HOW TO BE A CONSCIOUS CONSUMER IN JUST A COUPLE OF CLICKS

As more of us take issue with the unethical fast fashion business model, we begin to notice a pattern across all of our shopping habits. Pause – step away – question. We have a lot of questions. Questions that must be answered before we buy something. Critical environmental and social justice issues hang off the answers we find. We want to know where our clothes come from, who made our clothes and what they are made of? As conscious consumers, we don’t spend a cent until we know the answers. The trouble is, finding answers takes time and often it’s difficult to know where to look.

The truth is anywhere we shop, for anything at all, could be harming people and the planet without us knowing. What’s more, many brands are actively trying to hide unethical practices by creating campaigns for the sole purpose of greenwashing us. With this much effort going into keeping consumers in the dark, we need all the help we can get to shop with a conscience.

So how can you be a conscious consumer without spending endless hours online doing research? Thankfully some clever people who care very much about justice, fairness and sustainability have created easy ways to access the information we need to make better choices. I put together a shortlist of trusted tech, that will considerably cut down your research time.

1) Fashion Checker

Fashion Checker is a new resource dedicated to exposing brands responsible for poverty pay or worse, in the fashion industry. This organisation has built a website where you can type in a brand you’re about to shop with to find out if they’re paying their workers a living wage. Fashion Checker gives consumers and garment workers access to real data from the supply chains of the worlds’ biggest brands. 

Let’s see what happens when I enter GAP Inc. This billion dollar company includes Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta and Intermix but shows zero transparency on supply chain information. The complete disregard for public transparency is highly dubious. Indeed an indication of unethical business practices. And by the way, yes GAP has been challenged on labour abuses, including the use of child labour across all of its brands. A nice touch by Fashion Checker is the convenient tweet button on the search results so you can tweet the brand directly to ask for transparency. It has also included petitions and other practical ways we can make our voices heard further.

2) Progressive Shopper

Progressive Shopper is an extension that tells you the political affiliation of a company. Corporations and the individuals that work for them spend millions of dollars each year funding political candidates and their committees. The Federal Election Commission collects this data and makes it available to the public. Up until this point that data has been buried in large databases that are not very user-friendly.

Progressive Shopper has taken this data directly from the FEC and put it in context – letting you know who companies support and how that compares to their competitors. It uses a simple colour code of blue for Democrats, Red for Republicans and purple meaning equally split. Say I want to buy eyeliner? Let’s take cosmetics brand Revlon for this example. It is revealed that Revlon and its employees only donate 13% to Democrats but worse than that, it funds climate deniers. So I take a pass and opt for one of the alternative brands offered on the page. Now let’s look at DVF in light of the trousers I’m wearing for today’s post. I’m happy to find, although unsurprisingly given Diane von Furstenburgs political preference is no secret -100% of DVF donations go to the Democrats.

Also on Progressive Shopper Is Your Bank Loaded? partnered with Guns Down America and reviewed public financial and legal filings to determine how much business America’s 15 largest banks have conducted with gun manufacturers, the NRA, and the top recipients of NRA contributions in Congress. Based on this information, they graded the banks on a 100-point scale. If your bank is listed this shows how it rated, leaving you to decide if you’d like to take your money to an ethical bank. The Progressive Shopper site also offers some terrific links on this page – for social justice information and ways you can support systemic changes.

3) Good On You

This is an app. Good on You app is similar to the Fashion Checker website in the way it allows you to search for a particular brand. However, this app has a five-level rating system that concerns the impact of a brand on people, planet and animals. Good On You also has a website directory where you can go to the item you’re looking for as opposed to the brand. Let’s try the category Tops, and see the brands that are highly rated for ethics and sustainability. It’s really quite ingenious if you know what you need to buy but are stuck for where to shop.

4) ECOSIA

Ecosia is a search engine like Google. Unlike Google though, Ecosia uses its profits to plant trees. I guess you could call it an eco-friendly search engine. Servers emit a huge amount of CO2 but Ecosia is powered by 100% renewable energy and produces its own solar electricity. Because Ecosia uses its profits to plant CO2-sequestering trees, Ecosia is not just “carbon neutral” your searches actively removes CO2 from the air. All you have to do is download Ecosia to your phone, laptop or PC and that’s it, start searching as a conscious consumer.

Blouse & Cardigan – Winser London / Trousers – DVF / Bag – Burberry