How To Leverage Your Consumer Power

Make an Impact on Climate Change with Your Day-To-Day Decisions

Jan 25, 2022

Hello there Sunshine! Welcome to Save Our Happy Place, a newsletter making it easy for you to help protect the places you love from climate change. This week we are talking about the effectiveness of your personal choices. We want to live in a safe and clean world, so we’re aligning our minds, dollars & democratic leverage to demand that the powers that be make the changes we need to see. Taking small yet consistent actions as part of our community takes the burden off you.

Leveraging Your Consumer POWer

For the Climate Movement

The mental conflict between “100 companies contribute to 71% of global emissions” and “my personal carbon footprint is minuscule” is paralyzing, but we all know there is no time for paralysis.

Do My Day-to-Day Choices Even Matter?

One of the most basic principles of economics is supply and demand. If there is a demand, companies will WANT to supply it for you. If you find yourself thinking, “If I don't buy it someone else will,” know that you are not alone. Seeing the trends below you can shop confidently knowing you are part of a bigger impact. Buying eco-friendly brands bolsters them to become more readily available and shapes the market in the process.

“The influence that consumer activism may have on a company's reputation should not be overlooked.” - Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist, Weber Shandwick

*Source: IBM, Nielsen, & Weber Shandwick*

Make Impact Without Aiding & Abetting Big Oil and Plastic

Manufacturing individual consumer accountability campaigns as a way to dodge the blame for global systemic problems has always been a significant part of big oil and gas companies’ playbooks. These corporations have consistently tried to convince the masses that their own personal choices are to blame for the ongoing climate crisis and that only their own individual actions (recycling, bike-to-work campaigns, etc.) can solve it. These tactics take all of the onus off the major corporations and put it back onto you, the individual. The recycle campaigns of the ’90s, which coincidently coincided with the infiltration of oil and the spread of plastics into our day-to-day lives is a classic example of this corporate misdirect.

So what is the easiest way to vote with your dollars without obsessing over how to avoid buying products from a running list of evil corporations?

Positive Consumer Activism - showing support for companies by buying from them, rather than avoiding those whose practices you disagree with. This will fill your head and heart space with more light while demonstrating that you want positive change.

Three Steps to Easy Positive Activism

The next time you run out of a product that needs replenishing:

Find a more eco-friendly solution from a reputable brand that works for your lifestyle.
Calculate how often you’ll need it replenished
Buy it in bulk if you have the storage space or sign up for subscription delivery if you don’t.

This way you are now making more sustainable choices every day without having to continuously think about it.

The Rise In the Circular Economy

How Our Demands Are Already Shaping Business

Another way we are seeing consumer demand for more sustainable options drive change in the marketplace is through the rise of the circular economy.

The circular economy is "a model of production and consumption emphasizing sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible". This approach tackles climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution by eliminating waste, circulating materials, and regenerating nature.

Let Big Business Know You Mean Business

Canadian Boreal Forest. Photo by Zhao Qin

While enacting impact with your dollars is one way to ignite change, speaking directly to the source is also persuasive.

Demand Ecommerce Giants Clean Up Their Shipping

What? Send a powerful message to Amazon, Walmart, UPS, FedEx, and DHL that a transition to 100% zero-emissions fleets by 2030 is non-negotiable.
Why? Large eCommerce companies are making deliveries that are causing air pollution, congestion, and fueling climate change.
How? Click link to sign petition. (Estimated 1 Minute)

Sign Petition

Demand Charmin Stop Destroying Forests

What? Tell the CEO of Charmin’s parent company Procter & Gamble, to move toward a more sustainable model and stop flushing away our forests.
Why? Trees are essential to mitigating climate change through their ability to capture carbon. Charmin is fueling a tree-to-toilet pipeline that engulfs a city block’s worth of boreal forest every minute.
How? Click Link to Send Email. (Estimated 1 Minute)

Send Email

Some Rays of Sunshine

The Headlines We’re Happy to See

Many companies are pivoting to the demands of their customers and integrating themselves into the circular economy. Here are a few:

Madewell is now selling preloved jeans.
Timberland and Omni United are creating shoe soles from end-of-life tires.
Stella McCartney will be regenerating all leftover materials instead of sending them to landfills.
Adidas has produced 11 million pairs of shoes using recycled ocean plastic.
Humanscale’s line of Ocean Chairs reclaim 2lbs of fishing net per chair.