The U-bend Recession & Organic Green Shoots

Recent news on UK economic indicators show that after a very brief flurry of back to growth as usual optimism, we are now settled on a long flat (steady state) type of curve. This means that those pundits pushing the W-curve, V-curve and L-curve alternatives missed another possibility now emerging; the u-bend recession!

On a much more positive note, after all the doom & gloom reporting on people abandoning ethical produce...
(via http://fruitnet.com)
The UK retail giant has reported an upsurge in sales of premium, organic and Fairtrade foods According to the latest sales data from Tesco, UK consumers are beginning to return to premium and ethical food ranges, which the retailer says is “one of the clearest signals yet that consumers are feeling more confident about their own household finances”. Tesco revealed that its Finest, organics and Fairtrade ranges were all returning to growth in the UK after it reviewed its range and introduced better offers. Fairtrade produce has since increased by 15 per cent in the last year, while organic produce is up 52 per cent since November, the retailer said. Senior marketing manager Stephanie Stewart commented: “While it’s too early to say that we are seeing the green shoots of recovery from the recession, rising demand for our ethical and premium food brands are offering optimistic signs.”

My own reading of this is that rumours of the demise of principled consumerism were grossly overstated (and mostly due to panic price promoting of 'budget' ie cheap crap alternatives). Organic certainly seemed to drop about 20% both in stores and also boxed veg delivery in last year or two. Fairtrade actually grew about 100% in the last two years and with Cadbury and Starbucks coming on board will probably double again in the next 12 months. Anyway with the oh-my-god-the-banks-are-collapsing Shock Doctrine economic hype over (always perhaps only to justify a bailout that exceeded the repayment burden of WWII) people are perhaps just getting back on with life? A steady state economy of course is a sustainability holy grail, although as Herman Daly says that's not the same thing as a failed (or stalled) growth economy.

Walmart Sustainability Index

(via Huffington Post - announced yesterday)

The giant retailer ($406 billion in revenues in 2008) is developing an ambitious, comprehensive, and fiendishly complex plan to measure the sustainability of every product it sells. Wal-Mart has been working quietly on what it calls a "sustainability index" for more than a year, and it will take another year or two for labels to appear on products. But the company's grand plan-"audacious beyond words" is how one insider describes it-has the potential to transform retailing by requiring manufacturers of consumer products to dig deep into their supply chains, measure their environmental impact, and compete on those terms for favorable treatment from the world's most powerful retailer.

#TWEEHIVE - day 1: Tuesday 14th July 09

Greetings fellow bees. Here is a very quick guide for those who want to get stuck into #TWEEHIVE

WHAT: let's all pretend to be bees on twitter for the day

WHY: raise awareness of the plight of the bees, we're doing this as part of http://pestival.org and also just to have some new media fun

HOW
full details at http://www.tweehive.com

But here's a quick guide... - please feel free to repost on your blog
1. change your profile pic to a bee for the day
If feeling lazy the pic at the top of this post is the right size & dimensions for twitterpic
2. check the #tweehive stream, interact with other bees & generally enjoy the buzz
if new to twitter that just means put "#tweehive" into the search box
3. follow @tweehive - there will be guest queen bees including Alison Benjamin
if new to twitter that just means put "tweehive" into the find people search box (top menu) & click "follow"
4. Get into character. what would your bee be doing through the day?
For inspiration http://www.tweehive.com/to-bee-or-what-to-bee
when tweeting remember to write #tweehive to appear in the stream
also remember you can message other specific bees by using @twittername in your tweet
5. Join in the treasure hunt for flowers hidden on bee friendly and tweehive related websites
HINT these are lusicious floating flower picture hidden placed at the bottom of the page
6. It's never too late to swarm - do tell all your likeminded friends
An easy way to do that of course now is simply taking part
7. If you have a relevant website/blog do register to host a flower for other bees to find
http://www.tweehive.com/potting-shed
8. Watch out for on the spot tasks and other Tweehive surprises...

See you in the #TWEEHIVE

must buzz

:J

More Thought Leadership from Tom Crompton

http://www.identitycampaigning.org

Tom at WWF (many blog readers will have seen & hotly debated Weathercocks and Signposts) has a whole new thoughtpiece, direction, book and web forum all about the need to engage with identity campaigning. the blog features lots of my other favourite thinkers on transition culture including julespeck

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HERE'S TOM'S OWN BLURB

Identitycampaigning.org aims to promote debate on whether it will be
possible to meet today’s global challenges without engaging the ways
in which human identity and social values are shaped. A large part of
the mainstream environment movement – and civil society more generally
– seems to have been persuaded that to engage aspects of identity or
social values is a futile effort, that these things are essentially
immutable, and that the best that can be hoped for is to achieve
incremental change by appealing to existing aspects of identity. This is
a self-reinforcing and defeatist perspective that should change. No
successful political programme would work under this self-imposed
constraint, and nor should civil society.

Identitycampaigning explores the ways in which identity and values can be engaged. These include:

(1) An understanding of the way in which people's EXPERIENCE of
government policy shapes values (afterall, Margaret Thatcher famously
said: "it isn’t that I set out on economic policies; it’s that I set
out really to change the approach, and changing the economics is the
means of changing that approach. If you change the approach you really
are after the heart and soul of the nation. Economics are the method;
the object is to change the heart and soul.").

(2) Closely related to this, the way in which certain policies have a
profound impact on our identities as a result of their 'material'
effects (for example, the way we decide, collectively, to regulate
commercial marketing (for example, Sweden has banned commercial
advertising to children under 12 and this may have an impact on the
prevalence of a set of materialistic values).

(3) Exploring routes to identity change amongst individuals (for
example, through the 'heart and soul' work that Transition does). This
doesn't represent a panacea (we need social and political structures
that legitimise and support changes in values at an individual level):
but it is important - perhaps necessary? - if we are to create space for
such contextual changes.

If these are issues that matter to you - either because you share the
frustration outlined above, or profoundly disagree, please visit
identitycampaigning.org and join the debate. Occasional visitors can
post their thoughts as comments - those who feel more committed to
engaging this debate might want to be listed as contributors (in which
case, please contact Tom Crompton, at tcrompton@wwf.org.uk).

Inspired on all counts

I actually really love one of the comments made following Leonora's report on Treehugger so I'll just repeat it here

"Congratulations Michael, not so much for demolishing Lomborg's skeptical arguments so eloquently, but for focusing even more on the opportunities arising from the very threats we face. How much more satisfying to invest time and energy in seeking solutions, for people to live happy and healthy lives within the carrying capacity of the Earth, than to scavenge opportunistically in the market of media counter-point, looking for reasons to do nothing." (Paul King)

Supporting Green Independent Natural Thinking

Met with Dr Nicola Thomas today aka The GIN Lady. (GIN = Green Independent Natural: a lovely ethical lifestyle magazine & blog if you dont know it do check it out). And I got a copy of her PhD to read (not the following sentence most often associated with encounters with the media) which is partly about the potential to communicate ecosystems science to change behaviour. Anyway I can already see that it's packed with really clever insights and models, but was also reminded of the power of a simple framing fact - as demonstrated by this cute ad for Save the Shark (via Treehugger).