Sustainable and local shopping made easy
Nowadays, sustainable and local shopping has become a trend once more. We, at Sugartrends, are big fans of it as well. However, many people still ask where and how to shop locally and sustainably. We have often heard things like “There is no place to do this where I live!” or “But it’s so much more expensive than going to the department store!”. This is not entirely true. Today, we are gonna show you where you can shop locally and sustainably and what exactly those two things are.
A quick introduction to local shopping
Most of you probably already know what local shopping is or have at least a general idea. Local shopping means several things. First, it means buying products that have been produced or manufactured locally. This benefits job retention and the local economy. For food, this means to buy regional and seasonal products that have been grown locally and didn’t have to be shipped first from Asia or South America. For clothes, this is fairly similar. Why does it have to be the jeans that have been sewn together in Bangladesh under terrible conditions? Sometimes you can find young designers who care about fair production and good materials. That means, your t-shirt might come from Poland instead of Cambodia. You can’t really see a different but wearing it feels way better!
And what exactly is sustainable shopping?
Sustainable shopping has become just as popular as local shopping. But how exactly is sustainable shopping different from going to the department store or a big fashion chain?
Sustainable shopping means especially shopping responsible and only shop products that are ecologically and socially safe.
For food, this means that the product was traded under fair conditions and grown regionally and environmentally safe. Often, we can also find small symbols on the packaging, that tell us that the product is climate-friendly or climate-neutral. Another factor concerning sustainability is transport and packaging, which often produces a lot of pollution as well.
For clothing, this is again very similar and means especially that the clothes are made from recycled or environmentally friendly materials and sewn together by fairly paid workers under fair working conditions. It also includes, that harmful chemicals are avoided to protect not just the workers but also our environment. When you buy sustainable clothes, you can also assume that all workers have fair working hours and are not forced to work or discriminated.
Sustainable brands and stores on Sugartrends
We, at Sugartrends, represent many stores that offer you a range of sustainable clothes from different brands. Stacks, our store of the week, is one of them. In the middle of Ehrenfeld, you can find clothes from young brands that have been produced ethically correct. Two of those brands are for example Thinking Mu from Spain or patagonia from the US. Stacks pays special attention to the fact that their clothes live up to certain moral standards and are produced under ethically correct conditions to protect workers and the environment.
Another store where you can buy sustainable clothing is Abury in Berlin. Abury believes, that style, quality and morals are not mutually exclusive and, hence, decided to give back. Besides looking out for their workers and paying them fair loans, Abury is transforming working hours into hours of education. For every hour, that workers from a special region work to produce clothes for them, Abury gives the workers of that region one hour of education back.
Another place where to find sustainable products is Grinskram in Mainz. Here you won’t find clothes, though, but a range of every day- and design products. Grinskram is watching exactly what materials and ingredients are used as well as working conditions and production routes to ensure that their products live up to the highest standards while still being sustainable.
And where can I go shopping now? 3 tips for you.
Shopping locally and sustainably is not as hard as you might think. Here are our top 3 tips for sustainable and local shopping:
- When it comes to your weekly grocery store visit then you should try to find regional and seasonal products. You can even start doing this in big supermarkets because next to almost every product you can find a small sign that tells you exactly where the product comes from. Look out for products that were grown in your region or at least in your country and are not coming from the other side of the globe.
- Otherwise, it might be worth to go to the bakery or butcher around the corner or to try and find a local weekly market. This also has the benefit that the products are really super fresh and you will get good quality. You will exactly know where everything comes from.
- On our Sugartrends homepage you can find a range of organic and fairly traded products in our Bio-Fair-Nachhaltig collection. Here you can click through organic food but also find sustainable and ethically correctly produced clothes. This is also a great and easy way to start looking for new products.
Some last words
Today, the textile industry is the second most harmful industry in the world. More harmful is only the oil industry. Of course, we, at Sugartrends understand that it is not always possible to shop locally and sustainably and that we all have to go to the big department stores from time to time or buy fruits and veggies that were not grown regionally. This is not dramatic as long as we are aware of the consequences and try to shop responsibly wherever possible. The Aral Sea was once the fourth biggest inland waters on the planet and is now almost entirely dried up. Nowadays, it is only roughly 7% of its old size. This is due to cotton plantations that have been set up in the dry area by the textile industry and that need a lot of water which slowly dried-up the Aral Sea. And this is only one of the consequences. It is really worth thinking about the things we buy.
Do we really need another jacket even though there are already five in our wardrobe? And why not go to a small store that sells sustainable, ethically correct and fair clothes instead of going to a big chain again? It is not just for our good conscience that we should do this, but also for the environment and the workers who work hard to let us dress the way we do. Think about it. #sustainableshopping #local #sugartrends
