The Lean Consumer
Again and again we hear stories about businesses trying to change their products, services or operations to become more sustainable. Business owners come to us and ask “how can we have a positive impact on the environment, society but also continue to perform well as a business?”. Policymakers are looking for ways to ensure that producers pay the full net cost of products that they put onto the market and to buy products that are more sustainable with public funds. So, at the supply side we know that things are changing, but when it comes to us, people or the consumer (as it is termed in the boardrooms) are we doing enough?
For anyone working in the sustainability, circular economy or ESG space, you have probably faced the over dinner topic of the environment. “Why can’t I put film in the recycling”, “companies should pay for all the plastic in the oceans” and “In the good old days we didn’t throw clothes away when they had holes in, we fixed ‘em and passed them down”. I had one such discussion whilst on an extended holiday in Cornwall this year, only for me to share that all of these issues are the avoidable outcomes of poor buying and will, even if changed by policy makers or businesses, not stop the climate crisis.
We as consumers hold the cards. If you ask any business leader to consider a sustainability decision, the impact on the customer will be the first consideration. So, when we hear the Extinction Rebellion celebrities respond to claims that the system is broken, they are right. But businesses are not going to provide the solution if it is not going to fly with the consumers (us).
I ask an honest question to anyone reading this. If you eat meat, have you tried the new meat free, but meat like, impossible burger?
If yes, the question becomes will you now switch to this for its lower impact or will you revert back to the original for whatever reason?
If you haven’t tried it, or have but are going to revert to the mooing version, this is an example of a sustainable innovation start up getting onto the market to displace the diesel of the food aisle. And if you say you are concerned about the climate crisis, shouldn’t you switch?
Note - regarding the economics of the decision-making process, have a look at this blog on the externality costs.
If we sincerely want to make every buying decision based on environmental impact then we need to own it and should become lean consumers (see below). If you appreciate that you have urges that will go against the environmental agenda, understand that you have the choice and with every decision, you may be reassuring CEOs that their resistance to changing their businesses is completely justified.
What do we mean by ‘lean consumer’?
The lean consumer concept is something that Womack and Jones raised in the Harvard Business Review back in 2005, but with a focus on delivering lean consumption. The purpose of this article is to share some key principles for how to become a lean consumer. So, what does it mean?
Lean - ‘A lean company or organization does not use too many people or spend too much money, so that there is no waste’
Although these factors are aimed at an organisation/business they are easily translatable for us. Just switching ‘people’ out for ‘consume’ gives us a definition of:
A Lean Consumer is one that does not consume too much or spend too much money, so that there is no waste.
A focus on reducing the waste in all its forms will have a substantial impact. The food waste topic is widely reported, clothing cycles have become shorter and our cars sit idle for 95% of the time. Starting with waste, a consumer can more effectively adjust buying habits. By changing buying habits to reduce waste, consumers will force producers and retailers to adjust to the change in demand by producing less or otherwise adapting to different buying cycles.
Businesses/organisations have already harnessed the Japanese concept for its beneficial impact on efficiencies which means increased profits. Surely, we would all like to be more profitable too...
What types of waste do we create?
Time
Unnecessary use of time spent in activities that do not satisfy ourselves either caused by system failures or the function of being a human.
Examples include
System fault - having to go to a special site to deal with recyclables or making a special trip to the local textiles bank only to find out its full
Function of being a human - waiting rooms at the doctors
Items
To be clear here, we should not all become minimalists but instead become more considerate to the items we use on a regular basis that give us satisfaction. The number of items we own often means we loose track of what we have or keep things we only use once a year. You could view this as smart buying because the item is not necessary to buy on a yearly basis. This might be true, but in many cases these examples fall in with those which you can either sell or didn’t need to buy in the first place or those which, if gave you satisfaction could be used more regularly. With increasing urbanisation we see that space is reducing. Being able to get on track of the items you own should provide you with the same satisfaction but with reduced consumption and/or more space.
Examples of waste items could include:
The plastic Christmas tree - if you have storage space and prefer the needle free version, it might well be worth sorting away and getting a good return on the price.
Those old suits or dresses you wont get into again (personal case) which lack sentimental value but clog up your cupboards or that bag of wires and old modems.
Movement
This is the one people always call out celebrities and environmental advocates for, and it is contentious. Is the flight worth it? Is there a better way I could get to where I am going? Do I really need to go there? These questions are all worth asking ourselves before we get onto skyscanner or jump in the car. One method I heard floated by an influential business person earlier this year was a personal carbon allowance. Don’t expect to hear politicians talk about this any time soon but you may start to hear NGOs and academics float the concept. If you and your business were given a travel budget then we might reconsider the weekend in Tallin.
Impulse
This could be the reason we are in the environmental mess we are. If Mad Men taught us anything it was that if you message things correctly, you can encourage people to buy things that they were not even planning purely to satisfy an impulse. There is a multi-billion industry in trying to encourage this activity, so we are going to be fighting a bit of a battle. Some companies are already starting to adjust and remove offers like 2 for 1 on goods that are not commodity items (e.g. chopped runner beans).
Over buying
When it comes to acknowledging what we actually need, it makes a massive difference if you only buy what you are going to consume (before it goes bad) or use. We are bombarded with advertisements and targeted marketing designed to make us feel like this will be the thing that will really satisfy us (not like all that stuff we already own).
Over consuming
We can all understand how it is possible to overindulge, whether it is having eyes bigger than our stomachs or putting more toothpaste on our toothbrush than the recommended petit pois. The incremental adjustment will not hinder our satisfaction but it will mean than we do not use more than we need to get the intended output.
Premature replacement (emotional durability)
Possibly the most tricky of all the wastes, as it is really connected to our human desire to keep up with the Joneses and scratch the flashy new version itch. Additionally, when a product breaks or doesn’t perform how we would like it to, is there an infrastructure in place to help you keep it functioning and delivering its required utility? When we lease or pay for service of an item we expect the provider to ensure that satisfaction is guaranteed. For example, when you are paying per month or per wash for a washing machine, you know that if something happens the provider is going to step in and ensure the product is up and running ASAP. However, for emotive purchases this is more tricky, and it is why we have a problem with textiles waste. The ‘one wear waste’ is driven by the perception of others (or at least our perception of the perception of others), as is the desire for the newest smartphone. We need to be more considerate to the underlying social pressure and to stand strong and proud of the product that you have, taking satisfaction from wringing the most value from it as humanly possible. And from the other side, we need a more robust repair and upgrade service in towns to bring products back from the brink of disposal. If we demand these services entrepreneurial businesses will surely oblige.
How can I become a lean consumer?
Knowing what waste is and being able to tackle the waste are two very different things. How can we start to tackle the waste we create in our life?
1. The first and most tricky part of considering oneself as a lean consumer is to understand what satisfies you. What is it that really fills you with a sense of sustained satisfaction, rather than a quick naughty burger you regret once completing. Be honest with yourself at first. Understanding what you need is more important than understanding how to get it with the least amount of waste. Then you can adapt your decisions to be better for you and the planet (EMF 3 principle).
2. Choose a period of time. 1 month is a good starting point and track what you consume, thinking about the satisfaction it provides. When I looked at this I decided to create a table to track the consumption but also some other key points, see below. A surprising benefit of doing this was that the immediate concept of satisfaction and the retrospective can often be different (I imagine the latter is a more true and longer term opinion). During this time it is important to try and understand what is transient satisfaction, and what is really providing value to you.
3. Once you have some records of what satisfaction you have gained and what consumption could fall into one of those categories of waste, it becomes easier to ring-fence some high satisfaction consumption, which we will come to later. Then, identify where the consumption has not delivered the expected return on investment. This is what you should consider replacing or removing.
4. Stopping consumption of certain things will be incredibly easy, especially when they cost money and you can see a direct correlation between savings and stopping. Others will be less obvious and possibly even unsatisfactory, for example having a shorter shower, walking to work instead of driving or eating less meat. So when this is the case, it is important to try and find a way of making the new process satisfying (e.g. listening to a good podcast on the way to work, remembering to feel smug about all the water you’ve saved, or learning new recipes).
5. At the point we feel that we have cut some of our unnecessary consumption, it is a good idea to think about the impact of the necessary consumption and seeing if there is an opportunity to switch to a less impactful delivery mechanism. This might even be at a higher cost as you will have saved money through cutting unnecessary consumption. This is not to say that there will always be a solution, but by being more considerate to the consumption and its impact we can take opportunities to switch when they come up.
A final important point to make about this system is that once we are fully engaged with the leaner way of consuming, it will be come more and more obvious when we have consumed something because it is available or seemingly cheap but is not genuinely satisfying. As a result, we could increasingly make smarter decisions for us and our planet. It is worth having it at the back of your mind that the system is going to be continually changing with new technology, businesses providing products and services and innovation in localised production. One of the key principles in Lean is Kaizen (改善), which means improvement. There will always be ways to improve and being alert to those is important.
It is worth considering the impact of what we consume as I have alluded to the concept of choosing lower impact options. There is not a simple way to do this but we may see more simplified labelling on the carbon impact of items, travel and services. But there are some simple switches that in general are lower impact.
Dematerisalisation - Switching from a physical product to an online or digital version
Used vs new - Buying a pre-owned item can have a fraction of the impact of buying new and could even be considered to be environmentally neutral (depending on how you fall on the allocation of these impacts).
We are not going to change the world overnight by becoming Lean Consumers, but what we can do is change how we perceive consumption.
If you would like to hear more about the lean consumer concept and its role towards tackling our wasteful lifestyles, please contact owain.griffiths@oakdenehollins.com.