Avoiding the Risk of Ritualization

In some parts of the world, Sunday, the 21st of September, was "exhaustless"—namely 'World Car Free Day'. For instance, Brusselleers enjoyed a day of bicycle-riding as an area of 160 km2 in the Belgian capital was closed to motor transport from 9AM to 7PM. In Hungary, people could ride on trains for free just by showing their automobile licenses.

As the current debate around sustainability gets hotter, we witness more and more initiatives being taken to raise awareness. Besides the 'Car Free Day' mentioned above, we have a 'Buy Nothing' day, an 'Earth Hour', and who knows what else? (You're welcome to add what you know under Comments)

However, it is always a valid question whether all these 'holy' days of sustainability do any concrete good. Do they really help change our traits? Or are they just about doing the 'in' thing nowadays, when none of us wants to be left behind in the trendy game of being green? These were some issues touched upon also by a research project named "Energy Futures", carried out by a trio of interns at Interactive Institute.

The outcomes of this research were several scenarios with which the interns foresaw a future where sustainability and being green had totally translated itself into a religion. One could see the obvious link between those scenarios and today's designated-days of being green.

To provide an example, one of those scenarios included a day of covering your electronic devices with tape; in another one people would send a red smoke out to the sky as an almost-tribal ritual. They might look too-fictitious to you, but looking at the facts above, this kind of a future could be much closer than we think. It is up to us who claim to be working towards a positive future, to avoid the risk of ritualization—by aiming for deeper change in traits, instead of trying to affect moods/even behaviours for the short term.

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Easy being green

A recent piece of writing I had read in a Turkish newspaper reveals it all about a personal greenwash. The Stockholm correspondent of this newspaper had sent an article about the poshness of being green in the Swedish capital, in which she told how “in” it was to go down on the street, to the recycling bin, and finally to recycle your waste, and let everyone see you during the process.

While that seems to be the case in Western Europe, one would find it really difficult to hold onto a green lifestyle in Turkey, since there is a huge lack of awareness of the issue. However, as careless are the businesses and people in Turkey about sustainability, a newcomer to the UK might get just as tired of seeing so many words like green, eco, sustainable, etc. It’s big business here.

While it may now be considered a breakthrough move for a Turkish company to call itself green, it’s not differentiating enough to be green here in the UK—and generally in most of Western Europe. In fact, it is actually “easy being green”.

The thing is, what we had considered to be diverse a decade ago, is not as diverse today. Transportation is much faster, as is communication, which allows a crazy flow of information all around the world. What all this brings as a side effect is that there is now a much more vague definition to being unique. We cannot be sure anymore that what nourishes us is not an inspiration for someone else too.

In an environment where everyone is green, maybe it is best to be as transparent as possible about the way you do business–or you live your life in general—and let the ones around you make the judgement. (So goes the general approach of Pli Design, as Christopher Pett puts it.)

Do the Stockholmers really care about the environment and strive to do their part, or are they just showing off in a street catwalk?

Are the businesses here really green, or is it just the marketability of the word itself what makes them green?

Lastly, and more controversially, do the customers really want to know if the companies they prefer are really green, or are they are comfortable enough only to be seen carrying a logo of a company which is known to be green?

After all, it’s not that easy being transparent.

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