It is now a truism that COVID-19 has abruptly shifted the way we live our lives. Things we once took for granted – seeing friends and family, travel, our usual routines – are now not possible. This experience has undoubtedly taken its toll both mentally and physically on many of us, myself included. I have my days of optimism, despair and usually somewhere in between. It is very easy to get caught up in whatever that politician said, what the case numbers are today compared to yesterday, who is to blame for this crisis and whatever else the media chooses to focus on at any given moment. However, the pandemic has also been an opportunity to rethink how we live, where we live and even how we perceive time. For me personally, it has taken me on a different journey that has changed my thinking around how I consume and what the ecological impact will be. I was originally intending to blog about my journey into product management but the pandemic has diverted me down a different path – thinking about products in the context of sustainability and environmental impact.
If you were to ask me, I would tell you that I am a sustainable consumer. I put a lot consideration into what I buy and where I buy from. I try to support companies with sustainable certifications like B Corp, who actively review their practices across their entire supply chain. However, for anyone who had taken a similar approach to me, I think they would agree that this can be extremely challenging. Sustainable products are often not cost-effective and inaccessible compared to cheaper alternatives. We are also fighting against our consumer behaviour that has become deeply ingrained in our psyche. Despite the well documented impact of producing and distributing these technologies across the world, it is also easy to convince ourselves that we ‘need’ that new piece of tech or appliance when considering the billions of dollars industries use to market these products to us. I have been victim of this many times and I know that others in my social circles (who I would consider more knowledgeable and conscious of how they spend their money) have encountered similar challenges. This behaviour ultimately exacerbates what anyone with a sustainable mindset does not want to see – supply chains lacking transparency, companies leveraging unsustainable resources to build products whilst also disregarding the environment impacts.
Even for the environmentally conscious, we face an uphill battle in order to encourage sustainable technological development. Governments and corporations are failing to lead on environment and sustainability initiatives and drive positive changes to consumer behaviour. We let companies like Apple and Amazon get away in the past with misleading messaging about how green their practices are (although Apple are working hard on making progress through their own sustainability initiatives). So, what can we do to hold them accountable? The place where I have started to address the issue is in my own behaviour. Whilst I feel that I have always been more conscious about what I buy than average, the pandemic has given me the extra mental bandwidth required to seriously think about what impact I want to make on the world from the perspective of sustainability. Moreover, this has not only been a thought exercise about how I spend but also how I treat the lifecycle of the products I already own. For example, composting using a bokashi bin and recycling packaging materials for other uses have been a couple of ways I have began to think about consuming differently. I’ve also begun asking myself questions like: what is the environmental cost of buying individually packaged muesli bars versus making my own? Is it necessary to have the heater on when I could just put on another layer? Should I invest in solar panels or a water tank when we’re in a rental property? Reflecting on these questions now, it might come across as tedious but it will ultimately be the little things we do to change our behaviour as a collective that will have the biggest impact. James Clear, author of bestselling book Atomic Habits, talks about focusing on small improvements incrementally in order to stick with good habits. In my mind, how we practice sustainability should be no different.
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.
Edward Everett Hale
In some respects, we are seeing the emergence of sustainable product consumer revolution. Despite some significant setbacks, there has been some promising developments in our behaviour, investment and (to a lesser extent) government regulation. We are starting to see the fruits of our labour. However, this is only the beginning. It is ultimately up to us to vote for sustainable product development with how we spend our dollar (or how we don’t spend it all). Until we change our own behaviour, we can only rely on corporations and governments to moderate their own practices. Given that the Australian Government’s approach seems to be relying on gas and other non-renewables, without making any significant commitments to moving away from them, I am not exactly holding my breath. In my case, I am hoping to build off my initial approach of being more conscious with my spending and taking it one step further — being able to educate others and hopefully make an impact. Part of this approach will be trying to write more about product development and how we can influence it to be more sustainable by focusing on these 3 closing statements:
- We need to mitigate the cost benefit of buying unsustainable products. In other words, sustainable products need to be cheaper.
- If we are more conscious in terms of how we spend, the more we can influence companies to be sustainable in their practices.
- For those of us in the product community, we should use our position to influence product development so that it can be a sustainable as possible.
I want to leave you with this — COVID-19 and the pandemic has unquestionably disrupted many aspects of our lives, and that is f’ing scary. It’s ok to feel intimidated or disillusioned by the fact that COVID-19 is unlikely to lead to an immediate positive environmental impact. However, we shouldn’t see this as a deterrent to help influence the change many of us want to see. On one level, this is a great opportunity to not only demonstrate to companies and governments that unsustainable practices cannot continue in a post-pandemic world by voting with our dollar but also examine our own behaviour and consider what small improvements we can make to tackle the momentous environmental challenges facing us. This will not only help ourselves have a positive impact but those around us. As quoted in this HBR article, “adopting a sustainable behaviour makes people apt to make other positive changes.” Although it is not an easy task, championing sustainability through our own actions will encourage others to do more. This is my underlying motivation — I hope this post has inspired you to feel the same way.
Matt Bagnara 