To conclude his two part series, Adrian Glamorgan offers these seven steps to sustainable consumption

So – climate change is happening, peak oil is happening, water shortages are happening, even world food shortages are stalking abroad and pricing up the local counter, and the folk at international meetings are saying, “let's do something”: but don't mention consumption too prominently. Why relegate sustainable consumption? Because it's hard. Because the free market can't work out how to solve "the greatest market failure in history", climate change, except by letting those failing free markets have more of a go at selling more things – getting "carbon trading" happening, yes, but also encouraging us to keep buying, to keep the world economy afloat, and global business-as-usual on its supercruiser keel.

If there's anything to be done by governments in regulating companies, to make them responsible behind the scenes, it's to cautiously suggest cleaner production, and gently mention eco-efficiencies and, even more softly, fair trade – and quietly, not too loudly, almost offhandedly, turn and encourage we consumers to consider buying green. An excellent start. But if some of the recent television ads are anything to go by, there's the whiff of a risk of being "greenwashed" by a few recycled plastic bags here, a bogus label on a supermarket product there. Companies are getting the drift, but not the idea, and people's own hopes for a wholesale transformation of values is being shortchanged.

To make consumption sustainable, a new kind of prosperous is needed. Something that does not feed fairy floss to the gnawing individual emptiness which drove this runaway consumption and collective greenhouse dependency. Something that won't rebadge the old. Something that will not need to link our national growth with out material output. Such "delinkage" has happened already in a few countries. If we can peer into a future beyond the familiar, it might be an Australian economy that meets our basic material needs, which helps each of us to find our inner riches, and meet and encourage such values in the other.

Yes, we will also need international, national, state and local action; and we now need companies to take their corporate responsibility seriously, rather than gloss their business reports. But how can companies and we each make this difficult inner shift into genuine sustainable consumption? How can we walk our talk, move from a few gestures to genuine concern and committed action? As we ask for a new way individually, we see how hard it is for the legal entities called companies. No question, it's difficult to escape the stickiness of the wasteful system we live in. It will take determined effort and openness of mind and heart to each other.

Sustainable consumption may involve a shift from what we buy to how we buy. Here are seven possible steps that may help each of us explore this.

1. Find our reverence for creation
How lucky we are to be on this planet! Have you counted the stars...do you know which of them are in fact coy hidden galaxies that spin about us at night? Have you felt awe at the beauty of dawn or felt the winter glow of sunset? Have you figured out what makes it rain? Have you watched a baby being born? Farewelled a friend into the mystery of death? Have you loved a place for its beauty? Have you mourned a damaged place, and wondered how to heal it? Finding our humility and reverence for life is an essential shift to sustainability. Once we care about life on our rare blue planet, from the largest of whales to the smallest diatom, isn't it so much harder to be part of the mass extinction of species, and the thin topsoil turned barren? Reverence helps us experience what's worth appreciating in the outer world.

2. Work on your Inner Self
Sure, there's fear, hatred and doubt out there – just don't let it be at home within you. Springcleaning our inner selves helps maintain our wellbeing. By sharpening our thinking, finding compassion, developing courage, building our inner resolve, finding balance, we are strengthened inwardly, to better assess the outer world and its needs.

3. Make some silence so the good sense can come in
Unsustainable systems seem to live in noise and trivialise priorities; sustainability tends to grow out of a dynamic stillness. Allow processing time. Challenge the impertinent culture that insists we are must know now; that we are nobody without a glittering product, now. If you can make a habit of moments of regular silence – meditation, prayer, reflection, a quiet walk – you are more likely to be renewed and able to witness the inner call to do what is worthy.

4. Listen inwardly, but stay actively engaged in what's happening in the world
Some people devote their life to God, praying. I'm sure that we benefit from such devotion. But I'm also led to believe that the spirit also needs arms and legs and, perhaps most of all, a courageous thinking heart, to achieve what needs to be done in this Earth Century. It's like breathing in, breathing out. We need stillness. We need action. We need stillness. We need action.

5. Dare to be dedicated and grateful
Consumerism fosters narcissism: "gotta have", "be tempted", "you deserve it". Self love is vital, but too much could be what got us in this mess in the first place. Being grateful for what you already possess, dedicating your efforts to something beyond yourself, and finding gratitude for others' inner wealth, too, is part of a mosaic reshaping meaning and growth. With humility, inner listening, dedication, gratitude and engagement, we are now, finally, ready for the last steps to achieve sustainable consumption.

6. Discern Your Life's Purpose
Assume, for a moment, your unique gifts also bring with them a unique task. Try and define this task. Listen inwardly, but seek active feedback from those in the world you trust. Keep exploring this. Slowly your life purpose emerges. Steps 1-5 have been just preparation for this process.

7. Accumulate to allocate resources on your Life Purpose
Now you know what you are here for, your aim is not to save money, but to find ways to spend it to advance your life task. (See the brilliant classic, Your Money or Your Life). There is a spiritual mystery here, perhaps. If we each follow our life purpose, mindful of our service and reverence to others, the planet is more likely to become sustainable!
Sustainable consumption will be about eating organically, perhaps driving more hybrids on the road, and (finally!) building most of our houses to the northerly aspect. But the shift to sustainability values a new kind of consumption – consumption that is not so much about outer display, as inner service, consumption that is not so much about narcissism, but outward service. Sustainable consumption will indeed be a new kind of prosperous.