Coro Strandberg says the power to change the world relies on consumers and investors making better choices
What: Whistler Sustainability Speaker Series presents Coro Strandberg
Where: Telus Whistler Conference Centre
When: Thursday, Jan. 22, 7 p.m.
The concept of sustainability is often described as a stool with three legs of equal importance – social sustainability, environmental sustainability and economic sustainability. If one of the legs isn’t there, it’s impossible to achieve a balance.
In the past, companies were mainly concerned with economics, and paid little attention to the other two legs of the stool. That is starting to change as a growing number of educated and concerned consumers, businesses and investors are making their presence felt.
"Every time you make a purchase your make a vote in the marketplace," said Coro Strandberg, a Vancouver-based consultant who has helped to pioneer the concept of corporate social and environmental responsibility.
"If we were more conscious of our role in the marketplace we might make better choices.
Consumers have the power to do that, and companies are taking notice.
On Thursday Strandberg launches the 2004 Sustainability Speaker Series, which is presented by the Whistler Early Adopters of the Natural Step framework for sustainability. The Early Adopters include the RMOW, Tourism Whistler, Whistler-Blackcomb, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, AWARE, and Whistler One Hour Photo.
Although she focuses mainly on social and environmental planning for companies and corporations, her almost 20 years of experience has given Strandberg some unique insight into the role of consumers in the sustainability equation. Her presentation is entitled Achieving Sustainability Through the Market: Our role as investors, consumers and concerned citizens.
Strandberg believes that the case for more ethical purchasing and investing has already been made, and says she will focus her talk on specific things that people can do to reduce their own ecological footprint, and how individuals can help to influence corporations towards sustainability. She has compiled a list of Web sites, books, newsletters and other sources consumers and businesses can use to look at companies and products and help them make better purchasing decisions.
"I give some context, but I’m really more focused on how people can apply this to their daily lives. I’ll talk about tools, and look at buying local, and some alternatives to shopping, called un-shopping," said Strandberg.
Unshopping is about changing our consumer patterns, whether that means buying less, buying only what’s really needed, observing Buy Nothing Day and Buy Nothing Christmas, asking questions about the quality, life and disposal of products before making purchases, and examining other options – such as leasing, buying used, buying co-operatively, and buying locally.
"It’s all tied to the concept of eithical consumption and what does it mean – what questions does an ethical consumer ask when making a purchase," said Strandberg.
While there are fewer investors than consumers out there, the investors also play a key role in bringing about sustainable change by asking a few key questions.
"Obviously not all of us are in a position to invest and we need to recognize that, but for those of us who have our RRSPs and some extra savings, where do we put our money and how is that used in the marketplace?" asked Strandberg.
"I’ll talk about the responsible investment movement, and I’ll talk about its growth in Canada and the U.S. – quite phenomenal growth actually. You don’t have to make trade-off’s because the indices are showing that socially-screened (investments) are outperforming the traditional, conservative benchmarks. You don’t have to lose money in social investment," Strandberg said.
There are three main ways you can make social investments. The first is to screen your investments to ensure that it’s not going to companies that have negative impacts, and to proactively invest in things like environmental technology.
Another way to make social investments is to use your investment as leverage to get companies to adopt more socially and environmentally sustainable practices. These kinds of shareholder actions are becoming more common, says Strandberg.
In France, companies already have to submit reports that take into account a triple bottom line – social, environmental and economic performance. Pension plans in the U.K. have adopted similar practices.
Another option for ethical investing is to put your money somewhere like a credit union that has a local investment fund and gives back to the community.
Forward-looking companies are starting to voluntarily adopt sustainable principles, says Strandberg, realizing that it can cut costs while providing the company with a competitive advantage.
"I’ve been working in this field for 15 years… and this field of corporate responsibility has recently taken off in the last three or four years. It’s partly driven by scandals, like Enron and WorldCom, and it’s driven by globalization where companies are increasingly working in environments that are unregulated," said Strandberg.
Non-government organizations also have more power through the Internet to call attention to corporate behaviour and put consumer pressure on companies.
"Companies are starting to recognize the relationship between their bottom line and social and environmental conditions," she said.
Also in her presentation, Strandberg will put forward her own concept for creating sustainable communities, which she calls "local living economies". "(It’s) an approach to how a town can transform its local economy to facilitate its journey towards local and global sustainability," Strandberg explained. "I’ll talk about building blocks and give examples of organizing tools and how we can apply it in Whistler."
The Sustainability Speaker Series is free to the public, and will include at least three more speakers – still to be announced – in the coming months.
For more information on Coro Strandberg, visit www.corostrandberg.com. For more information on the Sustainability Speaker Series, Whistler. It’s Our Nature , the Early Adopters or the Natural Step framework, visit www.whistleritsournature.ca.
