Is Skydiamonds' bling without the sting the holy grail of consumerism?

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Bella Hadid was, in her own words (well, posted to Instagram Stories), “freaking the f out” out at the thought of NUGGS’ new spicy vegan chicken nuggets. She added “Guys, this isn’t an ad or anything. I found NUGGS on Instagram and I’m f******* addicted”. The brand, founded by 19-year old Australian Ben Pasternak, calls itself the Tesla of Chicken and playfully proclaims that its soy protein-derived nuggets will ‘kill you slower’. Hadid’s made-for-social media confession gives us a glimpse of a truth that will shape the Future Normal and provide some of the biggest business opportunities of the next decade: the guilt-free indulgence. 

In Musashino, a district in Western Tokyo, drinkers come together to take group selfies while holding after-work cocktails. Nothing special about that. But these drinkers are standing in front of a window, behind which every few minutes a giant crane scoops up a mangled assortment of waste from a giant pile, because The Gomi Pit popup bar is improbably located in the district’s municipal garbage processing facility. The local authorities launched the bar in order to raise awareness around the volume of waste produced locally. 

While not every moment is as extreme as the Gomi Pit, the bar touches on a paradox at the heart of modern life. Just like Bella Hadid’s craving for chicken nuggets, we are torn between the desire to indulge ourselves, and the gnawing sense of guilt that comes with the awareness that our indulgences are bad for ourselves, society or the planet. Cheap throwaway physical goods, luxurious foreign holidays, unhealthy or unethical food. Beautiful digital devices, built from rare minerals and dirty supply chains. Even our seemingly-ephemeral ‘virtual’ activities often have bigger environmental and social impacts than we might hope.  

This awareness clashes with the deeply human desire to consider oneself a good person. The flygskam (‘flight shame’) phenomenon, popularised by the eco-activist Greta Thunberg, is one example. In late 2019, the Swiss bank UBS surveyed more than 6,000 people in the US, Germany, France and the UK, and found that one in five had reduced the number of flights they took over the last year. Many might have (involuntarily) managed this during 2020, but in the longer term we remain skeptical. Another study found that while 65% said they want to buy purpose-driven brands that advocate sustainability, yet only about 26% actually do so. Too often we take the ‘easy’ (i.e. more guilty) option due to ignorance, confusion, convenience or affordability. Or all of the above. The desire is there, but sustained action remains frustratingly inconsistent and piecemeal. 

Resolving this tension and giving people a way out of this ethical quagmire is the holy grail of consumerism. Tesla, the world’s most valuable automaker, empowers people to indulge in a shiny new car without (too much) guilt. Beyond Meat, the plant-based food producer now valued at $10 billion, enables people to continue gorging on delicious, salty burgers without feeling as much eco and ethical shame. Bolt Threads, a startup that makes a vegan, mushroom-based leather substitute,  partnered with Adidas, Lululemon, Kering and Stella McCartney. Indeed, the entire B Corps boom highlights the growing opportunities in every conceivable sector for businesses that promise customers a guilt-free experience. 

Carbon in the sky with diamonds

You can think of Dale Vince as the UK’s answer to Elon Musk. He founded the world’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, in 1995; the world’s first national electric vehicle charging network, Electric Highway, in 2011; is Chairman of Forest Green Rovers, which in 2017 became the world’s first vegan and carbon-neutral soccer club. His latest publicity-friendly ‘world-first’? Skydiamonds: carbon negative, lab-grown diamonds ‘mined’ from captured CO2, collected rainwater and renewable energy. As Vince puts it, the International Gemological Institute-certified stones offer wearers “bling without the sting”, citing not just the benefits of the SkyDiamond process but the negative environmental and human impacts of traditional diamond mining.  

Guilt-free indulgences are by their nature arresting. SkyDiamonds is an extreme example, but many of the instigators I feature have guilt-free elements to them. Solein, the CO2-based protein powder also harvested from the air using renewable energy is very similar, if less indulgent. Or Volleback's biodegradable t-shirt and Karst's stone paper notebooks in my recent gift guide. All these brands and products powerfully turn conventional wisdom on its head. We’ve spent decades shamed by our consumerist impulses. We aspire to ‘reduce, repair and reuse.’ As we should, when consumption requires extraction and use of limited resources! But, as the famous quote goes, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?” 

What if…

?? You could create a truly zero-waste, circular, positive-impact version of your product or service?

?? You could isolate specific guilty pain points, and eliminate them? From your sources of power to your packaging, guilt-free opportunities are everywhere! 

?? You could use waste materials in your production process so that the more you produce, the better for the planet?!

?? We can co-opt the luxury narrative, and make guilt-free indulgences popular status symbols? 

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Guilt-free and glorious?

This newsletter is our attempt to explore how we might be able to rebuild a better world.

We'd love your feedback, tips and insights. Can we have our sugar-free, gluten-free, climate-neutral cake and eat it? Or is the very idea of guilt-free impossible? Should we be focused instead on degrowth and unconsumption? Who's the next guilt-free pioneer to watch?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Henry & Rohit.