What role do we play in the consumer goods industry? To answer this question, you must first understand how the system works. What differentiates a sustainable economy from the system that has dominated the last few decades? Here are a few things to consider when choosing what to buy.
The Stuff We Buy
To fully understand the effects of our consumption, it helps to take a step back and look at the system that has dominated the last century. Watch or rewatch Annie Leonard’s short, animated documentary The Story of Stuff, which went viral on social media in 2007 but is still relevant today.
Commodities, such as food, items for interior decorating, personal care products, and clothing, go through many steps: extraction of the resources needed for their manufacture, and then production, distribution, consumption, and disposal—often in a landfill.
The product’s journey is rife with problems, especially when the goal is to lower prices and raise profits. To successfully do so, companies exploit natural environments and living things, use chemicals and toxins, perpetuate social inequality, and use planned and perceived obsolescence, among others. All these strategies externalize the real costs that are most often paid by the poor. These previously hidden costs are increasingly being brought out into the light of day; you now can’t help but consider them.
Rethinking the System
Another problem with this model is its linearity: Because we live on a planet with limited resources, our economy also has limits. That is why environmentally responsible businesspeople and conscientious citizens are swapping this linear system for a more circular one.
All the steps of production are redesigned accordingly. At the end of a product’s lifespan, it can be used as a resource, eliminating most of the problems associated with extraction and waste. All waste can also be used to make other products from, for example, textile waste or food by-products.
Between these steps, production, distribution, and consumption are also carried out with respect for the environment and people. This means dispensing with harmful chemicals, establishing fair wages and good working conditions, caring about the environment and living things, and buying locally, thoughtfully, and sustainably. These are just a few examples of what is valued by responsible businesses and citizens who have joined the movement.
Leaders Who Are Changing the World
The first step in all sustainable consumption is, of course, saying no to overconsumption and waste. Once you’ve adopted a more frugal lifestyle, you still need to buy many things (unless you live in complete self-sufficiency and make everything yourself, from your soap to your clothes).
In that sense, living according to your values, but also within your abilities, can be a guiding principle. That does not mean aiming for perfection; sometimes the available choices are imperfect. For example, buying locally made clothing costs more. You could buy used clothing until you can afford it. You could also choose to buy only one new, more costly sustainable item instead of ten conventional ones each season. You would still end up saving money.
Gauging a product’s environmental footprint can be hard (for example, should you buy a local or organic product?). But you can choose to do your best and support companies you trust.
Who Do You Want to Be?
What are your values? Who are you and how do you express it? Narrowing the gap between your aspirations and your actions is a great way to live with integrity.
For both businesspeople and consumers, sustainability means upholding fundamental values: ethics, transparency, fairness, respect for the environment, and buying locally. Put into practice, these values help create vibrant communities and maintain the health of the ecosystems that support human beings and all the other creatures who live there.
Once you are aware, there is no turning back. The ball is in your court—the choice is yours.
Thank you, together we can change the world.
Mariève Isabelle is an environmental critic and PhD candidate in literature and the environment at McGill University. She is currently writing a thesis on the environmental imagination in Quebec in the Department of French Language and Literature at McGill University. In addition to being a lecturer at the McGill Writing Centre and McGill School of Environment, she organizes writing retreats and gives writing workshops to graduate students.
Her expertise as an ecocritic helps us better grasp environmental discourses in Quebec and Canada. She shares her knowledge of the field and inspires our personal and societal reflections about current environmental issues.
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