Fundamental change doesn’t occur by becoming more efficient

Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea’s behind the products that were displayed. And I’m sure they do what is being said that they do. But it also was about doing things more efficiently. When consumers use these products they will need less energy and therefor these products help a better environment. And of course, marketing your products as being more efficient is not something that really speaks to your imagination does it? So the ’sustainability’ tag works wonders here. But in a broader sense, isn’t all sustainability about efficiency in the end?

Interestingly, the sustainability issue focuses a lot on ‘doing things differently’. And some say it needs a fundamental change in the way we live. Fundamental in the sense that it will change all the underlying values that we’ve grown to rely on. Such a paradigm shift means a disconnect with they way our businesses are run, a change in the way we consume and a change in the way we produce. And we have been producing and producing in more efficient ways. Efficiency was the what drove the industrial age. So I just wondered: if sustainability is just about efficiency we are still a long way from that paradigm shift. Because really, the reflective paint doesn’t make you change your life does it…it just makes you use a little less…