Today, brands are looking to sell you something more sustainable. Just last week, we saw Apple release its first carbon-neutral products, and Amazon began sharing reports on the pollution of individual devices.
GM sponsored a major event center during Climate Week in New York, which coincided with the UN Climate Summit. I walked past his electric cars on display in the conference room next to a panel on living in a changing climate.
Down the hall, I grabbed “locally grown produce” from the cafeteria, which features recipes from Hellmann’s (the mayonnaise maker). Trying to decide between the farro chicken bowl and the Tuscan kale salad, I realized that the numbers on the menu don’t reflect the calories, but the greenhouse gas emissions of each item.
As an environmental reporter, a big part of my job is to find out how legitimate companies’ sustainability promises are. I looked at many brands’ sustainability reports and saw that their greenhouse gas emissions rival those of small countries. It made me a little wary of big corporations shifting the onus on consumers to make greener lifestyle choices. At the same time, many people I know want to make greener choices. And I chose the coleslaw, which had a lower carbon footprint than the chicken bowl.
What difference did this small decision make? Not much, to be honest. Even so, there’s a bigger picture to keep in mind, John Togersen, a professor at Aarhus University whose research focuses on consumer behavior and sustainability, tells me.
This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
During Climate Week, Google hosted a panel discussion on how to tackle “lifestyle emissions.” I’ve seen ads for low-carbon alcoholic beverages and all sorts of other products that claim to reduce consumers’ greenhouse gas emissions. My main question is: How important is consumer behavior to achieving global climate goals? How big of an impact can I as a consumer have when I buy something because it has to be better for the environment?
I think there’s a consensus now that it’s actually very important. Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change increasingly talk about consumers. It is estimated that private consumers account for about 60 percent of final consumption, which is quite large.
Now, from the point of view of consumer behavior, the biggest question is how to influence it. And to what extent can you say that this responsibility is individual or collective?
Some would say that today’s consumers live mostly locked into a certain way of life. This gives them relatively little opportunity to improve the sustainability of their lifestyles, suggesting collective decisions rather than individual ones.
Collective solutions would be, for example, public transport, not individual. It is quite obvious that people use public transport only if it is convenient and frequent. Another reason they may use public transport is because they are not allowed to use cars, for example if some cities have car-free zones. One can imagine Manhattan being completely car-free, so people would have to use bicycles, the subway, or other public transportation.
Another thing I see brands starting to do, most recently Amazon and Apple, is to purchase enough renewable energy to match consumer energy consumption for some of their devices. How much does it affect?
The good thing about them doing this is that it will give the company an incentive to actually try to reduce the energy consumption of their products, which I think is more important.
I think this is an interesting point: who is responsible for the electricity consumption in the use phase? A better solution is to, you know, deploy renewable energy across the country.
Even I can have a hard time distinguishing between what is influential and what might just be marketing to get me to buy something. Do you have any tips for avoiding greenwashing?
Seek public advice from NGOs and community organizations. My advice to producers and consumers alike is to use third-party eco-labels and certification to back up claims.
What are the most impactful things you can do as a consumer?
One of the things that is strongly voiced in this discussion right now is the importance of focusing on the things that really matter. Those who really prefer.
There are now many studies that point to three areas of consumption that account for 75 percent of the total impact: food; transportation; and energy consumption in our homes. In each of these three areas, you can point to certain things, certain behaviors, that have a particular impact and that people can change. And it’s not always what you think.
Today, the most unfavorable products for the climate are beef and lamb. Cows and sheep, in addition to CO2 emissions from production, also release methane into the atmosphere. So, of course, many people know that we should eat less meat. Vegans would say we should go vegan. But in reality we should give up beef and mutton. It’s okay for people to switch from beef and lamb to pork and chicken. This is a huge leap in the food climate footprint. Whereas the difference between a diet that includes chicken and pork, but no beef and lamb, and a vegan diet is actually very small.
You can do a lot by switching to more energy efficient appliances, etc. But the biggest thing you can do is make sure the energy that goes into your home comes from renewable sources.
What I’m actually saying is that consumption is important. But we cannot individualize responsibility for sustainable consumption; it is mostly a collective responsibility. Therefore, policymakers must create a structure that makes the right behavior easy.