2Sustain

Part III: Getting It Right

In Part III we’ll address the following question: what are the risks we face if business leaders get this one wrong and embrace sustainability as a “trend” rather than a sea change? And more specifically how would this actually play out and what factors are involved beneath the proverbial covers?

Well, one would think the answer to this question is relatively simple. The quick, knee jerk response is the following: “if we get it wrong we will miss the big picture and not fix the very serious problems at hand.” Drill a bit deeper and the response might be “if we embrace sustainability as merely a trend we may dilute the potency of the word and weaken it to the point that people do not respond to it, do not take it seriously, and do not change their behavior to impact real change.”

OK, those both make sense, but how? How would this actually occur? In my belief we need to dig deeper still to better understand the human nature mechanics at play here. This is therefore and analysis of the HOW vs. the WHAT. The WHAT is clear: the problems persist, environmental degradation continues, and we leave our children and grandchildren a crippled, degraded planet. But HOW could this happen? We all want to breathe clean air and drink clean water and have healthy forests to hike in and oceans to swim in and all that good stuff right? So HOW could we screw this one up so badly given the high stakes and our clearly stated desire on an individual basis to be good stewards of the planet? And HOW could businesses actually be culpable in enabling this potential train wreck, however inadvertently?

My belief is that, if we are not careful, a disturbing yet perfectly understandable characteristic of human nature may emerge as the central cause of our downfall….and it is a characteristic which is currently being fed and nurtured by businesses overusing the word sustainability and green in marketing campaigns. I’m talking about the psychology of crowds here.

The thing about crowds, or societies (bigger crowds), or civilizations (the biggest crowds) is that in times of crisis the individuals which comprise crowds are susceptible to the temptation to believe that “someone else is taking care of the problem, I don’t need to change my behavior.” Here’s how the dots connect with regards to the business community: if corporate America hijacks the term “sustainability” and begins to pepper every conceivable, billboard, magazine, radio wave, etc with “green marketing” the public will begin to shift from where they are today (e.g. finally thinking about changing their own behavior based on the newness of the sustainability movement) to a more “socialized” version of that current state (e.g. believing that other people have it covered and have changed their behavior so they do not need to). This already happens en masse in the world of immunizations. Immunizations only work if everyone gets immunized. But many people figure that because “everyone else” is immunized then they are safe and decide not to immunize themselves or their children because everyone else has. This then weakens the whole system and gives diseases a foothold where they otherwise would have none.

Here’s another, far simpler, example. Have you ever been to a rock concert and everyone begins to crush towards the stage? I have… and it can get pretty scary. So the lead singer starts saying “Everyone please take a step back! We can’t keep playing until everyone takes a step back!” What happens next is a great example of crowd psychology at its worst: very few people step back. Why? Because they think everyone else will and that they — in their crafty expression of self-interest — can retain their prime position closer to the front.

These examples highlight two characteristics of crowd psychology – one which is an outlier and one which is, regrettably, all too mainstream:

1. OUTLIERS (REBELS): Outright refusing to change behavior, rejecting the best interest of the whole in favor of the interests of the self (e.g. driving a Hummer, avoiding immunizations).
2. MAINSTREAM (RATIONALIZERS): Subscribing to the belief that the majority of the crowd is changing their behavior and thus they do not need to change their own behavior (e.g. not installing energy efficient light bulbs, not stepping back at the rock concert).

While the rebels are dangerous and are the targets of much of our “green ire,” it is really the rationalizers we should worry about. It is also the rationalizers who are most impacted and empowered by the deluge of green marketing and rampant use of the term sustainability as this is pure fodder for their rationalization. Thus it is our responsibility as business leaders to connect these dots and to ensure we are not empowering the rationalizers, feeding their belief that they are exempt from any sacrifice or contribution to the greater good — that they do not need to take a step back too. While the rebels are frustrating and anger us as they flaunt global warming driving beastly cars getting 8 MPG, it is only when we all take a step back together – when we drop the inner-rationalizer within ourselves – that real change occur and the concert will go on.