There has been a tremendous shift in the way companies and people do business unfamiliar to many of us. We are in the midst of one of the largest global economic downturns of our time. Six U.S. states have unemployment rates since jobless records began in 1976. The mortgage crisis is still unresolved and the stock market has yet to instill confidence in investors. Clearly all of us in some way have been affected by the downturn. It is times like these that business needs to either evolve or be dissolved. One of the best teachers of survival is nature. Evolution is crucial for any species to adapt and survive the changing environmental circumstances of its surroundings. They either do this or become extinct. This is also true in business as we have seen formidable companies such as GM declare bankruptcy because of its inability to adapt to the changing consumer and global competitors.

So how do we make a shift in a consumer driven economy that is propelled by people buying stuff even if we are trying to promote better stuff? LOHAS products are still just products but with a more mindfulness. They still have a price tag and in many cases it is a premium price tag. Remember how the green craze took hold? People were touting their green built mansions and biodiesel hummers. There was big opportunity for companies to jump on the green bandwagon with green-products, eco-tours and green bling. All of this was just green lipstick on the pig of our larger consumer driven society. Our overspending that has put us in a trillion dollar credit card debt. The average U.S. household debt at the end of 2008 was $8,329.

Now bling is out. Flaunting wealth now is to be out of touch with current circumstances and seen as arrogant. Runway fashion is touting more mute colors and darker tones instead of shimmering silver and gold. There has been a shift in attitudes across the board from companies to individuals on spending. There is more of a focus on quality rather than quantity. Currently, people are focusing more on their spending habits and not overspending but are saving. The personal savings rate is at a 10 year high of over 4.5%. It does not sound like much but it is a huge step for many. The National Gardening Association states that home gardening is anticipated to increase 19%. They claim it is not necessarily because produce is expensive but rather that people like to hunker down and want some old fashioned comfort.

People are beginning to evaluate their relationship with money and their definitions of happiness. The New Economics Foundation conducted a global ranking of the ecological efficiency with which the world's nations deliver long and happy lives for the people who live there. This index is called the Happy Planet Index and concluded that although USA, China and India were all 'greener and happier' twenty years ago than today, Latin America tops the Index with Costa Rica the 'greenest and happiest' country.  Nine of the ten highest-scoring nations are Latin American. Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world, have the second-highest average life expectancy of the New World (second only to Canada) and have an ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of 'one-planet living': consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources. The UK comes 74th, USA 114th out of 143 nations surveyed. Money can’t buy you love.

We are set up on a system that programs us to think we need to buy things to make us happy. Like a drug addict we lose the happiness high and need to go out and buy more to maintain the happiness. How can we break the vicious cycle? And more importantly, how can we do this and come out of the recession?  Simplicity does not mean we go back to crude and regressive tactics of living in caves and huts. We are too smart for that. Simplicity however means that we reduce much of the distracting noise that can surround us and focus on elements that really matter to our hearts. If one reads classic economic texts they tell you the only way to grow is to consume. I think that we need to reconsider what we consume. There are many ways that our society can grow. We need to grow infrastructure, clean technology, education and healthcare. But do we need to grow the volume of our stuff?  We have so much stuff we have created an industry just to store it. According to an interview recently on Marketplace Radio the square footage of the self storage industry in the U.S. would now cover all of San Francisco and Manhattan combined.
We are in a critical time that this shift is possible and people are receptive to listening to new ideas on how to rework old paradigms. Not only can the economy recover it can be reinvented. We can have new policy implemented that can curb consumption and improve welfare. For example, Sweden currently bans advertising directed at children. This is good for overall society. Thoughtful trade agreements that consider job growth and green job opportunities. Decisions that include ecological thinking on the environment will allow an economy to grow intelligently and wisely. The U.S. is affluent enough to consider new ways of distributing that wealth and sharing that knowledge with others. This sharing of knowledge is what fosters relationships, community and overall happiness. The happiness you receive when you are with family and friends is unparalleled can never be bought.  This change needs to come from individual ad community mindfulness of what they can do to foster growth of a new economy and a new society.