People don’t know enough about sustainability. They know it is right to save energy so they are willing to use energy saving lightbulbs and electrical cars. This is because those are actions are very obviously energy saving. The problem is that people have no overview of what really matters and this causes that easy chances are being missed.
An interesting example is fruit and vegetables. We are used to the fact that we can buy any fruit and vegetables at any season of the year. The only difference is that sometimes the orange costs ten cents more than halve a year later. The thing is, people don’t often realize that these extra ten cents probably mean that the orange came from a faraway country as South-Africa.
A big part of pollution comes from airplanes and cargo ships. If people would pay more attention to where the products they buy come from, the amount of ships and airplanes traveling around could be decreased. Products do not need a fancy label or logo, if it says where it was produced this says a lot about if it is a sustainable choice.
Interesting is that most supermarkets put labels on their fruits and vegetables saying where it comes from. So what needs to happen is that people start to care about this information. It is nothing but natural to eat whatever the season is offering, but people forgot about this.
I think we don’t have to expect that supermarkets will take this step, if they can sell their South-African oranges, they will keep on doing that. It has to start with awareness of the costumer. And this is not only about distance of the source of products but we need also awareness and transparency in waste streams, energy uses of different branches and conditions of eco quality marks.
