Mr. Rogers' Eyes on Sustainability

I’m sure this has been covered in discussion many times, but it still never seems resolved (at least in my mind). Marketers want to increase the bottom line for the company. Or from a sustainability perspective, the triple bottom line (people, planet, profits). So in a consumption-based society, how can we tell people to consume less, but keep buying?

The Story of Stuff is an entertaining (if not a little hyperbolic) look at what drives the consumption process in developed countries. It also goes into how this is killing our planet. Moral of the story: we have to stop consuming, for the sake of mankind.

This is where I reach my dilemma. How do we promote the bottom line (through sales), while telling people not to consume as much? Are we being big hypocrites? Sure, we can tell people to “Buy our reusable water bottles!”, but then what? Won’t sales stagnate if we encourage people to use their one bottle the rest of their life?

And it may be cliche, but it never loses relevance from one of the smartest men of the 20th century:

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”  – Albert Einstein

So what do you think is the better alternative? Reduced consumption or consumption wrapped in 30% recycled material?

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