One thing I envision for a more sustainable future is moving away from the notion of chasing marginal improvements. This idea is very prevalent in electronics as well and sports/recreation. For example, in competitive cycling, high end teams receive brand new bikes, kit, and all other accessories every year to help promote the newest releases from their sponsors. Not only does this create a lot of waste from teams doing this but is promotes constantly needing the replace equipment to be on par with the best. However realistically the new bikes and equipment is not faster or better than the previous years, yet the idea of chasing marginal gains keeps people constantly buying more. Instead, I hope the focus could shift to promoting the longevity of products. Teams can promote bikes by winning races on the same bike for several seasons showing longevity of the products. I believe that this would be actually more effective marketing strategy than the current system and it would promote a more sustainable future.
This is just one example of an industry where consumers are constantly encouraged to replace new well-functioning products in exchange for a newer very slightly "improved" version. Another example of this is Apple with constant new product releases. I think the environment and consumers would both greatly benefit from a shift in focus to longevity instead of constant buying into each new apple product release. There isn't much most of us can do to change how these big companies market their products, however I encourages us as consumers to shift our focus to longevity and recognize the marketing behind "improved" products.
Nadia! I like your more radical approach! I think we really need to do more research about how to make larger changes in infrastructure more mediated to help consumers feel more comfortable with big uncomfortable changes, or maybe we need to normalize big changes and skip the comfort part
I totally agree with your views! We all really need to learn to leave the old trends of "new and improved" products behind and agree that sustainability is the new trend now !
this is such an interesting point! the case is strong for pro athletes and sponsorships, but also can be applied to adult amateurs, who make up the backbone of commercial support for most hobbies/sports...I grew up with horses, and saw *many* people spend huge amounts of money on items not at all necessary to success in the sport. I will definitely be more aware of this in my life!
To add on, the software updates in Apple (I only have experience in their products) often make the device slower. That could be another tactic big companies use to prompt us into buying a new phone, hoping it would solve the performance issue.