As Ingegerd Krantz, the interviewee from the municipality of Gävle, works in the area of mobility management, this field of responsibility will be explained prior to describing the findings of the interview.
Mobility management is a concept to promote sustainable transport and manage the demand for car use by changing travelers‟ attitudes and behavior (European Platform on Mobility Management Homepage). Mobility management, as defined from the interviewee referring to the EU project momentum, is a demand oriented way to influence persons‟ and materials‟ transports by encouraging the usage of environmentally sustainable methods of transportation, by improving sustainable access to all people and organizations, by increasing the effectiveness of transports and use of real estate as well as by reducing the traffic by limiting the number, length and need for motorized travel. One of the most important thoughts of this project is cooperation, because when sustainable behavioral change is to be achieved, the involvement of many different actors is necessary. Even organizations, public transports, the road ministry and companies need to be involved as well as the requirement for cooperation across traditional professional boundaries. A successful mobility management project has to have at least three types of competence, such as traffic, environment and information that have to interact. Thus, mobility management is not a universal measure to replace or rule technical solutions, as it represents more of a complement and way to encourage new and existing technical solutions to give greater effect. Simply, mobility management is a way of eliminating the need for new infrastructure. If it does so, it is more a bonus and not a rule, said Krantz. Mobility management can be seen as the software of knowledge, attitudes and behavioral influence, making sure that people get a better utilization of the hardware, meaning the physical measures. Roughly speaking, said Krantz, a difference between traditional traffic planning and mobility management is that the first deals with making sure demand from mobility without questioning it, whereas mobility management tries to influence demand from transportation (Interview, 2008-04-25).
Ingegerd Krantz is currently involved in a new concept of the municipality, dealing with sustainable every day life in Gävle. It works on processes for economic, ecological and social sustainability. Cooperation, participation and the feeling that citizens can influence daily life in Gävle are main factors in this concept (Interview, 2008-04-25).
4.5.1. Interview
Responding to question one and two of the questionnaire, dealing with sincerity of eco labels and probable criticism about them as many companies offer eco-labeled products, her impression is that there is a jungle of eco labels today. Eco labels can be taken more or less serious and it is difficult for consumers to make sure which ones are real and honest and which not. This represents a need to make it easier for consumers by informing and bringing forward those eco labels that are credible. There is also a necessity to make the information on products simplier as there are too many eco labels in the market. As eco labels concern a product‟s influence on the climate, customers “would like to simply act in an environmental fashion”. The interviewee‟s perception of examples of good eco labels are „KRAV‟, „Bra miljöval‟, „Svanen‟, „Dementer‟ and the „EU flower‟. In the field of eco-labeling are a lot of things to do, as today many consumers are ambitious and willing to influence the environment in a positive way through their purchases, stated Krantz. But this is and might be used by unserious businesspeople, seeing possibilities to increase sales through lulling customers to believe that the products they sell are environmentally sound.
To the question if consumers feel satisfied or confident when buying eco-labeled products, the interviewee answered that many customers believe that they are doing good when purchasing eco-labeled products. One reason why many people feel badly responsible today is because “we feel dissatisfied as in many areas we are living above our environmental assets”. Thus, in order to reduce this guilty conscious, people try to lower the environmental burden by buying eco products. “Sure, certain eco labels give a false sense of security”, as some people might think that their efforts are enough when doing environmentally sound product choices. But this is still not enough when considering the environmental targets put up, so the interviewee‟s opinion. She mentions an example of purchases of environmental cars in Gävle during 2007. The goals included that 17 percent of all new registered cars in Gävle should be eco cars and that the CO²-emission should be reduced by 5 percent. However, the CO²- emission in Sweden increased by 2 percent, since people travel more by car.
Answering the question, whether there is a need for eco products, it is the interviewee‟s belief that eco-labeling makes life easier for customers, but also clarifies things for producers of how they can environmentally improve products. “It is a good thing, both, to make choices easier for the customer and to give the producers a signal that the products‟ life cycle
assessment should be considered again”. However, she thinks that there is a need for projects that work on attitudes and processes of influence to make the public aware to choose more environmentally friendly products and also that they understand the importance of changing behaviors.
There is a risk that eco products give a sense of false security and that people believe that consumption can continue and accelerate as long as eco products are purchased. Habits need to be changed in order to be able to reach the environmental goals. This also includes the need to travel in other ways and to find other values than to consume products in the same sense as today. There is “need to adapt our way of living to a less environmentally infective way”. Some things might be achieved with technology, but not all the way. It needs to be learned how to consume more services and experiences that do not lead to continued environmental degradation that gives satisfaction in a common sense of nature instead, so Krantz‟ opinion. It is also her view that green marketing can lead the consumers to better environmental choices. Besides, it is crucial to consider that environmentally adapted services and experiences should be chosen above products. Further, it is important to realize that by minimizing the amount of refuse by recycling and reusing, people could abstain from consuming.
Concerning the last question of whether eco products create confidence and satisfaction in consumer‟s mind, the interviewee responded that today in Sweden there is a general opinion that the country is already acting in an environmentally responsible fashion. It is mostly accepted that Sweden is at the forefront in many areas, but there is still a lot to do, as many do not know that Sweden has Europe‟s dirtiest car-park. In her opinion, there is need to work more intensely to develop a new way of thinking and unfortunately, the development is going in a wrong direction in many areas. Many issues need to be solved in a short space of time, as today climate change is in discussion. But there are other problems as well, for example overpopulation, lack of food, lack of access to clean water and the facts of chemical releases. For Ingegerd Krantz, a precondition to success is that “we work together in many areas and at the same time, both, with information, economic policy measures and helping with eco- labeling to simplify the choices consumers make in order to improve and choose a sustainable consumption pattern” (Interview, 2008-04-25).