We've got the power

In many developed countries the standard economy is a capitalistic economy. With an unlimited buying power, compared to undeveloped countries, our possibilities of shopping are endless. With great power comes great responsibility. As a whole, people have ignored the growing environmental crisis but we are now are being forced to address the problem. Our capitalistic ways of getting what we want when we want have added to landfills without any true thought about what to do to lessen our impact on earth. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) only has two executive orders in place for the United States. With little regulation, or framework, to address sustainability, we consumers need to call attention to the government as well as be productive while waiting for more legislation to pass. Fashioning Sustainability suggests that companies become more transparent with how they produce their merchandise; consumers should not expect companies to plainly place their practices on their website but should investigate for themselves. By doing so consumers are getting a full scope. One of EMSA promising interventions is for government to provide a framework for companies to build on. Consumers should demand this change. We as consumers have more power because we are the government and we can make changes.

In Pricing Environmental Impacts: The Tale of Two T-shirts, the authors introduce a new form of costing to include externalities. Externalities can be human health or ecological damage. Walsh and Brown suggest that producers should include these externalities. While this seems like a great idea, the question that I immediately thought of was, “What happens to these past externalities?” Companies just do not go back and cost externalities later. While the intention is thoughtful and could work for companies that are just starting, well-established companies might have a hard time going back and add these to their ledgers later. I believe companies should not real costing but rather devise a different way to see their impact so they can work towards reducing their ecological footprint. Even if local governments created a system for companies to see each other’s footprint and provide tax benefits or some sort of token economy, our communities could see and improve on the progress being made.