By Marina Tran-Vu, CEO & Co-Founder, EQUO –
There are some ideas that believe in order to achieve sustainability, we have to sacrifice our needs and wants.
In the early ages of sustainability, marketers believed that by promoting the ‘sustainability’ feature of a limited performing product it can incentivize consumers to ‘go green’. We were all convinced to believe that to achieve sustainability, we must do without or do with less – drive less, eat less meat, or consume less than normal.
But if years of paper straws, tofu steaks and reusable diapers have taught us anything, sometimes leading with a message of sacrifice just isn’t that enticing.
The Executive Director of the UBC Sustainability Initiative in Vancouver, John Robinson doubted this method’s effectiveness: “…the language of sacrifice and doing without is not in itself strongly motivating, especially over long periods of time”.