Emission cost of consumption

The scarcity of eco friendly produce is demonstration of how very short-lived ethical consumerism can be when there is not adequate publicity. The "consumer-led ethical produce" policies of manufacturers vanish as soon as the shopping public loose its enthusiasm. Fairtrade produce need to do more to spread the culture otherwise it will have the same fate too, with time. While manufacturer of washing powder, household cleaning fluids, washing-up liquid etc. publicizing eco-friendly produce the trend towards consumer driven ethics, the negligence of big beauty industry and its target groups has gone unnoticed. The business they do are among the most profiteering with potential customers, however there is small public mobilization and ignorance from both demand and supply sides on green aspects of beauty industry while other industries are condemned harshly of climate crimes.

Only recently one of the business players ultimately finds herself on the opposing side, saying: "I hate the beauty industry, it is a monster selling unattainable dreams. It lies, it cheats, it exploits women." and that it hasn't improved much over the years. She emphasis on the efforts for eco friendly attempts, saying “You need purchasing programmes and to have a dialogue in the most honourable way with the most fragile and poorest communities you are working with. You have to ask them if you can purchase from them and under what conditions and how much you would have to pay as a social premium.

One study has proved that basing emission inventories on consumption, rather than production, may resolve not only issues related to international trade, but also provide greater flexibility towards pollution intensive resource endowments, emission reductions, and participation levels. It is found that CO2 emissions embodied in imports was 67% of Norway's domestic emissions. Around a half of this embodied pollution originates in developing countries, yet they represent only 10% of the value of Norwegian imports.

In terms of corporate ethical behaviour - this may address the fact that company directors will go under scrutiny by shareholders not providing maximum return to shareholders. There are legal cases where directors had noble motives acting ethically in their business that cost money, reduced dividends, and shareholders took the directors to court. Corporate actors practically cannot be too generous or public spirited otherwise they might face charges. Therefore all parties on either side of the argument need to rethink the issues. Company directors must be encouraged and supported by legal instruments when initiating eco friendly measures. Where public is informed, consumer bear the cost and respond with responsibility the increase of sales can be moderated by improving image and quality. The practical terms are to turn environment friendly produces becoming beneficial to corporate interests by taking account of real cost of environment damages while having checks and balances well regulated and in action.

The weight of responsibility to educate consumers to become environment conscious is on their part. There is broad publicizing space available for beauty industry to get the message across, to mobilize the dormant crowd of consumers for example by promoting environment awareness tips. Business actors have enormous chances of finding great business opportunities if the world makes a serious attempt to address polluting environment, and willingly pay the price. We need governments and international trade bodies to impose these sorts of standards on manufacturers and retailers; it can't just be left to the market.

Sources:
- www.Oxfam.org.uk
- www.eci.ox.ac.uk
- Guardian, Comments on environment
- Glen P. Peters and Edgar G. Hertwich Pollution embodied in trade: The Norwegian case, Pages 379-387