1. What is conscious consumerism?
Essentially, conscious consumerism focuses on making positive decisions throughout the buying process, with the intention of helping to balance some of the negative impacts that consumerism has on the planet. For example, eating Fairtrade chocolate, wearing pre-worn clothing or using natural toiletries.
Responsible consumerism promotes sustainable farming and other eco-friendly ways of making products, as well as creating only the amount that’s needed. Other factors such as pay equality and humane working practices also drive this type of consumption.
The overall aim is to use customers’ purchasing power to consider the impact (on the environment or in society, for example) of what people buy, as well as why and how they make purchases.
Conscious consumption glossary
When discussing responsible consumerism, there are a few key terms and phrases you’re likely to come across – here we define some of the main ones.
Buycott – This word is ‘buy’ and ‘boycott’ together, referring to customers that refuse to buy from certain companies due to their negative practices.
Positive purchasing – This phrase refers to how people try to create positive impact during the purchasing process, such as by supporting ethical businesses with their buying choices.
Purpose – Conscious consumption focuses on the purpose behind purchasing, whether that’s using social purpose to market to customers or supporting businesses that are modelled on achieving a purpose in addition to making money.
2. Who are conscious consumers?
According to the Nielsen Global Survey of Corporate Social Responsibility report published in 2015, three out of four Millenials were willing to pay more for sustainable products.
It also found that of those surveyed, 51% of Boomers (aged 50-64) were also inclined to pay higher prices for sustainable products too.
While consumers are being more aware of their power and looking more closely at the businesses they buy from, there are some key characteristics of conscious consumers.
Conscious consumers want to use their individual actions to help create global impact, and so consuming is seen as a form of voting by using purchases to support businesses that promote the values these consumers see as important.
It’s worth noting that this type of spending requires some level of privilege, as well as the ability to make these decisions, which isn’t available to everyone.
Also, these type of customers are generally younger customers, with millennial shoppers often falling into this category. The Pew Research Center has defined this generation as those born between 1981 and 1996.
For more insight into customer behaviour and ethical shopping, take a look at our ethical consumers page.
3. Conscious consumerism businesses
Now that you know what conscious consumerism is, we’ll look at how to implement different strategies to ensure that you promote this type of consumption. Here are some ideas to get you started, although these will vary depending on the type of business you run.
Customer-facingBehind the scenes
- Donate a percentage of every purchase to charity
- Use eco-friendly coffee cups, cutlery, plates; recycled carrier bags
- Offer some level of repairs or replacements for products
- Create high quality items in limited amounts
- Use recyclable and/or reusable materials
- Connect to power from green energy suppliers
- Use ethical banks
- Promote sustainable production processes throughout the cycle
- Volunteer with charities
Another way of incorporating conscious consumerism into your business (especially if you’ve already started) is to participate in a national or international awareness day. This allows you to try out sustainable practices and work out how to include them in your day-to-day business operations. For example, the UN’s World Environment Day takes place on the 5th June each year.
Once you’ve decided on what level and type of responsible consumerism you want your business to promote, it’s useful to know which accreditations or organisations you should be recognised by to ensure your customers know your business is serious about sustainability.
Here’s an overview of some of the key organisations that offer certification in the UK and internationally. You can contact the relevant organisations to find out how to get your products or services certified, as well as which criteria it’ll need to meet.