The Sustainability Paradox
By Mike Geraci
The industry keeps talking about saving the planet, but how do we make green efforts more than just marketing?
In 1999, Yvon Chouinard was the keynote speaker on the opening night of the second annual Barry Corbet Film Festival in Jackson, Wyoming, where I live. In classic Yvon bomb-throwing style, he posited to the 400 or so dirtbags and millionaires in the audience that if our community really believed in conservation and the goal of a sustainable destination, we would shut down our airport.
Half the room applauded; the other half was aghast. You can probably guess the split.
Chouinard pointed that JAC is the only airport in the country that is located inside a national park, and that situation causes associated environmental impacts—noise pollution, air pollution, light pollution, traffic. But he was also referencing impacts tied to the convenience factor.
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By closing the airport, we would eliminate the ability for the hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors alike to easily travel to and from what we consider a relatively pristine ecosystem. Imagine the havoc that would occur on the Galapagos Islands if that pristine place had an international airport.
Chouinard’s point was that even with all the do-goodery and altruistic conservation efforts, we concerned citizens engage in big, macro-actions that have far greater impact than multiple personal and smaller ones.
Which brings me to Summer Market (by way of a flight out of JAC).
When I cruise the show, I have my antennae up for the signals that brands are sending to the market, as those are the same messages the consumer will be receiving in the near future. The good news, and the bad, is that almost every exhibitor is telling and selling a variation of a sustainability story. Less water, more wind and solar, reuse, recycle, repurpose, B-Corp, renewable, and now regenerative.
As Syndrome, the villain in The Incredibles says, “When everyone is super, then no one will be.” While he had more evil intentions, the paradox in the outdoor industry is similar. As a consumer, if my choice is to buy the brand that is most sustainable, then that part of the purchase decision has become commodified. A “sustainable” story is simply table stakes (as it should be). It’s part of the story retailers are telling and selling, as well.
This is not to disparage all the real progress we as an industry have realized, both from a manufacturing perspective as well as a political perspective. The outdoor industry walks the talk, perhaps more than any other industry. That’s the opportunity. That’s our brand. That integrity and reputation is the lynchpin that can affect greater political and social change.
The problem is that we haven’t solved the problem.
As derrick Jensen points out in his essay “Forget Shorter Showers,” which appeared in Orion Magazine, every action involved in the industrial economy (of which the outdoor industry is a part) is destructive, and only through collective action can we impact larger and more degrading societal forces.
Which is why I find the excitement over the reduction of single-use plastic so disappointing. I joked that not only was I eliminating single-use plastic but that I was also fasting for the entire time I was in Denver, and I was going to walk home to Wyoming, barefoot. My point is that personal change does not equal social change, and we now find ourselves in a time when personal change, and even sustainability initiatives, are no longer enough.
That is the tension I was feeling at the Show. In an industry that is an oversupplied market in the international industrial economy, and at a trade show with thousands of highly trained salespeople and marketers and millions of dollars pushing us to buy! buy! buy! we are marketing “sustainability.”
What ever happened to “Don’t buy this coat?” [Patagonia’s 2011 Black Friday ad campaign.]
We have led and made amazing progress on sustainable initiatives, but maintaining the status quo when it comes to the environment and our industry’s impact on it is no longer enough. We can do more.
The carbon footprint we exact on the environment as we travel to and from Denver can be better leveraged to drive macro-level societal change, beyond roundtables and personal-use choice initiatives. In fact, the Carbon Neutral initiative that debuted at the Show plans to do just that. But more brands need to make such meaningful efforts.
The outdoor industry is comfortable out front. We need to step up our game again.
Mike Geraci is a columnist for Outdoor Retailer Magazine and principle of Geraci & Co., a brand strategy and communications group in Jackson, Wyoming.