Date: 2024-05-18 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00018047
CoGo: Putting Citizens in Control of Sustainable Consumption
CoGo sounds like a good step in the right direction. I have been developing TrueValueMetrics.org (TVM) for quite a long time and the idea that individual decisions should be part of the solution to the present socio-enviro-economic crisis is a part of the TVM framework. Corporate managers (including people like Mike Barry) know that the decisions made by consumers have a huge and rapid impact on corporate decision making, so getting consumers to make better decisions using better information is important. TVM wants to see an app accessible database for very SKU that is being sold that contains a comprehensive value profile for the item. CoGo seems like a step towards this. Great news.
Peter Burgess
As we enter the 2020s we stand on the cusp of great change. A recognition that a 40 year cycle of capitalism is coming to an end. Starting in 1980 and characterized by a laissez faire relationship between the state and the economy, an ‘exchange’ of light regulation/tax in return for growth in consumption, jobs and GDP.
The ‘factory’, Nature, that has fueled this cycle is exhausted. Crises of climate, pollution and biodiversity are increasingly visible and on the point of crossing irrevocable limits which will have profound implications for individual and societal wellbeing. Whilst absolute global poverty has fallen in the last few decades the sense of inequality between the ‘elite’ and the rest (20 billionaires controlling as much wealth as 3.8 billion people) has grown and contributed to growing unease and instability across western democracies. And the new technology revolution has sharpened the sense of disconnect between global corporations and society. Where do they pay tax? To whom are they accountable? What new problems (‘hacking’ of elections, the gig economy, surveillance society) are they causing?
It must be replaced by a new cycle, one in which the economy (and the companies that populate it) is subservient to society and nature and not the other way round.
Crises (Australia's wildfires a cruel reminder of how quickly and aggressively nature can turn against us) will drive this re-alignment but there are ways in which we can make the process happen quicker and more effectively.
Firstly through a bolder, stronger policy framework that sets companies a clear long term framework in which they can innovate and compete. For example, the UK’s legally enshrined commitment to a Net Zero future. But we need similar ‘guard rails’ to protect wellbeing, equality and biodiversity too.
Secondly through ownership. Investors (whether public or private) in companies need to be more aware, thoughtful and interventionist stewards of their assets. Holding the managers who deploy their capital accountable not just for financial performance but for planetary and societal performance too. And reflecting on how the rewards that business generates are shared equitably with society (taxes), workers and local communities.
But there is a third dimension to this revolution. We must empower citizens to consume differently. Helping them to make the right choices about how and what they consume. Any definition of a sustainable future needs to involve the consumption of less physical stuff (and each item’s associated embedded environmental and social footprint). Whether it’s a flight or a car journey, food or clothing, a phone or a TV, a holiday or a meal out it all has consequences. In total the 7.6 billion people on the planet consume tens of trillions of items and experiences each year. Yet it’s not enough to expect them suddenly to give up living (or aspiring to) a consumerist lifestyle. Nor is it enough to confront people with all that’s wrong with fast fashion, a meat-based diet, single use plastics, short haul flights, the school run in a car, upgrading a phone once a year. We have to make it easy for them to change habits and aspirations that they have been engrained over decades.
The encouraging thing is that better, more sustainable alternatives do exist. The electric car, the plant based diet, clothing platforms that allow clothes to be resold and reused, trains rather than planes. The policy system alluded to above has to help accelerate the uptake of these better options. Partly by penalizing the bad choice, making sure that the unsustainable option is not the cheap one simply because it’s passed the buck on its externalities to wider society. Partly by putting in place the infrastructure (EV charging, metro lines etc) that eases uptake. Partly by using subsidy systems to encourage better production, for example supporting renewables rather than fossil fuels. And of course by easing the transition for many vulnerable groups, for example farmers, as we shift what we consume.
But there is also an important role for the market too. To innovate to drive down costs (e.g. the 10 fold reduction in battery costs that will soon put EVs on parity with traditional cars). To innovate to make a plant based diet exciting and worthy of exploration. Above all to create new business models that allow us to dematerialize our lives through clothing rental, a shift in car ownership and an aspiration for family and community connection rather than the transient high of buying new stuff.
These ‘greenshoots’ of sustainable change are welcome but they are today sub-scale and they will remain so because they are lost in the ‘sea of noise’ that swamps our busy lives. We need something that makes ‘considered’ consumption a seamless part of our day-to-day existence.
That’s why CoGo is so exciting. It recognizes the unfulfilled citizen hunger to be able to make a difference through purchasing (62% of consumers want companies to take a stand on ethical issues close to their hearts) and crucially does something about it.
It’s there to point your wallet in the right direction, for every purchase, every day. Rewarding those companies that do good, sending a clear market signal to those that don’t that their days are numbered.
At CoGo’s heart is transparency. Surfacing those companies that are making a real sustained difference across all that they do. For example, by setting a 1.5C aligned Science Based Target, paying a Living Wage or constituting themselves as a B Corporation.
Backed up by a simple interface that allows you to track how much of your expenditure is being spent with these ‘better’ companies and offering you ‘nudges’ on where better choices exist to replace the unsustainable ones that currently litter your basket.
Website, including impact framework
UK launch video from earlier in year
Living Wage wallet video just launched
As CoGo’s functionality develops so it will increasingly reach beyond broad company x vs company y options to allow you to track your sustainable expenditure at an individual product (SKU – stock keeping unit) level.
We need a new approach to capitalism. This has to be shaped by better regulation and ownership but it also needs to unlock the growing and still unfulfilled need amongst citizens to be able to consume more sustainably. And CoGo will do that.
Mike is a paid advisor to CoGo
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@planamikebarry Report this Published by Mike Barry Mike Barry Advisor at CoGo • Connecting Good Published • 7h 71 articles
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We need a radical rethink of how capitalism serves Society and interacts with Nature. This demands profound change to policy making and business ownership. But it also needs a total change to how we consume literally trillions of items of stuff each year. We need to make it easy for citizens to consume in a very much more sustainable way. That's why i'm delighted to join the CoGo team as an advisor to help them empower people to use their expenditure for good Reactions Peter BurgessMervyn Pilley FRSA FAIA AIGEM FCI FSME AMEIPaul EllingstadTom WatsonAbigail RobertsSham Sharif SokkerMartin TownsendZoe Hayward+62 7 CommentsComments on Mike Barry’s article Peter Burgess Kirsten O. Kirsten O. 2nd degree connection2nd Kvalitetsleder med bærekraftsfokus, produkttilsyn, verdikjedeforståelse, breddeforståelse. 1h Very welcome to Norway Like Like Kirsten O.’s comment Reply Claire Vintiner Claire Vintiner 2nd degree connection2nd Integrated & collaborative water management for a resilient future | System Change Agent | Transformational Coach 2h Great article Mike. Like Like Claire Vintiner’s comment Reply 1 Like 1 Like on Claire Vintiner’s comment Colin Curtis Colin Curtis 2nd degree connection2nd Helping businesses support the Global Goals 3h Nice article, Mike. I love what I see of CoGo - this is important stuff. I am concerned that we can’t leave everything to ‘the market’ to create a better future though. Consumers cannot bear all the responsibility - particularly when they are up against huge marketing budgets and a culture that promotes taking the easy option. Not that this is your problem, or that CoGo is standing in the way of this, but we do all need to recognise and push for responsible production being the biggest part of the equation. Like Like Colin Curtis’ comment Reply 2 Likes 2 Likes on Colin Curtis’ comment · 1 Reply 1 Comment on Colin Curtis’ comment Natasha Stromberg Natasha Stromberg 2nd degree connection2nd Wellness Coach & Consultant.MCMA MNCP Accred. Wellbeing Economy supporter and citizen. People & Planet forward together. 2h I would also like to see an advertising gone in public spaces. Public advertising should be 'opt-in'. Like Like Natasha Stromberg’s comment Reply Ele Ward Ele Ward 2nd degree connection2nd UK Market Manager at CoGo ◙ Sustainable FinTech & Fashion 4h So pleased to have you as part of the team. Here's to Team CoGo! Ben Gleisner Michael Solomon Like Like Ele Ward’s comment Reply 1 Like 1 Like on Ele Ward’s comment Natasha Stromberg Natasha Stromberg 2nd degree connection2nd Wellness Coach & Consultant.MCMA MNCP Accred. Wellbeing Economy supporter and citizen. People & Planet forward together. 7h Also, I think we need to start talking about individual Carbon allowances. Like Like Natasha Stromberg’s comment Reply 1 Like 1 Like on Natasha Stromberg’s comment Natasha Stromberg Natasha Stromberg 2nd degree connection2nd Wellness Coach & Consultant.MCMA MNCP Accred. Wellbeing Economy supporter and citizen. People & Planet forward together. 7h Yes I’ve been saying this for a long long time. But we critically also need to consume less- much less. Currently British consumers are consuming the resources of 2.5 Earths per year. We need to move away from a product-based consumption model to an experiential-based consumption model. It’s not just about are the goods produced ethically , it’s about do we need those goods at all? And if we want them but don’t need them, what are the boundaries? We need to be having these conversations WEAll (Wellbeing Economy Alliance) (edited) …see more Like Like Natasha Stromberg’s comment Reply CoGo sounds like a good step in the right direction. I have been developing TrueValueMetrics.org (TVM) for quite a long time and the idea that individual decisions should be part of the solution to the present socio-enviro-economic crisis is a part of the TVM framework. Corporate managers (including people like Mike Barry) know that the decisions made by consumers have a huge and rapid impact on corporate decision making, so getting consumers to make better decisions using better information is important. TVM wants to see an app accessible database for very SKU that is being sold that contains a comprehensive value profile for the item. CoGo seems like a step towards this. Great news.