How to sell less stuff

The Net Zero Playbook is a new guide on how to decarbonise your consumer goods business. It’s a relatively easy read and will be useful for many companies. It touches on “consumer relevance” which is very good.

My wish is that we go beyond helping people make more “sustainable choices” and “educating” them to dispose of things properly. Because this is still about consuming stuff – even if the stuff is better.

Some say we need to have a "radical change in mindset" to decarbonising our industries. I want (as a citizen who consumes and who works with the industry) consumer goods companies beyond today to?tell me not to buy your stuff. Not in a flashy "don't buy me" on Black Friday kind of way which makes me want to buy your stuff. But in a way that makes me think twice about why I’m buying it, gives me the alternatives if I do decide to buy it, then tells me how to pass it on when it’s no longer useful to me (consumed food doesn’t count here!).

Some clever creative marketing people are already working on this. If they can make us buy stuff, they can make us not buy stuff as well, right? After all, advertising is responsible for 32% of the average person’s carbon footprint in the UK. Makes the head spin, doesn’t it?

I wish that marketing would be based on genuine good intentions and not just telling us to buy better stuff to feel better about buying more stuff. It should go beyond recycling or reusing or repurposing or rehashing or whatever "solution" it is being offered.

A friendly tap on the shoulder

I’d love something like this when I shop (online, in the store, whatever):

As I hover over a product, I get a tap on my shoulder by a kind grandma-type person (or it could be a little note or an announcement or an alert on my phone) that says "do you really need this? Like really, really need this?"

And if I say: "wellllll, maybe, maybe not, what shall I do?" then the nice grandma (insert whatever you want - gremlin, angel, cat etc) says:

"Well, you probably can do without. Think about it a bit more, get some fresh air / have a walk / chat with your neighbour / go see your mum / call your brother... fill your heart with good things".

And then grandma will say: "While you're away, think about why you want whatever it is you want. Is it to look more beautiful? Less wrinkly? Thinner? Curvier? Cleverer? Trendier? To fit in with the crowd? To be more kitchen goddess?”

"And if after you get out and you decide you really, really can't do without this thing, then here's an alternative, try x."

And for this case, x is an air frier. I’ve chosen this example as it is a point of discussion in my household now.

So grandma says:

“Can you use what you have already? Your oven? Your microwave? Your frying pan?

Can you borrow one? Maybe test your friend’s one to see if it’s any good before you buy it? Are you buying it just because the shop says it’s a special offer? Do you really need to air fry stuff in the first place? Will it make you buy more highly processed food because you’ll feel healthier because it’s air fried?”

“Oh dear, so you really want it? Then how about this one here because it’s more energy efficient / more solid, durable / been made by people who get a living wage?”

My goodness, that was an awful lot of work to reach a decision to buy the thing! Imagine doing that when you’re grocery shopping? NO THANK YOU.

Give me tools

Circling back to our starting point of decarbonising consumer goods industries – if we want to reach 1.5°C in time, the way we do business must change dramatically. As a consumer I can contribute a lot if l rethink, try to say no and try to buy better. But I need the tools to help me do this.

I’m convinced that the clever creative marketing people can find ways to not only make us buy better, but to not buy things we don’t need.?

A (very big) side note: there is a deeper conversation to be had around self-esteem, kindness and basic needs. How we interact as part of our communities and society is a crucial part of the discussion. We aren’t obliged to listen to what consumer goods company marketing departments tell us.

As citizens (who do consume but whose identity doesn’t have to be purely “consumers”) we have the power to do differently. There’s a lovely book about this by a former advertising exec called Citizens.

Remember the Rs

If you are now wondering how the decision process might look in your business and if you like structure (I do love a framework!), the “Rs” of sustainability are a useful tool. Depending on who you talk to there are between 3 to 14 Rs!

What counts is if the framework includes Rethink, followed by Refuse. And it’s these two that the clever marketing people could have a lot of fun with. The two that the kind grandma encouraged first.

The remaining Rs (remove, reduce, reuse, repair, renew, repurpose, replant, restore, recycle, remove, rot, recover, rid) come in when the bought thing is no longer wanted. I don’t like rid particularly as it implies throwing something away and as Annie Crawley said “there is no away, everything goes somewhere”.

There’s even an R for responsibility which involves the way the materials are sourced – being respectful to people and planet.

?Ellen McArthur’s circular economy is a handy way to bring all this together.

Apply the Rs

Here’s my attempt to apply the Rs within the circular economy:

If as businesses and citizens we activate all the Rs, and design products not to be wasted, we shouldn’t get to the R for rid.

The R for responsibility will be fulfilled because responsibility is about all the practices that are fair, safe and restorative for people and the natural world. Like fair wages that allow people to buy better quality food that is made in a way that doesn’t pollute the environment. Which also means only what’s really needed is made and nothing is wasted.

What would these Rs look like in your company? Which ones would you include and which would you leave out?

Are we ready?

I want to be treated as someone who knows my own mind yet needs help making the right decisions. I’d like those decisions to have a positive outcome on nature and the people around me. The help might come from a company, a public institution, a charity, my friends and family. But it must help me to genuinely consume less and more responsibly.

Are many brands ready to do this?

?

Sources?

CGF and Accenture, Net Zero Playbook for Consumer Industries, 2022: https://www.theconsumergoodsforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Accenture-Net-Zero-Playbook-for-Consumer-Industries.pdf

Advertising adds extra 32% to annual carbon footprint of every person in the UK, The Drum, 2022: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/11/07/advertising-adds-extra-32-annual-carbon-footprint-every-person-the-uk

Advertised Emissions Report, Purpose Disruptors, 2022: https://www.purposedisruptors.org/temperature-check-2022

The Paris Agreement, UNFCC, n.d.: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement

Citizens, Jon Alexander, 2022: https://www.jonalexander.net/

Let’s Talk Trash, Annie Crawley, 2010: https://www.anniecrawley.com/topics/lets-talk-trash/

What is the circular economy, Ellen McArthur Foundation, n.d.: https://archive.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/what-is-the-circular-economy