State University – Higher School of Economics
Management faculty
Essay
on the topic:
“Prospects for sustainable production and consumption in Russia:
opportunities to introduce sustainable lifestyles”
By Maxim Naydenyshev
Moscow 2009
Prospects for sustainable production and consumption in Russia:
opportunities to introduce sustainable lifestyles
As the earth’s human population has increased, natural ecosystems have declined and
changes in the balance of natural cycles have had a negative impact on both humans and other
living systems.1
How we live is a big part of the problem. It can also be a big part of the solution, if we
adopt more environmentally sustainable lifestyles.
Well, what really is a sustainable lifestyle? The definition says: “application of
sustainability to lifestyle choice and decisions”. It means that you really care about the
environment and try to reduce your negative impact on it, exercise more stewardship in our
use of the Earth’s finite resources (trees, water, energy, minerals, land) to ensure that there will
be enough left for our children and their children.
This is a very decent idea, but the application of it might be very difficult for a bunch of
reasons. People might have a vague sense of what they should do for the environment, but
beyond recycling, they don’t know what to do or how to do it. There are also such people that
are well informed, but need motivation translating this knowledge into action. Somebody
doesn’t realize the necessity of sustainable living and somebody doesn’t care about the
environment.
Nowadays there is an emerging need to start caring about our planet, stop wasting
natural resources, that’s why people should start living sustainable.
One of the main problems of modern society is the problem of excessive, senseless
consumption. Some people believe, that living is consuming. The more the consumption, the
more are the appreciation and self-consideration. The general attitude can be resumed by
sayings like “the more, the better” or “the more we have, the happier we are”.
Senseless consumption is also the result of excessive or useless production. They both
are, in fact, nothing other than waste that concerns natural resources, human beings and
material goods.2
The waste of natural resources takes place through:
- Over-production that reduces the future stock of some natural resource.
- Over-consumption, based especially on throw-away things that pollute the environment
transforming it into a dustbin.
The waste in human beings takes place through the process of:
- Useless production. That means people employed in meaningless work, with no real utility
or with high disutility not only to themselves but to others, like producing weapons,
1
http://www.earth-policy.org/
2
Polyarchy: a paradigm. From senseless consumption to sensible care. 2002
2
bureaucracy and so on.
- Useless consumption. That means consumption of unhealthy products, or in excess of
need, it can be just to fill the lack of any satisfying activity.
The waste in material goods takes place through:
- Shoddy production that means production of goods, having a short life span for reason of
fashion or for bad quality in view of their quick replacement.
- Shoddy consumption. It happens when a buyer has too much money at his disposal to act
as a discerning customer. This leads to the excessive buying of goods, some of which will left
unused, just to be left forsaken somewhere in the corner to accumulate dust before being
thrown away.
Of course, technological advances over several millennia gave humans increasing
control over the environment. And modern world undoubtedly requires new terms of
consumption and production. Undeniable that resources are being depleted. And if we want to
have a normal future we have to change our ideology and start to do something. The emerging
need in sustainable living is becoming more and more evident. A lot of people began to realize
that consumption should be limited and conscious. That’s why sustainability conception
acquires more and more supporters. But situation is not improving everywhere. It also
somehow depends on national culture.
Especially actual the problem of excessive consumption is in the USA. Americans – as 5%
of the world’s population – consume 33% of the planet’s resources and waste up to 75% due to
inefficiency and lack of awareness. Households directly consume one third of these resources,
and indirectly use much of the rest through the purchase of products and services. 3
Nevertheless, Americans have already realized the need of sustainable living. Due to the
dependence on foreign resources and the above-mentioned excessive consumption Americans
have already faced with first problems and they could clearly see possible consequences.
They have realized that neither their addiction to excessive consumption nor American
way of life is sustainable:
"What we've got going here are the elements of a perfect storm, a potent mix of
ignorance, apathy, and inaction throughout large parts of American society. Our current
indifference to fiscal discipline and these other major challenges can't continue. If it does, a
crisis isn't a matter of 'if' but 'when' and 'how bad.'"- David M. Walker, Comptroller General of
the United States, 2006.
But the situation is not the same everywhere. A new conception is not always
understood and applied. And the main factor of it might be some local national aspects.
3
Data from the Empowerment Institute’s site
3
The expansion of any relatively new idea in any country faces with the necessity of
taking into account specific features of national culture.
National culture has an indisputable impact on people’s behavior. There is a theory that
national culture is determined by 4 groups of factors.4
1)
Physical environment.
That includes country’s geopolitical position, climatic conditions, and resource base
and so on.
2)
General system of values and beliefs.
Here are implied religion and ideologies.
3)
Historical experience.
There is no need to explain the influence of significant historical events on nation’s
mentality. It’s obvious that important moments in history have a certain impact on culture.
4)
Development level.
That means that nations world-view also depends on country’s economic level.
In particular, there is a possibility that some specific aspects of national culture might
hinder to spread the conception of sustainable consumption and production in Russia. They can
be considered according to the above-mentioned classification.
Physical environment
Russia is the largest country in the world. And on its territory are concentrated
enormous supplies of fossil fuels, wood and water. Russia has a great natural-resource
potential (more than 200 species).
It’s a well known fact, that Russia is rich on natural resources and it is able to provide
not only the needs of the country itself. Russia's population is 2,4% of the planet’s, and the
territory of Russia is 10% of the earth. At the same time in Russia are concentrated about 45%
of world reserves of natural gas, 13% oil, 23% coal, forests covering the surface of the country
are 22% of the world’s fund. Country is secured for several centuries. 5
That’s why country exports abroad oil, gas, wood and so on. In such terms, the
necessity of restricted consumption and sustainable production is not evident, is it? Plenty of
available natural resources make the idea sound not quite reasonable. A huge amount of
accessible materials de-motivates producers to introduce expensive resources-saving
technologies. And due to the reputation of country as a large exporter of raw materials and
fuels it is hard to convince people to consume economical.
4
5
Milner B.Z. Organizational theory: textbook. – 7th issue – М.: INFRA-M, 2008. – p. 266
Data from the Federal State Statistics Service’s official web-site
4
General system of values and beliefs
There are also psychological aspects that stay beyond rational behavior that might
create obstacles for sustainability conception. Russians just are not inclined to analyze and care
about long-term consequences. Momentary benefits and short-term prospects are more of
interest. Another side of this paradigm is that people do not tend to undertake any actions
unless they see direct threat. There is even a proverb in Russian language: “Until the thunder
breaks out, a man wouldn’t cross himself”, that perfectly illustrates it. That’s why it would be
difficult to apply future-oriented sustainability conception in Russia.
Historical experience
A great role here has played former existed Soviet political system. Because of state
economic strategy, for a long period of time people had no possibility to control their
consumption (deficit of goods, set salary, low income and undisputable governmental
directives). Today Russians finally have an ability to spend on anything they need, to buy
everything they want. It would be just unfair to take away an ability to manage their
consumption acquired not so long ago. Improbably that people would like to follow any
restrictions voluntarily without a high motivation.
Another barrier for the expansion of the sustainability idea might be the way agriculture
and industry developed. All the same Soviet economic strategy implied extensive way of
development. After being fully utilized fields were left, woods were not replenished and so on.
While manufacturing no attention was paid to resources-saving. The more – the better and
plenty of accessible resources made the idea of the intensive way of development sound too
expensive and irrational.
Besides, at all times Russians fought against social problems. They were so significant,
that people just got used to ignore other, “minor” problems. And the environmental protection
never was such a pressing issue.
Development level
The more developed society is, the more care about the environment show its citizens.
As far as Russia is concerned, it is not a flagship one. Standard of living in Russia is pretty low.
42% of Russia's population is “poor”, 41% - “transition class”, 14% - middle class and only 3% of
Russians can be called “rich” on the assumption of the income level and housing conditions.
6Thus the bulk of country’s population is low-income groups.
Furthermore, a considerable part of population in Russia lives below poverty level and
has too low income to allow caring about the environmental needs. I don’t want to dramatize,
but how people can muse about ecology, when they are just trying to survive.
6
Data from the Federal State Statistics Service’s official web-site
5
Despite all the above-mentioned factors that make the idea of sustainable living almost
nonviable in Russia, there is still a chance. But should be undertaken certain actions to
persuade people.
Of course there is a certain demand for eco-products. But the market segment is pretty
small. The target audience is the minority of the population with high income, because the
production of sustainable goods is pretty costly. To increase supply of such products, we have
to motivate potential buyers to increase demand. Otherwise manufacturers will not voluntarily
produce unprofitable goods. So, on the market there won’t be available eco-products. Neverending circle… Of course, unless there would be some kind of external impact like
governmental initiative.
Another way out in this situation might be a long-term marketing campaign to gain
popularity among the population. But it definitely should be long-lasting, because its aim is to
change people’s attitude to life.
Everything is not that bad, sustainable consumption and production do have a chance.
Of course there are people that might realize the necessity of sustainable living, but mostly they
either do not have an opportunity, or do not have decent motivation. The idea of sustainable
living can be put into practice, but spreading it country-wide is possible only with the help of an
effective long-term market campaign or with help of government.
In conclusion, I would like to summarize above-mentioned statements.
Nowadays there is an emerging need to start caring about our planet, stop wasting
natural resources.
It happened so, that Russia, concerning resources, is a pretty rich country. And at all
times social problems were more foreground rather than ecological ones. That’s why necessity
of sustainable living is not that evident.
This idea, in the first place, deals with people’s world-view. It’s hardly possible to change
a person’s way of thinking, especially when you deal with Russian.
Is it possible to implement and extend this idea in Russia? Taking into consideration
national mentality, it won’t seem an easy task. Due to national paradigms the idea of
sustainable consumption might appear nonviable. Moreover, the majority of population in
Russia has too low income to care about the environmental needs.
But, nevertheless, there is a market niche for sustainable production. Target audience
for sustainable products is people with above-average income. You just need to persuade them
that they need to care about ecological concerns.
6
References
1.
Adams W.M. "The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and
Development in the Twenty-first Century." Report of the IUCN Renowned Thinkers
Meeting, 29–31 January, 2006
2.
Chris Clugston “Excessive Consumption - America’s Real Addiction”
(http://www.culturechange.org/)
3.
Milner B.Z. Organizational theory: textbook. – 7th issue – М.: INFRA-M, 2008. –
864 p.
(in russian)
4.
“Russia's Geopolitical Imperatives”. September 18, 2007
(http://www.stratfor.com/)
5.
Polyarchy: a paradigm. From senseless consumption to sensible care. 2002
(http://www.polyarchy.org/paradigm/english/consumption.html)
6.
Data from the Empowerment Institute’s site
(http://www.empowermentinstitute.net/files/SLP.html)
7.
http://www.earth-policy.org/
8.
Data from the Federal State Statistics Service’s official web-site
(http://www.gks.ru/)
7