Investigate your Consumption!

Sustainable consumerism is the art of consuming materials, which were manufactured in a sustainable way. In a way globalization and capitalism are in fact two negative drivers in this phenomenon. Globalization is the ability to develop in order to influence globally in its operation and capitalism is when a country’s trade is govern by private owners for profit rather than state. So you could see that clearly both of these are methods that interest a particular group of people. If one country tries to globalize the way they produce they search for places that can minimize their cost to produce and maximize their profit i.e. third world countries where unemployment is high. On the other hand capitalism is in favor of making high profit for private investors or greedy people because they compete in order to make the most profit for their product at whatever cost and most of the time exhaust the resources needed to produce. Therefore, globalization and capitalism can be seen as obstacles for consumers to purchase items that were created in a sustainable manner.

Overcoming the impacts of capitalism and globalization is one thing, but being able to identify what “green” products to consume is another. Many companies do what is called “greenwashing” which is when they try to promote products that seem to be eco-friendly when used but in reality the production of them is more detrimental to the environment. The consumer must be very careful purchasing such “eco-friendly” products and not give in to all the green propaganda around. For example Christmas tree planting seems to be very “green” but the maintenance of these commercial plants is horrible. Hundreds of pesticides get sprayed on them in order to maintain quality for the consumer. When purchasing food products the FDA has been able to combat these greenwashing efforts by labeling foods with the title of organic. In other words the food has no pesticides. Herbicides, fungicides, or steroids and are grown in sustainable land. Therefore I would purchase organic foods. Another label around is the one that states that the food is local. This is good and bad at the same time. Good in that you reduce the use of transportation aka carbon emissions but bad because they may not be grown in a sustainable manner which of course isn’t good even if it’s local. Chances are however if you buy products from local sellers in farmers markets it is better for the environment because you reduce carbon emissions and promote local economy however you may not know if it is organic or not. Purchasing from giant chain stores you are more likely to know due to labels what you are purchasing but at the same time the products purchased from a chain store have traveled long distances to reach the shelves and therefore do not promote local economy as much.

When consuming any product it is crucial that one considers the farming techniques used, distance traveled, and who you buy it from. Making these considerations can severely minimize your environmental impacts.