dematerialization.doc

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Toward Dematerialization:The Path of Ethical and Ecological Consumption

"It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve its prosperity; how

many planets will a country like India require?" --(Mahatma Gandhi on thequestion whether India would reach Britain's standard of living after independence)

We all consume. Consuming is part of living. The starting point for any sensible theoryor practice of consumption has to be the insight that every time you buy and/or consumesomething--be it a tiny battery to keep your watch going or be it a TV, a car or ahamburger, you are making an impact on the social, economic and ecologicalenvironment. In the words of Anwar Fazal, former president of the InternationalOrganisation of Consumer Unions (IOCU): "The act of buying is a vote for an economicand social model, for a particular way of producing goods. We are concerned with thequality of goods and the satisfactions we derive from them. But we cannot ignore the

environmental impact, and working conditions under which products are made." Ourrelationship with these products or goods does not end with our enjoyment of possessingor consuming them. We are linked to them and perpetuate them and therefore share somedirect responsibility for them.

We also bear some responsibility for the answers to the following questions:

Are the products produced in an environmentally harmful or sustainable manner?

Do the workers that produce them get a fair price?

Do they have safe and healthy working conditions?

Are the substances used in production and in the product itself safe or toxic?

Can the product be recycled at the end of its lifespan?

If not, is it biodegradable or does it release toxic substances when landfilled orincinerated ?

Do we pay the price for all the social and environmental costs a product is creating orare these costs shifted onto other people (e.g. 'Third World' countries) or the public (e.g.environmental clean-up measures, usually paid for by the taxpayer)?

Does the company producing the goods deal with oppressive regimes, therebyfurthering human rights abuses?


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Is the company involved in arms production, nuclear energy, animal testing, factoryfarming, irresponsible marketing, or suppression of worker's rights?

Is the production company donating money to political parties?

Once we recognize our complicity in these conditions it becomes virtually impossible tobuy anymore children's toys from China (in the face of Tibetan suffering), or otherSoutheast Asian countries (because of the way the factory workers are treated). Anotherexample is the 'McLibel'-campaign. Triggered by the libel writs against Helen Steel andDavid Morris, an international cadre of supporters have exposed the worldwide businesspractices of McDonald's to public scrutiny which resulted in devastating condemnationsof the company, particularly on ethical and environmental issues (see the 'McLibelSupport Campaign', with full transcripts of all court documents and lots of backgroundinformation on all relevant issues).

Promoted by slogans like 'consumer choice', the notion that we should approach all ourdecisions, whether they are political, such as voting, or personal, such as career choices,as 'ideal citizens' is accepted more and more. It means that we should make an effort tofully and independently inform ourselves about all aspects and consequences of ourchoices. If we take seriously the ethic that we should try not to buy any products whichconflict in any significant way with our own moral, political, environmental and socialbeliefs, than there are important questions we should be able to answer with regard to anyproduct we buy.

Constant propaganda suggesting that consumers are 'in the drivers seat', and thatconsumer satisfaction is the primary concern of the corporation, has been effective. But

most advertising is really designed to divert scrutiny of the product, its quality and socialand ecological impact. A clear trend in advertising is to provide less and less informationabout a product, but more and more seductions to build consumer loyalty via lifestyle,atmosphere, identification with a certain culture which is supposedly represented by theproduct in question. Advertising is obviously less about giving consumers full andindependent information on a product, as it is to sell as much of the product as possible,boost profits and collect dividends for shareholders.

It is arguable that the success of business propaganda in persuading us, for so long,

that we are free from propaganda is one of the most significant propaganda

achievements of the twentieth century. --Alex Carey (Australian media analyst)

A good example of how corporations, despite their claims to provide consumers withmore choice, are actively limiting such choice, is the introduction of genetically modifiedsoya last year. Only one company (Monsanto in the USA) was selling geneticallymodified seeds and only 2% or less of the world's soya harvest was genetically modified.But nevertheless the industry (in other words the world's leading multinational chemicalcompanies) claimed that it was impossible to segregate and label genetically modifiedsoya, to make it distinguishable from non-modified soya, thus depriving the consumers of
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the chance to make his/her own choice. Amongst independent experts geneticallymodified food is considered to be a potential health risk, and it is believed that thechemical multinationals tried to face the consumer with a 'fait accompli'. After massiveconsumer protests, especially in Europe, there are now moves under way to segregate andlabel genetically modified foods. Suddenly, it seems to be possible.

The deregulation of the telephone or gas market in Britain is another point in case.Deregulation is always sold as in the interest of consumers, offering them more choice.But the only information you usually get from companies and regulators (such as OFTELor OFGAS) is price comparisons. All the interesting and, for an informed choice,important information-- e.g. who owns the companies, what are the companies'environmental etc. records--is virtually impossible to get.

In response to industry's attempt to prevent consumers from getting relevant information,and on the basis of some very successful consumer boycott movements (South Africaunder Apartheid, CFC reduction, whales, hamburgers and rainforests, genetically

modified soya etc.) independent research is being made available to consumers. We nowhave the power to buy and invest according to our ethical, political and environmentalbeliefs. This 'ethical consumption' often involves a so-called 'fully-screened approach'which checks companies against criteria such as pollution, environmental policy,involvement in nuclear power, animal testing, factory farming, oppressive regimes,workers' rights, marketing, armaments andpolitical donations. This allows the consumerto 'vote' whenever you buy something, to cast your vote for fair trade, good socialconditions for workers, for environmentally friendly production etc.

The advantages of such a system are obvious: You can influence the market directlywithout waiting for government action by buying 'good' products and not buying 'bad'

ones (and letting them know, perhaps on their website, why you did or did not dobusiness with them). Democracy in consumption is increased, and consumer dependenceon advertising for product information is reduced. (There are also several sites on the weboffering consumers "green" products, includingEcoMall, Green Market, Real Goods, andGo-Organic)

When the consumer finally begins to exercise the virtually untapped power of

citizen action consumers will take their logical place at the head of the economic

process. --Ralph Nader

Ethical consumption is a reorientation of consumers from passive purchasers, whowillingly and uncritically accept advertising messages, to active, responsible citizens whosee the dynamic connection between their purchases and their values. It is to be expectedthat industry will fight back. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) tries to outlaw andsuppress attempts to provide more consumer information (such as ecolabels etc.), on thebasis that they obstruct competition. The struggle to preserve real choice is particularlydifficult in a society where "free access to information" is, in principle, a right, but whichin reality, as Noam Chomsky aptly put it, works rather differently: "In a perfectly
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functioning capitalist democracy, with no illegitimate abuse of power, freedom will be ineffect a kind of commodity; effectively, a person will have as much of it as he can buy."

Current economic production with its worship of 'growth' is simply unsustainable for thefuture, a view globally accepted at the Rio and Rio+5 conferences. The easiest way to

substantiate that claim is to project western consumption levels onto the whole world(which is the 'hidden' aim of the current world economy and the worship of 'growth'): thebiosphere can't cope. It is estimated that we would need three additional planet Earth's todo it.

Sustainable action results in effects compatible with healthy and enduring human life onEarth. Sustainable use, in order words, only spends the interest and not the capital. Sincecurrent levels of air, waterand soil contamination, and the intense exploitation of naturalresources cannot persist, we must recognize that our consumer society is not sustainable.This economic technosphere of human activity is just a subsystem of the biosphere. Thebiosphere is the life-support system of all forms of life on Earth and all forms of

economic activity inescapably depend on it (and not the other way round as someeconomists try to make us believe).

To return our economic systems to the fold of sustainability, only so much of a renewableresource should be used as is regenerated in the same period; only such an amount ofmaterial/waste/products should be released into the environment as nature can processand digest; and the turnover of energy and materials must be lowered to a safe level.

In order to bring that down to a practical and measurable level for consumers, MathisWackernagel and William Rees have developed a system called 'ecological footprint'which can be used to measure the impact of one's lifestyle or even particular purchases

and compare them to a level which would guarantee sustainability for the whole world.What the system essentially does is to calculate the area of land you would need in orderto balance out the negative ecological impact our lifestyle has on nature. For example,you calculate the area of forest you would need to absorb the amount of Carbon dioxideyou produce by driving so and so many miles per annum with your car or by flying toAmerica. The results can then be compared. While for a sustainable level of economicactivity every person on Earth would have 1.7 hectares (17'000m2) available, the averageBritish person uses 4.8 hectares (2.8 times too much), the average US-American 8.6hectares (5 times too much), the average German 4.9 hectares (that is 2.9 times too much)whereas the average Indian uses 0.8 hectares (roughly half of what they 'could'). Thesecalculations give us an indication of the factor by which we have to reduce our ecologicalfootprint in order to become sustainable.

One of the biggest obstacles to ecologically sound production and consumption is that thecosts we pay for services and goods 'lie', that is they do not involve all the costs thatwould accumulate if ecological damage during production and costs for recycling and/orwaste management had to be accounted for. That is partly because the traditional (andstill most influential) theories of economy simply forget about the resources and wasteproblem.
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We can only ignore these aspects at our peril. That is why a team of internationaleconomists and ecologists have tried to calculate the value (since the leading capitalistsonly understand anything if it is expressed in terms of Dollars) of the world's ecosystemservices and natural capital which we generally exploit without giving a thought. If wehad to pay for ecosystem services such as gas, climate and water regulation, water

supply, erosion control and sediment retention, soil formation, nutrient cycling, wastetreatment, pollination, biological control, refugia, food production, raw materials, geneticresources, recreation and cultural services at market prices, it would cost us, on aconservative estimate, US$33 trillion per year globally. That is 1.8 times the total globalgross national product (US$18 trillion per year). Therefore Costanza et al. rightlyconclude: "The economies of the Earth would grind to a halt without the services ofecological life-support systems, so in one sense their total value to the economy isinfinite."

There are two related concepts which attempt to take the entire social, environmental andother costs of a product into account. The first are so-called Life Cycle Analyses (LCA).

They try to integrate not only the amount and variety of raw material that is needed toproduce certain goods, but also the energy that goes into production (grey energy), theenvironmental and other costs of packaging, the likely lifespan, and the costs forrecycling or waste management. Only with a LCA can you really assess whether aproduct is 'green'. It is on the basis of LCAs that you can see the advantage of recycledpaper over virgin paper, of terry diapers over disposables, of glass bottles over aluminumcans, etc.

Batteries are another example. We through away more than 20,000 tonnes of mixedbattery waste each year in the UK alone. 20,000 tonnes of batteries equals 870 semi-trailer truck loads (@ 23t) or in other words an 8 miles nose-to-tail queue of semi-trailer

trucks. We throw these batteries away, despite the fact that most materials used are non-renewable, scarce (like cadmium), or produce emissions like Carbon dioxide, and causeAcid Rain. Additionally, Zinc, Manganese Dioxide, Alkaline, Nickel and particularlyCadmium are highly toxic substances which cannot be properly recycled or safelydisposed of. Wherever possible, buy products which do not run on batteries. More andmore products are available which either run electrically or are mechanically driven, likewatches which derive their energy from the movement of your arm, or the Freeplay radio(pictured left) which, wound up for 20 seconds, plays for 60 minutes, etc.

Transport, packaging, and storage are also important factors which determine whether aproduct is ethically and ecologically fit to consume. In Germany, 20% of energy andmaterial consumption is used to put food onto the table (that includes diesel for tractors,crops for factory farming, energy for the food industry, petrol for long distance lorries,electricity for cooling in supermarkets, energy for cooking, plus infrastructure [pipelines,motorways, factories, lorry fleets etc.]). A single average German yogurt is transportedaround 8,000 kilometers before it gets to the table. A single tomato from the CanaryIslands uses enough energy to keep a light bulb on for almost 4 days just to get to a UKkitchen. The alternative is to buy local products wherever possible, and in the case offood, only local organic products, since their production uses 50% less energy and
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materials, compared with similar quantity and quality of conventional agriculturalproducts.

Another interesting example, particularly since it focuses on an industry which still iscaught up in the frenzy of 'more, faster, higher', are computers. With the average life

expectancy of three to four years, PC's consume more than 50% of their total energyduring their production, and not in their use. And since a PC is manufactured out ofroughly 700 different materials, and the way they are manufactured at the moment meansthat most of these components cannot be recycled and are thrown into landfills, thebiggest problem with PC's is after you stop using them.

Another concept to assess the overall impact of a product is called 'ecological backpack'.The German scientist Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek has developed this idea, trying to assesswhat he calls MIPS (i.e. materials intensity per service unit). MIPS takes into accountthat to produce a tonne of most materials, such as metal, it takes multiple tonnes of ore,hundreds of thousands of liters of water, energy and material for transport, hills and hills

of very often toxic overburden from mining which destroys living areas. MIPS sums upthe total of material used over a life cycle to produce a certain amount of a product. Afew examples: the 'ecological backpack' of a single car is roughly 15 tonnes, the catalystalone accounts for 2-3 tonnes because of the platin. A golden wedding ring of 10grammes produces 3,5 tonnes in the goldmine alone. 1 tonne of coal produces/uses 3tonnes of overburden and water. 1 litre of orange juice produces up to 100 kgs of earth-and water movement. Asf. It is now interesting to compare the impact of variousmaterials, in order to know which ones have a smaller impact. If you buy a fruit platemade from local wood its 'ecological backpack' is likely to be around 4 times heavier thanthe weight of the plate. If you buy the same plate in copper, the backpack is around a1000 times heavier than the plate.

If the principle were taken seriously that the producer has to take responsibility for thefull life cycle of a product and that prices should tell the truth about all costs involvedfrom design, raw-material extraction, production, transport, marketing, usage to disposal,the world economy would reorganize itself overnight into regional markets. The reality issomewhat different. There are hundreds of subsidies, and most of them environmentallydamaging, that distort the prices (e.g. EU agricultural subsidies, subsidies for electricityand cars in the USA, etc.). There are even tax advantages for environmentally senselessbehaviour. In general, it can be said that the costs of environmental, social and healthdamage caused by, say cars or industry, are externalized, meaning that not the produceror user are paying the costs they created, but the state, i.e. all the taxpayers. Variousestimates put the accumulated costs of subsidies, necessary clean ups, follow-on costs,pollution and wasteful use of resources at roughly half ofGNP.

If you attempt to calculate the social costs of private cars fueled by fossil fuels- -costswhich have to be shared by the whole population, not just the users who amount to lessthan 50% of it- -you arrive at a figure of around 5% of GNP. Those costs includeaccidents, loss of time through traffic jams, pollution and other environmental damage,destruction of roads, land use, etc.
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Only by making those who create the costs pay for them can markets work properly andinsure that you will face the full costs if you decide to buy environmentally damagingproducts. More importantly, it means that you would benefit financially if you care to buyenvironmentally sound products.

A series of questions should be asked before every purchase:

Do I really need this?

Can Ibuy it secondhand?

Can I borrow, rent, lease or share it?

Can we own it as a group?

Can I build it myself?

This set of questions starts from the assumption that we need a shift in perspective, awayfrom the product towards the service we require. For example, we don't want the washingmachine, we want clean, dry washing; we don't want the drill, we want to have a picturehanged. So we need to establish first what service we want and then try to find out howthis service can be provided in a sustainable manner. In other words: we have to take afresh and penetrating new look at our needs.

Where is it produced?

Can I buy the same product locally?

Can I assess the overall environmental impact of buying this product, includingproduction, energy and materials usage, transport, advertising, packaging, and disposal?

Does this product last as long as possible or can I only use it once? Is it upgradable,reusable, recyclable?

Does the producer guarantee to take the product back and recycle it at the end of itslifetime (particularly important with products that use a lot of resources in production,e.g. fridges, washing machines, TVs, stereos, cars, etc.)?

Is the product the most energy and materials efficient model on the market, usingenvironmentally harmless substances, both during production and in the product itself(i.e. no use of toxic substances or PVC etc.).
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If it is a foreign product: Are environmental standards observed in production?

Do the actual producers (i.e. factory workers or farmers) get a fair price?

Are their working conditions safe and healthy or would a Western worker under nocircumstances work in such a factory?

Does production of these goods take away high quality farming land from foodproduction for the local population (cash crops, cut flowers, etc)?

Reducing our ecological footprint is an important aspect of sustainability, but improvingour own environment is not good enough if we are simultaneously degrading otherpeople's (for example through imports). In order to make progress towards a sustainablelifestyle--which we owe both to our children and to poorer countries--we need to check

how products stand up against the above mentioned criteria of a 'fully-screened'approach. Ultimately we even have to go one step further: rather than buy new we needto reduce, reuse and recycle. Yet, if we bear in mind that around 50% of all materialsused and moved by mankind cannot be recycled, the ultimate challenge is todematerialise our materialistic lifestyles.
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