BERG BINGO!
Is it too hard to buy with the earth in mind? An article that appeared on the BBC website on Wednesday has hit the nail on the head. The UK Sustainable Consumption Roundtable has released a study that urges the UK Govt. to take a lead and promote lifestyles that impose a lower climate impact.

"Government and businesses must focus fairly and squarely on mainstrem consumers, rather than expecting the heroic minority of green shoppers to shop society's way out of unsustainability."

I'm gonna call this the SHOPPING ICEBERG ANOMALY: rather than addressing the dangerous majority of consumers that sit below the water line, governments have been content to let the visibly active minority act as beacons of hope. Governments need to FLIP THE BERG!

"Mainstream" status quo consumer lifestyles have been a comfortable guarantee of economic growth. Much like the easy-chair that the flipped berg (left) resembles. But like the image, mainstream consumption has been happening in the (ecological) dark. Lets get mainstream consumption out in the open!

UK consultation showed that consumers generally want to be more sustainable but a pervasive belief exists that individual action is futile. Kiwis (well, Wellingtonians at least) will soon have a tool to make a difference, to "flip the berg". That tool is of course ShoppingFix. A tool to pool collective sustainable consumption for real impact.

This is a good point to announce that the NZ govt has chosen not to fund ShoppingFix this year. We had our SMF application turned down so we're gonna have to get clever and beg steal and borrow in order to get a robust sustainable shopping initiative up and running. The good news is that NZ$3.84m in funding was allocated. Although the fund was oversubscribed by 110% there are still lots of initiatives lined up in the coming year. Its just that the NZ Govt. wont flip the berg with us just yet.

Rather than flip the bird and fade into the distance, we'll be relying more on your help to get all things ShoppingFix moving. Watch this space...