A Changing Ethos: What Happens When It's Cool To Be Green?

My friend Tom Konrad of AltEnergyStocks.com responds to my piece earlier today on the effectiveness of the Sierra Club’s attack on coal.  He writes:

While I strongly support the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign, and feel it has made a difference, they could not have been so effective without the falling price of natual gas and the Obama administration’s moves to increase the regulation of criteria pollutants such as mercury from coal plants.  Both of these had the effect of reducing the relative economic attractiveness of coal plants, so the fall in carbon emission had much to do with Adam Smith’s invisible hand (partly spurred by Obama, partly by the gas drilling boom) pushing in the same direction as the activists.

Yes, Tom, that is exactly right. It’s nice when a few factors come together to give one some tailwind, and there is no doubt that this happened here.

What I’m calling for, I guess one could say, is the ultimate tailwind, in the form of widespread public support for the very concept of sustainability.  As I often ponder: What happens when it becomes “cool to be green,” when the majority, rather than a slim minority, bases its buying decisions on what’s right for the planet and its people, versus the prevalent buying motivations?

Of the products that will be sold here in the U.S. today, Monday, October 15th, 2012, from chewing gum and beer all the way up to new cars, almost all will be based on price and some sort of brand loyalty based on the product’s appeal to the customer’s self-image. In very few cases will the customer think, “Those are cool sneakers, but you wouldn’t catch me dead wearing them because they’re made with child labor,” or “That’s a really sleek car that will show the world how far I’ve come, but it’s not what a citizen of the world ought to be driving.”

This is about to flip.  Despite the mega-dollars being spent on consumer marketing, and the increasing numbness of the consumer mind, the world is nearing the end of its appetite for watches jeweled with diamonds mined by slaves, 6000 pound passenger cars, and all the other nauseating excesses that were so impressive in the 20th Century.  Conspicuous waste is rapidly losing its luster to a new generation of people who live with a new set of values.

Manufacturers will build anything they can sell.  If we want to change that assortment, we need to vote with our wallets — and that’s exactly what I see happening.

Again, this is about to flip.  And when it does, we’re in for a real change in terms of all the sustainability-related stats we watch so closely.