Future Living
JULY 2009:
New Positive Activism
The CarrotMob
Perhaps it is a sign of the times, but there appears to be something of a shift in the activist scene from negative “against” something, to more positive action.
One of the great new ideas that has hit London is so-called carrot mobbing. The term comes out of the philosophy of getting action done using a “carrot” (i.e. a positive incentive)
rather than the “stick” (i.e. negative threats). It is a principle that can be used for many types of activism and has much as yet untapped consumer and business potential.
The concept is to take several businesses in a community and find the one prepared to invest the most in say, improving their energy efficiency.
It is claim CarrotMob, a symbolic public display of how directed consumer power can bring about positive change.
The idea actually came from San Francisco, where on www.carrotmobuk.org you can see an effective example of a successful CarrotMob.
The action in question was to locate a store that would replace appliances with more energy-efficient models.
It works as follows:
- Step 1: Find the local business that will invest the greatest portion of an afternoon's sales in energy-efficient upgrades. Bidding starts and the highest wins.
In the first San Francisco example, the highest bidder a grocery store called K&D market offered 22%. An energy expert was then sent round to make suggestions.
- Step 2: Mob them! Get as many people to make their necessary purchases at the winning business as you can.
By organising to all buy the things one needs, en masse, we can use our purchasing power positively.
In the San Francsico example, so many turned out that the store raised over $9000, enough money to completely redo the lighting system.
- Local businesses win (they have less cost for energy and win new customers), and the environment.
Using this positive example as a template, the UK branch of CarrotMob launched its first ever CarrotMob at Redchurch bar
in Shoreditch, East London. When they approached local businesses they had a mixed reception, but the owner of Redchurch displayed his commitment to environmental issues
and agreed to invest 20% of the takings from the evening in energy efficiency upgrades. Global Action Plan environmental assessors visited the bar to advise on spending the money most effectively.
Thanks to tools such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, blogging and YouTube, the message got round fast to the right kind of people.
“I heard about this two hours ago” said one enthusiastic participant, “I was going for a drink anyway and thought why not make a statement while we are doing it“.
As one person writing about the event said, “If nothing else the bar is doing great business, and 100 people turned up in a credit slump and turned the manager into an evangelising green convert.”
Thanks to this positive action, the Redchurch now has energy efficient upgrades and a certificate from the environmental assessors to prove it. And several new loyal customers.
While there are critics who say that such positive action is only promoting consumption, CarrotMobbers argue it is only targeted at money you would be spending anyway.
Next time the Mob have pledged to pick a pharmacy or perhaps a corner shop that they would frequent anyway.
As the idea catches on and more people hear about it, businesses will have the opportunity to bid or to start getting more actively involved in promoting
the idea themselves (Whole Foods Market in High Street Kensington, hold an event called '5% Community Support Day' every couple of months whereby the company
chooses a charity to benefit from 5% of profits from the sales of the day).
As the mobbers say, they are prepared to reward companies for action in a language that companies understand – cash!
And not stopping at the USA or the UK they are planning branches and events worldwide starting in Australia, Brazil and South Africa.
The Night Knights
There is a strange new breed of activist hero out on the streets of London in the dead of the night.
Working to improve the environment while others sleep, they have been heralded as the new “Knights of the Night”.
The Guerilla Gardeners make a welcome change from militant demonstrators, and are amongst the more popular positive action groups in London.
They are on a mission to turn dull areas into beautiful greener areas to live. Armed with spades, seeds and plants they take to the streets at night trying to improve
the dullest most neglected corners of the capital. They started in London in 2004 and have now grown into a worldwide community – with an incredible mixture of members
ranging from grannies to students and housewives to blind people (www.guerrillagardening.org).
They target everywhere from roundabouts public parks, to vacant bits of ground with specially made seed bombs or with donated plants.
As one Guerilla gardener says “I do not wait for permission to become a gardener but dig wherever i see horticultural potential.
I do not just tend existing gardens but create them from neglected space.” While this is a kind of positive action that most people appreciate,
it is actually illegal which is partly why they only work at night. So whether it is a solo mission or a spectacular campaign by organised “cells”,
they risk the threat of being arrested and charged with criminal damage. Often however, a quiet word with the police (who inevitably arrive) about their positive intentions
is enough to diffuse the situation and they carry on working quietly often with the help of passersby.
Out at night the guerilla gardeners might well spot Hywel Sdewick-Jell whose somewhat unusual nocturnal activities are another interesting example of positive action.
He draws his own cycle lanes. “When I walk around London I think about where bicycle lanes should be” he says. Inspired by an article about such an action in Riga in Latvia,
he has now transferred this idea to the streets of London. “I usually go out on the streets to draw at 1am when there aren’t too many people around.”
He is careful to draw lanes in places where cyclists would ride, and to make them look “fake” so their is no added danger.
“The most important thing is that I want to get people to think, to see the bike path and maybe take action of their own.”
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