Marching to the beat of a different drum

Activism used to be all about what was wrong. Now, from executive suites to department stores, "new activists" are showing us how to get things right.

Marco Visscher and James Geary | May 2008 issue

The real “new activism,” says Hohnen, a diplomat before he took a leadership role at Greenpeace, and now a consultant to businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), “is practised by thousands of people wearing normal clothes and working inside businesses, banks, universities, government offices and NGOs. This is a class of seemingly dull, low-profile and workaday activists who, dressed in nothing more colourful than a striped shirt and occasional tie, are changing corporations and other organizations in potentially profound ways. This is the community I’m pinning my hopes on for deep and rapid change.”

One such incognito activist is Jeremy Leggett, another Greenpeace refugee who was an oil industry consultant before joining the environmental group and is now head of Solarcentury, the largest supplier of solar panels in the UK. Leggett’s path to running a solar company—and its affiliated charity, SolarAid—was anything but straightforward. He used his Oxford doctorate in Earth sciences to launch a lucrative career advising oil companies on prospecting, much to the chagrin of his eco-conscious biologist father. In 1988, he left for greener pastures after reading several scientific articles about global warming. He began a career as a Greenpeace activist, lobbying against the political influence of the very same natural gas and oil companies that once employed him. But Leggett became disenchanted when he saw how ineffective these protests were in creating change, so he jumped ship in 1998 to start Solarcentury.

Solarcentury manufactures and markets efficient, visually attractive solar cells that are virtually indistinguishable from ordinary roof tiles. The firm is a leading provider of photovoltaics in the UK and in 2006 was named the country’s fastest-growing renewable energy technology company by Britain’s Sunday Times. Solarcentury profits are funnelled to SolarAid, which works to combat both poverty and climate change by providing renewable energy sources to some of the world’s poorest communities.

Despite the success of people like Leggett, storming the boardroom may remain as difficult for the new corporate activists as scaling office buildings has been for the direct action shock troops. Paul Hawken, author of the sustainability classic The Ecology of Commerce and, most recently, Blessed Unrest, recalls preparing to address the “city fathers” of a conservative American industrial town not long ago when a colleague leaned over to whisper this helpful advice, “Boys, this will be like teaching a mule to play the violin. The mule won’t like it and it won’t sound pretty.”

Sustainability is still a hard sell in Hawken’s view, especially in the U.S. “The U.S. is bringing up the rear as it has in all corporate matters with respect to the environment,” he says. “In Germany, Sweden, the UK, it is front and centre. In Japan, it is a deep strategic issue on the board level. In the U.S., there are still boards that literally are asking if this is a trend, and if so, when it will pass. There is a huge mismatch between what the world needs now in terms of leadership and who is sitting on the audit committees.” All the more reason, the corporate activists argue, to have your own people on the inside.

No one is suggesting activism should be all fun and games, not even some of the zanier practitioners of post-modern protest. Then do we still need the inflatable dinghy brigades? “Yes, more than ever!” exclaims Jacques Servin, who typically goes by the nom de plume Andrew Bichlbaum when he’s agitating with the Yes Men.

Nor do many people suggest that men and women in sharp business suits are the best candidates to address every issue. “Nothing would happen without agitation,” says Jim Hightower. “We’ve always had activists who were angry, and we’ll always need them. Everyone knows you need both humour and outrage.”

Even Hohnen urges a full palette of protest. “In some countries, banner hangings are passé. In others, they may still be relevant. In still others, they are not legally possible. It’s not a one-size-fits-all world. The key thing is to think of the new activism as what achieves the greatest amount of positive change with the minimum inputs.”

Hawken agrees. “This is not a time for crumpets and tea. This is a time for transformation. Corporations have had decades to twiddle their thumbs. Now is the time for action, and every conceivable non-violent means possible should be deployed. ... We need activists more than we ever have in our history.”

So the next time you’re out shopping for a cheap T-shirt, don’t be surprised if an audacious army of ethical consumers descends on the clothing department. And the next time you’re strolling the corridors of some major or minor corporation, check out the executives’ attire. Some of them may be wearing pink berets.

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