Values Underlying COMMITMENT AND CONSISTENCY Wendi Momen International Environment Forum Consumer Citizenship Network Third International Conference Hamar, Norway, May 2006 International Environment Forum

Values and Behaviour ● Consumer behaviour is influenced - perhaps even driven - by an individual ' s basic values and world view. ● All human actions and human societies are built on values ● If behaviour is inappropriate, changing the basic values and world view is important to motivate constructive changes in consumption. ● People are unlikely to change inappropriate behaviours unless their values and world view change. International Environment Forum

Attempts to Identify Common Values ● Generally unsuccessful ● Focused on human rights abuses ● Considered by non-western cultures as western values only ● Generally centred on behaviours rather than principles ● Ore useful to focus on underlying principles

Sources of Values ● World ’ s religions ● Philosophers ● Humanists ● Our own experience

What Does and Does Not Work ● Throwing money at problems ● Extreme wealth ● Materialism ● A shift to more ‘spiritual’ values ● Individuals knowing their true identity and operating according to its dictates ● Society reorienting itself to its own reality

Useful ‘Spiritual’ Values ● A cluster of practical virtues and values born out of a vision and understanding of the purpose for humanity that underpins our relationships with each other at every level - personal, family, community, national and global. ● Justice, trustworthiness, honesty, courtesy, patience, love, selflessness, etc. ● Spiritual principles are in use all the time - we just rarely identify them as such.

Moving towards Sustainable Consumer Behaviour ● understanding of the essentially spiritual nature of the human being ● a recognition of the inter-penetration between the physical and the spiritual ● development of a new work ethic ● stewardship of the earth ’ s resources ● ethical practices in government and business

Moving towards Sustainable Consumer Behaviour ● a consciousness of the concept of unity in diversity ● new forms of governance need to be developed ● fostering the advancement of women ● the development of the spirit of service and voluntarism ● the extension of virtues-based education

Moving towards Sustainable Consumer Behaviour ● the development of conflict avoidance and resolution through consultation ● the promotion of the family as the basic unit of the community ● purposeful living

Living Values ● Individuals endeavouring to change behaviours need to be supported by enabling legal and political environments ● We are no longer powerless as human beings to shape our future