Ecofficiency pushes for a free and fair market-based consumer system that maximizes positive impacts to our planet.
The fundamental question: Are the impacts associated with producing, shipping, packaging, storing, and disposing of the products, resources, and services we consume worth the benefits they provide us as individuals or to society at large?
"The greatest threat to our planet is thinking someone else will save it"
- Robert Swan
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
An Ethical Imperative
What should our motivation be to consume more ecofficiently? A prevailing strategy is that we should be motivated by the financial benefits of "going green," such as developing a green economy, or cutting costs in our homes and businesses.
The problem with appealing to financial benefits of going green, however, is that what is financially beneficial is up for debate. Are we talking long-term or short-term benefits? In the sort-term, goods and services cost more to produce in a positively impacting and responsible way — which means they cost more to buy. While these costs will go down over time, many people who bear them aren't sure they will see any financial benefit in the long-term... let alone the immediate term. If this is the case, where is the incentive to go green?
Furthermore, what happens if the large-scale economic benefits of a green economy don't pan out as advertised, which is a very real possibility given all of the (global) variables involved — many of which have nothing to do with a green economy? The answer is a "green backlash" and increased skepticism about the benefits and overall validity of developing a green economy.
Obviously, there are numerous possibilities for sound economic development that incorporates green technologies and practices; ecofficiency supports this as one of its fundamental components. But make no mistake; this is a moral issue, and needs to be promoted as such.
Ecofficiency emulates a different model, a model that has proven to be successful. A model based on an ethical imperative, differentiating between what's right and what's wrong — such as the model put forth by the Civil Rights Movement. We must appeal to peoples' sense of logic, the importance of conserving limited resources, keeping our homes clean, and making sure that our neighbors are healthy and secure. The reality is that ideologies borne through an ethical imperative appealing to logic have staying power, and as such, are far more impacting.
Well into the 1990s, the idea of a Black man becoming President of the United States was outright laughable. While we still have a ways to go, look how far we have come due to the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was not advanced because of immediate economic benefit. Rather, it was advanced because it logically appealed to our understanding of the difference between right and wrong. As such, this paved the way for Barack Obama's Presidency; a Presidency — no matter what your political view — that has signaled a positive and lasting shift in consciousness.