Hurray Allison (Arieff in her article in the NYTimes - The Green Market - October 4, 2006) you nailed the irony of sustainable marketing - sustainability is about using less not buying more. The irony of a luxury sustainability magazine being sustainable only if its readers buy the goods from the advertisers that support it is sublime. On the other hand, the notion of sustainability is in its infancy and yet to reach its tipping point. Sure, we don't all wake up in the morning making decisions on what we can do to lower our footprint.
I am currently building a Luxury Sustainable Resort Community and in talking to partners, investors and potential guests, the questions that inevitably comes up is, "How can a resort be both 'Luxury' and 'Sustainable'?" To that question I answer with this short story. We have two Prius cars in our driveway, one is the original, now 5 years old and it has very few extra's in it. When we went to buy our second Prius, now 3 years old, it came with many more amenities - Navigation System, 6 CD Changer, Voice Control, etc. Our project lawyer just drove up to a meeting in her brand new Prius, guess what, they now come with Leather Seats! Seems that Toyota made an initial assumption that the market for a green car would be people who want to save gas, but it seems that it is the other way around. The Prius is the car for people who can and want to make a conscious effort to reduce their footprint.
So now, when my lawyer wakes up in the morning, she doesn't have to think about lowering her footprint when she is worried about getting her girl to school on time. That is how Sustainability will hit the tipping point, a large lifestyle decision like buying a green car will make smaller decisions about reducing your footprint integrated into your day to day lifestyle - one decision and decision maker at a time. Sure the "Greatest Generation" built our "modern" society based on the idea of plenty and boundless resources. Now it is time for the Next Greatest Generation that can create a new society around the ideas of scarcity and sustainability. Hurray Allison, keep speaking and writing about this topic and lets create a new vision of modern living that makes sustainability commonplace and effortless.
