Is sustainability a moral issue?
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 7 » Is sustainability a moral issue?We’re all trying to be ‘good’ consumers, but real sustainability is much more complex, says Joanna Lewin. The University of Waikato geography graduate recently completed her Masters thesis, Global Environmental Change and the Politics of Sustainable Consumption in New Zealand
As individuals and consumers, we are constantly bombarded with messages about ‘doing the right thing’ for the sake of the environment: from replacing lightbulbs to using public transport; from buying eco-friendly products to growing fruit and vegetables.
Indeed, one of the key messages to come from Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth was that the ‘planetary emergency’ is not so much a political issue, but rather the biggest moral challenge facing global civilisation. At the end of Gore’s film, viewers are presented with a list of changes they can make and things they can do to help alleviate the climate crisis. The message is clear: taking small, daily actions to lessen people’s impact on the Earth is vital in the crusade against climate change.
But are the solutions to contemporary environmental issues really this simple? Is sustainability an individual moral issue, or have we overlooked the political, economic and social aspects of environmental change? Can real sustainability be achieved solely through the collective actions of individual consumers?
In recent decades, consumers have increasingly been recognised as key stakeholders in environmental sustainability debates. There has been widespread agreement that the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment is unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, particularly by those living in affluent nations. As a result, people have been encouraged to consider the day-to-day impacts of their consumption habits and to adopt more ‘sustainable lifestyles’.
The reuse, reduce, recycle mantra has been reinvigorated, and local and central governments have supported and promoted energy efficiency, eco-labelling and household recycling schemes. Recently, some supermarket chains and retailers jumped aboard the green bandwagon, stating they would start charging customers for plastic shopping bags.
Consumers, it seems, have not only become implicated as a primary cause of unsustainability, but are also seen as part of the solution. By providing people with information, fostering awareness and environmental concern, it is assumed that consumers will make good (moral) decisions about their consumption habits, and that this will have flow-on environmental effects.
But a continued focus on the role of consumers in the quest for sustainable consumption may ignore the underlying causes of environmental change and the complexities of consumption and consumer choice. Focusing on consumers leaves little room to ponder the role of producers, the responsibility of government and the nature and exercise of political power. Charging consumers for plastic bags, for example, may do little to stem the plastic problem if the production of plastic remains unregulated and overall consumption levels continue to rise.
Perhaps part of the problem is the way climate change is almost always presented as a global-scale environmental issue, rather than a political or economic problem.
Current environmental problems are incredibly complex, involving myriad interconnected political, economic and social dimensions, but the prevailing environmental messages tend to tell one, very simplistic story about the causes of, and solutions to, these problems. Consumers are also advanced as ‘political’ agents responsible for fostering sustainable consumption and environmental care. But just how much power do consumers really have in an economy designed to promote, foster and increase levels of consumption?
A closer look may reveal that consumers have limited influence within the current marketplace. This is because consumption is largely a political and social issue, one that is decided for us by the State through institutional and public consumption choices such as the purchasing of buildings, roads and infrastructure, and shaped by overriding social structures and consumption patterns and processes.
Most consumption decisions are actually outside consumers’ hands. In a globalised economy, end-consumers are so far along the commodity chain, they simply don’t have access to all the information they need to make appropriate (moral) decisions.
However, consumers should certainly not be absolved of responsibility. The way we consume today affects local and global environments, and has implications for present as well as future generations. The importance of promoting sustainability and consumer responsibility should not be disregarded. But given the complex nature of consumption and environmental change, it might be time to reconsider the way messages about the relationship between consumption and climate change are framed.
Sustainability is not just a moral issue, at least not at an individual consumer level. It is a political issue, and its solutions are not necessarily easy or obvious. Perhaps it’s time to turn our attention to the role that politically motivated citizens, as well as consumers, can play in current sustainability debates.
