Reduce consumption on Green Friday

Black Friday is becoming more popular and exuberant every year while we are also becoming more aware of the pollution of online ordering. The sales trend has flown in from America just like other sales days such as ‘Singlesday’, Thanksgiving or the Halloween holidays. These special sales days, or even weeks at some web shops, cause a lot of stress in the logistics shipping process. Nowadays, there is no longer a single day of shopping frenzy, but webshops have already started offering ‘cyber deals’ from the beginning of November, with peak promotions on ‘Singles day’, ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber ​​Monday’. The big brands are all participating, so small webshops can’t stay behind in this trend. However, this puts a lot of pressure on web shops, fulfillment centers, consumers and the environment. In line with Glasgow’s new environmental agreements, the big question remains how we, as consumers, but also suppliers, can reduce our footprint. In doing so, we have to find the balance between a sustainability commitment and sensitivity to the shopping frenzy.

Consumer behaviour

In the meantime, several studies have been conducted on consumer purchasing behaviour. They are becoming more and more aware of the environmental impact of a shipment. However, sustainable shipping should still not cost too much extra, especially not for the Dutch consumer. According to Capterra’s 2021 sustainability survey, the percentage is significantly lower than in neighboring countries. Most Dutch consumers would only pay a maximum of 10% more in four of the five categories. Only for beauty and wellness products we are not willing to pay extra for a sustainable product or delivery. In addition, the pandemic has also had an impact on our purchasing behaviour: 49% indicate that their purchasing behavior has changed towards more sustainability-oriented (Capterra, 2021).

Sustainability in the clothing and fashion industry is important to consumers for 47%, which comes in second place, with food and drink still above it at 53%. This is followed by vehicles, electronics and beauty & wellness.

More sustainability during the buying frenzy

Black Friday is of course about buying new products cheaper, but don’t get caught up in all these discounts. Then in the end you still lose more than was necessary. You may be wondering ‘what can I do as a consumer to contribute to conscious consumption? Perhaps to start with when we talk about online purchases, you can install a browser plug-in that allows you to plant trees at the same time as you browse for new products. TreeClicks and Ecosia are already examples of this, and this remains in effect after all this buying frenzy. Here are some examples of the impact you can already make as a consumer within this buying frenzy.

Suppose your purchase for a new or energy-efficient washing machine or refrigerator has often been postponed, then look in your search for products that are better for the environment. This way you don’t spend more with these discounts than you normally would, and you have a better impact on the environment in the long term.

What can you improve about your home to become energy neutral? Think, for example, of LED lighting, insulation of the attic or garage, a programmable thermostat, an energy-efficient shower head or even solar panels.

If you’d like to take advantage of the huge discounts on new clothing items, take a critical look at your wardrobe and list everything you haven’t worn in at least a year on a website like Zalando’s second-hand clothing store, ‘Pre -owned’. , or give it to a thrift store. This also allows you to pay for part of your new product yourself, making it even cheaper to purchase new clothing in a circular way. You can also filter products on sustainable production on many web shops.

As a consumer you can also consume at webshops that have joined the new movement called ‘Green Friday’, set up by Trees for All. With this they try to transform Black Friday from mass consumption to a more sustainable consumption called Green Friday. These webshops are recognizable by the Green Friday logo. Webshops that have joined this offer do not offer Black Friday discounts, unless it concerns sustainable products.

As mentioned earlier, the smaller webshops are almost obliged to also participate in the high discount promotions that the large webshops offer. You can also support these small entrepreneurs locally by walking into the store itself, or by ordering directly via their webshop instead of via a webshop portal such as Bol.com. As a result, you not only walk the streets with a nice new product, but you also put a smile on the face of this entrepreneur. In addition, they are actively committed to planting trees to compensate for CO2 emissions that are still caused by the shipment of the (sustainable) products.

Will you join us?

Do your part by: instead of consuming a lot on Black Friday for discounts, deal more sustainably with this buying frenzy and therefore consume less, in the short and long term.