What does it take to change your purchasing decisions?

The car was running low on petrol the other day and I was about to pull into the nearest station. I then realised that it was a BP and then had a quick call to make. Fill up with BP or drive another few K’s to the Shell Station. With all the recent events happening in the US I just couldn’t see myself using BP even if it was only for a tank of petrol. I then drove the extra few K’s to the Shell Service Station down the road to fill up.

Now I’m sure my actions while very minuscule in the scheme of things are not unique and is a direct result of the environmental catastrophe that BP is responsible for.

I was wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences? Have you recently made a conscious decision to boycott products based on their sustainability performance? If you have what is your tipping point?

I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Also by the way a relative sent me the attached image which sums up her thoughts on BP at the moment. What do you think?

Tags: BP, Purchasing Decisions

0 members like this

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of Change2 to add comments!

Join Change2

Comment by Kim Ryan on June 12, 2010 at 12:35pm: I think boycotts help. BP share price is way down. As BP makes up to 10% of UK share market it is having a major impact. I think negative consumer sentiment towards a company has a big impact on the share price.

Also, Sydney only has two refineries, Caltex and Kurnell and Shell at Clyde. So I think it is possible that you are getting petrol from one of these refineries, even though you purchased at BP or Mobil.

Comment by Paige Andrews on June 4, 2010 at 9:57am: I never seem to find myself at a BP station, but I used to reference them as a good example (how little did I know, in retrospect) of an oil (petrol) company that was trying to re-brand itself as an "energy company". In my mind, at the time, I saw BP as a great example of a company that saw the benefit of taking initiative towards utilizing alternative energy sources (at least in its marketing strategy) rather than focusing too heavily on its oil production. Now, amongst other horrible offenses, I realize that BP has made 760 willful safety violations in the last 3 years while Exxon, the company that historically comes to mind when we think of environmental disasters, only had 1 violation.

I think 1 persons boycott of BP may not be as significant on as large of a scale as, say, Rosa Park's impact in the U.S. when she made the decision not to move to the back of the bus. However, even if you don't take BP down with your boycott, it certainly has its personal significance in knowing that you took a stance on something you believed was wrong, and for that I say "do it".

John Stewart of the Daily Show does a great job giving BP a hard time about the spill and their violations here: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/309656/tue-june-01-2010-

Comment by Leon Young on June 3, 2010 at 7:02pm: I broadly agree with most of the comments made by others, and face the same daily issues. Petrol however is a really difficult one. Is there a major oil company with a good history on corporate social responsbility? (Seriously tell me if there is because I can't think of one). Am I really going to buy Shell given their record in Africa? I have to be honest and say this is the one purchase where I throw my hands up in despair, and buy whatever is going...there doesn't seem to be a lesser evil.

There is a perverse arguement for actually buying BP product. Much of the investment community is predicting that the reperation costs are going to put BP out of business. Perhaps they need our business to meet their compensation obligations...not that I think that will get be back to a BP bowser any time soon.

Comment by Erik Stanton-Clements on June 3, 2010 at 6:02pm: For me its all about embedding systemic changes in my life and internalising environmental and social externalities through paying more.

With transport, carbon based fuel consumption is the problem for me. I'm just focussed on getting a hybrid, and not too worried about the marginal changes I can make now, other than riding public transport.

With food, we're trying to find ways to buy local, organic and (though we've yet to find anything like it) PETA certified meats. We're no closer to eliminating meat and not likely to any time soon, though we are trying to keep it to one meal a day and moderate portions, mostly for health reasons.

With electricity, we use green power and are in the process of getting solar PV to complement solar hot water. This is a mine field of variable performance, etc, and takes some time to work through. We think we're nearly there.

Water consumption is not yet on the radar, but the obvious steps are grey water irrigation and a rain water tank. It would be great to manage black water through a reed bed and then irrigate with this as well, but that is another learning curve. It would be nice to know we're reducing pumping energy as well as water.

Don't get me started on consumer goods!

Comment by Jake Maribbay on June 3, 2010 at 5:23pm: The image is appropriate.
BP’s poor performance in managing the disaster is enough to put me off all of their products for good. Substantial reparation should be made before they even blip back into my purchasing radar Lee!

Comment by Anthony Ogilvie on June 3, 2010 at 3:00pm: G'day Lee,

I think it's important to differentiate between products and brands. Whilst I wont buy bottled water I haven't made a specific boycott against Coke or Schweppes etc. On the flip side I haven't purchased James Hardie products because of their approach to the asbestos workers and actually check with workmen e.g. plumbers to make sure they know it's not coming into my house.

My biggest area of dilemma is food purchasing. I rarely eat meat (150-200 gms per week) and when I do it has to be free range. Must say sometime that means I get sick of chips when I'm out :-) For this was a tipping point when I finally accepted I couldn't support it, regardless of how socially awkward it got sometimes when others just want you to fit in.