Imagining a World Beyond Consumerism

From this point on, growth was not just good, but the primary aim of political and social systems. We all know now where that has taken us, but some saw it early, including the economist and retail analyst Victor Lebow in 1955: Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of

Instead of paying with our lives, we celebrate and preserve life and align our values and actions according to three principles: the LESS approach to sustainability, the MORE approach to engagement with the natural world, and the MINDFUL approach to consumerism.

Purpose-driven firms are radically rethinking sourcing practices, product design, value chains, and so on, and that’s to be celebrated. But while they do these things for us, behind the counter, they’re all too often still thinking of and communicating to people as Consumers – and contributing massively to those 3,000 messages a day, to that underl