Conscious Consumerism: Distraction from the Real Issue

“Buy green! It’s good for the environment!” We have all most certainly heard this infamous phrase that incites us into buying “green” due to the increase of green products in the market. 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 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. With the growing number of companies, we cannot make sure that our values completely align with their production system. 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. Unfortunately, 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. Because of this, conscious consumerism has become a common topic among us consumers. Conscious of our own actions, we have started encouraging ourselves to consciously consume our goods in order to minimize our negative impacts as much as possible. However, are we really the ones at fault here?

It seems like the more conscious consumerism gains popularity among us, the more we keep forgetting about the leading perpetrators of our global environmental issues — corporations. We acknowledge that our small actions can play a role in our globe’s environment, yet we fail to recognize that corporations are the leading cause of the disaster we are forced to fix. We are encouraged to consciously consume simply because companies cannot force themselves to consciously produce. We are not supposed to repair the mess generated from years and years of overproduction through unethical procedures. Through the encouragement of conscious consumerism, we believe that our actions are generating a massive change when the damage is already done. We are led to think that because we are attempting to fix this damage, we are actually the ones to blame for. But truthfully speaking, conscious consumerism’s impact will never compare to the possible impact of conscious production.

I’m in no way saying that conscious consumerism is not a good practice, or that it should be discouraged. In fact, I completely support it. If I am able to purchase a shirt that was ethically produced rather than a shirt that was made through a fast-fashion company that does nothing besides exploiting their workers in third world countries, then I definitely will go for the first option. However, I cannot deny the difference in prices between these two identical-looking items. According to “The Sustainable Living Guide,” “eco-friendly products are more expensive for a variety of reasons ranging from lack of demand to high manufacturing costs” and “green goods can cost 50% more than regular goods” (Eric). Put simply, goods that are produced ethically tend to be more expensive than regular goods, or in other words, those that were generated under unethical conditions. It is undeniable that this extreme contrast in price affects the regularity in which people tend to practice conscious consumerism. Plus, conscious consumerism isn’t just money-draining, but extremely time-consuming as well. Not everyone has easy access to being able to find and buy green products, and taking the time in our lives to research and find goods that were ethically made is not something that many can afford to do. Let’s ask ourselves, why are we, simple individuals with little to no power, going out of our way to fix a mess caused by the same corporations who have the power to establish a solution to this eco-recession?

Instead of encouraging people to consciously consume and take money, time, and effort that they do not have to revert the damages provoked by corporations with unethical practices, we should encourage these same corporations to change their production methods and attempt to minimize their environmental impact as much as possible. Corporations have the ability to provoke a great impact on our global conditions and affect climate change, which means they must also have the upper hand when it comes to finding a solution to this mess. Rather than relying on individuals, who are victims of this cycle of buy-and-dump, we should let corporations handle this environmental decline. And while conscious consumerism does not contribute to helping our globe at a larger scale, we can contribute by boycotting, signing petitions, and continually protesting for companies to take over the responsibility of reversing their environmental damage. The encouragement of conscious consumerism has shifted the blame from these corporations to us, so why don’t we shift back this blame by encouraging them to consciously produce instead?