calamitous is quite a big word but
actually we’re facing a very very big
problem so it’s quite appropriate to use
something that is you know quite a
complicated word to use what I’d like
you to do is to hold that word in your
heads and I’m going to tell you a little
story about China and it’s super
consumers and I’m going to start by
changing the question so the question is
are we shopping ourselves into
extinction and I asked that question
because of the impact of what we consume
the production that’s involved in
producing all of this stuff scientists
have now concluding that actually it is
human beings who have accelerated
climate change we had created the
problems that we are facing today and
but when I ask this question do I mean
all kinds of shopping or am I talking
about
a particular kind well the answer to
that is yes so when we think about the
impact of our shopping behavior we’re
really thinking about it in terms of
materialism we could also call this
conspicuous consumption we can call it
overconsumption but it’s the kind of
[Music]
products services experiences that we
don’t need to live they are not the
essentials and so think about yourselves
think about a shopping trip that perhaps
you have plans this weekend a shopping
trip that you may have done last weekend
and think about how much of that that
you bought did you really need and how
much of it did you really want
and then we come to this slightly more
complex question can we consume
sustainably and can we consume
materialistically do those two kind of
forms of behavior fit together there are
clearly tensions with it if we are
consuming too much if we are enabling
all of our factories to you know produce
a lot of pollution a lot of waste then
really thinking about sustainability in
terms of materialism becomes really
really complicated as a question and
that’s something I’ve been tackling in
my own research for a number of years
not sure I’ve got to an answer yet but
I’m working on it
and it’s a question again I want you to
hold in your head so first of all you’ve
got this this this words calamitous and
then secondly you’ve got this question
of can we as human beings consume
sustainably and materialistically or
materialistically and sustainably and I
want you to hold that question this
question then is quite inconvenient for
us as a as human beings on the planet if
we’re all really really honest with
ourselves we don’t want to consume less
we don’t want to take the fun out of our
consumption we don’t want to say no to
the fast sports car or the bigger house
or the overseas holiday or another piece
of gold another precious stone if we’re
honest we really don’t want to say that
to ourselves and so you’ve got this
whole thing about are we actually
listening to what our climate change
scientists are saying
to it which is essentially if we don’t
just stop and pause and really start to
think about what we’re doing then as a
species we are going to become extinct
we haven’t been on the earth very long
in its life anyway so to think of
extinction after such a short period of
time it’s quite yes quite quite worrying
and then we change the question again
and we say well actually if but how can
we make materialistic consumption more
sustainable can we actually create
consumption that is sustainable and that
can actually help to solve some of the
problems that we are currently facing
problems of accelerated climate change
problems of accelerated wastes problems
of accelerated pollution problems of
reduced food security problems of
reduced water insecurity those issues
there many of them are not certainly not
going to go through them all again an
important question
we shall slide a little little with way
away from where we are now in the UK in
Oxford we’re gonna go to another part of
the world we’re going to really think
about this in terms of a new political
area era for sustainability China now I
am sure all of us are aware China has
been in the news quite a lot the last
couple of weeks and some of the
developments there politically are
certainly very interesting and again it
raises another question and the question
is you know China has a new socialist
economic and sustainability superpower
so it’s just
cause we’ve always think about these
questions in relation to Western
democracies I suspect many of us have
never really thought about this question
in relation to a more socialist less
democratic society where actually you’re
saying they are predicted but evidence
suggests they are predicted to become
our new economic superpower in the
not-too-distant future and equally they
are going to be our sustainability
leaders our sustainability champions in
the not-too-distant future so a major
major role that China is going to be
playing in the future in terms of
helping to solve all of these problems
that we are facing as the human race and
that I think it’s very very very
interesting to think about it in this
new way this new political era and so I
want I would love to tell you the bigger
story of my research I can’t so I’m
going to do a snapshot when I present
some of these findings to you I’m
contrasting them with the UK and the US
so I’m just taking two of the two other
countries that I’ve looked at but you
just want to start by saying well who
are China super consumers well you can
see a picture there
they represent these super consumers
quite nicely men and women not just
women though you know it like might
suggest so they’re younger more affluent
coming out of single child policies from
China very much self focused quite
different from previous generations in
China okay so we are talking about a
generation there are quite alien within
more mainstream China and amongst other
segments other consumer segments so they
are very fair
different they have recently been
described as the bubble generation that
suggests that if they’re a bubble that
might burst I don’t think that’s going
to be the case
they have been likened to Generation X
Generation Z Millennials but that kind
of suggests that they are exactly the
same as Western consumers and they’re
not so these are a very very distinctive
group okay so let’s present some of the
findings from materialism so if we look
the data tells us compared with the UK
and the US China super consumers are far
more materialistic we’re talking about
no this kind of difference China here
you know UK and us down so big
differences we’re talking about a
generation who are using their shopping
so their materialistic shopping for
wealth and status display which I’m sure
many of you are aware very very critical
to China but we get something slightly
different that has not been so evident
in prior studies which is this this kind
of concept successful me now anybody who
knows China and anybody who knows the
West would say well the West is always
about the I and the East is always about
the we collectivism versus individualism
that’s not coming through in this data
it’s a shift towards the I that’s not to
say that collectivism has died it hasn’t
but for this group it is less strong it
is a diminishing
full value successful me it hold that
one too let’s also then look at the data
on China’s probe environmentalists so
they have higher environmental concern
they have a stronger Pro environmental
self-identity and they have a wider
range of sustainable consumption
behaviors and their commitment towards
those is much stronger than in the UK
and the US and I hope you’re sitting
there and thinking whoa well actually
this is kind of odds because it we
wouldn’t expect this we would expect
these findings to be representing
Western consumers and I got quite
excited by this data too and then
remember we were playing with questions
and playing with words so we’re now
thinking about this in relation to green
materialists so bringing those two
concepts together sustainability and
materialism and this is where it gets
interesting all of the evidence says
those two things do not work together
but in China they do so there is a
positive relationship between consuming
in a highly materialistic way and
assuming that that is a sustainable way
of shopping that is interesting it’s
different there have been suggestions in
some very early studies there actually
this is a very good thing because you
know anything that can encourage our
behavior to become greener more ethical
fairer responsible sustainable is good
we challenge
that as an academic I challenge that
because what you are also saying is it’s
okay to be materialistic it’s okay to
over-consume
it’s okay to waste it’s okay to pollute
you may have views on that we have
created a new label I guess it’s what
academics do we call this group the
enviro materialists it’s interesting to
think about them in how they are
actually viewing what it means to be
green what it means to be sustainable in
many ways China’s consumers or its new
super consumers are very naive
incredibly naive about the way the
market works the nature of the free
market of capitalism remember we’re
talking about a socialist nation working
navigating its way through in a market
of free based market system and it kind
of plays around with ideas and what they
think
so the question we go back to is is this
calamitous is this something that we
should be worried about you I be worried
about it should you be worried about it
what do you think I would say yes others
agree but this behavior it’s something
that from they have inherited from the
West they’ve watched what we do our wild
parties of 13 you know 30 years 40 years
50 years a hundred years of having a
really good time of having what we
wanted when we wanted it
I’m never considering the consequences
of never really caring I’m never really
thinking about anybody else or if we did
we just thought we had time but we don’t
are climate change scientists are saying
their predictions on temperature
arises on a much more problematic
whether they were saying well those
things are 2050 that’s a little while
away we’ve got some time to make some
changes 2016 they came back to
governments and said actually those
changes we predicted for 2015 are
happening now 30 years early 20 years
early they’re happening now and we’re
not ready in China this huge superpower
economic sustainability it has learned
from the West
it has inherited our very wild partying
behavior they have a naive trust in
green marketing of Western brands
Western consumers are more cynical they
are less trusting in China that is not
the case they blindly believe so the
corporation’s you’ve jumped in their
fantastic opportunity and said buy our
pair of shoes because they are made with
organic leather they will believe in
reality it might be 0.001 percent but
they believe they are shopping
sustainably until they drop what I mean
by that is they are they assume they are
doing the right thing they don’t
understand that perhaps it isn’t
even more problematic is this idea that
the initiatives and the policies that
China’s government is trying to
implement this group are currently
undermining because they are wanting
more and more and more and while China
is trying to balance this economic
prosperity with sustainability they’re
having a really hard problem it’s really
really difficult it’s also more
difficult for authentic eco innovation
and so there’s a question for you as I
close there’s a question can China lead
globally on economics and sustainability
and then I come to you what is your mark
on sustainability what are you going to
do what do you think about this what’s
your next action going to be there’s a
responsibility for all of us here it’s
not just China it’s not just our
political leaders we all have to make
changes and it’s not just about the
words that we speak it’s about what we
do it’s about all of us being changed
thank you
you
actually we’re facing a very very big
problem so it’s quite appropriate to use
something that is you know quite a
complicated word to use what I’d like
you to do is to hold that word in your
heads and I’m going to tell you a little
story about China and it’s super
consumers and I’m going to start by
changing the question so the question is
are we shopping ourselves into
extinction and I asked that question
because of the impact of what we consume
the production that’s involved in
producing all of this stuff scientists
have now concluding that actually it is
human beings who have accelerated
climate change we had created the
problems that we are facing today and
but when I ask this question do I mean
all kinds of shopping or am I talking
about
a particular kind well the answer to
that is yes so when we think about the
impact of our shopping behavior we’re
really thinking about it in terms of
materialism we could also call this
conspicuous consumption we can call it
overconsumption but it’s the kind of
[Music]
products services experiences that we
don’t need to live they are not the
essentials and so think about yourselves
think about a shopping trip that perhaps
you have plans this weekend a shopping
trip that you may have done last weekend
and think about how much of that that
you bought did you really need and how
much of it did you really want
and then we come to this slightly more
complex question can we consume
sustainably and can we consume
materialistically do those two kind of
forms of behavior fit together there are
clearly tensions with it if we are
consuming too much if we are enabling
all of our factories to you know produce
a lot of pollution a lot of waste then
really thinking about sustainability in
terms of materialism becomes really
really complicated as a question and
that’s something I’ve been tackling in
my own research for a number of years
not sure I’ve got to an answer yet but
I’m working on it
and it’s a question again I want you to
hold in your head so first of all you’ve
got this this this words calamitous and
then secondly you’ve got this question
of can we as human beings consume
sustainably and materialistically or
materialistically and sustainably and I
want you to hold that question this
question then is quite inconvenient for
us as a as human beings on the planet if
we’re all really really honest with
ourselves we don’t want to consume less
we don’t want to take the fun out of our
consumption we don’t want to say no to
the fast sports car or the bigger house
or the overseas holiday or another piece
of gold another precious stone if we’re
honest we really don’t want to say that
to ourselves and so you’ve got this
whole thing about are we actually
listening to what our climate change
scientists are saying
to it which is essentially if we don’t
just stop and pause and really start to
think about what we’re doing then as a
species we are going to become extinct
we haven’t been on the earth very long
in its life anyway so to think of
extinction after such a short period of
time it’s quite yes quite quite worrying
and then we change the question again
and we say well actually if but how can
we make materialistic consumption more
sustainable can we actually create
consumption that is sustainable and that
can actually help to solve some of the
problems that we are currently facing
problems of accelerated climate change
problems of accelerated wastes problems
of accelerated pollution problems of
reduced food security problems of
reduced water insecurity those issues
there many of them are not certainly not
going to go through them all again an
important question
we shall slide a little little with way
away from where we are now in the UK in
Oxford we’re gonna go to another part of
the world we’re going to really think
about this in terms of a new political
area era for sustainability China now I
am sure all of us are aware China has
been in the news quite a lot the last
couple of weeks and some of the
developments there politically are
certainly very interesting and again it
raises another question and the question
is you know China has a new socialist
economic and sustainability superpower
so it’s just
cause we’ve always think about these
questions in relation to Western
democracies I suspect many of us have
never really thought about this question
in relation to a more socialist less
democratic society where actually you’re
saying they are predicted but evidence
suggests they are predicted to become
our new economic superpower in the
not-too-distant future and equally they
are going to be our sustainability
leaders our sustainability champions in
the not-too-distant future so a major
major role that China is going to be
playing in the future in terms of
helping to solve all of these problems
that we are facing as the human race and
that I think it’s very very very
interesting to think about it in this
new way this new political era and so I
want I would love to tell you the bigger
story of my research I can’t so I’m
going to do a snapshot when I present
some of these findings to you I’m
contrasting them with the UK and the US
so I’m just taking two of the two other
countries that I’ve looked at but you
just want to start by saying well who
are China super consumers well you can
see a picture there
they represent these super consumers
quite nicely men and women not just
women though you know it like might
suggest so they’re younger more affluent
coming out of single child policies from
China very much self focused quite
different from previous generations in
China okay so we are talking about a
generation there are quite alien within
more mainstream China and amongst other
segments other consumer segments so they
are very fair
different they have recently been
described as the bubble generation that
suggests that if they’re a bubble that
might burst I don’t think that’s going
to be the case
they have been likened to Generation X
Generation Z Millennials but that kind
of suggests that they are exactly the
same as Western consumers and they’re
not so these are a very very distinctive
group okay so let’s present some of the
findings from materialism so if we look
the data tells us compared with the UK
and the US China super consumers are far
more materialistic we’re talking about
no this kind of difference China here
you know UK and us down so big
differences we’re talking about a
generation who are using their shopping
so their materialistic shopping for
wealth and status display which I’m sure
many of you are aware very very critical
to China but we get something slightly
different that has not been so evident
in prior studies which is this this kind
of concept successful me now anybody who
knows China and anybody who knows the
West would say well the West is always
about the I and the East is always about
the we collectivism versus individualism
that’s not coming through in this data
it’s a shift towards the I that’s not to
say that collectivism has died it hasn’t
but for this group it is less strong it
is a diminishing
full value successful me it hold that
one too let’s also then look at the data
on China’s probe environmentalists so
they have higher environmental concern
they have a stronger Pro environmental
self-identity and they have a wider
range of sustainable consumption
behaviors and their commitment towards
those is much stronger than in the UK
and the US and I hope you’re sitting
there and thinking whoa well actually
this is kind of odds because it we
wouldn’t expect this we would expect
these findings to be representing
Western consumers and I got quite
excited by this data too and then
remember we were playing with questions
and playing with words so we’re now
thinking about this in relation to green
materialists so bringing those two
concepts together sustainability and
materialism and this is where it gets
interesting all of the evidence says
those two things do not work together
but in China they do so there is a
positive relationship between consuming
in a highly materialistic way and
assuming that that is a sustainable way
of shopping that is interesting it’s
different there have been suggestions in
some very early studies there actually
this is a very good thing because you
know anything that can encourage our
behavior to become greener more ethical
fairer responsible sustainable is good
we challenge
that as an academic I challenge that
because what you are also saying is it’s
okay to be materialistic it’s okay to
over-consume
it’s okay to waste it’s okay to pollute
you may have views on that we have
created a new label I guess it’s what
academics do we call this group the
enviro materialists it’s interesting to
think about them in how they are
actually viewing what it means to be
green what it means to be sustainable in
many ways China’s consumers or its new
super consumers are very naive
incredibly naive about the way the
market works the nature of the free
market of capitalism remember we’re
talking about a socialist nation working
navigating its way through in a market
of free based market system and it kind
of plays around with ideas and what they
think
so the question we go back to is is this
calamitous is this something that we
should be worried about you I be worried
about it should you be worried about it
what do you think I would say yes others
agree but this behavior it’s something
that from they have inherited from the
West they’ve watched what we do our wild
parties of 13 you know 30 years 40 years
50 years a hundred years of having a
really good time of having what we
wanted when we wanted it
I’m never considering the consequences
of never really caring I’m never really
thinking about anybody else or if we did
we just thought we had time but we don’t
are climate change scientists are saying
their predictions on temperature
arises on a much more problematic
whether they were saying well those
things are 2050 that’s a little while
away we’ve got some time to make some
changes 2016 they came back to
governments and said actually those
changes we predicted for 2015 are
happening now 30 years early 20 years
early they’re happening now and we’re
not ready in China this huge superpower
economic sustainability it has learned
from the West
it has inherited our very wild partying
behavior they have a naive trust in
green marketing of Western brands
Western consumers are more cynical they
are less trusting in China that is not
the case they blindly believe so the
corporation’s you’ve jumped in their
fantastic opportunity and said buy our
pair of shoes because they are made with
organic leather they will believe in
reality it might be 0.001 percent but
they believe they are shopping
sustainably until they drop what I mean
by that is they are they assume they are
doing the right thing they don’t
understand that perhaps it isn’t
even more problematic is this idea that
the initiatives and the policies that
China’s government is trying to
implement this group are currently
undermining because they are wanting
more and more and more and while China
is trying to balance this economic
prosperity with sustainability they’re
having a really hard problem it’s really
really difficult it’s also more
difficult for authentic eco innovation
and so there’s a question for you as I
close there’s a question can China lead
globally on economics and sustainability
and then I come to you what is your mark
on sustainability what are you going to
do what do you think about this what’s
your next action going to be there’s a
responsibility for all of us here it’s
not just China it’s not just our
political leaders we all have to make
changes and it’s not just about the
words that we speak it’s about what we
do it’s about all of us being changed
thank you
you
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