Hypocrisy Is Hurting New Progress And The Environment

Quote of the week: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”?Mahatma Gandhi

Inflation has an ally consumer driven greedflation

Inflation is created by complex issues, it is corrupt and disruptive. It has the power to unravel the best of intentions for companies as we have seen on the stock market. And crush consumers with debt. Only the wealthy or someone who doesn't understand it, can dismiss it. You see things don't suddenly get better. Prices usually settle, but they don't decline. Investor fear has emerged, everyone is waiting for fiscal 2022 second quarter corporate results to tell us how the corporate world is doing. That will be an indication of consumer behaviours and if we are buying more and paying for inflated products and services, interest rates are more certain to go higher. However there is a contradiction happening, if 60% of consumers are living pay check to pay check where are they getting the money or credit to buy things? Easy credit is the ally of inflation. I can't believe I am saying this as a retailer. However, the buy now pay later world is enjoying growth, they are also creating consumer driven Greedflation. The desire for things, not needs but wants, is now having a significant impact on our economy, society and environment.

Our social purposes are not aligned

I am not an environmentalist or an activist. I am just a regular human being that wants to live a long healthy and prosperous life. I don't want to drink polluted or chemical laced water, breath in dirty air, nor eat food that has tons of chemicals or was not made in a safe way for humans to consume. I am against the abuse of people in workplaces, the conditions they work under and the destruction of their environment and other natural habitats to benefit me. I never want any human being to suffer because of my wants and needs. Does that limit my options on how I live? Am I a hypocrite for even writing this? I might be just that. Because I want my house, my electric car, nice furniture and stylish modern clothing, vacations to warm places. However, I am not a lone hypocrite. Even the producers of these goods know more and they sell them.

Over the last four years I have learned a lot about water, air quality, food processing and even forever chemicals that can kill us. These chemicals are basically indestructible. They are in our packaging and clothing that are water repellant and stain resistant. It's even in yoga clothing. In the USA and Canada these forever chemicals exist in our water but in Canada we do not test for them at water treatment centres. Are they hazardous to us? Yes! Read this they exist in thousands of products consumers use daily from lipstick to mascara for example.

The point is that what we want and need, or are told that we should need by compelling media, is obviously in the way of a healthy life or are we willing to sacrifice a healthy life to fit in?

Smart responsible progressive development

As a board director and chair I believe in responsible stewardship over a company. Board directors today must have a higher sense of impact on the Environment, Social Responsibility and Governance that must be Transparent. Its called ESG. It is important because the idea is that publicly traded companies for example that have a higher level of practices around ESG within boards and the management of operations, will likely out live and out perform their peers who do not have the same practices. Unlike disruptive innovation which is a hard act to follow for most organizations facing that kind of competitive threat. Ironically most companies can become more ESG compliant and in fact differentiate themselves from more disruptive companies that are usually in it to capture share under existing environments.

However, I believe that government needs to embrace ESG at a much higher and visible level for society to embrace social responsibility. I have told elected government officials at the federal, provincial and municipal levels that the world of business and consumers are already ready moving on, with the exception of some industries. It is therefore the duty of care bestowed on elected officials to protect society and clean up what's in the way of smart responsible progressive development.

Is a social retail frenzy hurting the environment?

Over the last few weeks I've written about the impact of inflation on consumers. The US reported inflation over 8.0% and Canada reported inflation at 7.7%. So the real question is do we know how much we are impacting the environment with consumer demand? In other words are we being wasteful? As a retailer I have always found it fascinating how quickly humans discard things, appliances, furniture, clothing and food just to own new things. According to economists our demand is higher than our ability to supply therefore prices go up. However, are we ignoring the risks to the environment? Is it possible that each generation that has had its say and taken actions hopes that the next generation behind them picks up the ball to carry the environment to next level of safety? If that's the case we have a problem!

Our continued social retail frenzy to acquire things most of which we will throw out as useless is likely not helping societal goals to clean up the environment. And here we go again with hypocrisy. But what is a retailer to do, if you are not selling what consumers want you will not be in business for long. A marketer from the tobacco industry once told me that they can't sleep at night knowing what they are selling. It is not easy to be in a sector where you know the public could be getting hurt or products are damaging the environment or the balance we have with nature. However consumers are the buyers of many retail products, they use them and wear them. I don't know of many who ask where or how it was made. The desire to spend and catch up to our parents, friends and social circles to fit in is likely a paradigm that will come back to haunt many of us just like the tobacco marketer.

The race to replace diminishing oil reserves with EV's and H2

The truth about oil is that the world has about 47-53 years of oil reserves left at our current consumption levels. According to World Meters we have about 1.4 Trillion barrels left and use about 11,200 barrels per second. This is the amount of oil available known. So the idea that we are destroying the oil industry with EV's or H2's isn't really accurate. It is the opposite. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that automobile manufacturers are moving to electric and a few to hydrogen. In other words, there will be an EV or H2 vehicle in your future, or you will take some other form of commuter transportation in place. Now there is likely more oil underground that has not yet been discovered or produced but either way we are moving away from oil dependency.

Imagine the geopolitical fallout for countries that rely on oil for wealth and power. The fighting over oil has been a geopolitical and economic nightmare for the world. It is commonly known and reported by political analysts that Russia's attack on Ukraine was also a means to stop the Ukraine from developing their natural resources. No surprise! If oil is a diminishing industry then it would make sense that countries would be fighting to stay in power. The response? Most consumers with the financial means and credit will move faster to EV's and H2. As oil supplies diminish prices will go up and those with internal combustion engine vehicles (gas cars) will be paying a lot more! The great leap into the future needs a braver and trusting society.

Personal Log: Conspiracies versus evolving economy and the environment

Are we doing enough and fast enough? Every time I read a highly heated news article about the environment it seems that we are always at the edge of no return. Are we? If so where are we failing to do enough? Humans either don't know or understand the arguments, don't know what to do, or don't care. However, it is a highly volatile camp on both sides. One thinks that there is a conspiracy to destroy the global economy, jobs and society, of this rich resource and the other wants an end to the destruction of the planet. Well everyone will have to wait because you can't turn the oil off and we don't have enough replacements for gasoline cars nor the infrastructure.

I am not against the oil industry, it has served society for a very long time and produced products and businesses, some good and others not so good. However, its time is running out and if there is any emergency, it is that! We only have so much of it and we can only make oil and its by products, gasoline and other uses marginally cleaner. At our current consumption we will be paying a lot for it every year that passes. Oil is not going to get cheaper. There is no conspiracy in that we will spend more to drive gas cars and build asphalt roads as our resource shrinks. Should there be an additional major war/conflict it will bring the world to a complete halt. It is time for us to move on and leave that world and their power guzzling leaders behind.

At the same time we need to make good use of the industry as it is today so that it can produce what's needed for as long as they can. And governments need to work with these industries so that they can invest in and develop new cleaner sources of energy. Ironically, all of this bantering is leading to a cleaner future. Provided that we can build the necessary infrastructures fast enough!

Like I said in the beginning. I am not an environmentalist or an activist for either side. But I am a realistic and practical business leader. We need to move faster into the future and leave no human behind. A tall order but the only path, one that countries with authoritarian oil driven governments can't duplicate with ease.

Thank you for reading, until next week!

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