It’s Sunday after Thanksgiving. Christmas must be tomorrow, or maybe “Black Friday” has become “Black Every Day” based on my email inbox and all the TV commercials I’ve seen the past few days.
Buying stuff is alive and well.
But something else is in the air, something I’m reminded of as I plow through end-of-course papers written by my students in my course on “Solving Societal Problems Through Innovation and Enterprise.” That something else is the spectrum of ways we can vote with our wallets to bend corporate behavior.
I believe that we can shape the evolution of a better society by creating better tests and then amplifying the efforts of companies that pass them (worldchangingbook.com). What follows are sketches, inspired from students, that give illustration. As these ideas continue to percolate, you’ll be hearing more from me about nouveau consumerism.
Mia B. alerted me to consumerism for “slactivists.” These are people who aren’t deeply involved with political or social causes but can be induced to participate when the situation is right.
Carrotmobs (carrot: as in reward, as opposed to a stick) are relatively ordinary consumers who, when given a signal, mob a store that commits to using an agreed-upon percentage of the mob’s revenue to make “sustainability” improvements like changing its lighting or buying organic seeds to grow and sell more healthful produce. 9carrots (9: I have no idea) operates similarly by letting shoppers find participating stores, buy lunch or a ladder there, and receive “9carrot receipts,” which direct 10% of their purchases to the proprietor’s energy upgrades and allow consumers to track these energy improvements.
For consumers, these can be fun experiences, maybe a bit time consuming if lines get long (but, hey couldn’t that make them more fun?), and they just buy what they already intended to anyway. Companies learn that a more inclusive way of being tested (“I’ll shop at your store more if you’re more socially relevant”) can help their business.
Shoes (TOMS: as in “tomorrow,” not Thomas) creates a generational dividing line. I’ve polled friends and family in my age group — above 30, well above — and no one (and I’ve asked at least two people) has heard of TOMS. But as Mary Fritz begain her paper, “It’s impossible not to notice that all the cool kinds are wearing TOMS.” TOMS combines consumer choice with a business model built at its foundation to create a better society.
Shoes creates a better world through consumerism by donating one pair of new shoes for every pair that someone buys. This model has placed one million pairs of shoes on the feet of poor children.
Why shoes? When kids go barefoot it shows that they’re poor, but it also contributes to their poverty by increasing the odds that they’ll contract disease, get injured, or be denied admission to school. Other buy-one-give-one companies are sprouting up, selling everything from eye glasses and clothes to books, food bars, and even services like tutoring.
Whereas 9carrots lets consumers know that, if they need Crest toothpaste, they can purchase it “sustainably” by shopping at a particular store, the buy-one-give-one business model shapes consumer preferences. Consumers view as “social” shoes and seek them out, creating a strong, “hip” brand.
GoodGuide is a step ahead of TOMS, possibly 140,000 steps. GoodGuide lets consumers choose products based on characteristics covering their entire life cycle (from manufacture to disposal), helping put in place new and better tests of which products are best.
GoodGuide takes publicly available information and lets consumers conveniently use it to compare various products. Consumers choosing coffee, T-shirts, or even cars can make comparisons based on societal/environmental considerations including their toxicity, greenhouse gas emissions, labor practices, etc. All told, 140,000 products are rated using over 1,000 different indicators. GoodGuide’s genius? Making its free information operate in the background on consumers’ computers and smart phones while they create shopping lists, order items online, or want to spot compare at the supermarket. Social comparisons become no more burdensome than deciding that 2 for $1.50 is a better price than 1 for $1.
Bigger efforts to promote sustainable purchasing, led by other parties, are under way, too. Those will have to wait for another day.
Still, the best way to vote with your feet may just be to walk the other way. Ask Patagonia.
