Sustainability often suffers from image and expectation problems. An image problem because of its association with utopian hippies. Its modern advocates aren’t all hippies, but the image has stuck because they are often linen clad, sandal-wearing canvas satchel carriers. Second, most businesses associate sustainability with austerity.
Companies keen to adopt more sustainable production and people sensitive about the impact of their consumption on the environment often don’t identify with the brand of sustainability peddled by advocates.
Middle-of-the-road consumers aren’t horror stuck by the high chances of global warming exceeding two degrees centigrade from pre-industrial revolution levels. Company executives – who must sell their products and services to these consumers – are focused on keeping their supply chains lean and market positions strong. They may care about sustainability, but not if that erodes their market position. Depending on the occasion, Sabine Samarawickrema may tick some of the boxes on the stereotypical appearance of a sustainability advocate.
Born in Austria, Samarawickrema’s passion for sustainability has seen her establish in Sri Lanka a pop-up flea market so secondhand and upcycled stuff can find new owners; and found the ‘Sustainability Hub’, a group for green enthusiasts and advocates to share ideas and learn. However, unlike the utopian sorts, Samarawickrema appreciates how exactly companies manufacturing products or designing their services matter enormously to their margins. Samarawickrema, whose main occupation is as a sustainability consultant for private and non-governmental organisations, shared these insights on what private companies could do better to benefit from rising sensitivity about sustainability.
Consumers won’t pay premiums
Businesses sometimes assume that investing in renewable energy sources and green production methods will enamor consumers to their brands, allowing them to add a green premium. However, Samarawickrema’s research in Austria in 2011 proved otherwise. She was interested in what would make consumers change their behaviour to be more sustainable.
She found that they were unwilling to pay premiums for sustainably manufactured products or services. Instead, consumers preferred companies that were more sustainable in their practices than similarly priced competitors. Besides their unwillingness to pay premiums, she discovered that product sustainability labeling, medium of communication or even peer behaviour mattered little in changing consumer behaviour. However, for producers, recycling and using resources sparingly can ensure their firms future-proof growth.
Samarawickrema, with her firm SaMara International, consults on sustainability with private and non-governmental organisations. She assists in identifying a sustainability strategy and monitors the impact of that strategy’s implementation by the firms.
Go circular to reduce costs
Presenting sustainable practices as a boon business first gets the attention of private firms. For businesses, the circular economy can chiefly be a way to cut costs by critically looking at their use of resources. Bosses who in the past viewed going green merely as a costly fad, now realise that startups are better placed to challenge incumbents lacking competitive business cost structures.
Going zero-waste is quite simple, she rationalises. Th 3Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle – are a simple but powerful philosophy that can work as well in businesses. However, sustainability strategies will differ based on the industry, level of automation and scale. Large firms often have the most to gain by using resources smarter. The onslaught by foreign rivals from as yet unheard of regions in the world will grow, as second tier Asian cities are linked with global supply chains. Recycling and reusing resources will help these firms survive an onslaught.
Samarawickrema’s next venture is to create a zero-waste platform to help people connect, facilitate and find experts in waste management and to sell used goods. The objective is to establish a network to help other people work independently, to connect upcyclers and recyclers, and make it possible for more goods to find new owners who will value their utility more.
Make sustainability fun
Samarawickrema’s research also highlighted that the surest way to change consumption behaviour is by making the change appealing and even fun. “Discussing sustainability is too serious, it’s uncomfortable”, she observes. The objective is to not make people feel bad, but to engage them and even make it fun.
She initiated the Sustainability Hub for green enthusiasts to exchange ideas, visit organisations to be inspired by best practices and unwind. The Hub fosters dialogue and educates in a relaxed atmosphere.
Through the Hub came her second venture, Colombo Flea Market, a place to buy and sell used or upcycled products. Its visitors are a cross section of society, allowing for existing products to find renewed use without creating demand for new products. While it is popular among vendors and shoppers for easy money and cheap finds, the concept allows people to “shop sustainably without even knowing it”, she says.