It seems to me that one key component of behavior change is education, and I intend to do my part. My students care deeply about this sort of thing, and understand that where businesses see a profit is where they will put their effort. There is significant hope that behavior will change as their wired/wireless generation uses sites like goodguide to inform themselves as they buy items. Already, in one day, several of them have downloaded the free app into their iPhones, and have started exploring the program. They also report that their parents are willing to look things up using their phone-based web browsers as they go to purchase them in a brick-and-mortar store.

Perhaps a label like the food guide labels that have been developed could also be developed for all products as a way of listing their impact for all to see. This could even just be a simple number in a particular spot on the label. This might encourage more manufacturers to be environmentally responsible, as they will see their competitors gain market share for doing just that. Sun Chips are apparently a pretty good example, according to my students, many of whom eat them because of their environmental record.

Any help of suggestions that you can give to me as I seek to teach this between now and the end of the school year in June would certainly be appreciated and meaningful.

How do we change consumerism? In this financial crisis with its economic pressure the consumer is likely to forgo their ideals. Conscious decisions to buy ecologically will be replaced with price judgements.

As the economic squeeze tightens the environmental impact of the products that we purchase will become less important – the consumer will choose price over conscience.

Consumerism needs to be changed from the roots up. Taxation and penalty for miscreants? Perhaps but aren’t they supplying demand? Change the demand – perhaps subsidies from Government to help ecological products onto the shelves and financial incentives for consumers to purchase – could this help to change entrenched consumerism and keep the consumer ecologically engaged and caring?

While I agree that tax incentives may assist the situation what is really needed is public awareness. People have to learn the real costs of corporate profits in terms of the environment, health and safety. The world is so interconnected now looking the other way because it’s “not in my backyard” doesn’t apply anymore. The entire world is in our backyard now.

I agree with the need for supply chain transparency, and that a technology driven solution can work to create it, potentially unleashing immense new market forces. But I don’t think consumers alone can be the primary driver of the change, for a couple of reasons:

1. Certainly some consumers may make the better choice in buying a more environmentally friendly product, but it is not clear that enough people can make the right decision and thus create the market forces you hope for. The harm done by each single purchase decision may be too small to affect purchasing in a major way.

2. Even if consumers are motivated to make the right decisions, today, there may not be enough standardized and comprehensively comparable information about products to enable good decision making.

I do believe that government can and should play a game changing role, by levying a tax on such environmental externalities. Such a tax would force the private and public sectors, as well as consumers, to engage in setting those standards. And it would create the right platform on which market forces could thrive.

Rather than relying on each consumer’s individual purchase decision, it would incentivize companies to affect change in their own supply chains so as to pay a lower tax. That would unleash the right market forces – forces that and would only be strengthened by consumer purchasing decisions.

A tax on environmental externalities can most easily be implemented with respect to carbon emissions, since it is easier today to put a price on those emissions (by using existing market signals.) I believe that a “carbon added tax” – like a VAT on carbon – would achieve the effect you are seeking.

You can find more details on how a carbon added tax might work, here:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcfjbs9r_22c9h3gpcc

Looking forward to reading more of your thinking.

Best,
Salman

I am serving in Peace Corps Panama and find myself perplexed at how much plastic people burn here. Almost everyone pours diesel or gasoline on their wood or pieces of plastic from jugs or plastic bags to start fires (they are slow burning and kindle fires well).

It’s hard to ignore the reality that unless manufacturers change their manufacturing methods, the world (especially those that are uneducated and poor) will continue to use what is cheap, effective, and available.

I am trying to find alternatives and can’t find one that seems to work that the people would buy into. If we are talking about making a change, how about creating a biodegradable, burnable plastic? Do they exist?