Joost Martens (Director General, Consumers International) interviewed by Hub Culture at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
Martens gives a run down of the G20 Fair Financial Services campaign and of sustainable consumption for consumers.
Showing posts with label World Economic Forum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Economic Forum. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Saturday, 29 January 2011
World Economic Forum in Davos: hopes and fears
Joost Martens (Director General, Consumers International) writes from the 2011 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
I joined about 2500 other people - leaders from government, business and civil society - for a few days in this Swiss village in the Alps. Being here you realise that Davos is about meeting people. Meeting people in many formal and informal settings, I attended big plenary sessions where heads of state like President Sarkozy talk about their view of the world. But also panel discussions with ministers and CEOs, workshop style meetings, lunch sessions, dinner meetings, nightcaps and much more.
Multiple meetings take place at the same time. Some people say that a big issue for many WEF participants is not knowing whether they should not be in another more interesting meeting that may be ongoing somewhere else. And of course, with so many government and industry leaders around, many of the meetings they have are not listed in the official programme.
Networking
Davos is about networking. It would take months of trying to get appointments with many of the people who are there, and then you may not even succeed. In Davos you approach them informally and talk for a moment or have a coffee together. For example, I confirmed with a keynote speaker for the Consumers International World Congress her participation in Hong Kong in May. I also talked about consumer protection in financial services and how the French G20 presidency will be putting it on the G20 agenda. I made arrangements for a ministerial meeting for one of our regional directors. And I talked with the secretary general of ISO about the synergies between ISO standards and the work of CI.
Consumers
Of course the contents of the meetings matters. Because there is hope and expectation that what is presented and discussed here, will impact positively upon the state of the world (the WEF slogan is ‘Committed to improving the state of the world’). The consumer interest is present under many headings. To name a few: The International Financial System: Back on Track?; The New Reality of Consumer Power; The New Reality of Climate Change.; Young Consumers: Young People versus Old Models.; Rewiring the Responsible Enterprise.; and The New Reality of a Sustainable Lifestyle.
I have tried to bring in CI’s experience and knowledge into the main issues that concern consumers and are relevant to consumer organisations. This was possible in relation to our work on the financial sector, where we ask for less complexity of the services that are on the market. Also on empowering consumers, where it is not about giving more and more information to consumers. We ask from governments and industry to make sure that what is on the shelves is not ‘toxic’, but safe and sustainable.
Food prices
An issue that scares most, in what I heard and picked up, is the risk around rising commodity prices, especially food. This can have future consequences on access to food for poor consumers, which is a dark perspective.
Technology hope
On the other hand, a clear sign of hope came from talking about the incredible power and possibilities of communications, of mobile technologies and digital applications. I attended a session on ‘digital convergence’ that gave a sense of what is around the corner of possibilities for mobile phone use - in different ways for consumers from developed economies and from emerging and developing economies.
So there are both signs of concern and signs of hope from the meetings in the Alps.
Monday, 8 February 2010
How to engage consumers on sustainability
Joost Martens, CI Director General, continues blogging on issues raised in the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos. He says consumers need a change of consciousness.
To change consumer behaviour, and thus for consumers at large to act, we need to engage them. This is not just about pushing more information on the consumer; there are limits to that and some even argue that there is already too much information out there. This is about consciousness, about emotions. It can be done through campaigns of consciousness building, as there are whole generations of consumers that are aware and willing to act in the general interest.
There are examples from the past of major behavioural changes in society – the smoking bans, the mandatory use of seatbelts. We should be looking for the trigger towards behavioural change in regards to sustainable consumption.
Earlier CI surveys have showed that many consumers do want to act, but need guidance and orientation, from governments, as well as being offered sustainable options by industry.
This reflects the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration, a need that is there not only from the consumer perspective. Industry and governments need to work together with consumer organisations, because these are the organisations most trusted by the public.
Governments need to…
…establish standards, create a level playing field, and implement regulation to ensure that these standards ensure quality and sustainability of goods and services to be produced.
And industry must…
…assume its responsibility, through ensuring sustainable production, and stop externalising costs, such as carbon. They could enter new markets, with sustainability as the driver of innovation. And they should be avoiding the ‘green washing’ of their products or processes.
The above seems to imply that the consumer has to renew himself, or herself, with a new conscious behaviour using sustainable options provided by government and industry.
The title of one of the Forum’s sessions was Who is the new consumer? and was designed to focus on consumers in emerging economies. However, during the development of the session, it became clear that there are various parameters to characterise the new consumer, not only geography, looking at consumers from countries like India, China and Brazil, but also age, to take youth into account and make sustainability ‘cool’; gender, to cater for the growing purchasing power of women, as well as the need to close the gender gap; and the abovementioned need for ‘new consumer behaviour’ in the affluent world.
We should not be talking only about the consumers in the developed world. ‘Inequality is the enemy of sustainability’ it was said in Davos, and we should strive for fairer societies, where the consumer/citizen has access to products and services that are needed and that are available in markets.
The World Economic Forum 2010 in Davos ended with a sense of urgency, to act. I hope we see leadership from those that were present, leading by example, and focusing on the three elements of sustainability, social, environmental and economical.
CI will play its role in this urgency, through partnerships and by leading, by different ways and means. In the UN Commission of Sustainable Development, in the Marrakech process, towards the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, and with our member organisations in the different countries.
To change consumer behaviour, and thus for consumers at large to act, we need to engage them. This is not just about pushing more information on the consumer; there are limits to that and some even argue that there is already too much information out there. This is about consciousness, about emotions. It can be done through campaigns of consciousness building, as there are whole generations of consumers that are aware and willing to act in the general interest.
There are examples from the past of major behavioural changes in society – the smoking bans, the mandatory use of seatbelts. We should be looking for the trigger towards behavioural change in regards to sustainable consumption.
Earlier CI surveys have showed that many consumers do want to act, but need guidance and orientation, from governments, as well as being offered sustainable options by industry.
This reflects the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration, a need that is there not only from the consumer perspective. Industry and governments need to work together with consumer organisations, because these are the organisations most trusted by the public.
Governments need to…
…establish standards, create a level playing field, and implement regulation to ensure that these standards ensure quality and sustainability of goods and services to be produced.
And industry must…
…assume its responsibility, through ensuring sustainable production, and stop externalising costs, such as carbon. They could enter new markets, with sustainability as the driver of innovation. And they should be avoiding the ‘green washing’ of their products or processes.
The above seems to imply that the consumer has to renew himself, or herself, with a new conscious behaviour using sustainable options provided by government and industry.
The title of one of the Forum’s sessions was Who is the new consumer? and was designed to focus on consumers in emerging economies. However, during the development of the session, it became clear that there are various parameters to characterise the new consumer, not only geography, looking at consumers from countries like India, China and Brazil, but also age, to take youth into account and make sustainability ‘cool’; gender, to cater for the growing purchasing power of women, as well as the need to close the gender gap; and the abovementioned need for ‘new consumer behaviour’ in the affluent world.
We should not be talking only about the consumers in the developed world. ‘Inequality is the enemy of sustainability’ it was said in Davos, and we should strive for fairer societies, where the consumer/citizen has access to products and services that are needed and that are available in markets.
The World Economic Forum 2010 in Davos ended with a sense of urgency, to act. I hope we see leadership from those that were present, leading by example, and focusing on the three elements of sustainability, social, environmental and economical.
CI will play its role in this urgency, through partnerships and by leading, by different ways and means. In the UN Commission of Sustainable Development, in the Marrakech process, towards the World Summit on Sustainable Development 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, and with our member organisations in the different countries.
Davos and the ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’
Joost Martens, CI Director General, challenges ‘the Prisoner’s Dilemma’ at the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos.
Sustainable consumption was high on the agenda of the World Economic Forum this year, with at least five sessions dedicated directly or indirectly to the topic. Titles included Who is the new consumer? and Redesigning consumption patterns. While it was recognised that governments and industry have major roles to play, the main questions were about consumers: ‘Can they be informed and inspired, and indeed empowered to change behaviour towards more sustainable consumption?’
In that context, the Prisoner's Dilemma is sometimes used – and was also raised in Davos – to explain why consumers will or can not easily make efforts to consume sustainable (or green, or fair trade, or ethical) products and services. I don’t believe that today’s consumer behaviour can be interpreted through the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and will explain why.
The Prisoner's Dilemma is…
…a short parable about two prisoners who are split up and each offered a chance to inform on each other, for which the informer would receive a lighter sentence and the informed would receive a harsher sentence. The problem is that both can play this game – ie backstab – and if both do, then fair worse than they would had they both kept silent.
There are two basic aspects that characterise the situation of the prisoners. One assumption is that they are not in communication with each other (both sit separated from the other in cells). In terms of consumption behaviour, this can be translated into not knowing what the other consumers are doing – not being in communication with each other – and assuming that one’s actions won’t make a difference, and therefore choosing the easiest, cheapest or most available options – thus pursuing their self-interest and not the common interest, of a sustainable future for the planet.
But this is less and less true: TV, mobile phones, the Internet and social networks make it possible to be in almost constant and perfect communication, and to know what other people are thinking, doing, and valuing.
The other assumption is that they both pursue their self-interest and not the potential common interest. I do not believe consumers see themselves in this light. The results from a consumer survey in Brazil, presented during the Forum, showed that many consumers wish to be more active in society and do take sustainability issues into account in their purchasing decisions; will or won’t trust (and are prepared to reward or punish) industry for providing sustainable products and services; and assume their responsibilities and understand their role as a political role. In other words, they don’t see themselves as shoppers, but as citizens, as consumer/citizens. To change consumer behaviour, and thus for consumers at large to act, we need to engage them.
Continue reading the next post from Joost Martens post-Davos.
Sustainable consumption was high on the agenda of the World Economic Forum this year, with at least five sessions dedicated directly or indirectly to the topic. Titles included Who is the new consumer? and Redesigning consumption patterns. While it was recognised that governments and industry have major roles to play, the main questions were about consumers: ‘Can they be informed and inspired, and indeed empowered to change behaviour towards more sustainable consumption?’
In that context, the Prisoner's Dilemma is sometimes used – and was also raised in Davos – to explain why consumers will or can not easily make efforts to consume sustainable (or green, or fair trade, or ethical) products and services. I don’t believe that today’s consumer behaviour can be interpreted through the Prisoner’s Dilemma, and will explain why.
The Prisoner's Dilemma is…
…a short parable about two prisoners who are split up and each offered a chance to inform on each other, for which the informer would receive a lighter sentence and the informed would receive a harsher sentence. The problem is that both can play this game – ie backstab – and if both do, then fair worse than they would had they both kept silent.
There are two basic aspects that characterise the situation of the prisoners. One assumption is that they are not in communication with each other (both sit separated from the other in cells). In terms of consumption behaviour, this can be translated into not knowing what the other consumers are doing – not being in communication with each other – and assuming that one’s actions won’t make a difference, and therefore choosing the easiest, cheapest or most available options – thus pursuing their self-interest and not the common interest, of a sustainable future for the planet.
But this is less and less true: TV, mobile phones, the Internet and social networks make it possible to be in almost constant and perfect communication, and to know what other people are thinking, doing, and valuing.
The other assumption is that they both pursue their self-interest and not the potential common interest. I do not believe consumers see themselves in this light. The results from a consumer survey in Brazil, presented during the Forum, showed that many consumers wish to be more active in society and do take sustainability issues into account in their purchasing decisions; will or won’t trust (and are prepared to reward or punish) industry for providing sustainable products and services; and assume their responsibilities and understand their role as a political role. In other words, they don’t see themselves as shoppers, but as citizens, as consumer/citizens. To change consumer behaviour, and thus for consumers at large to act, we need to engage them.
Continue reading the next post from Joost Martens post-Davos.
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