The levels of consumption consciousness: Level Two — impact-aware
We’ve seen some great companies gather their crowds on our Australian and NZ sites. We’ve seen that people are passionate about supporting brands that are sustainable and ethical.
We’ve also seen how crowdfunding has entered consumer culture. People have always voted with their dollars but with crowdfunding, that vote means a hell of a lot more.
From this vantage point, we feel like we’re uniquely placed to start a conversation about conscious consumption.
Many of us recycle, care about the environment, and think that orangutans shouldn’t be facing extinction. But what does it really mean to be a conscious consumer?
We’ve come up with an idea: the levels of consumption consciousness. If we care about this world, maybe we can be a bit more intentional with how we interact with it. We’re thinking of the levels of consumption consciousness as the different levels of awareness / perception around the purchase of goods and services.
Last week, we covered Level One, label-aware. Check it out if you haven’t yet.
Level Two: Impact-aware
What are the implications of what you’re buying?
You walk into a department store and buy a t-shirt. It was on sale and it will look super great with the black skinny jeans that don’t get worn enough.
You could ask yourself a few questions first:
- What is the impact on the environment?
- What is the impact on other humans?
These questions can be asked about almost any product, but since we’re talking about the t-shirt, let’s ask those questions about t-shirts.
Buying a t-shirt
What is the impact on the environment?
It takes 2700L of water to make one cotton shirt. And cotton farming is responsible for 11% of pesticides. (Source: World Resources Institute). It’s amazing the impact it makes compared to how quickly we can choose to purchase a new garment.
Little Yellow Bird recently finished a campaign with us and they do things differently: they specialise in 100% organic rain-fed cotton products. Here’s a snapshot of their impact from 2018:
What is the impact on other humans?
In fashion especially, the cheapest price is rarely the fair price. Even if the cotton is organic, how it’s being made might not be how you think people should be treated.
A few months ago, an Oxfam led an investigation interviewing 470 workers who were part of Australian clothing supply chains at the time of interview. Among other shocking figures, they found that,
Nine out of ten workers interviewed in Bangladesh cannot afford enough food for themselves and their families, forcing them to regularly skip meals and eat inadequately, or go into debt.
Source: What She Makes by Oxfam Australia
What’s tragic is that this appears to be the norm across the fashion industry.
Little Yellow Bird is doing it differently:
Our point of difference is our absolute commitment to ethical manufacturing. We track every single item of clothing from source to sale, and we ensure we have transparency across the entire supply chain for our products.
Source: Little Yellow Bird on PledgeMe
Your weekly groceries shop
Another category you could consider is fresh produce.
What is the impact on the environment?
If you were to purchase your fresh produce from a typical supermarket, the food is likely to have travelled 1200km to reach you (this is the natural average).
Food Connect had a successful campaign on PledgeMe to purchase the Food Connect Shed. They’ve reduced their food miles to a 140km average.
Ever wondered why all of the supermarket produce looks a little too uniform? It’s because supermarkets don’t purchase the imperfect produce.
Food Connect do it differently:
Fruit and veg in your Food Connect box isn’t picture perfect (although who’s judging here?), it’s as mother nature intended. Our beetroots often have beards and our bananas are all sorts of shapes and lengths. What we guarantee is that your seasonal food products are delivered fresher, tastier and healthier.
(Source: Food Connect website)
They also have a closed loop food system so no food ever goes to waste, even if it’s not purchased.
And, flashing back to last week’s take on labels…
WE THINK “BEYOND ORGANIC”
All Food Connect produce is grown in harmony with local ecosystems using methods such as chemical-free, biodynamic, permaculture, as well as certified organic. We call it “ecological” or “regenerative” farming. Our suppliers must exhibit a holistic view of farming: care for the land, care for your community, and care for your food.
(Source: Food Connect website)
How about other humans?
If you were to purchase your fresh produce from a typical supermarket, 14 cents of every dollar you spend makes it back to the farmer (this is the natural average).
Food Connect has been connecting growers to eaters for over a decade.
By sourcing directly from local farmers we cut out all the ‘middle men’ and pay 50 cents of every retail dollar spent with Food Connect to the growers. This compares to an global industry average of just 14 cents.
(Source: Food Connect website)
Oh, and they’ve also incubated 15 ethical food entrepreneurs!
What we’re trying to say is that there are great businesses out there. As a purchaser, you can find out this kind of information if you look for it!
As an investor (or even as a curious mind), you can look at offer documents or annual reports to see into a company in a much more detailed way than a label or a tag.
Let us know what you think. What purchases have you changed because of the impact they have on the environment or other humans?
And tune in next week for the next level.
