Moving f rom eco-marketing to sustainable consumption RIT workshop

1. Moving from eco-marketing to sustainable consumptionRIT workshop Ágnes Zsóka PhD Senior Assistant Professor Corvinus University of Budapest Department of Environmental Economics and Technology

2. Structure • Definitions • Comparison of eco-marketing and sustainable consumption • Sketching the shift from eco-marketing to sustainable consumption (SC) • Discussing the obstacles and opportunities of sustainable consumption (Main source for SC: The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Consumption, edited by Tim Jackson, USA and UK, 2006)

3. Definitions of eco-marketing • Wicke et al. (1992): Eco-marketing contains tools which intend to maximally contribute to the survival of the company, with minimal or no harm to the natural environment. • Coddington (1998): Environmental marketing is a responsible corporate marketing activity which considers the issue of environment protection as a development and growth opportunity of the enterprise and enforces it in all operational fields. • Belz (1998): „Eco-marketing 2005 concept” • transformative (developing ecological markets), • normative (questioning basic assumptions of marketing), • strategic and operational eco-marketing (ecological mass market, performance sales)

4. Definitions of sustainable consumption • consuming „not unsustainably” • changing lifestyles • constraints by environmental limits • consuming less • more efficient production of more sustainable products • consuming more efficiently → from „change lifestyles” to „consume efficiently” (dominant institutional consensus)

5. Accepted definitions of SC Ofstad 1994: „The use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials and emissions of waste and pollutants over the lifecycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations.” UNEP 1999: „Sustainable consumption is not about consuming less, it is about consuming differently, consuming efficiently, and having an improved quality of life” National Consumer Council, UK, 2003: „SC is a balancing act. It is about consuming in such a way as to protect the environment, use natural resources wisely and promote quality of life now, while not spoiling the lives of future consumers.”

6. Eco-marketing How to sell environmentally friendly products and services? Corporate-driven activities Shift is necessary from eco-marketing towards SC, because: Companies are profit-oriented, stress is still on inducing consumption Scope is micro-level →← sustainability is more complex and needs holistic view Environmentally friendly products and services alone do not solve the problem of sustainability Sustainable consumption How to consume in a more sustainable way? Society is responsible for action Focus

7. Elements of the debate on SC concept I. Critics about the concept of „changing lifestyles”: • Subjective, too ideological, too value laden, too intractable to be amendable to policy intervention • intervening in consumer behavior would contradict „sovereignty” of consumer choice • reducing consumption appears • to threaten a variety of vested interests • to undermine the key structural role of consumption in economic growth • to undermine legitimate efforts by poorer countries to improve their quality of life

8. Elements of the debate on SC concept II. Critics about the concept of„consuming efficiently” : • It tends to obscure the scale of resource consumption patterns („rebound effect”). • Tension: what should be (or should not be) consumed? • Difference or congruence between material resource consumption (see: resource scarcity and environmental degradation) and economic consumption (final consumers do not buy materials per se, they buy goods and services)? →lifestyle change is essential not only desirable

9. Key issues of workshopdiscussion • Several roles of consumer goods and services → complexity • Factors affecting consumption options→ boundary conditions • Links of consumption with human development • Nature of the relationship between consumption and human well-being (see: „life satisfaction paradox”) • Driving forces behind modern lifestyles, underlying nature of consumption itself→ rethinking of patterns • Critical areas to change • How to persuade people? How to encourage „sustainable living” and discourage unsustainable living?

13. Life satisfaction paradox – causes (Easterlin 1974, Inglehardt & Klingemann 2000) • Relative income has higher impact on life satisfaction than absolute levels of income (see: neighbors, offset, aggregate happiness). • Humanistic psychologists’ view: the pursuit of material things damages us psychologically and socially. • The pursuit of income growth appears to have undermined conditions (family, friendship, community), which are inevitable for long-term well-being. • Experienced happiness depends mainly on personality and on the hedonic value of the activities to which people allocate their time. Life circumstances influence the allocation of time, and the hedonic outcome is often mixed. Conditions that make people satisfied with their life do not necessarily make them happy.

15. Happiness enhancers

16. Who feels better, who is more satisfied?

17. Critical areas to change • Ethical crisis • Changing lifestyle • Using the market as a lever for positive action • Focusing on community action • Understanding the patterns, obstacles to practical progress • Upshiftingand downshifting in a global economy

18. Traditional: Lifestyles: voluntary simplicity Markets: boycotting the bad Communities: Household by household Patterns: stress on personal morality Global responsibility: north first Emerging: Lifestyles: social justice Markets: promoting the positive Communities: collective facilities for consumption Patterns: understanding the drivers of demand Global responsibility: common action Has sustainable consumption a future?Trends in civil action for SC (Robins & Roberts, 2006)

19. Rethinking the patterns of consumption, determinants of demand • Income levels and distribution • Demographic trends (age, gender, education, etc.) • Cultural norms and habits • Technological innovation • Producer interests • Physical infrastructure Sustainability is the problem of both the economic design and individual morality → change of conditions is necessary → lifestyle change is necessary

20. How could this shift be feasible? 1. Mission statement 2. Setting objectives 3. Identification of • participants • responsibilities • competences 4. Establishing institutional conditions 5. Campaign: how to persuade people? → overcome barriers 6. Best practice and proven advantages 7. Feedback, system development