Decentral Block Post

Episode 8 presents the challenges that the food industry must overcome to accommodate the 10 billion human population forecast for 2050, while restoring nature and mitigating climate change. There is much to ‘chew over’, from production to storage, trading, transport, packaging, marketing, purchasing, consumption, waste and hunger. As with our earlier sector-specific episodes, we cannot avoid policy, but we should not wait for it. Our speakers share their own solutions, as well as others’, to keep food nutritious, safe and moving.

Following the meteoric rise of ‘fast’ fashion, there is now increasing pressure to re-think textiles and apparel. In episode 7, we probe into the industry challenges, from the over-production, self-regulation and environmental impact to consumer behaviour and greenwashing. Yet fashion shapes cultures and identities, and so we need solutions. Our speakers provide them, including their own work and other brands. Awareness and respect along the production and consumption cycle is key. If we shift how, what and why we acquire, and if what we wear is given as long a life as possible, we will not just save the planet. We will reignite our relationship with clothes.

Following the meteoric rise of ‘fast’ fashion, there is now increasing pressure to re-think textiles and apparel. In episode 7, we probe into the industry challenges, from the over-production, self-regulation and environmental impact to consumer behaviour and greenwashing. Yet fashion shapes cultures and identities, and so we need solutions. Our speakers provide them, including their own work and other brands. Awareness and respect along the production and consumption cycle is key. If we shift how, what and why we acquire, and if what we wear is given as long a life as possible, we will not just save the planet. We will reignite our relationship with clothes.

Episode 6 presents the myriad challenges the electronics industry is facing, from design and materials to consumer behaviour, obsolescence and legislation. Even if customers want to be more discerning, there are still few sustainable products on the market as of today. Our speakers present a raft of solutions to shift this sector from being one of the biggest villains to a protagonist of sustainable consumerism. Creativity, not waiting for perfection, collaboration and mutual pressure will be key, whether that is across and by governments, manufacturers and consumers, or between Global North and Global South.

Episode 3 takes an introspective approach, focusing on why we, as consumers, are so susceptible to wanting more than we need. By overconsuming, we are fast-tracking climate change, destroying ecologies, exponentially increasing waste, and finding ourselves caught on a hamster wheel. While materialism gives us a temporary high as it feeds our insecurities, it does not resolve them. Conscious consumers choose and invest in brands that reflect their values, resisting advertising and peer pressure. Making product prices reflective of the true environmental and human cost might also temper consumerism, but as long as we measure countries by gross domestic product and companies by revenue, deleterious consumption will remain a priority for governments and private sector. So collective change is the only way to address systemic issues.

Our first episode investigates how consumerism is causing many of today’s global economic, social and environmental problems, and how individual livelihoods and national economies are driven by it. As populations, purchasing power and materialism grow, we must confront the biggest challenges – the linear economy, globally interconnected supply chain, depletion of natural resources and fear of missing out. We have tools such as policy and legislation, but we also have to focus on behaviour. And of course, we need to discover – even if that means re-discover – and scale up solutions to make twenty-first century consumption sustainable. This episode sets the tone and content for the series.