The language of environmentalism

I've just been reading a BBC article about Dame Ellen Macarthur's new education foundation focusing on sustainability. The thought process which has driven her to this venture is a compelling one, based on her experiences living with finite resources on her round-the-world record-breaking challenges. What struck me though, is her lack of enthusiasm for the "terminology of green", as it is something with which I can sympathise.

I generate a LOT of words on the "green" topic, and some of the words I can type the fastest are: sustainable; sustainbility; green; environmental; simply due to the frequency with with I have to use them. Yet I get the feeling that these words are an immediate turn-off for quite a lot of people. Sick of feeling bullied by the green lobbying group, you can almost see the eye-roll when consumers are confronted by green evangelism from corporations.
Indeed, the backlash against the profusion of environmental claims in marketing and advertising leads to accusations of greenwashing - which are in many cases well-founded - and the attendant cynicism does nothing to advance the environmental cause going forward.

Dame Ellen has hit upon something quite key, and demonstrated an innate understanding of the human condition, when she says:
"What does 'green' mean? It's not about 'green' or 'the environment'. you could argue its how we maintain a good quality of life. It's about how we're going to prosper in the future when we're so dependant on something that won't be around forever."

Like it or not, humans are selfish beings - it's probably been the key to our survival for much of our evolution - so appealing to this self-interest should be more fruitful than haranguing attempts to drive action through some sort of sense of mass guilt. Dame Ellen's "enlightened self-interest" approach seems to me to be more likely to succeed.

So perhaps we need to shift our focus? Start creating a positive dialogue built around the benefits for our own lives of managing our resources more effectively. It can work in business, where companies are focusing on reducing costs and saving jobs by cutting energy use and making their businesses leaner and more resource efficient. The 'green' benefits are a welcome side-effect...

Coming up with a whole new lexicon for this approach, however, is not something I'll get to this morning, so I'll be tagging this post "green", "environment", "sustainability".