Our Vision
‘Buy consciously. The power to change the world is in your pocket’
Why GP exists – We change the world through what we buy
We believe that individual people can stop environmental atrocities by changing their purchasing patterns.
The more people choose green friendly products and services, the more money is injected into the green economy to fuel its expansion. As consumers, we have enormous power to help many green practices to grow from a niche to an everyday norm.
Destructive and polluting businesses are not able to exist when there is negligible consumer demand for their products. A decreased demand for such products also decreases the scale at which any industry can cause a substantial polluting effect.
Large businesses are strong players in the tug-of-war over environmental concerns between industry and the democratic power people can exert over their governments. A reduced economic clout of such industry also reduces a significant barrier for citizens and environmental groups to push the government to create laws that protect the environment and protect people.
Green businesses set a powerful example for non green businesses. When companies see a strong trend of consumers choosing to buy green products, they respond by ‘greening’ their manufacturing processes to keep up. This ‘green competition’ is a crucial phenomenon where businesses innovate to become green leaders amongst their peers.
The positive upward spiral of market competition towards becoming the ‘greenest brand’ will become the backbone of the green economy.
Green buying also propagates a new kind of culture. The ‘green living tribe’ sets an example by creating an ‘eco-aspirational’ movement based on ‘eco-values’ and an ‘eco-aesthetic’. Once a cultural trend has been seeded, others people are attracted to it and so the movement grows by people being inspired by the example of other people around them.
We have a global economy and we are all globally responsible for the state of the planet through our everyday actions.
This is why Green Pages exists. Think of every environmental impact of every step in the complex supply chain of everything you buy, and if you think it’s bad, don’t buy it. If it’s good, then support it.
Buy consciously. The power to change the world is in your pocket.
The Tipping Point
The tipping point refers to a point in a distribution curve where just enough people take on a new trend, just enough for ‘the mainstream’ to feel that the trend is ‘normal’ enough to feel comfortable with it. The term was coined by author Malcom Gladwell who wrote the book The Tipping Point, where he described the phenomenon as ‘The moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.’
All tipping points begins with visionary or gifted person (otherwise known as a ‘lone nut’) who has an idea or can see a problem that needs a solution. The ‘lone nut’ then gains a few devoted followers. This small congregation then becomes ‘a group’ and the group gets more members, then the group becomes a ‘tribe’ of maybe thousands of people. Once the tribe reaches about 12% of the population, it becomes a ‘movement’, and then a tipping point occurs. The mainstream then realize they will be ‘left out’ if they don’t join the movement, so the idea/item/issue becomes mainstream and everybody does it.
The catch is, the mainstream won’t catch on unless the there is a movement, the movement won’t happen unless there is a tribe and a tribe won’t form unless there is a group and a group won’t form unless they meet a passionate nut who is so amazing, unique and inspiring that they are worth getting behind. This phenomenon is beautifully described by Derek Sivers in one of our favorite TED videos here:
The moral of the story is that if you want to change the world, going for the mainstream does not work. You have to build from the ‘active nuts, groups and tribes’ then work out from these small epicentres of activity outward, much like moving from one expanding concentric circle to the next ring.
How does this link in with the Green Pages Vision? We have created Green Pages for the pointy end – a place for the ’active-lone-nuts’ and ‘once-lone-nuts’, their followers, academics, experts, groups, thought leaders, activists, campaigners and tribes to share their work and to gain momentum. It is a platform where we can communicate, cross pollinate and activate. It might be through a green business finding its first customer, a campaign reaching its threshold to get a legislation passed or a student finding a story that provides pivotal inspiration for them to follow a stellar green career who inspires many others.
We aim for Green Pages to help all people who are doing work to create a better planet to gather momentum and reach that very special tipping point.
