{"id":10879,"date":"2021-12-09T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/?p=10879"},"modified":"2022-09-20T16:04:50","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T15:04:50","slug":"is-there-such-a-thing-as-an-ethical-consumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/is-there-such-a-thing-as-an-ethical-consumer\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There Such a Thing as an Ethical Consumer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benevolent Brands<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cThe world doesn\u2019t need more clothes,\u201d<\/span><\/a> declares one brand which is most certainly in the business of making more clothes. \u201c<\/span>Buy Better, Wear Longer,\u201d<\/span><\/a> advises a $4.5billion denim giant with 50,000 retail locations which saw its e-commerce business grow by<\/span> 29%<\/span><\/a> last year. <\/span><\/p>\n

The concepts of sustainability and overconsumption have been adopted into the lexicon of marketing, and you don\u2019t have to look hard to find a brand Instagram which echoes the aesthetic and parlance of an activist platform. Brands too worry about the climate crisis and waste and human rights, and they want us all to shop ethically to help them fix the problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Individual action has been completely co-opted<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thankfully for said brands, they always just so happen to be the ethical option. Shopping with them means diverting from landfill, supporting women, saving water, planting trees. But of course, it still means shopping, and for Sian Conway-Wood, author of<\/span> Buy Better, Consume Less, Create Real Environmental Change<\/span><\/i><\/a>, that\u2019s the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Distraction Tactics<\/h3>\n

\u201cPart of my motivation for writing the book was to highlight how individual action has been completely co-opted,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen we approach this purely as consumers, we\u2019re still in the consumer mindset that we can shop our way out of this, and we\u2019re very vulnerable to greenwashing and advertising messages.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Consumer movements are nothing new \u2013 the conscious consumers of the 18<\/span>th<\/span> century bought<\/span> \u2018slave-free\u2019<\/span><\/a> sugar \u2013 but the current focus on individual, consumer action has much to do with the concept of the personal carbon footprint, which was first devised by PR firm<\/span> Oglivy & Mather<\/span><\/a>, in the employ of BP. The oil giant launched its carbon footprint calculator<\/span> in 2004<\/span><\/a>, and since then our awareness of our impact as individuals has skyrocketed, clouding the necessity of systemic, top-down change. Catching onto this, brands began to centre individual action \u2013 personal ethical consumption \u2013 within their marketing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne difficulty can be that companies can present these corporate social responsibility type policies and [promote] ethical shopping, and that can be a distraction,\u201d says Ruth Ogier, Head of International Programmes at<\/span> War On Want<\/span><\/a>. However, Ogier is not totally disparaging of ethical consumption as a way for individuals to seek change. \u201cI think the movement can be helpful in getting people to think about the implications of the amount that we are encouraged to buy,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about understanding ourselves not just simply as the people that purchase these products. Activism is in individual choices, but it leads into a much more politically aware voice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The First Step<\/span><\/h3>\n

While the way in which brands promote ethical consumption is often a strategy to evade tougher action such as legislation and industry regulation, <\/span>Liv Simpliciano, Policy & Research Manager at<\/span> Fashion Revolution<\/span><\/a>, believes it is a crucial piece of the puzzle in affecting wider change. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Whilst changing individual consumption habits alone is not enough, without this, other important factors of industry and policy change cannot fall into place,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t think discussions around changing your shopping habits at an individual level and the need for wider system change should be held separately and viewed as mutually exclusive. If many individuals change their habits, that becomes a collective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although criticised as individualistic, ethical consumption offers a familiar entry point into activism. Like it or not, we are shaped by consumption on many levels. We shop to find our identity and consume to answer our emotions, hence it becomes the most obvious focus for change.<\/span><\/p>\n

If many individuals change their habits, that becomes a collective<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Still, with our climate at a <\/span>crucial tipping point<\/span><\/a>, it is untenable for humanity to continue to consume at its current rate, begging the question whether any consumption is, ultimately, ethical. Overconsuming products that are made under slightly different conditions is certainly not going to solve the problem, but considering, for example, the human rights of the workers who make the products does create a cultural desire for change which is vital in converting the individual to the political. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have to be in the mindset of an activist to buy better. You think, \u2018actually, I am fed up with the status quo, I want something to change, and I’m going to do what I can with what I’ve got to make that change\u2019\u201d, says Conway-Wood. And it\u2019s from that first step that we may move onto signing petitions, supporting strikes, emailing brands, contacting MPs, and attending protests. It awakens in us a realisation that, as Ogier says, we have a right as citizens to hold companies to account.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unify, Don\u2019t Divide<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n

However, the activist foundations of ethical consumption are eroded when it becomes the only marker of caring or not. \u201cChoices we make about what we wear, for example, can be in some ways a judgment that divides,\u201d says Ogier. \u201cIf we say people who buy this cheap fashion are bad, but if you buy this you\u2019re good, that doesn\u2019t help us at all because all it does it alienate the very class of people that are directly affected and fails to bring them on board in a struggle that is as much theirs as anyone else\u2019s.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Overconsumption and billion-pound brands aren\u2019t upheld by people living in poverty or the working class, but by those with higher disposable incomes who buy cheap but buy often. It\u2019s disingenuous to insinuate that any criticism of cheap, unethical brands is a wholesale criticism of people who shop with them because it\u2019s what they can afford. However, equating buying \u2018unethically\u2019 out of necessity with simply not caring is exclusionary and defies the collective approach needed for change to happen. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor individual actions to become collective ones, it\u2019s absolutely vital we build strong community bonds so that we can feel motivated, held, and encouraged to go further and wider in our commitments to be better,\u201d says <\/span>Simpliciano<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

One Part of a Bigger Movement<\/h3>\n

Shopping ethically \u2013 whether buying differently or buying less \u2013 isn\u2019t enough on its own to tackle the climate crisis, human rights violations, or the litany of other issues overconsumption has caused. If it were, we\u2019d surely be a lot further along the path to progress now. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not worth doing. Deleting that marketing email and repairing instead of buying new, caring about who made a product, or supporting local businesses are tiny acts of resistance and help us envisage ourselves as part of a wider struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s absolutely vital we build strong community bonds<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If we value creativity and community over consumption, loosening the clutches of capitalism in the process, we\u2019re all the better for it. But we cannot forget where the real responsibility lies: brands and government. Brands have the resources to make systemic change happen, while governments have the power to mandate them. <\/span><\/p>\n

The perfect ethical shopper doesn\u2019t exist while there is no political will to entirely overhaul production and consumption as we know it, prioritising workers and the environment over profit and growth. So, while we search the aisles for a certified organic product or spend hours reading through a brand\u2019s code of conduct, we must remember that our individual choices are not the solution, but a small part of a bigger, collective movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More: A Fashion Industry Roundtable<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we reach peak greenwashing, Sophie Benson investigates the real meaning behind ‘ethical consumption’.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10917,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10879"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12974,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10879\/revisions\/12974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}