Paralysed or Smug - which are you?

Birmingham: Sunday night: Just finished my first environmental fringe at Conservative Conference. Like Labour last week, the fringe agenda is dominated by environmental debates. I’ve just been exploring how to create 2020 carbon citizens.

I was reminded of some research that we did about a year ago, which found that consumers were so confused about what it means to live a green lifestyle they took one of two options. Some were paralysed by the confusion, infused with a gloomy fatalism that all is for nothing in the face of impending doom. The second response, equally unhelpful was a misplaced smugness, engendered by the warm glow of a regular recycler, who believes that through recycling all personal environmental responsibilities have been discharged.

I asked the panel how they would solve this problem, created through a morass of messaging. The most interesting answer was that given by Nick Hurd MP exercising his Chairman’s prerogative to answer the question. Nick highlighted a local initiative, funded and promoted by Kirklees council, which cuts through the clutter. Like every other battle of hearts and minds, creating carbon citizens will only result from a personalised invitation. This means a street by street, door to door campaign, providing localised, tailored independent advice about everything from recycling to insulation.

Undoubtedly expensive and utterly time consuming. But, perhaps it is the best use of time any money on the planet.

By Claire Levens