Make more conscious(er) choices

René Lensen - Sales Manager Kitchen Retail at Electrolux Home Products

As a human being, you make choices all day long. Perhaps tens of thousands a day, some of which have small consequences and some of which have large ones. But how many conscious choices do we actually make? In any case, I chose very consciously to say yes to The Pen in this edition.

Most choices are made subconsciously and in a split-second. And that is just as well because it cannot be the intention to have to think about everything for a long time. These choices are largely driven by unconscious processes and patterns. Only a small portion of the choices we make are made consciously and with a sense of responsibility. And that is precisely where the challenge lies: how can we increase that portion? Because if we look at the big issue of our time: "how can we leave the world better for the next generations?", then we all need to work on that. And so integrate more sustainable habits into our daily lives. Both consciously and unconsciously.

Awareness

In the nearly twenty years that I have been active in kitchen retail, I have noticed that the consumer focus is still on ease of use and speed of use. Because that's what determines the ultimate user experience of things like kitchen appliances. And of course, we all know that we have to eat healthier... but we are still more likely to put a pizza in the oven than to steam vegetables, fish and potatoes in the same 20 minutes to get a tasty and healthy meal on the table. I therefore see it as the task of the kitchen industry - in addition to the technical aspects of kitchen appliances - to also tell people about the advantages that the appliances can offer. And I don't just mean making its energy consumption transparent (also an important one for the end user, by the way), but especially that something like cooking with steam is not only a healthy, but also a tasty choice. After all, we want healthy and sustainable food to become the preferred choice, and that is -if you ask me- largely about a piece of awareness.

Steering unconsciously

Like any mindset change, this is quite a challenge that requires a lot of discipline. But that's the beauty of our industry: we can arrange our environment so that you almost automatically choose a certain option. New innovative techniques nowadays make it possible to steer even subconsciously into making the more sustainable choice. Think of washing machines that show the 30-degree program by default and you have to consciously deviate from that when you want to wash your laundry at a higher temparture. Or a dishwasher that displays the environmental impact when choosing your program. Each product group has its facets that encourage consumers to make more sustainable choices. So that's how we can help end users. This is where we as producers in the kitchen industry have a great task. But it would be even better if end-users would do that more automatically. Because making conscious choices makes so much difference! And if you don't know what to choose, make a conscious choice, I would say.