You buy organic food but you’re not sure what fair trade means.  Or maybe you’re a strict vegan who drives a hybrid.  You could be a religious recycler, or an energy curmudgeon, or just getting your feet wet into this “green” thing.  You have ideas about what’s right, and you have questions about what you can do better.

Join me as I take a trip along the sustainability spectrum, the matrix that connects us all here at the Alternative Consumer.  Meet people like you, and not like you.  Hear about their lives, what they buy, what they think about and how they live.  From housewives to college students, consumers to freegans, vegans to cattle farmers.  Then ask yourself, where do you fall on the Sustainability Spectrum?

Nicole Levine (pictured above) opens up the hatch of her BMW to grab a few reusable bags out of the back.  “I think about it all the time,” she says “every time I pick something up to buy it.”  Nicole works part time as a real estate appraiser in Santa Barbara.  She’s a mother of two and the wife of a lawyer.

She frequents small independent grocery stores like Gelstons and Lazy Acres.  Once a month she makes it down to the farmers market. Her cup holders are full of Coffee Bean cups that she brings back for refills.  “I’ve had this cup for a few weeks now, I just have them refill it” she says.

In the fruits aisle Nicole inspects an avocado.  “I look for the ingredients I know,” she says, “as chemical free as I can get.”  She buys recycled paper (“but not for toilet paper, it’s just too rough”), looks for local and fair-trade products.  With all this greenery going on in her house, Nicole still scrunches her nose when I ask her to define sustainability.  “That’s hard” she says “I don’t know much about it, it’s really a problem.”

So where is the disconnect?  Nicole does so much right, from recycling to buying fair-trade products.  She knows what sustainability is: “I think, well I guess it’s the action of doing what you can to keep the resources of the planet and not be wasteful of the resources of the planet.”  Then she pauses and asks “is that right?”  But still she’s unsure about what constitutes a sustainability issue, and what she can do to help.  “I think the whole oil issue is key, but on the other hand I think of things like the rainforest and clear cutting.  But that doesn’t seem like something I have as much control over as something that’s being transported to me.”

She’s right and wrong.  As consumers we most directly control what we buy.  When we buy things that are local we’re reducing the amount of oil needed to drive there.  When we buy Fair Trade we’re supporting workers across the globe.  When we buy recycled products we’re creating a market for recycled goods.  Where Nikki is wrong is the idea that oil isn’t connected with rainforest clear cutting, or that fair trade doesn’t support organic.  It’s all connected.  Sustainability means recognizing the holistic and interconnected nature of the world we live in, and taking steps to help on all fronts.

Nicole (pictured above) recycles, buys organic and local and reuses cups not just for herself, but like many of you she has a family. “Jenna’s watching me and we have to care about future generations and I’m training her as to what to do.  It won’t be something brand new and different to her,” she says.

Of course, no one is perfect.  Nicole also has a weakness for shopping, sunglasses and high quality teas, many of which don’t provide fair trade options.  She rarely buys natural cleaners and when she goes out to eat she often makes less sustainable choices.  When I ask her what her worst habit is she gives me a guilty look and says, “driving my BMW around.”

Nicole’s shopping list:
1.    Organic milk in the glass bottle; (example:  Ronnybrook)
2.    Recycled paper
3.    Local fruits and vegetables
4.    Fancy Tea
5.    Organic poultry

Areas for improvement:
1.    Cleaning products
2.    Clothing choices
3.    Gas consumption/driving
4.    Habits when eating out
5.    Fair Trade tea