In our quest for sustainability, some of our actions have been distinctly counter-productive, claims Nadine Andrews
Denial, fear, anger, grief, despair, guilt, smugness, hope. These are typical responses to the enormity and complexity of the global challenges we face: challenges of climate change, ecological overshoot, economic instability, poverty and social injustice. Inextricably intertwined, their threat is growing ever larger despite years of effort to deal with them. It turns out that some of the most common approaches to effecting change have not only been in vain, they’ve actually undermined the very changes they sought to bring about. How unfortunate is that!
When less is not more
The story begins with eco-efficiency. Reduce Reuse Recycle – the way to go, right? Well actually… no. It’s not a solution, it’s a delaying tactic, and it struggles to take the other interconnected issues into account. Improving eco-efficiency with better-insulated buildings can affect indoor air quality to the detriment of human health. Even tiny amounts of dangerous chemicals like the endocrine disruptors found in many plastics and consumer goods can adversely affect our health. Shockingly, less than a quarter of chemical substances used by industry today have been tested for their effect on living systems. And just because something is reused or recycled doesn’t make it benign.
Eco-efficiency also doesn’t address the looming issue of peak oil that marks the end of a cheap and plentiful oil supply. We have become dependent on oil in all aspects of our lives, from energy and transport to fertilisers and pesticides. Products derived from oil include plastics, synthetic fibres, drugs, laminates, paints and inks. The Transition movement has been trying to wean society off oil for several years, but governments are still in denial.
The eco-efficiency approach of the low carbon economy has other unintended negative consequences in the ‘rebound effect’, a phenomenon that is undermining attempts to tackle climate change. This occurs when some of the benefits from energy efficiency are cancelled out by changes in behaviour in other areas – money saved on energy bills being used on flights abroad or using the car more. One study finds that people who perceive themselves as leading green lifestyles are often in reality the most-carbon intensive, rewarding themselves for their good behaviour with skiing holidays abroad.
The wrong sort of values
An explanation for the rebound effect lies within recent psychological research into values and frames. It finds that lasting pro-social and pro-environmental behaviour is motivated by intrinsic values associated with empathy for others, concern for human rights and the environment. However, organisations seeking to influence behaviour often use tactics highlighting savings that could be made, status that could be enhanced or competitive advantage that could be gained, and in so doing were inadvertently activating extrinsic values associated with wealth, material success, status and power. Intrinsic and extrinsic values act like a see-saw: when one type is activated, the other is suppressed. In other words, these organisations have been activating and strengthening values that work against the very behaviour changes they are interested in.
Reframe to positive
Rather than focusing on having ‘less negative’ impact, there is an emerging global movement towards new business models with net positive value – having benign or even restorative impact on the natural world and human quality of life. This is radical stuff, and hugely challenging to those who prefer to tinker with ‘business-as-usual’. I get the sense the private sector is ahead of the non-profit arts sector here, with several market leaders already transforming how they do business – Interface FLOR, NIKE and Puma are notable examples.
My 2009 research into twenty-first century competencies suggested that the arts sector was in denial with a ‘someone else’s problem’ attitude to environmental issues. But in writing this article I re-analysed the survey data to search for clues about the strength of intrinsic self-transcendent values held by people working in the arts. Around half the sample thought they had a set of qualities associated with these values, and a similar proportion had qualities relating to openness to change. So it seems the arts sector has the potential to play a part in creating an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just world. There are enough people with strong intrinsic values. It’s time to act on them.