What is a Conscious Consumer?
A conscious consumer is a person who uses their purchasing power to influence positive change. Organisations can also be conscious consumers. For example, a coffee shop may decide to use only Fair Trade coffee, because they want to ensure their supply chain is fair and equitable.
Conscious consumers consider more than just the best deal when buying goods and services. They also think about the social, environmental and sustainability factors associated with a product and how their purchase can bring about improvement, or at worst, minimise harm. Most conscious consumers will accept that making the right choice sometimes requires sacrifice. They will be prepared to pay a higher price or accept fewer features for a sustainably produced item or service.
Why be a Conscious Consumer?
Most governments, corporations and conspicuous consumers (e.g. the nominally one percent of the world population that holds half the world’s wealth) are incredibly slow to accept their responsibilities regarding climate change, sustainability, environmental degradation and social equity. We, as responsible citizens therefore need to exert whatever influence we have before Earth reaches a state of climatic, ecological and societal collapse.
The writing is already on the wall in this regard.
The latest indications are that the global average climate may have already warmed by more than 1.5°C since pre-industrial times.
Species are currently going extinct at a rate many hundreds of times faster than what is considered by scientists to be the normal background rate attributable to natural forces and evolution. This extinction is primarily being driven by human over-exploitation of the planet’s resources.
Societal collapse and resultant migration crises are already happening in the Americas, Africa and Europe, largely due to over-exploitation of resources and people, and the failure of life-sustaining systems like food and water supply due to changing climate in developing countries.
Individually, our choices may be of minuscule consequence, but collectively we can be powerful. No matter how non-materialistic (or just plain poor) we may be, we all consume something. Those somethings are the goods and services that we need to at least survive, if not thrive.
The current system that seems to prevail globally does not lead to an equitable situation for the majority of Earth’s citizens. Nor does it lead to a good outcome for most of the planet’s living species.
The rich and powerful get rich and powerful by owning and controlling the flow of the services and commodities we all need in a system that ensures the flow of wealth is always upward to that one-percent at the peak of the wealth pyramid. Our political and economic systems are “owned” by the same rich and powerful blocs who strive to ensure that the status quo persists, seemingly regardless of the effects on our ecosystems and the rest of the population (or is population collapse part of a plan?). Only just enough of that wealth flows downwards to keep most of the 99 percent alive, pacified, working and consuming.
Chart from Visual Capitalist, data from Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2021. Note that about 1% of the population holds nearly 46% of global wealth, while 55% struggle to get by on merely 1.3% of the planet’s wealth. This chart relates to 2021. Wealth inequality has become even greater since then.
One way we can influence change is by being selective about how we invest our time, that is, how and where we work. By only working for enterprises that are of net benefit, we are working for the greater good. However, this is not always an option and the further down we are in the global wealth pyramid, the fewer our options are, until, at the bottom of the pyramid we may be virtual, or in fact actual, slaves with no options at all.
As conscious consumers we operate on the other side of the coin, exercising influence through our choices when it comes to purchasing goods and services in the course of our daily lives. Being a conscious consumer means weighing up the positive and negative implications of our choices to consume.
It’s Not Just One Thing
Being a conscious consumer is not as simple as it sounds because of the complex relationships that exist between the financial, social, environmental, ethical and political factors involved in the supply chains of the goods and services that we generally take for granted.
Conscious consumerism requires lots of learning and a pragmatic approach. Otherwise, the unintended consequences of our choices can outweigh the benefits. For example, suppose I decide, in the interests of fighting climate change, to only use diesel blended with biofuel. Where does the raw material for that biofuel come from? Let’s learn from a real-life example:
In the 2000s the EU mandated that diesel contain a proportion of biofuel. Biodiesel at the time was mostly derived from rapeseed oil.
The demand for rapeseed oil shot up.
A shortage of rapeseed oil for cooking resulted, pricing it out of reach of many who depended on it.
Substitution with soya bean oil for cooking resulted in a spike in demand for soya beans.
In response to this demand suppliers increased production, in part by clearing forest in the Amazon basin to make room for soya cropping.
These clearances displaced indigenous peoples, destroyed wildlife habitat and harmed the climate by converting land that was a carbon sink into a carbon source.
The unintented consequences of this well-intentioned policy did much more harm than good, and the EU has now adjusted its policy, attempting to phase out crop-based biofuels. But the damage is already done.
There are a huge number of organisations and individuals around the globe fighting for noble, essential causes like improving social equity, saving biodiversity, eliminating hunger, preventing global heating, and many others. But it is unsafe to think of these causes in isolation. They are each part of a much bigger picture, and actions must be balanced against their consequences to other areas of concern, or the gains made for one cause may be more than negated when the effects on others is taken into account.
Make Your Choices Count
Don’t hide your conscious consumer choices under a bushel!
Explaining why you made the choice you did is possibly the most influential thing you can do as an individual. One choice will not change the world, but explaining it to a friend may just win another convert to the cause... and so it grows.
There is no need to be pushy. Your conscious consumer choice is likely to stand out from the more crowd-following choices of those around you, prompting discussion. This is your opportunity to explain your reasoning and sow the seeds of thought in other people’s minds.
It’s important not to preach, or to criticise the other person’s choice. Just explain why you made the decision you did and what you are trying to achieve, whether it be sustainability, social equity, support for local business, or whatever.
Equip yourself with factual information from reliable sources. This will give you confidence in your choices and that confidence will convey itself to others through your conversation.
Paralysis by Perfectionism
We don’t have to be perfect; we just need to be better. In fact, perfectionism is impossible. Pretty much every decision we make to consume something will have some negative impact somewhere, directly or indirectly. Conscious consumerism is about doing the least harm and the maximum good through our choices.
Demands for perfectionism are often a weapon of our opponents, frequently phrased as “If you think x is so bad for y, why do you use it at all, hypocrite?”, when there is actually no other viable choice but to use x. Ignore these people. They mostly have an agenda of their own and are unlikely to be convinced by any reasoned argument. Avoid wasting your energy on them, or promoting their views by acknowledging them on social media.
Sometimes, to get by, we have no options but to make less than perfect consumer decisions, so there is no point beating ourselves up when we have to.
Next Steps
Where do we start? My suggestion, is to start small. What do you consume a lot of, or purchase frequently in your daily life? Find out about it. Here are some (but not all)questions you might investigate:
Who supplies it? What sort of business are you supporting by using that brand? Does it align with your ethics?
What is the product’s supply chain? Where are the raw materials for it sourced? Under what environmental and workplace standards? Where is is made? How is it transported?
Is it locally bought? Locally made? Am I supporting local / national prosperity?
What are its environmental impacts in manufacture, use and disposal. What is its whole life cycle?
Are there alternatives with more positive / less harmful impacts?
Do I really need this?
Once you have gone through this process a few times, it will become part of your normal consumer decision-making process.
Your Thoughts
Let me know your thoughts about positive consumerism. Especially:
Are you going to give it a try?
What aspects of consumerism concern you?
What aspect would you like to know more about?
Comments welcome and appreciated.
Want More?
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