UnconsumptionDr. Nita RollinsFuturist, Resource Interactive

Unconsumption

SXSWFrom:Dr. Nita Rollins, FuturistResource Interactive’s RI:Lab

Actions and forces that reduce a consumer footprint

Unconsumption

No Shortage of Scholarship

RI TREND MAP2009-2015

Macrotrend Consumer Digital Sociocultural Brand/Industry Vertical

RI TREND MAP2009-2015

Macrotrend Consumer Digital Sociocultural Brand/Industry Vertical

Scarcity & Sustainability

Locasumers

The Socially Conscious Web

Unconsumption

CSR

Recessionary Reality

Stealth Wealth

Skeptinomics

Lifehacking

Stopwatch Shopping

“Our carbon footprint is directly tied to our consumption, whether that’s tied to our consumption of energy or a consumer

product.”

Josh Dorfman, host of Sundance Channel show The Lazy Environmentalist

THE LOST DECADE?Median household income in 2008 slipped to $50,303 from $51,295 in 1998.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2009

RECESSION AS UNCONSUMPTION

CATALYST

Goodwill stores open at least a year rose7.1% in the first three months of 2009 over the same period a year earlier.

Source: NYT, June 10, 2009

...is the number-one clothing site on the Internet

...sold $7.1 billion worth of apparel products sold last year

...has 90 million active buyers and sellers

...did $8.7 billion in revenues in 2009

...sells a dress and a pair of women’s jeans every 18 seconds ...sells a pair of shoes every three seconds...sold more than $600 million of all types of merchandise via eBay mobile in 2009

570 cities 50 countries 20 billion page views per monthMore traffic than either eBay or Amazon.comBartering increased 100% during recession. SOURCE: Digital Journal, March 2009

“With more than 47 million unique users every month in the US alone—nearly a fifth of the nation's adult population—it is the most important community site going and yet the most underdeveloped.” SOURCE: Why Craigslist is Such a Mess, Gary Wolf, Wired, 8/09

Traditional jobs grew by 3.7% between 1998 and 2007. Jobs in the clean energy economy grew by 9.1%.

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts’ The CleanEconomy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America, June 2009

ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL UNEXPECTEDLY

COALESCE

“That’s wildly out of touch with

mainstream America, which mainly shops in

big-box stores. People don’t pay the

green premium. People in this

economy buy on price, price and

price.”SOURCE: Tom Szaky, founder of Terracycle Inc.

Of 4,000 consumers surveyed worldwide, almost 1/3 said they were willing to pay

more for green products — especially for fresh and prepared

foods, and large appliances.

SOURCE: Boston Consulting Group survey, Jan 2010?

Are marketers focused on this alternate economy and

ecosystem?

Some are...

“Unconsumption is a word used to describe everything that happens after an act of acquisition.Unconsumption is an invisible badge.Unconsumption means the accomplishment of properly recycling your old cellphone, rather than the guilt of letting it sit in a drawer.Unconsumption means the thrill of finding a new use for something that you were about to throw away.Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a service like Freecycle (or Craigslist or Goodwill) to find a new home for the functioning VCR you just replaced, rather than throwing it in the garbage.Unconsumption means enjoying the things you own to the fullest – not just at the moment of acquisition.Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a pair of sneakers until they are truly worn out – as opposed to the nagging feeling of defeat when they simply go out of style.Unconsumption means feeling good about the simple act of turning off the lights when you leave the room.Unconsumption is not about the rejection of things, or the demonization of things. It’s not a bunch of rules.Unconsumption is an idea, a set of behaviors, a way of thinking about consumption itself from a new perspective.Unconsumption is free.” SOURCE: unconsumption blog by Rob Walker, Tom Hosford, Steve Chaney, Brian W. Jones

PARADOX?conspicuous UNCONSUMPTION

H&M Outed for Destroying Unsold ApparelSOURCE: NYT, Jan 2010

Haul Vlogging

GEN Y: The prematurely affluent generation

PUBLICIZING AND CATALOGING

CONSUMPTION

8,000 views to date

Made me wonder, "what if everyone sold all their stuff at the same time.....?"

Picture the postal deliveries, and the friendliness which stuff-swapping

could engender.Amazon book reviewer M. Stevens Becksvoort

“And finally, as many have already expressed, thanks for helping me to examine my relationship with stuff and how not to let it define you.”

Phil in Charlottesville, VA and proud owner of Ecko can opener

ARTISTIC INVENTORIES

EXAMINE CONSUMPTION

& IDENTITY

Made me wonder, "what if everyone sold all their stuff at the same time.....?"

Picture the postal deliveries, and the friendliness which stuff-swapping

could engender.Amazon book reviewer M. Stevens Becksvoort

“And finally, as many have already expressed, thanks for helping me to examine my relationship with stuff and how not to let it define you.”

Phil in Charlottesville, VA and proud owner of Ecko can opener

Simon Evans, Everything I Have

ARTISTIC INVENTORIES

EXAMINE CONSUMPTION

& IDENTITY

1 Reduce2 Reuse 3 Recycle4 Refuse5 Make6 Sell7 Swap

consumer ACTIONS

RADICAL TRANSPARENCYDISINTERMEDIATION

FREECONOMICSNETWORK EFFECT

DEMATERIALIZATION

digitalFORCES

Online Forums

Video Ethnography

consumer ACTIONS

PRIM

ARY

RES

EARC

H

Dane, 24, Austinite & unconsumer

1 Reduce2 Reuse 3 Recycle4 Refuse5 Make6 Sell7 Swap

Swap

c c

RADICAL TRANSPARENCYDISINTERMEDIATION

FREECONOMICSNETWORK EFFECT

DEMATERIALIZATION

digitalFORCES

“Greenwashing has run its course and is on the verge of finally dying off. The death of greenwashing comes with the rise of radical transparency: either your become transparent or transparency will be done to you." Adam Werbach, Global CEO of sustainability agency Saatchi & Saatchi S

RADICAL TRANSPARENCY

900 of 4,500 companies delisted

DISINTERMEDIATION

material culture meets counter culture

Over the last year, the number of registered members on Etsy has more than doubled to 3.75 million.

The Quit Your Day Job blog on Etsy now attracts 2 million page views a month.

FREECONOMICS

“Free has a powerful hold on the psyche.”

Chris Anderson, Free: The Future of a Radical Price

NETWORK EFFECT

The Facebook Causes application has become the fastest growing consumer Internet application in history, reaching 50 million users in just two years.

“Companies like Facebook, Twitter, Ebay and Apple--

but not Google--will dominate the future of the

internet. Collecting data is less valuable than connecting people.”

SOURCE: Sean Parker, Web 2.0 Summit October 2009

DEMATERIALIZATION Hussein Chayalan atoms mix with bits

As goods become disembodied, infused with slivers of mind, and packed full of bits, they will also obey the new dynamics of property. Soon enough everything manufactured will potentially become social property. Kevin Kelly, The Technium

OFFER NO HOLDS BARRED SUSTAINABLE MARKETING

RENT THE NEWEST, MOST COVETABLE ITEMS

OLD IS THE NEW NEW: SELL VINTAGE

PREPARE FOR CSR SCRUTINYCLARIFY SUSTAINABILITYMIRROR CONSUMERS‘ DESIRE FOR DISRUPTION

SUPPORT SWAPPING ON SITE

7 Ways to Reach the Unconsumer

Marks & SpencerOFFER NO HOLDS BARRED

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING

Marks & Spencer

TAKE THE HIGH ROAD AND DO IT.

“Ownership is not as important as it once

was. Access is better than ownership.”

--Kevin Kelly, The Technium

RENT THE NEWEST, MOST COVETABLE

ITEMS

OLD IS THE NEW NEW:

SELL VINTAGE

Urban renewal Vegan-friendly clothing

Organic cotton Solar electricity reduces factory footprint by 30% Fabric Scrap Recycling: 30,000 pounds per week

Philanthropy: Hurricane Katrina victims received 80,000 shirts

PREPARE FOR CSR

SCRUTINY

Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics gave Dell, Apple, and Motorola “Partially Good” scores.

Upcycle

CLARIFY SUSTAINABILITY Earth 911 saw a 12% increase in

searches in 2009 compared to 2008, with an average of “almost

7000 daily inquiries” about disposing of home electronics responsibly. SOURCE: sustainablog.org February 2010

The sustainability question is: How can we design and build a world in which the Earth thrives

and people can pursue flourishing lives?

Are there other definitions?Yes—too many to count.

SOURCE: MIT Sloan Management Review Sustainability Initiative

Tropicana Origami

MIRROR CONSUMERS‘ DESIRE FOR DISRUPTION

PACKAGING DECONSTRUCTED

=NEW KINETIC VALUE

SUPPORT SWAPPING ON SITE

PROTOTYPE

SUPPORT SWAPPING ON SITE

PROTOTYPE

Dr. Nita RollinsFuturist, Resource Interactive

thank you. www.resource.com

FOR A PRESENTATION OF UNCONSUMPTION, CONTACT: inquiry@resource.com