Conscious Consumerism: Are We Responsible For Our Environmental Decline?
“Buy green! It’s good for the environment!” We have all most certainly heard this infamous phrase that incites us into buying “green”. In recent years, many people have ditched their conventional vehicles for electric cars, which creates a lower carbon footprint over the course of the years, and many others have turned to consume locally grown and organic foods rather than imported ones. But what is the purpose of doing all this? Well, many people are becoming more aware of our deteriorating environmental state and strive to help our globe as much as possible, specifically through conscious consumerism, which is the act of purchasing goods that create as little impact as possible. However, are we really saving our Earth from utter destruction? Surprise! It’s not us, simple individuals who contribute the most to climate change, but corporations, who generate almost everything we buy, use, and later discard, playing as a huge influence in global climate change. Despite corporations being the main cause of the decline of our environment, simple individuals like us are being constantly forced to solve this issue. Many people may believe that conscious consumerism should be incorporated into our daily lives to fix our current environmental state, however, the encouragement of this practice shifts the blame from big corporations, who overproduce unethically, to the simple individual who consumes what is given to them.
Corporations are the leading cause of our dying Earth. As we know, our globe’s environmental conditions are rapidly declining due to climate change, which is mainly caused by big corporations. As established by the Senior Advocate of Nature Program, Josh Axelrod, since the formal recognition of human-caused climate change, 100 energy corporations have been responsible for 71% of all industrial emissions (Axelrod). In simple words, climate change is heavily impacted by the work performed by energy corporations. Not only is this information relevant for providing us insight into how severely corporations are affecting the state of our environment, but it makes us think about how much corporations should be the ones to blame for, and not us, simple individuals who are encouraged to consume their goods. However, fairly speaking, we cannot put the blame on only these hundred companies that are recognized for being responsible for our environmental decline, we have to obviously mention the thousands and millions of corporations out there whose unethical practices collectively contribute to this eco-recession as well. For instance, many of them own sweatshops in poor countries, where their workers are continually exploited for multiple hours a day in order to produce low-quality and short-lasting items that will be sold for a small amount of money. But who is buying these products?
Unfortunately, with the growing number of companies, we cannot make sure that our values completely align with theirs. However, in order to satisfy our needs, as consumers we are caught up in this everlasting cycle that requires us to unceasingly purchase goods and throw them away in a few years, polluting our Earth little by little, purchase by purchase. Although many people are unaware of (or perhaps, indifferent to) their unsustainable purchases, many others are growing conscious of the consequences of their shopping decisions and as a result, have resorted to conscious consumerism. As stated in “Conscious Consumerism: What It is, How It Can Affect Change & 10 Ways You Can Be a Conscious Consumer Yourself,” as more consumers become aware of the harsh reality associated with each purchase, such as climate change and pollution, as well as poorly underpaid laborers with bad working conditions, conscious consumerism’s popularity spreads (Nguyen). In other words, the more people understand the negative impacts of their consumption, the more they lean towards attempting to be more conscious when purchasing items. Naturally, the more people begin learning towards being conscious consumers, the more the word spreads and the more people are encouraged into incorporating this practice into their daily lives.
As a result of this constant promotion of conscious consumerism, we fail to realize who the actual perpetrators are. Surprisingly, we are not only called to join this practice by those around us but we are also encouraged to do so by unsustainable companies (ironic, isn’t it?). As mentioned previously, companies are the ones who overproduce and utilize unethical production methods, yet they could be the same ones encouraging us to buy “green.” Take H&M as an example, a Swedish retail company that is known for being fast fashion, which is basically a company that relies on depleting on natural resources to overproduce clothing items by exploiting workers in sweatshops. Yet, it is H&M who recently launched “Conscious,” whose products are “created with a little extra consideration for the planet” (H&M). Although H&M is attempting to be eco-friendly by producing more environmentally friendly garments, this practice is barely a fraction of the company’s overall business model. By only making one portion of their products “green” and proceeding with their unethical system, H&M shows us how little they care about the environment, as they are simply producing sustainable items in order to market to the conscious consumer mindset. In fact, this tendency of creating collections of sustainable products is not only limited to H&M but many other companies follow this model as well. Companies encourage us to buy from their sustainable collections, obliging us to ignore the impact of their production practices. Instead of completely altering their system, these corporations simply force us into spending on products that are somewhat more environmentally friendly, making us responsible for our declining environmental state.
Of course, many may argue that our individual sustainable purchases may add up one day and equate to greater improvements in our environment. However, it is important to note that we cannot simply choose to live in a bubble and purchase “green” while actively ignoring the many corporations’ negative impact on our environment. Alden Wicker, a sustainable fashion expert, sets forth that “making series of small, ethical purchasing decisions while ignoring the structural incentives for companies’ unsustainable business models won’t change the world as quickly as we want. It just makes us feel better about ourselves” (Wicker). Put simply, our ethical consumption does not stop corporations from performing their unethical practices, and therefore individual actions are not contributing to helping our environment. As we are told to incorporate conscious consumerism into our lives, we are being held accountable for our Earth’s environmental decline, while also playing a blind eye to the damages caused by corporations’ continuous use of non-eco-friendly practices. By providing us with this task of saving the Earth through our consumption, we can act as the heroes of our planet, when in reality our positive actions do not impact our environment as much as corporations could possibly do.
Obviously, I am in no way discouraging conscious consumerism. In fact, I think it’s an excellent practice to make us more aware of our consumption tendencies. However, if we truly want to help our environment, there’s much more that we can do. So, what should we do? We must first shift back this blame that has been placed upon us by holding corporations accountable for their actions. As noted, simply finding alternatives to unethical brands and completely ignoring these companies will not stop them from overproducing and polluting. Instead, we must collectively fight for a systematic change that will finally produce some positive results. As suggested by Wicker, we can donate to activist organizations and to politicians who vow to vote for green initiatives (Wicker). This way, we are joining forces to aim for a greater change that goes beyond altering our consumption methods, as we are now focusing on the root issue — unethical production from corporations. Additionally, we can collectively boycott unsustainable brands until we get a response in the form of a complete modification of manufacturing practices. An article titled “Boycotts Are More Popular Than Ever — But Do They Work?” details that boycotts that involve the government create a greater impact. The author sets forth an example from the late ’80s, in which “calls to divest U.S. interests in South Africa definitely had an impact on the overall movement to end apartheid” (Kim). In simple words, action from the U.S government managed to devise a larger influence in achieving the end of apartheid in South Africa. In this context, it means that if we can involve the government in boycotting environmentally damaging brands, there’s a bigger possibility that we might finally be able to hold corporations responsible for impacting our Earth. Through collective action, we can aim for effective environmental progress.
At the end of the day, it really does not matter where we choose to buy our products if we are still playing a blind eye to the impact of the unsustainable production system of corporations. As consumers, we have been encouraged to consume “green,” yet we have never sat down to think about the why. We are prompted into consuming sustainably by those around us and even by the same companies who contribute to the decline of our environment, and we end up believing that we should be blamed for all sorts of environmental phenomena and therefore we should attempt to fix these. But WAKE UP! We must now shift back this blame that has been placed upon us and instead promote conscious production from corporations. As simple individuals, we are forced to consume what is available to us, and many times what’s available is not entirely sustainable. So, if companies were able to modify their system and consciously produce, what are the chances that there will be a greater positive impact on our environment?
