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How to Sell Sustainable Materials and Technologies
Kurth Rhyner, Grupo Sofonias
Sustainability
is the word of the decade, and anybody who wants to make an impact
claims to have a sustainable technology or product. However,
reality is not that simple . It seems that there is a general
agreement that this magic work includes three major fields :
Ecology, Social factors and Economy. Most people, however,
concentrate on one or the other aspect only. While most of us are
worried about ecology and social concepts, it is the economy that we
seem to face most directly, and this leads to the fact that many
people equate sustainability to economic success.
Eco-Materials and Eco-Technologies
Some years ago we
created the words Eco-Materials and Eco-Tehnologies to describe
something that comes close to being ecologically and economic
sustainability. But, we want to stress, that there is no uniformity
within the categories. What is an Eco-Material in one place and for
one client is the opposite for the other. Lets look at two examples
:
Sun dried mud
bricks are truly an economically and ecologically sound material for
an under-employed person in many rural environments of the planet;
he can produce his own bricks with almost no cash input. This same
material is neither economically nor ecologically justified for a
struggling worker in a big city. He would have to buy the bricks
and have them transported to his plot.
Clay tile roofs
can be truly economical and ecologically acceptable in a rural
setting with plenty of wood to fire the tiles and to build a heavy
solid timber structure. However, in a town, where tiles and timber
have to be transported over long distances and the tiles have
probably been fired with non renewable energy, this carries a heavy
ecological weight and might cost a lot of money.
Therefore, when
we want to propagate Eco-Materials (Eco-Technologies) we have to
look at the social aspects: Who is the client? How much can he
pay? What can he do himself? What does he expect? Where does he
live? What are the existing social norms? What are the legal norms?
But we should
also be interested in the ecological aspects namely: Which are the
local raw materials? Which technologies are known or could be
introduced? What energy is available? How much transport is
needed?
The economical
aspects are the ones obvious to everybody; cost and price are
crucial factors. Economy seems to be simple, the price of a product
determines its marketability. Only few clients will take into
account the larger economics, whether this product has been produced
locally, who earned salaries and who made a profit, did they pay
taxes ? Which are the successful products?
Technology and Material
Selection
The person
interested in building a shelter invariably makes his choice based
on all the above mentioned factors. Although he might not be fully
conscious of it. While a wealthy person can choose among a wide
variety of products and technologies, the poor person will find his
choices to be quite reduced. Only very few people will think of
ecology when making those decisions; social and financial aspects
will be decisive.
Therefore, it
must be our task to develop and produce technologies and materials
that are ecologically sustainable, but propogate and market them
for their social and economic aspects. We need to analyze every
material for the specific conditions before propagating it as an Eco
Material, make sure that we are not simply advocating a rural
product to city people or vice versa. Similarly, it is not easy to
convince a producer of any material that he should change the
technique because of ecological considerations, but he is also
likely to respond to the prospect of a direct economic benefit.
Also, social arguments might be well received, if it either leads to
a better market situation or to a higher social status in society.
The human mind is
not rational; often people decide the opposite to what seems
reasonable. Sometimes people recognize the superiority of one
product, but buy another one. While it has rarely been seen, that
rich people imitate their poor compatriots, the opposite is common.
Therefore, it seems logical that, the best advertisement for a
material is to have it used in luxurious constructions. However,
this can also create the impression, that it is a very expensive
material and the masses do not even consider it ! This has
happened sometimes with Micro Concrete Tiles in Latin America and it
needs creativity from the producer’s side to overcome this.
Conclusions
I am convinced
that there is no easy prescription for success. Every situation and
condition has to be analyzed separately and a proper assessment
takes the three major ingredients of sustainability into account :
Ecology, Social factors, Economy. Most important is the education
of technicians and the general public about these aspects. q
The author is President of Grupo Sofonias,
an internatinal network promoting sustainable building technology in
Latin America.
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