I have often wondered whether sustainability and consumerism are incompatible? One of the main difficulties in reducing resource use, across a whole range of natural resources, is the fact that many of the success measures of our current economic model are based on consumer spending. This is true for individual companies (where sell, sell sell is the only motto) and also for national economies (where GDP growth is the only motto). Green consumerism may reduce mainly the environmental impact of a product but when consumers are making unnecessary purchases across a whole range of items - substituting 'green' stuff for the 'non-green' stuff of yesteryear.

So when a company wants to make to real efforts to reduce its footprint, one cannot expect them to do so at the expense of sales. There-in lies the rub of taking large steps towards sustainability.

It is remarkable, very useful phrase

I believe the mindset and focus in business needs to shift from quantity to consumerism that is based on quality. Businesses needs to look at the full life-cycle of products and actively seek to bring forward quality products and invent new commercial ideas around re-use and re-cycle, and thereby find new sources of income and new ways to generate profit. The question is: does business of today and in the future embrace such feeling of societal responsibility? How can such responsibility be fostered and incentivised?

Brilliant phrase

What to do with all those people wanting cheap products and those who do not care about quality? Seems like a social change issue...

Thanks for the help in this question.

I have a question what is the ratio of green beans to ground pounds? If I buy one pound of green beans, roast and grind do I have a pound of ground coffee? Im sure its less but just wondering what the average ratio is?