Shopping for Change

Cheap & Con­ve­nient for US = Costly & Hard for Some­body Else

Let’s face it — times are tough, and if you’re like most peo­ple, you’ve been look­ing to make the most of every dol­lar you spend. Big-box retail­ers, com­pet­ing to offer the low­est price in town, sound like a real bless­ing, espe­cially if you’re try­ing to feed and clothe a family.

Prob­lem is — the prices we see at those big-box retail­ers don’t rep­re­sent the real cost of the item we’re buy­ing.  To keep those prices low, com­pa­nies have pulled their fac­to­ries out of the U.S.  and taken advan­tage of the weaker stan­dards of the devel­op­ing world, where unions can be blocked or pro­hib­ited, work­ers accept lower wages to sur­vive, and nations sell their nat­ural resources at a loss to prop up their tot­ter­ing economies.

Bot­tom line?  By bas­ing our buy­ing deci­sions on con­ve­nience or short-term costs, we’re pay­ing these com­pa­nies to keep their bot­tom line low, hurt­ing Amer­i­can work­ers and the rest of the world in the process. For example,

• the Her­shey bar you buy for a snack may come from an Ivory Coast farm that uses child slaves to pick the coca beans…
• your sleek new $300 iPhone may have been man­u­fac­tured for only $2.00 in a net­work of  Chi­nese sweat­shops where worker sui­cide is a grow­ing trend…
• the oil you put in your car may have been drilled from the Niger Delta, third-largest wet­land in the world, which has become one of the Earth’s most oil-polluted places thanks to thou­sands of spills total­ing from 9 mil­lion to 13 mil­lion bar­rels of oil.

Grim and depress­ing, isn’t it? Who in their right mind would want to know such infor­ma­tion, much less seek it out? Who could pos­si­bly change such situations?

The Power to Cre­ate Change

But this per­cep­tion of pow­er­less­ness is false! As con­sumers, and as investors, we have ulti­mate power over the cor­po­ra­tions that are per­pe­trat­ing these sit­u­a­tions. We can help to change world con­di­tions at the grass­roots level by mak­ing informed deci­sions about the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the rugs and fur­ni­ture and appli­ances we put into our houses.

By choos­ing to buy con­sciously, sup­port­ing those com­pa­nies that are com­mit­ted to fair trade and respon­si­ble busi­ness prac­tices, and speak­ing up about those com­pa­nies that are not, we can have an impact. Just a few examples:

• In Decem­ber 2006, Occi­den­tal Petro­leum decided to cease all oper­a­tions in a highly-sensitive region of north­ern Peru, home to the Achuar peo­ple. This with­drawal came about thanks to an inter­na­tional protest cam­paign after the com­pany had wreaked 30 years of envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion in the area.
• In August 2009, Kimberly-Clark and Green­peace came to an agree­ment requir­ing that the man­u­fac­turer of Kleenex-brand prod­ucts will no longer source its pulp from two old-growth por­tions of the boreal for­est in north­ern Ontario unless strict eco­log­i­cal cri­te­ria are met. It is not a com­plete vic­tory, but a step forward.
• In Sep­tem­ber, 2010, Gen­eral Mills com­mit­ted to sourc­ing 100%  of its palm oil from respon­si­ble sources by 2015, and pledged “never to know­ingly source palm oil pro­duced through palm oil expan­sion result­ing in defor­esta­tion or destruc­tion of vul­ner­a­ble ecosys­tems.” This was the one vic­tory in a lengthy con­ser­va­tion cam­paign by Rain­for­est Action and allied NGOs.

And these are only three of the most promi­nent cam­paigns that have been waged by informed con­sumers and shareholders.

Ask the Tough Questions

So sus­tain­able shop­ping is about aware­ness.…aware­ness of the source of the prod­ucts we buy, and their impact on the envi­ron­ment…and aware­ness of our power to demand answers to the tough questions…

• Is this dish­washer Energy Star rated for efficiency?…See the Depart­ment of Energy list­ing of high-efficiency appliances.
• What is the post-recycled con­tent of that toi­let paper?…See the EPA’s page for a wealth of infor­ma­tion on how and where to buy recy­cled products.
• What is the gas mileage of this car? Is it the most fuel-efficient vehi­cle that will meet my needs? See Edmunds.com for fuel-efficiency ratings.
• Where was this designer out­fit man­u­fac­tured? Was it pro­duced under fair labor/fair trade con­di­tions, free of sweat­shops and child labor?

It isn’t always easy to track down this sort of information…or to keep up the energy to con­tinue buy­ing con­sciously! Here are some resources that I’ve found along the way:

The Fair Trade Fed­er­a­tion is the trade asso­ci­a­tion that strength­ens and pro­motes North Amer­i­can orga­ni­za­tions fully com­mit­ted to Fair Trade. Mem­ber busi­nesses offer a wide vari­ety of goods, includ­ing food, tex­tiles. fur­ni­ture and house­wares, per­sonal care prod­ucts, toys, and office sup­plies, from nearly every continent.

Free2Work.org is ded­i­cated to alert­ing con­sumers to the slave labor involved in the prod­ucts we buy every day.  Through their web­site, you can eas­ily search spe­cific prod­ucts, learn more about var­i­ous labor stan­dards and cor­po­rate prac­tices, and fur­ther their engage­ment through their con­sump­tion deci­sions. Check out their Smart­phone app!

Human­ity Unites Bril­liance Global Mar­ket­place offers sta­ple prod­ucts man­u­fac­tured by orga­ni­za­tions com­mit­ted to improv­ing the lives of oth­ers while being in align­ment with the mis­sion of HUB.  To be accepted as a ven­dor in the Global Mar­ket­place, busi­nesses must pass a triple sus­tain­able screen­ing ensur­ing that their prod­ucts have been pro­duced in a way that pro­tects the envi­ron­ment and the worker while allo­cat­ing a por­tion of all prof­its back to local or inter­na­tional communities.

Global Girl­friend was cre­ated by Stacey Edgar in 2003 to help women world­wide gain eco­nomic secu­rity while pro­vid­ing unique prod­ucts and a sim­ple way to help women in need. Their fair-trade bou­tique offers a line of trend-setting, women-made, fair-trade prod­ucts includ­ing styl­ish apparel, acces­sories and gifts with one pur­pose — help­ing women in need help themselves.

The Ani­mal Res­cue Site Store includes Shop Green, Fair Trade, and Global Girl­friend depart­ments (not all Ani­mal Res­cue Site prod­ucts are Fair Trade, however). Every pur­chase funds food and care for res­cued animals.

Green Amer­ica (for­merly Co-op Amer­ica) is a truly mas­sive infor­ma­tion resource and busi­ness net­work­ing site, offer­ing valu­able edu­ca­tion and action programs:

• The National Green Pages — an online and print direc­tory of mem­ber busi­nesses in just about every industry
• Liv­ing Green — a newslet­ter of tips on liv­ing more sustainably
• Cli­mate Action Cam­paign — brings peo­ple, busi­nesses and orga­ni­za­tions together to pres­sure pol­luters, while offer­ing infor­ma­tion to reduce their own per­sonal and pro­fes­sional car­bon footprints.
• Fair Trade - offers infor­ma­tion, resources, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for action in ensur­ing that farm­ers and arti­sans receive a fair price for their prod­ucts, have direct involve­ment in the mar­ket­place, and have liv­able work­ing con­di­tions for them­selves and their employees.
• Sweat­shops — pro­vides infor­ma­tion and resources to take action against sweat­shop labor
• Bet­ter Paper - pro­vides infor­ma­tion and resources to reduce the impact of the paper indus­try on forests worldwide.
• Boy­cotts — pro­vides infor­ma­tion and resources for orga­niz­ing an effec­tive boycott
• Respon­si­ble Shop­per — gives doc­u­mented infor­ma­tion about com­pa­nies com­mit­ting social or envi­ron­men­tal abuses
• Shop & Unshop — gives the infor­ma­tion you need to make informed green purchases
• Green Busi­ness — pro­vides net­works, infor­ma­tion and tech­ni­cal assis­tance needed to bring green busi­nesses together and put them in touch with the con­sumers who need their services.
• Social Invest­ing — gives tips and resources for informed socially respon­si­ble investing.
• Green Fes­ti­vals — every year Green Amer­ica offers Green Fes­ti­vals in cities across the U.S. and (now) in Canada, fea­tur­ing green busi­ness ven­dors and infor­ma­tion booths, enter­tain­ment, work­shops, and food.