What is All the 'Collectively' Fuss About?

This week, Collectively.org launched. Described in a press release as a “super brand coalition” platform to “raise awareness and inspire millennials to adopt a more sustainable way of living,” I first thought it was a joke. I rolled my eyes as the email also included a pallid quote from Barack Obama and forwarded it onto the editors here at Triple Pundit with a snicker (which is why, PR people, get to the point right away).

Yes, the “super brand coalition” threw me off, as I envisioned a posse of luxury brands going into the Middle Eastern desert to root out terrorism. But when I scrolled down that same email yesterday, it turns out this is partnership between Forum of the Future and some of the world’s biggest and iconic companies: Marks & Spencer, Unilever, Google, Nike, BT and others are sponsoring this new site while VIRTUE, a division of edgy VICE Media, is curating the site.

And according to sustainability writers out there, that background poses a huge problem for Collectively, and the knives are out. “A slew of major corporations,” and “backed by corporate sponsors,” are among the complaints being lobbed at this new site—as if somehow corporate involvement is a bad thing. The “feel good” stories on Collectively are mocked, and the site is even chided for not covering other stories such as the Aral Sea’s disappearance (shame on us at Triple Pundit, as admittedly we barely covered the disappearance of the world’s fourth largest freshwater lake).

But is the criticism fair, with Collectively not even up and running for a week?

To Collectively’s credit, the 25 or so sponsors are disclosed clearly, with all those atrocious logos that make many a sustainability writer apoplectic. This is no Koch Brothers initiative with a title such as “Responsible Citizens for Sustainability” that is anything but friendly to this movement in which many of us passionately believe. Sure, on a personal note, I am hardly a fan of McDonald’s and Nestlé, but I also recognize the ground-breaking work companies such as M&S, Diageo, Unilever and Kingfisher have done. And yes, Facebook is part of this coalition, too—you know, the trillion-dollar social media behemoth we all love to hate, but flock to it because it allows us to broadcast our favorite news from the likes of Grist, Mashable, Inhabitat and yes, from us here at Triple Pundit. Gather 25 of anyone or any organization in a room and it is doubtful you find the crowd completely palatable.

As for attacking Collectively for its feel-good stories, the reality is that if the dystopian view of climate change resonated with the general public across the world, we as a society would have banded together by now to reverse the trend. Fair or not, the way climate change and its dangers are portrayed have not worked. We can blame and attack traditional media all we want, but in the end they are a business. If climate change resonated, it would be a regular topic on conventional media channels. Instead, the mainstream media outlets prefer to focus more Whitney Houston drowning in a bathtub and that royal baby—because that is what most people want to watch. Those of us who wish to keep tabs on topics more important to us scour the internet to find the news we want. And before we become wistful for the pre-Fox and –MSNBC days when we had fair-minded journalism with the likes of Walter Cronkite, remember that his news show was delivered thanks to advertising dollars from the same companies who helped contribute to get us into this mess we are currently in.

The stubborn fact is that more companies are cleaning up their act, which in turn nudges their competitors to do the same, which in turn will make a difference. Sure, after a few months if Collectively reveals itself to be online greenwashing rag, it will fail and its readers will move on. But before slamming this new publication, and knocking the involvement of Jonathon Porritt—who has done far more to advance the cause of sustainability than all the mason jar-nursing hipster bloggers hiding behind their laptops—let’s welcome Collectively to the conversation. We need more participants in this ongoing discussion, not less.

Image credit: Collectively

After a year in the Middle East and Latin America, Leon Kaye is based in California again. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Other thoughts of his are on his site, greengopost.com.