In eco-trends, what doesn't sell also matters
Clearing my desk of assorted magazines, clippings, and junk not long ago, I came across two articles in my "consumer ethics" file. Both concerned SUV sales.
Every day, it seems, I read something new about enlightened, eco-conscious consumers who are transforming the marketplace. Sales of hybrid cars are often mentioned in the list of supporting anecdotes that follow the inevitable survey statistic about how concerned Americans are about the environment. As one article notes, Toyota's famous Prius has sold 750,000 units worldwide.
I saved these articles because a couple of other facts and figures had jumped out at me. One was from the June 11 issue of Business Week, which said that while sales of small cars are up fairly significantly this year, "luxury SUV sales have held steady," accounting for 28 percent of new-vehicle sales. That's a big number, particularly at a moment when Main Street, USA, is supposedly green-crazy, and gas prices have been consistently high.
The other clipping, from the June 11 issue of Brandweek, examines this point more specifically under the headline "What Gas Crisis? SUVs Still Cruising." While the Prius is doing well, the story notes, Honda is dropping its hybrid Accord, which has sold poorly. There are some hybrid SUVs on the market, but those aren't taking off - whereas "the massive Ford Expedition, which gets a sluggish 15 miles per gallon, has seen its vehicle sales shoot up 20 percent through May," wrote Steve Miller.
Both articles suggest that sales of huge gas guzzlers may trend downward, and that might turn out to be right. But the time has come for the legions of experts touting eco-mania to start gauging it in a more complex way.
I've read the poll data. I've heard about increasing sales for this or that "green" product. I want to hear about falling sales of conspicuously not-green products. Even better, I want that information to be included in the analyses - even if it doesn't support the green hype. Commentators - especially the marketing gurus and consultants - need to acknowledge that eco-consciousness is not simply a matter of what consumers buy. It's also what they stop buying.
When marketers, designers, gurus, and pundits hype the idea that Main Street must be going green because Eco Product X is selling surprisingly well, they frame the larger debate in a particular way. They ignore contradictory consumer behavior (like steady sales of luxury SUVs), and rarely address what I've called unconsumption behavior - that is, how we dispose of things and what we don't consume.
Thus they give the impression that the marketplace is already solving any eco-problems we might face: that the "taste-makers" are leading the way and there will eventually be a "tipping point"; we'll all be safe without having to make sacrifices, and there's no need for pesky regulations.
Consider a recent essay by Alex Steffen on Worldchanging.com, which took an ever harder line. "The genuine solution is not a matter of consumer choice at all," Steffen argued. "There is no combination of purchasing decisions that will make the current affluent American lifestyle sustainable. You can't shop your way to sustainability. On a planet running up against so severe a set of deadlines - global warming, the extinction crisis, the poverty crisis, etc. - prosperity as currently delivered is frankly immoral, even when purchased with an eco-chic package."
Such points of view are worth hearing and thinking about - even if they aren't as much fun as all the chatter about green-chic.
Rob Walker writes the Consumed column for The New York Times Magazine. 