{"id":122,"date":"2013-03-30T22:37:55","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T06:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/?p=122"},"modified":"2013-03-30T22:38:29","modified_gmt":"2013-03-31T06:38:29","slug":"reflections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/2013\/03\/30\/reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has sustainability marketing changed how you think about how you live your life as a consumer?
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For the time being, no, but this is only because I am currently a broke student. Of course I would love to buy Organic, Fair Trade, etc. but right now my demand is pretty price elastic. After I graduate and (hopefully) get a good job though, I will absolutely look for these kinds of labels, and really research my purchases to make sure every dollar I spend is going to the most ethically-sourced,\u00a0environmentally-friendly products available. But has sustainability marketing changed the way I think about my life as a consumer? Well… to some extent, I suppose. I guess I’ve always thought of consumption as “bad”… I’m just as guilty of being a consumerist as the next guy, but I think I’ve always been aware of this. Sustainability marketing has maybe made me think about this more, though, and perhaps given me some hope. So instead of thinking “well, even if I buy that ‘green’ brand, it’s not going to make much of a difference,” I might be more likely to give the ‘green’ brand a shot. Although I still think, perfect world, I would grow my own garden in my back yard \u00a0and have my own farm and eat only from these sources, and consume absolutely no non-essential products… but let’s face it, that’s not going to happen any time soon.<\/p>\n

Has sustainability marketing changed how you think about business?<\/span><\/p>\n

Absolutely. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m still super skeptical about any business claiming to be ‘green’, but I think if there’s one thing this course has taught me it’s that sustainability is not black and white; it’s a spectrum. So sure, no company is truly sustainable in the true sense of the word, but different companies are at different places along the spectrum, and I think it’s all about supporting the companies that are closer to the sustainable end. Companies like Patagonia, Mountain Equipment Co-op, and Nature’s Path, that really go beyond the profit-maximizing paradigm and into the territory of pursuing the triple bottom line\u00a0at all costs<\/em>. And while I still maintain that government regulation is the key to becoming a sustainable society, I do think the progress by companies like these is\u00a0commendable.<\/p>\n

Has sustainability marketing changed what you think a sustainable society might look like?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, somewhat… I mean it all goes back to this whole idea of “cut vs switch.” Like, I know we can’t reverse globalization. In the developed world we are so used to all the luxuries we have\u00a0available\u00a0to us, we think it is our right to have access to coffee for $2 and bananas for 25 cents, in addition to cell phones, running water, electricity, and so on. I went into this course knowing, and came out of it still with the view, that it’s going to have to be a mixture of both. Goods are inevitably going to become more expensive, as wages in the developing world rise and governments (hopefully) begin to heavily tax carbon. We’re going to have to live with less, but will we have to revert to the stone age? Well, before taking this class, I might have answered “yes”, but I think now I might lean more towards the “switch” side. Again, it needs to be both, but no I don’t think every luxury we have can vanish overnight, and at the same time I don’t think we can fully depend on technology to save us. We’re going to have to reduce consumption dramatically, but certainly innovations in production and transportation, and green energy, are going to be vital to creating a sustainable\u00a0society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has sustainability marketing changed how you think about how you live your life as a consumer? For the time being, no, but this is only because I am currently a broke student. Of course I would love to buy Organic, Fair Trade, etc. but right now my demand is pretty price elastic. After I graduate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3183,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/jamesshaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}