William McDonough & Partners; the Center for Ecological Technology; the MIT Center for Technology, Policy and Industry; the International Institute for Sustainable Development; and numerous universities and federal agencies.
- Several initiatives are examining the relationship between work and quality of life, including the connections between consumerism and work patterns. Three recent books examine growing concern about the global decline in "good" jobs, the excessive work demands placed on highly skilled professionals, the consumerist aspirations that drive some of these work patterns, and the need to rethink the 40-hour work week in order to enhance employment and quality of life. The books are The Overworked American by Juliet Schor; New Work by Fritchoff Bergman; and The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin. The authors are beginning to assemble a network of people interested in the connections between work, consumption, and quality of life.