A plea for transparency in sustainability data as a consumer civil right

The consumer as a Homo politicus

What kind of consumer do you want to be?

From time to time, we ask ourselves: what kind of person do I want to be? What kind of mother/father do I want to be? What kind of friend do I want to be?  

But do we also ask ourselves: What kind of consumer do I want to be?

When I ask myself this question, I inevitably confront myself with my role as a citizen, maybe even as global citizen, at least as a political being in society, the consumer as a Homo politicus. What impact do my consumption habits have in this world? What is my local impact, the one within my neighbourhood and in my business? And furthermore, what is my contribution to global issues such as climate change, sustainable development, social injustice, ethical production practices or fair trade? Wouldn’t it be great if I could know that?

I am becoming aware that my buying behaviour is not only a reflection of my individual preferences, but also a mirror of social values and particularly of my own choices.  

The simple question what kind of consumer do I want to be? has not only a personal dimension, but increasingly political implications as well. What if I could contribute to making the world a better place with my purchasing decisions?

Conscious consumerism as a global movement

As soon as I ask myself this question, I quickly realize that I am not alone in this. More and more people all around the world are becoming aware of their personal ecological footprint. Conscious consumerism has increasingly become a global trend – though there still seems to be a significant intention-behavior gap – as these statistics reveal:  

• Sustainability continues to be a key factor for consumers worldwide. 75% of millennials consider sustainability when making purchases.¹
• 51%  of consumers are willing to pay a premium for brands that are eco-friendly.²
• Globally, 80% of consumers claim that they consider sustainability in their daily food-related decisions, but only 10% actually make sustainable food purchases.³

Regardless of the intention-behavior gap, there is a compelling connection: The more people ask themselves the same questions, the higher the chance that they will develop a common and at the same time a divergent understanding of the problem and the possible solutions, in short: a politicization process takes place. Consumption as an individual behavior with a socio-economic reach becomes a political issue resulting in the concept of the so-called consumer citizenship. Consumers become aware of both their responsibility and their power when they ground their purchasing decisions on specific criteria and consciously select or boycott products or services.  

Consciousness between Self-Awareness and Other-Awareness

Humans as social beings very quickly notice that their decision-making behavior differs from that of other people or other groups of people. One's own behavior is seen as more ethically correct than that of many others. Everything “green” is given an aftermark and becomes a label:  

Greenwashing is a sustainable improvement of the image of companies, greenshaming is the public denunciation of non-environmentally friendly behavior, greenbashing denigrates environmentally friendly or climate-positive behavior of persons or organisations – all phenomena are an expression of an awareness of one's own behavior, which needs to be polished, or the behavior of others, which is devalued. In the end, none of these concepts offers a recipe for genuine environmental and climate protection. As a consequence, outrage and excitement are growing.

Consciousness with an individual CO₂-budget – the solution?

One example of a suggestion to drive sustainable consumption on a broader societal level comes from Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.⁴ He calls for a CO₂-budget of three tons per year for all German citizens. Citizens who cause higher CO₂-emissions with their consumption would have to purchase certificates from those who emit less than three tons. The idea follows the European Emissions Trading System. In this context CO₂ becomes a complementary currency – a measurement that gives consumers incentives and freedom of choice.  

What about the asymmetry of data provision?

This proposal for a personal CO₂-budget enriches the debate on how to mitigate the climate-threating effects of consumption starting at the individual level. Besides this, it gets to the heart of one of the most critical aspects of the necessary transformation to sustainability and a circular economy: the asymmetry of data provision. This information asymmetry comes at the expense of consumers. Using the internet or the digital world to search for information or make consumption decisions with online purchases, personal data are collected and evaluated overall. The collection of personal data as done by the big 5 still is a black box. Even with GDPR and some regulations in the data sector we consumers can’t really influence and control what happens to our data.  

Fact is, that we, in our efforts to transform ourselves into conscious consumers, reveal more about ourselves than we gain in the same amount of information.  

This structural imbalance is a problem we have to face when we ask ourselves what kind of consumers we want to be. Data protection is highly relevant, especially in Germany, but it rather hinders than promotes the opportunities of a well-educated consumer citizen. Customer’s awareness and their data sovereignty will be important key factors for an improvement in our society.  Even with a personalized CO₂-budget, the question arises as to how we can prevent the risks of monitoring that the system offers. And how do we want to make consumption objectively measurable in CO₂ data if there is still no reliable product-related data?

If you share our thoughts, why don’t you sign our Manifesto for Sustainability Data Transparency.

Consciousness based on Transparency in sustainability data

If we look at the consumer as a consumer citizen, we have to take a look at the rights and implicated obligations. One right is to strike a balance between the information we disclose about ourselves and the information we need to make sustainable consumption decisions. Transparency in sustainability data is the key to consumer emancipation, the “MeToo” of sustainable consumption.  

Me too, I also want to be a consumer who makes his purchasing decision based on reliable, immediately available data, who receives information about the product of choice with a transparent supply chain, who is aware of his environmental and social footprint and who integrates it into the decision-making process. I want to be a consumer who attaches importance to data sovereignty and still takes advantage of personalized offers and information tailored to my needs and habits. I want to be a consumer who is in control of his personal CO₂-budget. I want to use my voice and my purchasing power to drive change.  Aren't these the foundations for a civil right for consumers?

Outlook: The Internet of Sustainability

In order not to leave these demands in a vacuum, we at ecolytiq have developed a concept together with our non-profit Organization for Conscious Consumerism, that takes into account these demands for consumer autonomy. The Internet of Sustainability is a pragmatic, application-oriented approach which fosters data sharing and easy data integration and thus aims to intelligently connect existing sources of sustainability data as well as existing technologies.⁵ At the first attempt the focus is on making existing information visible and usable. Based on a DPI – Digital Public Infrastructure – we use existing digital solutions to facilitate the access to sustainability data, for example from ESG reports companies or organisations publish in data silos on corporate websites. These data could be useful for sustainable consumption decisions but only if they can be found by consumers and are available.  

Conclusion: From awareness to empowerment

It’s an important step towards achieving the goal of getting many consumers to join our Me-too-vision of an educated and self-determined consumer.

To use my voice and my power to shape the world, by consuming products that are designed to respect and make the world a better place, it should be my right to know and understand which products does it and which don’t.  

An impulse: shouldn’t it be our human right, to know the environmental and social impact of each and every product we consume?  

‍

Note: The article is aimed to highlight the role of consumers in the context of sustainability and the urgent need for transparency in sustainability data. There are no quick and simple answers, yet asking questions about personal consumption habits and their broader impact on global challenges such as climate change, sustainable development, and social injustice are a crucial aspect of long-lasting change. The concept of consumer citizenship is a topic that focuses on the political implications of individual consumption choices and the growing awareness and responsibility consumers are starting to recognize.