Brainforum

Sustainability sucks!?!

Sustainability sucks? At least that´s the impression we get when thinking about the social, economic and ecologic problems we are facing and the things people do or don´t do to change the way the world moves.

Even single persons struggle with integrating sustainability into their daily life. Public transport to get to the office? Recycling? Car-Sharing?
When it is not even possible for private persons to make the step towards sustainable behaviour, how should this work out for a global company? Even more: Do we then have the right to demand this kind of attitude?

When looking at corporate homepages, the first thing that comes into view most of the times is a big and shiny button screaming “Corporate Social Responsibility”. The flash video next door talks about sustainability. In my opinion, these two terms seem to have evolved to the new and hip gadget in the world of corporate communication. The true motive rarely is an altruistic one, but the fear that some day society will deprive the company from taking action and drift over to competitors.

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The consumer’s power

The concept of a flashmob might be known by lots of people, as there have been many of such gatherings lately.

One great and widely recognized example during election time in Germany was the flashmob called “And everyone goes Yeah” that was organized by the online community during a speech of Angela Merkel, where the people present shouted “Yeah” after every sentence she finished. Merkel was pretty disturbed at the beginning and the initiative even made the evening news.

But while flashmobs are often criticized by certain people and characterized as being senseless, the alternate concept of smartmobs is making positive headlines. One sub-category of the smartmob movement is the one of carrotmobs. The initiative’s name derives from the image of a donkey longing to eat the carrot someone is wagging in front of his nose. In our case, the donkey stands for the business sector and the person holding the carrot is the conglomeration of customers. For organizing a carrotmob, it therefore takes a group of customers that are linked throughout some device (most of the times an online community) and a group of companies competing for the carrot which symbolizes the consumer’s spending power.

How Organized Consumer Purchasing Can Change Business from carrotmob on Vimeo.

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What about this financial and economic crisis?

Right now, in February 2010, hysteria and fuss which were created by the global financial crisis throughout all social ranks and countries worldwide has nearly subsided. You can even hear people asking: Does the crisis continue or have we left turbulent times? Optimism is surfacing again.

But what exactly happened since the downfall of Lehman Brothers? Several meetings of the heads of states, discussions about a global regulation of the financial sector and stimulus packages in all sizes have come over us so far. Time has passed and some concerns have not come true. But huge imbalances in our financial and economic system are still existing. Nevertheless, efforts to commonly and globally fight for a sustainable, stable and equitable economic system after two years of crisis seem to be pretty hushed.

So will we continue as usual, as if the crisis was merely a bad dream? If so, same difference there. Another crisis won´t wait to arise.

We observe an increasing acceleration of global economic processes. This acceleration, if it is not guided – this is our task -, will lead to cause and effect chains that are hardly traceable anymore. If you want to put it that way, it will lead to steadily more complex and chaotic economic processes which will especially provoke short term actions.

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