Consumers can drive the changeStefan Petrutiu

45% of children in Côte d’Ivoire not attending school

Which ones are easier to solve?

The Dutch share of impacts:Between 5.000 - 15.000 child

laborers

Rainforest loss at a rate of 2 football fields per minute

Nepal earthquake: 9.000 deaths and 450.000 displaced

ISIS in Syria: 220.000 deaths and 9 million displaced

The ones to which we are connected

The differences are the barriers:

It’s not only about responsibility

• Urgency

• The availability heuristic

• Poverty vs Livelihoods

Understanding change

Factors influencing production-consumption systems: • Trade and global production chains• Prices• Income• Technological advances• New business models• Marketing• Urbanisation and infrastructure developments• Demographics; social and cultural factors such as habits, social norms and heritage

The Twitter push-n-shove

The Twitter push-n-shove – The response

A couple of striking facts

Certified vs Non-certified

Ivory Coast – cocoa (2014)

2,343 euro 2,013 euro

• 90% of farmers say that the premium doesn’t cover the costs of production

Sourcing from large plantations & agribusinesses

More labels

Increase in wrong reasons to become more sustainable

More consumer segments

More companies using labels

More communication messages

Small farmers suffer

More products & distribution channels

Increased competition

Increase in confusion for consumers

Increase in methods to inform consumers (organizations

campaigns, apps, etc)

Erosion of principles

Complex & expensive

Addition of burdensome

elements

Very limited impact

A tool introduced to change a system

For discussion

• Does VSS have a role in the future? What are possible roles?

• What is the desired impact we want to have through our consumption?

• What else needs to happen to achieve that impact?

Let’s make it simple and fun again