Sustainable Consumption and Tesco

For the past 18 months the PP4SD team of John Baines, Maureen and Steve Martin have been working with the Sustainability Institute at the University of Manchester and Tesco staff to develop approaches to embedding sustainability within a large retail organisation.

PP4SD brought a range of relevant experiences to this unique project most notably grounded experience drawn from its work with Barclays Bank, the Environment Agency as well as some of the largest professional institutes in the UK such as the Institute for Civil Engineers, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

PP4SD has contributed to the approaches adopted by the University of Manchester team but in addition has offered a challenging and critical context to this work in a separate paper entitled ‘Sustainable Development and Tesco- some wicked questions’.

These included: “Is continued growth compatible with the threat of climate change?” and, “How does a retail organisation deal with unsustainable patterns of consumption and production?”

Ecosystems are the mechanisms, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The dilemma we face is, at the same time as ecosystems are being degraded and overwhelmed and poisoned consumption growth is leading to elevated carbon dioxide emissions.

Underlying this dilemma is the proposition that in order to cut resource use and carbon emissions, we need to address the fundamental ethics and structure of market economics. Prosperity without Growth? addresses two related aspects of how consumption drives growth and vice-versa. This report argues that the profit motive stimulates a continual search by commercial organizations for “newer, better or cheaper” products and services – a process called “creative destruction” by economist Joseph Schumpeter. Firms who fail to innovate, adapt and design newer and exciting stuff risk their own survival. Creating new stuff would be of no value without a market for its consumption. So one fuels the demand for the other in an intimately linked cycle and in a self-reinforcing process that drives growth. However, there is growing evidence that the relentless pursuit of novelty “creates an anxiety that can undermine social well-being”. Prosperity without Growth? raises this wicked problem: “if the economy itself is dependent on consumption growth for its very survival, will sustainability remain only an aspiration?”

These are not simple problems to resolve. They are linked with many others and the role of PP4SD is to work cross professionally to seek solutions that are cross sectoral and therefore likely to be more long lasting.

The final report on this work can be downloaded at here.

The Language of Sustainability: Shouting but not being heard

This one day conference run by the IES, PP4SD and PARN, held on 27th April, focused on the Language of Sustainability and featured some of the most prominent voices in the sector.

During the morning session a panel of invited guests articulated how their profession views and conveys sustainability. The session then explored each groups’ language of sustainability and whether they were integrated and could be understood by one another. In the afternoon, delegates formed into groups to discuss the development of an ‘Esperanto of Sustainability’ which would break down the barriers between different sectors and be inspiring for all. This was a fantastic opportunity to hear some respected voices debate how we communicate about sustainability, arguably the foremost goal of society.

Speakers

Erik Bichard is the author of ‘Positively Responsible: How Business can Happily Save the Planet’. Erik is Professor of Regeneration and Sustainable Development at the Salford University and Sustainability Advisor to Liverpool City Council and the Co-operative Movement. Further to this Erik prepared a series of Sustainable Vision papers for The Mersey Partnership. Other key publications include ‘Creating a sustainable and healthy work environment – future challenges’ in ‘The Oxford Handbook of Organisational Well Being’.

Joe Ravetz is a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and Co-Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Ecology. Joe’s landmark study is ‘City-Region 2020- integrated planning for a sustainable environment’, which provides new insights and pathways using a major case study of the long-term future of a large conurbation. Current research interests include “One Planet Economy Network”, a programme for the transformation of the UK economy to ‘one planet’ level of resource use, in production and consumption. Joe also delivers training courses, seminars and lectures, such as the Foresight training course for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

David Fell is a Cambridge graduate of economics who has spent his career as a commercial consultant in economics, labour markets, property and economic development. David is currently the Director and co-founder of Brook Lyndhurst Ltd and was founding Director of the London First Sustainability Unit and former commissioner on the Mayor’s Sustainable Development Commission for London. David is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Will Ashley-Cantello currently works in Government as a sustainable development policy advisor, having graduated in 2008 with a Masters degree in Leadership for Sustainable Development. Will has taught sustainable development to Year 8 at a boys’ school and had articles published in The Guardian, such as “Young people have the tools for change at their finger-tips”. As a member of the ‘Carbon Cycle Boys’, Will took part in and produced a documentary, “The Carbon-Cycle”, with the aim of shedding a positive light on living a low-carbon lifestyle.

Arran Stibbe is a senior lecturer in linguistics at the University of Gloucestershire. His PhD dissertation outlined an approach to ecoliteracy based on critical awareness of the ways that language constructs society. The approach to ecoliteracy helped in the creation of a new module called Language and Ecology at the University of Gloucestershire. In his academic work Arran is now working on a range of topics, including the analysis of discourses implicated in ecological destruction (such as economic, agricultural and consumerist discourses) and exploration of alternative discourses drawn from world literature. His research has has also expanded to include the integration of Education for Sustainable Development across the curriculum in Higher Education and he has become chair of the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges Education for Sustainability Group.

Mark Everard is the Chair of the Institution of Encironmental Sciences and a Visiting Research Fellow with the Faculty of Applied Sciences at UWE. Originally a wetland and freshwater scientist with a PhD in the cycling of heavy metals through lake ecosystems, Mark has worked on wider aquatic management and sustainable development issues in academia, the private sector, environmental regulation and the NGO sector. During this time, Mark has served on numerous government advisory committees, and is a prolific author of scientific papers, technical and magazine articles as well as books and contributions both to radio and television. Mark is also one of the UK government expert advisers to South Africa on Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), building on his scientific, policy and advocacy work in the catchments of all five continents. He also writes books on fish and contributes to the angling press.

To view speakers' slides and documents, click below:

* Business: Eric Bichard (Slides)
* Consultancy: David Fell (Slides)
* Popular: Joe Ravetz (Slides)
* Government: Will Ashley-Cantello (Slides)
* The Linguistic Approach: Arran Stibbe (Word document)
* PARN (Slides)
* The Esperanto of Sustainability Workshop (Word document)

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