Does business have a duty to promote sustainable consumption?

Business played the main role in shaping the society as it is these days, so I think they have an obligation to make things right.

First of all it is business’ obligation to be fair and transparent about the impact of their product. What is the social impact? What is the ecological impact? What are the real costs of the product? It is business’ obligation to raise awareness about the true impacts of products. The least they can do is present this information in a way that everyone can get to it and understand the information.

Second they should implement law and legislation that further enhances sustainability. Additionally they should actively discuss with government institutions, consumers etc how law, legislations and incentives can be adjusted/ brought into being to make production and consumption sustainable.

Third, they should be examples of sustainable consumption. Meaning that they should work only with suppliers that deliver sustainable products. And promote sustainable consumption within their companies; raise awareness among shareholders and employees.

Fourth, they could give consumers more options. Alongside the current non-sustainable products they could develop sustainable alternatives or develop sustainable products that are not material but service-based. By promoting the sustainable alternatives over the non-sustainable they can shift towards sustainable production and consumption. However in the long term they should not promote consumption at all, since it is promotion of consumerism that caused the current social and environmental problems.

Having this written, it is only fair to state that businesses are restricted in their ability to change the current system. One can’t expect of individual businesses to take the lead completely on their own with high risk of bankruptcy, they are also just people trying to make a living. It is a responsibility of everyone to consume sustainable, every individual, community, individual business, institution, etc.

Governments for example should set the framework for sustainable production and consumption. They should oblige all businesses to produce sustainable within a set timeframe. That way consumers can only consume sustainable products, and for businesses it is more fair since all business have to meet the same laws and legislations. Government could even come up with incentives for companies that implement sustainable production methods faster.

Ultimately I think the consumer has to change society by choosing to consume less and consume sustainable. The change has to come from within.