Big Brands Helping Biodiversity - Should consumers have a choice about sustainability? – Blog

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Big Brands Helping Biodiversity - Should consumers have a choice about sustainability?

19 Aug 2010 – Jennifer Biringer

Watch Jason Clay’s TED talk on how big brands can save biodiversity. Jason fundamentally believes – and I concur – that we shouldn’t have the choice of whether to consume sustainably. The choices are infinitely complex and we have little hope of working within ecosystem limits if we await consumer understanding (apparently, average consumers spend just 1.8 seconds considering product options).

WWF has refined their approach of engaging the global private sector power players down to understanding the top 15 commodities that have the biggest biodiversity impacts (on the places WWF cares most about) and the 100 or so companies that mostly influence these. Collusion, as Jason says, is the necessary ingredient to make true headway such that sustainability becomes pre-competitive. Indeed collusion is necessary, and collaboration – across a range of actors – needs to happen. Not just among the private sector but among NGOs and other public sector actors as well.