Green consumerism diverts attention from the need to change

There is a danger that those who do the right thing in the supermarket will alleviate their concerns and even believe that their actions are all that is required to protect the environment. The need to change attitudes towards consumption, values and institutional structures will be ignored. According to Ellwood (1990). 'consumers, finally satisfied that they can 'do something', may seek no further than their shopping trolleys to help the planet'.

The effectiveness of green consumerism also depends on large numbers of people acting responsibly. Sandy Irvine from the English Greens (1989, p. 92) argues that 'we need social institutions that act as the custodian of the collective conscience, and must not just put our eggs in the basket of individual self-transformation'. Wendy Fatin, as the minister assisting the Prime Minister on the status of women, has argued that green consumerism is an effective way of putting the burden of responsibility onto women, who do most of the nation's household shopping, rather than obliging companies to produce environmentally benign products (Lumby 1991).

Susan Ryan, ex-senator and now spokesperson for the plastics industry, has also suggested some environmentalists are sexist in their push for green consumerism: 'When charismatic green males start advising us to make our own soap, abandon our washing machines and hand wash cotton nappies in the hand-made soap, I don't think they mean all of us. I think they mean us women'. (quoted in Macken 1991, p. 38)

Patricia Hynes, a US academic, argues that green consumerism reduces people to consumers (1991). Their power to influence society is reduced to their purchasing power, and the value of goods is reduced to people's willingness to buy them. Those who have more disposable income will have greater purchasing power, and therefore their consumer demands will count the most. Sandy Irvine argues that green consumerism perpetuates the logic of consumerism that 'human fulfilment is still defined largely in terms of the purchase of commodities' (1989, p. 88).

Some environmentalists argue that there is no point concentrating on individual products, since it is the whole economic system that is wasteful. Producers must go on selling goods, whether or not they have saturated the market, in order to stay in business. Some encourage the replacement of those goods by attempting to make them obsolescent. Obsolescence can occur when an item breaks in a short period of time, when new models are brought out that perform better than the old ones, or when fashion changes make perfectly serviceable and functional items undesirable. This means that economic growth and the viability of many companies is dependent on waste.

In their book, Green Business: Hope or Hoax, Christopher and Judith Plant argue that green consuming may be a necessary step. However, they say it is certainly not a sufficient step forward, since it does not deal with issues such as economic growth on a finite planet, the power of transnational corporations, and the way power is structured in our society.

Because the commodity spectacle is so all-engaging, 'light' green business tends to merely perpetuate the colonization of the mind, sapping our visions of an alternative and giving the idea that our salvation can be gained through shopping rather than through social struggle and transformation. In this respect, green business at worst is a danger and a trap. (1991, p. 7)

The extent to which green consumerism helps or hinders environmental protection is controversial. Clearly it is not sufficient to achieve the sorts of changes that are required. Government intervention and legislation will also be necessary. However all the groups of people covered in the chapter&emdash;the designers, the businesses, the government and the consumers&emdash;tend to manifest values that are predominant in the communities in which they live. They are likely to radically change their designs, choice of technology, laws, buying habits without a more general social change that shifts priority toward environmental concerns in a more permanent way. Radical technological change will stem from social change. It is difficult to see how it can happen any other way.

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