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Sustainable consumption

As discussed on the previous page, consumption often serves as the medium through which we express our relationship to the world at large. Too often, we limit our analysis of consumer choices to monetary cost versus levels of personal satisfaction, discounting the environmental effects of our decisions. Is it possible to restyle consumption, so that it takes into account the environmental impact of our purchasing behavior? Sustainable consumption is a new vision for consumption that meets the needs of both present and future generations for goods and services in ways that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.1 Navigating from present consumption models towards more sustainable practices may have a lot to do with how we map out the journey.

Mapping it out – from line graph to closed loop economy

In 1941, Franklin Delano Roosevelt told an America still stinging from the Great Depression to look forward to, "a constantly rising standard of living." 2 The hallmark of prosperity has often been symbolized by an optimistc, upward trend line. This endless upward climb assumes unlimited resources, no accumulating waste or pollution, and infinitely wise technology, capable of overcoming every obstacle as it arises. Upward trends, however, tend to fall eventually. Look at the first graph, which depicts world petroleum demand since 1970.3 Now look at a similar depiction of oil consumption, placed on a much larger timeline.4 The difference between the open-ended trending of the first graph and the stark projections of the second is context.

Systems Analysis

Too often, economics is an abstract discipline, creating models that seem untethered to the real world. One attempt to tie environmental reality to economic theory is to employ a "systems analysis" approach to the environment. Systems analysis examines human behaviors, the relationship between the system's elements, and the management of these factors to improve its outcomes. Analyzing the environment in this way would include the choices that people make, including the stuff they buy and whether or not they recycle, as well as the way these decisions are interrelated with climate, policy, and economics.

The systems approach is very different than the traditional way of viewing nature as something that exists outside the economy. This view can be has been characterized as "Take-Make-Waste,"5 which leads to a constant quest for new land as the bespoiled strip mines and depleted soil are left behind. A "closed loop" economy, in contrast, is based on the prevention, the avoidance, and the utilization of waste,6 seeking out new means of production that use waste in the place of virgin resources.

Limts to Growth

While it may seem obvious from the overflowing landfills, fouled streams, and other evidence of industry's ill effects, a few decades ago the idea that we should limit our resource use caused a great deal of controversy. In the 1970s some economists began mapping out timelines for when various resources would run out. Limits to Growth,7 one of the most famous cautionary books about resource usage from the time period, attracted a lot of criticism for giving what were perceived as concrete deadlines for resource depletion. Since its publication in 1972, Limits to Growth probably spawned more studies and comments by those seeking to disprove its premises than it did a re-examination of the American economy or our relationship to the environment. Those who believed "business as usual" could be maintained indefinitely seemed like the winners when resource extraction and use continued on its upward trajectory, beyond the limits based on 1970s -era projections.

Click to play slideshow - Sources

Reaching the limits

Today, the United Nations predicts severe fresh water shortages by 2025 (see graph). The UN estimates that the world loses an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine every year because of drought, deforestation and climate instability.8 In some regions water is already in short supply. Food shortages began to hit a number of countries a few years ago. Unlike the 1970s projections that dealt primarily with resources like petroleum and gold, our currrent shortages affect access to basic human needs like food and water. Also unlike thirty plus years ago, the shortages are not abstract, but have become very real and immediate.

The one planet lifestyle

Most humans consume as if there is an unlimited expanse of land to be mined, farmed, and dumped upon--a horizon that stretches beyond what our single planet can offer. By contrast, "one planet living" refers to a lifestyle that can be sustained by one planet’s worth of resources. According to the latest ecological footprint studies,9 the United States is consuming well beyond the earth’s means, using resources that would require 5 planets to sustain. To read more about one organization's take on the 10 principles of sustainability, which include: zero carbon, zero waste, sustainable transportation, local and sustainable materials, local and sustainable food, visit the One Planet Living site.10

True cost

Hover over to play

True cost economics seeks to factor human and environmental factors into the traditional profit and loss equations that have dominated economists’ thinking. For example, if one accounted for air, noise and other types of pollution caused by the manufacture and the use of a new car, then the price of the new car would, by some estimates, increase by over $40,000.11

How can we estimate the environmental impact of producing, consuming, and disposing of goods? The earth's growing population is just one factor that contributes to humankind's ecological footprint. Affluence, or how much stuff people have or expect to have, is another element, and an area where consumer attitudes come in to play. Technology (whether we create energy from solar panels versus coal, for example) is another important facet of our impact. Whether a community incinerates its trash or composts and recycles also characterizes its relationship with the environment. All of these strains become magnified in areas where the ecosystem is especially fragile, such as regions where erosion is rampant. Since multiple variables determine the repercussions of human activity, there is no simple way to determine true cost. One model for calculating human impact on the environment is a variation on the classic Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology equation from Paul Ehrlrich and John Holdren (play the graphic version at left):

Conclusion

Sustainable consumption can take as many forms as there are consumers. Some choose to focus on using less, while others put their faith in technology to make the consumer items we buy more efficient in their use of raw materials. One of our most overlooked resources is also one of the most plentiful...junk! Re-mining, repurposing materials, using animal waste for energy are just some of the innovative ways environmentalists are finding to close the loop. Look for more pages on sustainable consumption coming soon.

Whatever new directions it may take, the sustainability movement seeks to replace the blank backdrop which we falsely believe surrounds our individual lives. The lack of community that some have bemoaned in consumer-driven society stems from people who have an almost unlimited variety of consumer products to choose from but whose choices are otherwise unconnected from nature, history, or each other. The collective impact of consumer decisions—the stream connected to the paper mill, the toxins released into the air from incineration—is discovered where it always was: close to home.

For more on changing consumption close to home see Beyond Consumption.