The title of the last session of the BSR conference presented an oxymoron in the shape of a conundrum: sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumption is a phrase suitable for The George Orwell Dictionary of New Speak. Clearly there is an internal contradiction – there isn’t any way we are going to consume ourselves into a sustainable world. At this point the only sustainable consumption is declining consumption. Anything else is misleading – even when factoring in cradle to cradle recycling, reusing, repurposing.  Here’s why: we are told that if we were to create a universal standard of living equal to how the average American lives, we would need at least seven Earths of resources to do so.  But the world is on an inexorable march to demand just that. China alone builds 20 new cities a year and each city will hold at least one million people. India is following suit, as is Brazil, and every rise in the standard of living anywhere in the world propels more people into the more comfortable, but resource-demanding, middle class. And that is unsustainable.

But look at it this way; even if this growing middle class can be built on recycled, repurposed and reusable materials, the population of the world is expected to rise by 50% by mid-century. Under current conditions there just doesn’t seem to be any reasonable way to meet everyone’s basic needs from sanitation and potable water to clean, safe and economically viable habitats let alone limitless consumer wants. Thus, to talk about sustainable consumption just doesn’t make sense – no matter how you spin it.

But there is always hope – new technology, new processes, maybe even a new lifestyle choice that reduces materialism as a defining force in our lives will sweep over the world and reduce demand for “stuff.” But it’s not going to happen in the short term and it’s doubtful that market forces alone will provide the solution in any event. Talk of eco-friendly products, new design, conservation, and shifting demand to renewable materials will help, but the magnitude is just too big for these efforts to result in anything more than a short term palliative at best.

New thinking is necessary if any of these efforts, or others, will do more than make the business community look like it is just being less bad instead of being part of real solutions. The challenge is great, the current state of our resources is tenuous, the rate of change is spinning out of control, and it is time for systems thinking among business, government, international bodies, and NGOs, but it must result in bold new ideas, long term commitments to address the issues, and media support to educate and enlist viewers about the need for personal as well as institutional efforts. Ultimately, we’ll all need to take part in this effort.