Written and translated by Dalila Moummi.
Ingrid Stigzelius is a researcher at the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (MISUM) at the Stockholm School of Economics. In this interview, she explains the different areas of responsibility within sustainable consumption, and shares her own story of becoming a more mindful consumer.
What are your key takeaways from your research in sustainable consumption?
Stigzelius: My research has focused on sustainable food practices and how consumers can get engaged to ‘do green’ in the market and in their everyday life. While consumers can contribute to shape more sustainable practices, their capacity to act are at the same time also being shaped by many other actors in society. Therefore, consumption should not only be seen as an individual act, but rather as a joint, collective effort.
Based on these insights, and to take more of a holistic perspective on how to address the problem of sustainable consumption, I have used Goleman’s triple focus on ourselves, others and the wider world in my teaching at the Global Challenges program at SSE. Partly one should take on an inner focus on oneself to create a purposeful life, partly we need to focus on others’ different realities to be able to work together, and partly we need to focus on the outer world to understand how systems and organizations interact and to create webs of interdependence (Goleman, 2013). Change can take place on these different levels through our individual choices, for example through our personal lifestyle, career choices and political engagement.
Focusing on our personal lifestyle choices can not only create meaning on an inner level, but through engaging with others we can also change cultural expectations in order to gradually achieve a tipping point (for instance what Greta Thunberg is doing). To achieve change on a system level, we can also act sustainably through our education and career choices where we can work to integrate sustainability in the curriculum and in companies to lead others towards sustainability. Finally, we can act consciously through the political choices we make, where politicians are mandated to change the rules of the game for consumption (for example through market-based instruments, laws and regulations).
While our individual purchasing decisions contribute to the overall demand, I personally do not believe that my or others' personal choices in the market constitute a sufficient basis for more extensive changes that will be needed to limit climate emissions. This requires drastic political decisions and companies that help drive change, not by placing the responsibility on the consumer to "choose the right products", but by ensuring that what is on the market is basically sustainable.
On the other hand, both politicians and companies need to find that there is a demand and support for sustainability to make them dare to invest in it, so our consumer choices have an important sign value in that way. To create additional mandates for change we can, for example, engage politically both as citizens and consumer to channel different concerns with an amplified voice, or work for sustainable leadership in the companies you operate. All in all, sustainable consumption is not only dependent on the individual and the "smart choices" we make in the market, but instead these choices should be seen as a collective result based on many different actors' choices in society.
How do you address your personal consumption habits? Do you do something or have a special routine that is more sustainable than your previous habits?
Stigzelius: For my own part, I try to live sustainable in different ways, but I realize that it is difficult to do so fully since we are all part of unsustainable systems. Consumption areas that have a larger climate impact are primarily transportation, food, housing and shopping. Personally, I have made incremental and experimental steps toward sustainability that have not been of such a drastic change, nor implied much of a sacrifice. Instead, it has created a certain meaning that I feel enriches my life in so many ways. I think this meaning making is one of the keys drivers to motivate change on an individual level.
Firstly, through my career choice as a researcher in sustainability, I have created an employment that feels interesting and meaningful. I have also been a vegetarian for over twenty years now, which started as a matter of taste and then grew to an ethical and then also environmental question. More recently I have also tried to grow my own vegetables, which has given me a new relationship to food and nature. It has also given me a restful recreation and enabled me to meet people across cultures and generations that I would not have met otherwise. I often ride my bike if I am going somewhere locally, and commute by train to work. Last summer we went on a train holiday down to Italy, where the train journey itself was a fantastic experience that my kids also loved. Otherwise, we have recently bought a hybrid car when travelling for longer distances. While this partly reduces the emissions, the best option would of course be to not own a car at all. Instead one could lease a car or be part of a car-pool, which however currently seems a bit inconvenient to me. Another area that I find difficult to change for the better is to limit my clothing purchases, especially as I have three children who contribute to increased use of clothing. I however try to reuse, borrow and lend out clothes to family and friends as much as possible and occasionally I buy secondhand clothes for myself as well. Meanwhile, raising children has been debated as probably having the largest climate impact one can make as an individual. At the same time, they are also the biggest reason for my personal engagement to make a difference and to continue work for a better future for them and other generations to come.
Photograph by Fanny Lundvall.