Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021531
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Greenbiz Shoptivism Report 2021 ... a 61 page PDF presentation
ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Greenbiz Shoptivism Report 2021 ... a 61 page PDF presentation
Original PDF: https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/6711429/Reports%202021/Greenbiz_2021_Shoptivism_Report.pdf
Also:
Open PDF: Greenbiz-Shoptivism-Report-2021.pdf
Burgess COMMENTARY
This PDF is useful ... the at the present time the bar for assessing the sustainability of products, brands and companies is incredibly low. It is in this context that I say the PDF is useful.
I t is possible to discern some trends that are positive in the analysis and report prepared by Shelton and distributed by GreenBiz. But the dreary conclusion has to be that the management framework needed to get the changes that are essential is not yet in play.
There has been considerable work done to improve the underlying methodologies for assessing sustainability performance. Nothing being done today is having anything like the impact that Ralph Nader had when he was working on product safety for a long time subsequent to his publication of the classis book 'Unsafe at any Speed' in 1965 which described the rear engined Chevrolet Corvair.
It is depressing that the impact of products on the environment has not been addressed in recent times in the same way product safety was on the agenda in the 1970s and 1980s. I blame the aggressive promotion of financial performance in the corporate world during the past several decades. Academic institutions like the Harvard Business School (HBS) and people like Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago gave this an aura of legitimacy which also suited business leaders and wealthy investors who benefitted enormously from this framing of progress and performance.
Every business uses its financial profit and loss account to determine its progress and performance ... this is effectively a universal practice and often mandated by law. The side effects of impact on society and the impact on the environment are hardly reported at all ... and the way negative impacts are 'excused' by those with the control of the messaging is obscene. Some of the worst offenders have been 'lying' for decades and have gamed the regulatory framework so that they can get away with their misinformation. Many of the companies in the petro-chemical industry are big offenders in this space but this sector is by no means the only sector where there are bad actors.
It is a little bit encouraging that young people are more concerned about issues like climate change than older people ... but as companies realize that this is important for this cohort of comsumers, then there will be more and more messaging to ensure that the right message gets through no matter the underlying facts!!!!!!!!
Peter Burgess