John Grant has a post on his site that is a follow up to his book Green Marketing Manifesto. He points out that change hasn’t been as fast as he hoped, we only just started to think about the impact and concern of our environmental impact. He says that he knows change will come:
The likelihood is that what – it was claimed – was a sea change in public attitudes, in the regulatory framework, in the acknowledged responsibilities of business, was in fact just the start. We haven’t yet dramatically changed our ways of life. But we will. We haven’t yet seen businesses in every market divided into two categories; part of the problem and part of the solution – and this in turn having a dramatic effect on their fortunes. But we very likely will. History suggests that when a problem becomes acknowledged as an urgent priority then just such a polarization does happen. For instance with the issue of obesity, brands of sugar based drink, fast food and unhealthy snacks are now in serious trouble. You only have to look at Coca Cola’s share price for the last ten years; Coke’s fell by 20% while Pepsi’s grew 100%. The difference? Pepsi innovating its way out of the unhealthy corner with juices and so on. Coke on the other hand ‘not getting it’,
We are headed like it or not for a low carbon economy. In a week when Shell announced record profits it may sound strange to say this (but consider that the $100 per barrel price which makes its current prospecting discoveries viable is also already crippling the global economy). Leaving to one side the spectre of peak oil (if the oil does start running out sooner than expected, it would herald economic and societal meltdown on an unimaginable scale) in the next ten years real progress must and will be made. There will come a point soon when a continuation of business as usual combined with tinkering at the fringes cant continue. Whether it is rationing, further humanitarian catastrophes, profound recession… the pressure to reduce our collective impact will become sufficient to create an emergency economy comparable to that of wartime Europe. In an emergency economy, the needs of individuals are subsumed to a shared effort – an increased effort. By then it may or may not be too late to stop climate changing. But not trying will not be an option.
…What is called for is breakthrough innovation. Human ingenuity seems to thrive under such conditions of extreme stress (consider the rate of innovation during WWII, from radar to the atom bomb) “necessity… the mother of invention”.
Read more:greenormal: Green Marketing 08 Remix (short talk, long post)
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I read his book recently - the contents of which you can discover for yourselves.
What puzzles me is this: the physical book itself. It is really beautiful, the design, the way it’s been bound and the proportion.
As you’d expect, it’s printed on 100% post-consumer paper and with Soy ink.
Regardless, the books had to be made somewhere, then shipped or driven somewhere, driving up it’s carbon footprint as it moves forward along the supply chain to the store.
Here, it sits taking up space, lighting and heat as people browse the books.
So surely this could have existed as online-only content or through Lulu.com?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m hardly a member of Crass, I’m just curious as to where we draw the line.
Will the world be better if our entire culture is uploaded to solar servers? Or are we just striving to create harmony between what we are, what we make and where we live?
February 5th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hi Floyd, that’s absolutely where the book project started it was going to be a download. Trouble is when you look into it books are still the better option, because too many people print content to read rather than looking at it on screen - according to readers of my blog anyway, all but one said they would print off not read on screen. And printing at home is a nightmare in green terms, the papers, the inks, the nasties (like ozone) from small printers. It was counterintuitive but it turned out the greenest approach for now would be a book, with well considered materials. As soon as the ebook readers take off, or somehow people get more used to reading on screen, or paper costs sky-rocket, then an MP3 style revolution has to be on its way. A searchable library is such a killer app for a start, I was looking for a stat from my own book the other day and gave up, resorting to google in the end it was too hard to find. It’s great you asked the question anyway, the more we question everything and anything the sooner we can get to a better place. peace :J
February 5th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Thanks for taking time to explain how the process worked, much appreciated.
I still feel uneasy about eBooks and the permanence of digital archiving. I can’t imagine a Dead Sea Disk for example :)
Having said that, I swore nothing would replace my vinyl collection…
It’s about the content I suppose and for the record, I enjoyed your book very much!
Cheers.
FH.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm