Making Purchasing Decisions: Consumption vs. Responsible Consumption
By Our Green Team | Sep 25 2009, 22:38

One of the hardest things for eco-minded consumers is responsible consumption - or, making a purchase for something without causing some negative impact on the environment. There are many types of consumption. For example, foolish consumption lies at the heart of the current global recession: too many overpriced houses being sold, too many complex and high-risk financial instruments trading hands, too much profit pulled, in essence, out of thin air.

Overconsumption, too has been a problem for a long time, placing increasing strain on our planet. We’re simply pumping too much fossil fuel into oversized SUVs (and too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere), mining too many precious metals for consumer electronics that end up in the trash after a year or two, sending too much water needlessly down the drain via leaky pipes, irresponsible agricultural practices and wasteful habits in general.

Even the word “consumer” has taken a hit, with many green-minded people arguing – rightfully so – that we should consider ourselves first and foremost citizens, rather than merely consumers of stuff.

Still, we can’t turn off consumption completely. Every one of us still needs food and drink every day. We still need shoes and clothing. We’ll still need to replace the occasional broken plate or cup, get a new tire when the old bike tire gets worn and flat, buy new paper when the supply in our office runs out and regularly replenish things like soap and toothpaste. (Even if you prefer to go with lower-impact baking soda for cleaning your teeth, you’re going to need more baking soda sooner or later.)

So it’s really not a question of whether to consume or not to consume. Rather, the question we as eco-minded people need to ask ourselves is this: How can we make our consumption decisions as responsibly as possible to minimize our impact on the planet, on other people and on all living things?

Scientist, environmentalist and all-around great thinker David Suzuki expressed that attitude beautifully a while back in an essay titled, “It’s all about the biosphere.”

Every act of consumption, he wrote – even something as simple as buying a cup of coffee – has an impact on the planet. We rarely know who grew the coffee beans, how and where they were grown, the working conditions of the people tending or harvesting, and how they ultimately ended up as a mug of hot coffee in our hands. We usually don’t even think about it.

But we should.

“We devote a considerable amount of our lives working to earn the money to buy stuff,” Suzuki wrote. Shouldn’t we expend a bit more of that energy and effort on thinking about how the stuff we buy affects the world around us?

Think about it this way: if more of us started making purchasing decisions based on their impact on the planet – choosing a Prius over an SUV, for example, or buying fair-trade coffee instead of the other kind – don’t you think more companies would start changing how they do business? Look at Toyota, for example: by making fuel-efficient and reliable cars, it’s gone on to pass GM as the world’s leading automaker by supplying the demand.

Each of us can help make a difference in the products available on the marketplace. We can do that by using our purchasing power to help motivate the companies that make those products to be greener and more eco-friendly.

Whether we know it or not, our choices have an affect – for good or for ill – on our planet. The choice to have a positive impact lies with each and every one of us.

So, what changes are you making to become an eco-consumer?

Here are 5 simple tips you can put into practice right now:

1. Do the research - Find out where the things you buy come from and how they are made, give your coffee bean distributor a call and get some answers or check the package labeling.

2. Support your local farm and buy local organic food whenever possible

3. Get an Eco-bag and stop using plastic bags from the grocery – better yet start a local petition to have plastics bags removed from your grocery store

4. Unplugging your cell phone charger or other electrical devices when not in use – (Believe it or not your charger still using electrical energy even when not connected to your cell phone)

5. Not into Hybrids? – Designate a single day out of the week where you don’t drive your car, that’s 52 car free days!