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Encouragement instead of complaints

14 comments
uppmuntra-fridge

The supermarket at Sveavägen in central Stockholm. The sign says: "Invite a homeless to lunch". Photo: Uppmuntra.nu

As I’ve pointed out before, persons who are trying to create societal change sometimes risk being perceived as pretty negative characters. To make up for this, a newly started group in Sweden has begun to encourage initiatives that they like instead of criticizing what they don’t like.

Every month Uppmuntra.nu (which means encourage.now) picks out a company in Stockholm that does something good, “from an environmental, economical, social or human perspective”.

The first company to be appointed is a supermarket in the centre of Stockholm, which has put up a refrigerator outside their checkout counters with a printed request to “Invite a homeless to lunch”. There the supermarket puts food items that have a short best-before date and risk not getting sold, but costumers can also buy some extra food and donate it to the fridge.
The food is then collected by a local shelter, which every day gives food to about 200 homeless persons.

Uppmuntra.nu (the page has an autotranslation into English) has taken its inspiration from the Carrotmob movement, an “anti-boycott” organisation that started in USA in 2008. The idea behind it is that consumers can have an influence through their choices, and by supporting good activities consumers invest in a better development for society.

Sara Jeswani - Sustainability

August 18, 2010

  • http://twitter.com/swedensustblog swedensustblog

    Encouragement instead of complaints: Uppmuntra.nu points consumers to shops that do good. http://bit.ly/draSQx #sustainability #green #eco

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • http://www.muchissaidinjest.com/ Gabriel

    That’s a really good idea and I like the concept a lot. But one thing to worry about is the amount of green wash that is out there. I know many companies are ramping up their corporate sustainability departments and pumping a lot of money into them.

    Great that companies want to do good, but we still have to hold their feet to the fire to force change.

  • http://twitter.com/fideliatan fideliatan

    Sweden promotes encouragement that ‘builds’ society instead of complaints http://bit.ly/draSQx
    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • Sara Jeswani

    I agree with you, there is a lot of greenwash around ever since consumers started demanding better alternatives. So I think we need both whips (like for example laws, watch dog organisations and investigating journalism)and carrots like Uppmuntra.nu.

  • http://twitter.com/Claudiadeak Claudiadeak

    Encouragement instead of complaints http://t.co/4GHxA9y

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

  • Pol – Croatia

    Interesting. Yesterday i was just proposing to the saleslady in the market near my home how it would be good to install a refrigirator for the goods with near end date they are offering near the entrance on the discount (even when this would increase powerconsumption). In this crisis times sometimes it helps also ordinary people.

    The true form of donation in that market (even if this is not something new) is also a possibility to give small sums of money (like change) in the transparent box near cash desk (in this particular case for the blind people projects) and coin by coin the box is often quite loaded with money. The simplicity of giving is very often a key i think and hear from other people saying, when this kind of actions are to help someone.

    Considering corporative donations, this can be quite controversial indeed. Very often one can’t realy tell if they are using it simply as another form of selfpromotion or really for common good. Personaly i am very suspicious about it and the company has to deserve its trust from beggining and in the long run, to make it worth credit. …

  • Juan (Barcelona)

    Thanks for the great post, Sara! Sometimes we concentrate too much on the negative side and forget to spread the good news! People need to hear positive news, and good companies should be rewarded!

  • Sara Jeswani

    Thanks, Pol and Juan! We do need positive things pointed out to us once in a while to see that things are happening. And considering the enormous amount of food that is thrown away, every way of reducing that waste is a step in the right direction. But of course we also need to look at the big picture of what the companies are doing in other areas.

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