Opinion: The price of sustainability needs to drop in order to become more effective.

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Hope for a more eco-friendly future has started to make its way into our society. We need to care for our world, and that necessity grows quickly and steadily with time. Although the push for sustainability is gaining valuable momentum, affordability of the movement is equally vital. We must answer the questions about sustainability’s affordability so that it can be an action that reaches past socioeconomic status; it must have universal availability to be successful.
Currently, prices for sustainable options remain high. For example, a sustainable fork in place of a plastic fork may be in high demand, but the sustainable option takes more time and resources to make. Environmentally friendly alternatives are only accessible for those who can afford them. While this issue remains national, individuals at UO help to explain what actions can be made locally in response.
The way companies market and design their sustainable products comes down to one key component: communication to the public about these environmentally friendly products and listening to the needs of the consumers. Communication about the environment is a requirement for the future of our climate. Hollie Smith, assistant professor of science and environmental communication, emphasizes the importance of listening when connecting through communication.
“I think the biggest thing is focusing on not just speaking but also listening. That is one of the most important elements of communication, and unfortunately it is often overlooked,” Smith said.
Smith also thinks sustainability should be more affordable for everyone. Smith thinks “many choices dealing with environmental sustainability and new technology are for people who come from a place where you have the option to make those decisions. They can choose different behaviors and afford to adopt new technology.”
Electric vehicles, for example, while beneficial to environmental sustainability, are not affordable. Corporations offer these kinds of solutions, but they fail to acknowledge the inaccessibility of their technologies.
“It is really important that we examine how we’re offering some of these options and how we’re talking about it,” Smith said. She thinks these offerings are out of reach for many individuals, and that we need to start addressing key barriers to start unpacking issues to make affordable sustainability a reality. 
While there are many eco-friendly alternatives for everyday products, they fail to listen to individual’s needs. Our ecosystem is perpetually shared by all people. Wealth segregating the accessibility of products and technologies ignores the fundamental characteristic of environments: community. Every individual should be given the opportunity to care for their planet, regardless of class differences.
Excessive pressure on personal choice is a repeated problem of corporate responsibility, especially in terms of the environment. It is only through policy support and policy change that communities can advance past individual options. Incentivizing communities and policies will remain the key to approaching future environmental issues.
There needs to be an emphasis on affordable sustainable options. Conversations about how to incentivize and disincentivize certain options are vital to developing sustainability in an equitable, educated and responsive way. Communities crave the opportunity for a choice; it’s a choice that defends the future of our ecosystem, and it should be offered to all individuals, regardless of wealth or status.