Don't forget about business

As we're new to Boston, we're being keen beans and doing all the tourist 'must sees'. At the end of last week we went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, which has some amazing exhibitions and a huge collection of skeletons and fossils that will excite even the most sceptical visitor. One of the exhibits, put together in collaboration with the Harvard University Center for the Environment, is about climate change: how this has affected our planet in the past and what challenges we face in the future. The best bit of this exhibition was a video outlining the actions required to slow climate change and what this means financially for each family in the USA. At points, those watching the video are asked to vote as to whether or not they're willing to take these actions. Perhaps the most testing question is whether or not individuals in the USA are prepared for the government to invest in climate change initiatives in other less-developed areas of the world i.e. individuals in the USA pay for changes in their own country as well as funding initiatives in developing countries. Not an easy question to answer by any means, especially when the financial costs are made clear...

However, it's not just individuals and the government that need to take action. What is missing from this video is the role that business plays in tackling climate change. Whilst there are actions that individuals and governments can take, there are also ways that the business community can make a huge difference through their own initiatives and through collaboration with others. Real and lasting change will happen when all these efforts combine.

In a post on the BSR blog the other week, Solitaire Townsend, Cofounder of Futerra Sustainability Communications, talks about the critical role of brands in influencing and changing consumer behavior. As she puts it: "Brands carry promises and guide our behaviors—from doing laundry to buying a new car... As consumers struggle to balance their aspirations with reality, they will look to brands for answers. Right now they are asking, but soon they will be demanding.” Of course, the way that businesses respond to these demands will be very different - it might be through a transition to a new business model and, as Fiona Bennie describes it in her blog Same Brand, Different Business Model on the Sustainable Brands Blog, "[holding] customers' hands as they transition to and adopt new ways of consuming, of lending and borrowing, and ultimately of meeting their needs". Or through the adoption of more 'durable design' so that products change over time and continue to interest and inspire their owners. These are just some of the ways that businesses can work to make their own operations and the lives of consumers more sustainable.

What's important for consumers to understand is that they're not alone. Whilst this doesn't mean we should all sit back and do nothing; we shouldn't be daunted by the action that needs to be taken because businesses, governments and individuals are all in this together!

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