4个理由后备绿色的消费行为变化“

Companies and sustainability advisors increasingly toss about the term "consumer behavior change." Often they're trying to describe a last mile of sustainability that a business can't reach alone. But what are they really talking about? Is the concept remotely realistic, or a jargon-driven cop-out?

1. The interest is not there

The vast majority of consumers remain largely indifferent to global environmental issues.The issues seem remote and intractable, and the divisions between greens on fundamental issues (GMO, nuclear power, certification systems, and so on) serve as one big turnoff.

Unilever has admitted strugglingwith this aspect of its sustainability journey — plenty of research shows that despite the occasional "spike" in interest (tuna during休的FishFight竞选欧洲, climate change during theDecember floods in England), consumers expectgovernmentsand companies to make these decisions for them.

唯一的例外是在地方行动小组是春天了对各种问题时，社区感觉受到威胁的东西（压裂和机场的扩建是明显的例子）。然而，群体，如这些不形成一个全球性的运动，更不用说国家之一。

出门到任何街道和消费者展示了50个左右生态标志要对在我们超市的各种产品中。他们可能确定3和理解的。即使他们携带一个标签或其他更少仅会购买产品。问消费者对森林砍伐或授粉，你会得到大多长相空白。

2. Consumers are not confined to industrialized nations

即使（这是一个巨大的“如果”）富裕的西方消费者可以说服使用他们的智能手机更长的时间，租衣服，放弃飞行，淋浴的时间更短，并包含砍伐森林作为一个原则问题抵制产品，舒适“的行为改变”会议，首脑会议和西部风格的学术胡说八道的东西，完全忘记了世界其他地区，特别是emerging marketgiants such as Indonesia, Brazil and India.

I often have written about this and will not rant on about it at length here. Simply travel to Jakarta, Mumbai, Sao Paolo or any comparable city and observe. The behavior change sought in these new powerhouses is largely about wanting more things, more often and more quickly. This is no surprise, and I am not saying whether that is good or bad. It"s the reality. A consumer behavior change effort that switched European customers' habits but left the billions in Asia untouched would be an utterly pointless wild goose chase.

3.行话不工作

The "science" of consumer behavior change is shrouded in meaningless jargon, pseudo-academic architecture and is largely incomprehensible to anyone not in this niche and largely self-serving field. There are precious few examples of global shifts in consumption patterns (well, actually they're all rising), or of consumers switching away from brands they trust and like (Apple asserted its global dominance well before its recent green conversion — for years it was virtually impossible to find out anything about the company's sustainability policy). Yes, there will always be ethical brands and clever营销。But global consumer behavior change to save the planet? Really.

4. It hasn't worked in politics

Politics can teach us something here. I cannot recall a general election in the last 15 years when a group of greens have not asserted confidently that they will mobilize public opinion to ensure that climate change becomes the dominant issue of the campaign and influences the mass population's voting decisions. It never happens, and I am not convinced it ever will.

If behavior "changists" cannot motivate people already politically interested enough to make electoral choices, why should they persuade people to use shampoo or pick a family holiday in a completely different way? Like politics, business will have to lead and then the public will follow. It is up to business to create new models, products and services that people want to buy. Some, of course, already are.

Does the failure of consumer behavior change matter?

I don"t think any of this actually matters. The imperatives for action are already there. The risks of climate change, resource scarcity, pollution, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss and social inequality require politicians and business to wake up. They will have to manage these risks and they will act. It may well be too late.

But that's where campaigners should focus their efforts, not in wasting time and resource trying to mobilize a global public that may well follow, but will never lead the charge. To those who say that it is easier for business or government to move if a public movement is in place to create the political will or commercial incentive, I say good luck, but we can't afford to wait that long.

这篇文章最初出现在BusinessGreen。罗夏风格的墨迹图像kavringvia Shutterstock