Served up with breakfast this morning was news of millions being displaced as islands in the Bay of Bengal are swamped by rising sea levels. Later, on the way into work, the newspaper delivered a fresh batch of doom-laden headlines on global warming and its effects.
Self-flagellation over climate change, along with stacks of worrying statistics about how it's getting ever worse, is now part the daily discourse in British media and increasingly in US media as well. Fair enough - I'm sufficiently concerned that we have a big problem on our hands and that we need to get much more serious about addressing it. What I don't see however, is much coverage being given to how we might achieve this.
Advice on using low energy lightbulbs and taking a shower instead of a bath is all very well, but I don't think most people are convinced that this will change the world. Though it’s nice to feel a little effort from everyone will do the trick, that sentiment is soon undone when one reads about giant forest fires in Asia that emit more carbon-dioxide in two weeks than the whole of the UK in a year.
I don’t know whether that’s accurate or not, but the effect of stories like this is to make people feel powerless in the face of change. The danger is (and I admit I’m starting to feel this way myself) is that people begin to believe that there’s nothing that can really be done, that climate change is now inevitable, and that we’ll just have to live with the destructive consequences of our own actions. In the meantime, we might as well enjoy low-cost flights, leaving the TV on standby and driving two minutes to the shops. It’s time for the positive news agenda on climate change.
So what’s this got to do with transatlantic marketing?
I believe that business in the US and Europe is failing to act on a massive business opportunity. The will of European consumers to change their buying habits for the better has never been stronger. The feeling in America is catching up fast. Corporations serving these markets would do well to design-in environmentalism and sustainability and reap the rewards of selling this to a eager market.
- Environmental pressure groups need to change their tactics. Instead of condemning big business, they need to start working with it to help it improve its green credentials.
- Business and environmentalists need to act together to lobby governments to deliver the right legislation to create significant and sustainable change. This is in everyone’s best interests; business likes predictability so setting out the future now will make it much easier to deal with.
- Business and government need to act together to stimulate new markets. For example, green power generation is far tinkering at the edges of our massive and growing needs. New markets are waiting to emerge, but need an initial boost to make costs attractive to consumers.
- Positive communications about what can be achieved to limit climate change needs to be expanded to counterbalance the weight of depressing, lets-give-up-now media agenda.
Encouragement and practical alternatives need to be delivered alongside chastisement.
The US and Europe should be leading the charge on these fronts. Our consumerism is the most developed so green improvements will have quick effect. Our public is more ready and willing to change than anywhere else. We have an opportunity to spearhead new industries in a time when emerging economies threaten our existing ones. And we have the strongest worldwide voice to communicate our successes elsewhere in the world.
