This recession is a brilliant opportunity to build a better, greener economy

by Lara Ryan

The world’s largest manufacturer of modular flooring, Interface Inc., makes its products with 100% recycled materials and is aiming for all its operations to have zero negative impact on the environment by 2020. Its many innovations have changed the carpet industry; Interface customers end up leasing floor covering instead of buying carpet.

If car manufacturers adopt this kind of thinking, we would soon see cars that are completely recyclable. Our relationship with car manufacturers would change from a consumer buying something from a producer to each of us holding to a transportation service agreement.

Progress can be redefined. Consumer interest in better-quality stuff and more satisfying experiences is growing. Instead of the emphasis being on how much we make and consume, we are beginning to value the intangibles, including how much better we can make things.  

For 60 years business success has been based on growth. Now, faced with an opportunity to re-evaluate, can a new model emerge? Our consumer-throwaway mindset has been very good for business. Changing fads and obsolete products keep us heading back for more. The most successful businesses have always been those that can read and adapt to consumers’ needs and desires. Now, as the consumer mindset becomes more conscious, business will need to shift accordingly.

We are finally realizing that resources are finite. The concept of consumption as a solution is no longer viable. The emerging trend of conscious consumerism means we’re making choices that are green, ethical, and locally produced. Cutting-edge businesses are creating innovative ideas that include zero-waste-production systems and closed-loop production.  

Zero waste puts the onus on manufacturers to use renewable energy and green packaging and transportation methods. Waste is expensive and inefficient and adds to the cost of doing business. Zero waste is about more than just recycling and diversion from landfills; it also restructures production and distribution systems to prevent waste from being created. Plus it encourages the design of systems that copy nature as much as possible. The waste from one system becomes another system’s resource.

Closed-loop production makes producers responsible for taking a product back at the end of its lifespan. This forces them to consider design more carefully. It’s a sustainable system in which a product is created using renewable energy, with no pollution or waste. The materials used in production are recycled and reused rather than thrown away.

Sustainability means meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It’s clear that in the Western world, we’ve been living beyond our needs and well into our wants. That luxury may be coming to an end. Our business model has supplied the average North American with more goods than ever before. By the age of six months, the average Canadian has consumed the same amount of resources as the average person in the developing world does in a lifetime.  

At the end of the Second World War, as prosperity boomed and we tossed out ideas about thrift and frugality, consumption patterns began an upward trend. Interestingly, at the same time, our happiness levels began to decline. We got caught in a continuous cycle of work, spend, consume, and discard. Not only did we manage to do a number on natural resources but the rat race didn’t actually make us happier.

The belt tightening that is a natural reaction to a recession doesn’t appear to support business growth. But if we are on the brink of re-ordering our consumer priorities, opportunities await us. A new era of personal frugality will demand that business responds accordingly. Our appetite for unnecessary goods and services is likely to diminish. And we might want to rethink a plan that aims to “stimulate” an economy based on debt and overconsumption back into existence.

It’s important to keep money flowing through our economy, but the model could be one of experience, not consumption. We’ll see growth in essential services, not in luxury goods. Of course we’ll still buy necessities, but the discretionary dollar will be harder to attract. The markets that show potential are local, renewable, and creative, not those dedicated to consumption.

Redefining prosperity means that we need to move beyond measuring our value by how much we buy. A new, more sustainable consumer will help build a society that values a higher quality of life, a healthy environment, more fairness, more connected communities, and a healthy economy and marketplace.

Lara Ryan is a business consultant specializing in CSR. She can be reached at lara@lararyanconsulting.ca.