Green Number, Climate-Change Conscious Consumerism

Recently, the political leaders meeting at the UN Climate Talks just finalized on the Copenhagen Accord. There is undoubtedly a clear understanding among both the developed and developing nations about the precedence of a global consensus regarding the environmental policies, and strategic negotiations to be adopted in the coming years. Experts argue that the accord is not seemingly as far-fetched, given the gravity of climate change.

The driving force however still focuses on "internationally accepted binding deals" across nations which percolates mostly to the industrial sector and/or the infrastructure within a country. A widely implemented model is called the Emission Allowance Trading (e.g. in EU) applicable to carbon (Carbon Trading), which allows companies (e.g., steel plants, power plants and cement makers) to freely trade carbon points much like the financial trade market. It follows a cap-and-trade model whereby the government of the participating countries set a threshold on the allowed emissions per industry and allow selling/buying of carbon credits between them via trading. Facts indicate that the carbon trading market is expected to grow fast and just as inherent with trading, with rather unaffordable flaws/risks [download and listen to the BizDaily telecast here].

However, the awareness about climate-change and the urgency of action must be shaped appropriately to actualize environment-friendly policies at not only international levels, but also at state and local levels down till the granularity of the surviving citizens on this planet. I especially like the way some countries (and enterprises) are opting for a more moral and ethical choice by promoting greener technologies without imposing on the others.

Schemes to tap "Climate-Change Conscious Consumerism" can be effective at the grass-root level. In the era of globalization, the cultivated global citizens, who are the end-consumers, can also make immense contribution by making simple choices ensuring sustainable human-development, and living a greener life by adopting a Climate-Change Conscious Consumerism. The choices that can be clubbed into the latter are beyond reducing the usage of utilities and conserving energy.

For example, a model could be derived upon whereby every commercial entity has an objective way to calculate how "green" it is - lets call it the Green Number. The bottom-line is to let the consumer decide on the trade-offs between green and costly product (there may not exist a trade-off btw : just as a costly product is not necessary green, a greener product may not be expensive). What I am hinting at is basically a more pervaded and aggressive form of, say, Energy-Labelling that is already in place in the EU. The green number should be seen on all packaged food items of a particular brand - much like the nutrition breakdown. It should be available for all commercial entities ranging from shops, supermarkets, restaurants to insurance companies, banks, and internet hosted services. The underlying principle is much like a democracy, which unlike the capitalist ways of tackling the climate-change via carbon trading like models, lays more emphasis on the "choice" by people.

The business aspect of implementing a Green Number model fits gracefully by itself - An enterprise needs to be more green in order to have more costumers and hence, just like carbon trading ensures financial incentives for greener enterprises. However, the emphasis is actually on "being greener" - which I argue is the direct and explicit approach towards acting now for climate-change (rather than carbon-trading which in a way defers and may not provide the desired outcomes). As a parallel process, trade duties and tax systems could also be revisited to allow easy operation and usage of greener businesses.

Climate-Change Conscious Consumerism based models can be additionally bootstrapped apart from other international and state level efforts, and with sufficient awareness and education among the citizens can potentially lead to fabulous outcomes. Recent research has suggested that as more and more people are becoming aware of the climate change hazards, they are also ready to contribute their bit - provided its easy. More models like the Green Number model around "Climate-Change Conscious Consumerism" may allow a fairer and more effective solution to the problem at hand.