Eco is Luxe

Environment consciousness is at best a luxury in a developing country like India.

We might shrug this off by calling it a shortsighted view but there is truth in what I just said. It is a luxury because
·We have a country where we need to reach food for living to a LARGE number of people and we can’t depend on flimsy paper bags to carry it, we need poly-film to help us reach it intact and reach it cost effectively.

·We have billions who need to be kept warm thus we need to burn fossil fuel & firewood

·We have millions who want to celebrate their festivals with all the fanfare and we can’t ban all the firecrackers

·We have innumerable thirsty throats that need clean and bottled water and we can’t deny it for there is a dip in the water table

We are a country that has an over-grown population & an over-developed democracy but an under-developed economy and stilted governance & public administration. This disequilibrium is that is at the root of many of the challenges that we are facing as a nation and an ecosystem!

Like the ecosystem maintains a dynamic equilibrium with itself so is needed an equilibrium between Democracy, Economy and Ecology. Today, none of these is in harmony with the other.

The challenge is not limited to a developing nation like India. Even developed nations are facing it though in different ways. Let’s talk about the much talked about Organic Wave. Why is there a backlash to Organic food with questions being raised as to what is the real organic?
Is milk and meat from cattle that roams and feeds on ‘live’ grass (that is not grown with pesticides) and comes back to the cattle-shed in the evening to be milked, more organic than the cattle that does not have to leave the shed and feeds on similar pesticide free grass which is pre cut? Perhaps yes perhaps we do not know.
A more fundamental question to ask is that why can’t we afford to send the cow out in the fields? The answer usually would be “we do not have the luxury of time to do that because demand waits for no one” (not even till cows come home!). And what does this overbearing demand represent? This demand represents the large population that needs to have their morning cup of milk every day regularly and in good quantities. The large population (a species called humans) has grown ‘inorganically’ and has an inorganic agenda for survival, but it wants to live healthy – organically. It is perhaps a huge paradox of our times because a species that ‘lives’ inorganically (medicines/ vaccines/ surgeries/ implants/ augmentations etc.) cannot realistically have a ‘lifestyle’ that is organic (food etc.).

When these challenges are rampant in developed nations (US) with small population base (density 31/sqkm) how can we be surprised to see the adverse impact of this rampant population growth and the subsequent degradation of environment in over populated (density 329/sq km) & under developed countries like India.

Challenges facing a developing country go far and wide beyond over-population. We have problems to address as as rampant migration, lack of education and sometimes-even lack of regulations . Together all of them pose a much bigger challenge than what brands can realistically handle.

Eco friendliness is a luxury that brands in developing countries cannot afford, not at least in the short term!

The way to approach this challenge is to not just look at the responsibilities of brands and marketers but to look at what role does government have to play in solving these fundamental challenges.

For brands and marketers a more realistic target would be to create perceptions of eco-friendliness for themselves based on their activities, no matter how micro they are, and hope that this also leads to a larger set of people becoming conscious of their responsibilities towards environment in one way or the other.
No wonder we have public and private initiatives like the DTC Bus service in Delhi, which is the largest CNG, bus service network in the world. There are brands like Allen Solly and many others that promote only recycled paper bags. We even have hospitality chains like Ecotel Hotels that have been certified as completely environment friendly. British Petroleum has launched Oorja - a smoke free chulha for rural markets in India. The chulha burns the fuel optimally and reduces the smoke dramatically.

It is interesting to note that while eco conscious brands, products and marketing seems to connote luxury at the top-end, which in turn triggers adoption; at the bottom-end eco friendliness has to stand for efficiency and value to attract trials and adoption.
Though all of these might look like small steps but they are all in the right direction.

The long march to eco responsibility has just begun and we have a long way to go. The good news is that we at least know the direction we need to take.