We may be on the brink of a radical rethinking of consumerism as individuals begin to buy less and repair more.
For decades experts told Americans that money can’t buy happiness. Purchasing trends have not indicated many listeners, until recently. The current worldwide economic condition coupled with some of the most environmentally conscious consumers the market has ever seen may be weaving together the perfect platform for a shift toward frugality. Businesses attuned to this new “era of thrift” can capture key leadership opportunities and strategically align themselves with their customers’ changing attitudes and spending habits.
Read more...
Inconspicuous Consumption The New Yorker, October 2009
Stop Recycling. Start Repairing CSR International Forum, March 2009
Living on Less Maclean’s, October 2008
Product Sustainability Roundtable
Corporate leaders furthering sustainable product design
Interview with Dr. Sam Thompson
ReplyDeleteResearcher/Consultant, Centre for Well-Being
New Economics Foundation
Aug 14, 2009
1. Do you think keep and repair is something to watch?
I certainly think it is something to keep an eye on. We have done some preliminary looking at trends and consumption. People are eating out less, taking fewer flights and spending more at repair shops. The question is whether this will reverse when the economy rebounds or if people will start to develop new habits. It's too early to tell.
2. If you were a company that made short life goods what would you be doing to change?
Some goods naturally have a short life. Others are made to have a short life. Designing products that fail after a certain period of time is part of the business model for some companies. Another side of this is building products that aren’t easily repaired, like many electronics goods these days. If your computer breaks, you don’t repair it, you throw it out. It would be interesting to see companies designing products that encourage easy repairs and upgrades.
3. Would you share some closing thoughts?
The crux of the matter may lie with consumers. It is naive to say “stop shopping” because there are clearly psychological and social reasons why people enjoy shopping that go beyond just the functional need served by the things they buy. People like to have the latest fashions or newest technologies because it confers a kind of status. So we need to considered people can get some of these same benefits from keeping and repairing what they already have.
Kept, a design collective in the UK, is an attempt to make it "cool" to keep things. They've realized that brand is part of the experience of consumption and are encouraging people to take older items and rebrand them as Kept, thereby giving people the status aspect of consumption but also encouraging repairs.
We have to get away from trying to encourage people to repair just for the sake of saving money or because it is green. The opportunities lie in how to make repairing just as fun and fulfilling as buying new items.
Kept
Designers showing the joy and nobility in keeping treasured things