Hello, lazy consumer. Meet your match
John Wiebe knows our dirty little eco-secrets. He knows, for instance, that we declare we’d like to buy environmentally friendly products… but don’t want to have to put a lot of work into searching for them. That if it’s sustainable but ugly, we probably won’t buy it. And if it costs mucho more—forget it.
Wiebe’s too reserved to say it, but read between the lines: we’re a selfish society. We want what we want and when we want it. So in a stroke of genius, Wiebe, a globe-trotting business consultant who’s made a brilliant (and lucrative) career of showing industries how to make money through environmental management, turned his attention to us fickle consumers and created EPIC, to showcase eco-lifestyles.
SharedVISION asked a few questions of this entrepreneurial impresario.
You have a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Do we call you Dr. Wiebe?
No, that’s really only good for getting reservations at a restaurant.
OK, John, what’s your personal philosophy around sustainability?
My personal philosophy is that we can live in a healthy environment and have a healthy economy. My belief is that the solution to environmental problems is really the business community; governments can only do so much. And I also believe that when businesses can profit from looking after the environment, that’s when they will start to look after the environment.
You’re best known for your not-for-profit GLOBE Foundation, and huge business-to-business conference extravaganzas. Why have you moved into the consumer arena with a party like EPIC?
It’s something I’m passionate about because I really do believe that people need choices. They need to be aware of what’s available. If we can show people that these environmentally friendly products are worth buying, they’ll demand them and the supplier will supply them. What EPIC is all about is just trying to get this in front of people—both suppliers and consumers.
So you find that people will choose sustainability when it meets their other needs?
When we did some surveys we found that the average consumer, while they say they would like to buy environmentally friendly products, is not really prepared to go look for them and not prepared to give up some quality or style, or for that matter, price. So what we need to do is get manufacturers and retailers to supply and provide environmentally friendly goods that appeal to consumers. And that’s why EPIC has fashion shows and speakers and sort of a friendly shopping venue and tries to present these kinds of products.
Do you think there’s a lot of fear mongering around sustainability?
Yes, there is a lot of Chicken Little “the sky is falling, the sky is falling.” But I think we need that in the same way we need people to push the envelope on almost everything from science to technology to political systems. These people can push things and push them a lot faster. Without them, we as a society probably wouldn’t react, and it certainly would take a longer time.
What are your pastimes? Golf, golf, and golf.
Some would say golf is not particularly sustainable—not environmentally friendly. I think golf can be environmentally friendly. Increasingly there are golf courses that are being rated certified by the Audubon Society and others as being environmentally friendly. I also believe you take steps: it’s not like tomorrow you’ll never use another pesticide, never do this, never do that. As long as we understand and move along a path that becomes more intelligent in the way we treat the Earth, I’m happy.
You know, you’re a pioneer. Do you think of yourself as one?
I don’t consider myself a pioneer in any way. I see opportunities where perhaps others haven’t taken action. But I think when you get right down to it we all want to maintain this planet for future generations. We all want our kids to grow up in a nice place. But at the same time we also want a quality of life that we’re used to.
—interview conducted, condensed, and edited by SharedVISION publisher Rebecca Ephraim
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