Why not consumers, then?

What if an entire nation treated its shopping dollars as if they held real power (which they do) to create a more healthy, sustainable Earth?

It’s a tall order to change the world, but each consumer can take small steps every day to fuel the revolution.

And, yes, that means you, Wal-Mart shopper.

“Don’t look down at Wal-Mart shoppers. They can make choices within Wal-Mart,” Ellis Jones, researcher and author of sustainability guides, told a sun-splashed throng at Vancouver’s Greenfest celebration  Saturday.

“There are better purchases to make at every point,” he told Marine Park visitors to a daylong sustainability festival.

Better coffees; better foods. Better airlines, certainly better cars and gasoline stations. And most definitely, better banks.

“This can be an intimidating process. You’re not going to instantly become an A-plus consumer,” Ellis said.

Lucky for us, Ellis honors the A-through-F grade scale, both for mega-corporations and for humble consumers.

Can’t find the top-ranked milk, or the right gas station on a lonely highway? Pick the best possible at that moment, and move on.

And strive to steadily climb the personal ladder to become ore responsible shopper, from D to C to B-plus, whatever level works best, Ellis said.

“These companies are like students. Ultimately, we need to help them all, even the struggling ones,” he said. “Every dollar that passes through your hands can be a force for good in the world.”

Most of us aren’t miracle workers. But through millions of small decisions, change takes root, he said. Witness the rush to organic foods and hybrid vehicles by some of the globe’s largest suppliers.

“As powerful as these corporations are, and as daunting as this seems, they need us,” Ellis said. “We can have an enormous amount of power to make change happen in a very short period.”

Good decisions rely on transparency. It once was easy to see the results of spending, on local farms or shoemakers or general stores. Globalization and the corporate culture have blurred the picture almost beyond recognition.

Yet, the Internet and collaboration have helped fair-trade and environmental advocates pin down far-flung harvest methods or factory wages and  conditions that provide pieces of the larger puzzle.

It’s up to consumers to slide those pieces together and sniff out which products are worthy of support, Ellis said.

“It used to be enough, to be a good citizen. Now, you have to be a good citizen-consumer,” he said. “We need to understand the truth of where our dollars are going.”

The work never ends. A second edition of his pocket-sized shopping guide is due in October, and his Web site tries to keep pace with constant ownership or production changes.

So it goes, too, on the path to sustainable culture. Ellis said developed countries are now in the second stage of environmentalism: minimizing waste and consumption.

Still ahead are “balance” and use of zero-waste processes; renewal — actually passing more trees, more salmon, etc., to future generations; and a “regeneration” culture, where every activity is a positive.

“What if the cars we drove weren’t just gas guzzlers, or lighter gas guzzlers?” Ellis said. “What if the car itself renewed the air” through some clever design? he asked. “That is where we need to be. That is the big picture.”