One of the habits to have become engrained into western societies is a knee-jerk instinct to replace rather than to mend. There is an assumption widely embedded in our minds and in our behaviour and in our economy that when a product fails we buy a new one rather than repair it. This logic is reinforced everywhere we look around us. If H&M will sell you a shirt for £10, does it really make sense to get out a needle and cotton? If your mobile phone is upgraded for free every year, could a mobile phone repair shop ever exist in the UK?
Similarly, we have learned to turn a blind eye to waste. One of the most staggering statistics in a recent Mintel report on environmental consumption was that nearly 1/3rd of food bought in the UK is thrown away. Just over 50 years after the end of rationing, it has become an entirely normal, unconsidered act, to throw away billions of pounds worth of food. If such a dramatic change has occurred in just a few decades it is surely conceivable that we can create a more sustainable consumption culture. However, once again, I would sceptical about asking consumers to drive the change themselves. In the examples cited above, the current logic of the market is so geared towards replacement and waste that it takes great energy to act differently. What is needed is companies to offer consumers a visible and reasonably straightforward alternative.
One example of leadership here is Interface carpets, one of the organisations most committed to sustainability. Since the 1990s they have changed the way they sell their product. Where large retailers traditionally focus on selling you a whole carpet for a room, Interface will provide small samples that allow you to replace easily worn and dirty areas[1]. Secondly, whilst companies will traditionally sell you their product and then expect you dispose of it, Interface lease the carpet to you and hence take responsibility for reusing it and recycling it when you have finished with it.
Interface is not asking consumers to go out of their way to consume more sustainably; they are reworking the market to make it an easy, almost default behaviour. This is the way that every large scale corporation needs to be thinking if they are sincere about encouraging greener consumer behaviour.
