The effect of conscious consumerism on our environment 

     Although some may disagree, conscious consumerism does not provide significant benefits towards our environment. Aiden Wicker’s article “Conscious consumerism is a lie. Here’s a better way to help save the world” goes into detail on how market capitalism makes it extremely difficult to practice typical environmentally-friendly choices when purchasing items and how more needs to be done in order to preserve our environment. Wicker states, “ I’m not saying that we should all give up, or that we should stop making the small positive decisions we make every day as responsible humans. And if you’re choosing the greener product for health reasons, by all means, do what feels right. But when it comes to combating climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction, what we need to do is take the money, time, and effort we spend making these ultimately inconsequential choices and put it toward something that really matters […]  If we had directed even a third of that pot of money (the typical markup on green cleaning products) toward lobbying our governments to ban the toxic chemicals we’re so afraid of, we might have made a lot more progress by now.” (Wicker, Conscious consumerism is a lie. Here’s a better way to save the world). He is implying that the best way to truly help out our environment is to put in money, time, and effort into organizations/movements that help stop the problems overconsumption of materials/mindless consumption is causing, directly from the source (for example, donating money to an organization that stops agricultural runoff from flowing into rivers, rather than buying expensive organic sheets). Hal Koss wrote “Where did Conscious consumerism come from?” where she describes the history of conscious consumption and tries to discover if it is actually useful to our environment. Kloss asked, “Does conscious consumerism work? Does shopping for certain products or avoiding certain brands help bring about a cleaner environment, or a more just and equitable society? Or does it just allow people to feel better about themselves and make brands get more clever about their messaging? ‘I share your skepticism,’ Veresiu said when I asked her this question. ‘Conscious consumerism is a good starting point for individuals to start taking action and start thinking about how their individual behavior impacts larger communities, social groups, the planet, the environment.’ […] ‘But much more needs to be done by governments and corporations around the world to ensure a safe and prosperous planet for all of us.’” (Kloss, Where did conscious consumerism come from?). Here, Kloss gives insight to how although conscious consumption may be a good starting point for individuals that want to better impact our environment, more needs to be done in order to see effective results. These sources are both extremely useful in helping further analyze conscious consumption and its effects on our environment . The first source explains how the idea of conscious consumerism is false, and describes ways we can actually help our environment. While the second article further explains how individuals consuming consciously is not enough to significantly improve our environment. 

          Climate change has been a persistent issue throughout human existence. It is the main cause of forest fires, rising sea levels, melting ice caps in the arctic, etc. Mass consumption of man made products is one of the main causes for climate change. Jennifer Nguyen wrote Conscious Consumerism: What It Is, How It Can Affect Change & 10 Ways You Can Be a Conscious Consumer Yourself which claims,“Conscious consumerism is when buying practices are driven by a commitment to making purchasing decisions that have positive social, economic, and environmental impact. In other words, it’s a movement whereby consumers vote with their dollar by buying ethical products, avoiding unethical companies, and sometimes not purchasing at all. So, a socially or environmentally conscious consumer will think whether consumption is necessary, then once they decide to buy, they look at who is providing the product and how the product impacts each environment touched in its creation and delivery.” (Nguyen, Conscious Consumerism: What It is, How It Can Affect Change & 10 Ways You Can Be a Conscious Consumer Yourself). Nguyen is explaining here, what conscious consumption is and how one of the goals of conscious consumers is to positively impact the environment. It is important for people to recognize that overconsumption is an issue because it has a drastic effect on our environment. People also need to be aware of the fact that, as stated previously, practicing conscious consumption still is simply nothing more than just a starting point if an individual is truly looking to help our environment.  If we humans were to put the same amount of time and money we put into purchasing different man made products into donating to  organizations that help improve our environment, the world would steadily become a much healthier place to live in, not only for humans but for animals that live in habitats affected by climate change. If conscious consumers and humans in general  ignore this issue and continue our unhealthy habits of over/mindless consumption, our environment will only deteriorate even more as time goes on. Us as citizens of planet earth need to take action against this issue sooner rather than later, or else we may cause our planet  to become inhabitable in the near future.

      Some might argue that conscious consumption is enough to preserve our environment.”As an individual, it may be hard to see the benefits of being a conscious consumer.[…] But adding up each person’s actions equates to big changes in the grand scheme of things.[…]when individuals consume (or choose not to consume) with impact in mind, industry responds to meet consumer demands, and this expands accessibility. With access to more information and more product choices, more people are given the opportunity to weigh in on the ethics and standards of our day to day consumption. Before 2013, only 20% of S&P 500 companies chose to disclose their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information—that means finding that information took major sleuthing on the part of buyers if it was even possible at all. Parallel to conscious consumer trends, however, in 2019, 90% of S&P 500 companies published sustainability/responsibility reports. In short, they are definitely listening.Let’s look at another sector, organic farming in the U.S., as an example of how conscious consumerism can affect change: Twenty years ago, organic farming was a niche industry with $3.6 billion in sales in 1997.[…]By 2016, organic food sales had boomed to $43.3 billion, and further up to $50 billion in 2019.” (Nguyen, Conscious Consumerism: What It is, How It Can Affect Change & 10 Ways You Can Be a Conscious Consumer Yourself). This quote from Nguyen’s article thoroughly describes how, although difficult to see, conscious consumption has indeed had positive effects on our environment. She states how individuals can alter the inner workings of certain industries by making them reveal the procedure/materials they use to make certain products (as well as boycott/adjust said methods if they are not environmentally friendly), through conscious consumption (industries responding to consumer demands). She also discloses certain statistics that have been impacted by conscious consumption. The statistics indicate that not only has the percentage of S&P 500 companies that disclose ESG (environmental, social, and governance) information has increased by 70% in 6 years (from 2013-2019), the organic food sales has increased from $3.6 billion (in 1997) to $50 billion in 2019 due to conscious consumption! How to Be a More Conscious Consumer, Even If You’re on a Budget is a New York Times article written by Kristin Wong which states how “Conscious consumption isn’t just about being a little greener, but questioning how — and how much — we consume to begin with.[…] Part of the benefit is saving money, but minimalism also encourages us to live less wastefully. Considering the impact of consumer waste on the environment, it’s easy to see why minimalism is having a moment.” (Wong, “How to Be a More Conscious Consumer, Even If You’re on a Budget”). Here, Wong describes how not only does conscious consumption help to better the environment through minimalism, practicing conscious consumption can also benefit an individual by making them save money (by only focusing on shopping for necessities instead of wants). Although Nguyen and Wong made valid points about the benefits of conscious consumption in their articles, “consumption is the backbone of the American economy—which means individual conscious consumerism is basically bound to fail. ‘70% of GDP in the US is based on household consumption. So all the systems, the market, the institutions, everything is calibrated to maximize consumption,’ Brown told me in a later interview. ‘The whole marketing industry and advertising invents new needs we didn’t know we had.’ Take plastic water bottles, for example. Plastic, as most of us now know, is made from petroleum that takes hundreds of years—or maybe even a thousand—to biodegrade (scarily, we’re not sure yet). Shipping bottled water from Fiji to New York City is also an emission-heavy process. And yet, despite the indisputable facts and the consistent campaigning by nonprofits, journalists, and activists to urge consumers to carry reusable water bottles, bottled water consumption has continued to rise—even though it costs up to 2,000 times more than tap water.” (Wicker, Conscious consumerism is a lie. Here’s a better way to help save the world). Here, Wicker exclaims how individual conscious consumption is destined for failure since consumption is what holds the american economy together and even though we can try as hard as we can as individuals to make better/healthier choices for the environment, unless upper powers (the government) take an appropriate course of action, our environment will continue to deteriorate. WIcker also exposed an example of how, even though plastic water bottles are terrible for the environment and reusable water bottles are promoted through many outlets, consumption of plastic bottled water still continues to rise. This shows how no matter how conscious people are being when making purchases, negative impacts on our environment appear to be inevitable. 

     “Here’s an encouraging statistic: a whopping 73% of global consumers say they would definitely or probably change their consumption habits to reduce their impact on the environment. As consumers become increasingly aware of consumer goods’ effects on their bodies and the world around them, they’re also more interested in buying sustainable products. Millennials are reportedly willing to even pay more for these products over more destructive alternatives. And it’s not just millennials. In the US alone, consumers are expected to spend $150 billion on sustainable products by 2021.” (Nguyen, Conscious Consumerism: What It is, How It Can Affect Change & 10 Ways You Can Be a Conscious Consumer Yourself). Nguyen argues here that the majority of consumers would change their consumption habits if it were to reduce their negative impact on the environment. She is also implying that the amount of conscious consumers are increasing as time goes on, as people become more educated on how their day-to-day actions  negatively impact our environment, since consumers are expected to spend $150 billion on sustainable products by the end of this year. On the contrary, “A series of experiments recorded in The Myth of the Ethical Consumer show that many consumers who claim to want ethical products are indifferent when actually given the choice to buy them. Even when it means passing over an ethical product for an unsavory alternative, people don’t want to sacrifice the quality and functionality of what they buy, despite reporting that ethics are important to them. ‘it seems,’ the book’s authors wrote, ‘that survey radicals turn into economic conservatives at the checkout.’” (Kloss, Where did conscious consumerism come from?). Kloss cited research from a series of experiments done on conscious consumption, to further explain how it does not have a significant beneficial impact on our environment. The research Kloss revealed shows that although people may say that they want to make more ethical decisions while shopping, they do not stay true to their word once making said purchases. People tend to not only stick with what they know, but also stick to the cheaper option of buying a product even though it may cause more harm to the environment (or cause more harm to make/produce), than it’s more ethical variant, simply because it is more affordable. 

     Overall, although conscious consumption has better impacted certain industries or made people feel better about themselves, “The problem is that even though we want to make the right choices, it’s often too little, too late.” (Wicker, Conscious consumerism is a lie. Here’s a better way to help save the world). Conscious consumption has had no true significant beneficial impact in order to preserve our environment, and most likely won’t ever make the necessary impact to support our environment. No matter how hard us as individuals try, the most we could possibly do to replenish/recover our environment from the devastations of climate change, is to donate money to certain organizations as well as try to push our government to take action in handling the spread of pollution/making industries ban usage of toxic chemicals and other material that harms the environment. The majority of humans run on an endless cycle of working and purchasing products in order to keep up with the pace of consumerism. Materialism is destroying us as well as our planet  by allowing us to live unproductive/unfulfilling lives. We humans, as well as our government need to take action to save our deteriorating environment, because certain individuals practicing conscious consumption just simply is not going to cut it. Do not let this perspective completely shun you away from practicing conscious consumption though as, “ One smaller carbon footprint won’t fix climate change, but taking individual action can help compel the entities that have that power. You don’t have to be a perfect consumer; a lot of us just need to be a little better.” (Wong, How to Be a More Conscious Consumer, Even If You’re on a Budget). 

• Aiden Wicker, “Conscious consumerism is a lie. Here’s a better way to help save the world”. March 1,2017. https://qz.com/920561/conscious-consumerism-is-a-lie-heres-a-better-way-to-help-save-the-world/

• Jennifer Nguyen, “Conscious Consumerism: What It is, How It Can Affect Change & 10 Ways You Can Be a Conscious Consumer Yourself”. November 5, 2020. https://growensemble.com/conscious-consumerism/

• Hal Kloss, “Where Did Conscious Consumerism Come From?”. June 10,2021,

October 25,2021. https://builtin.com/marketing/conscious-consumerism

• Kristin Wong, “How to Be a More Conscious Consumer, Even If You’re on a Budget” October 1,2019. November 6,2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/smarter-living/sustainabile-shopping-conscious-consumer.html