What moves you to vote with your dollar — coupons, deals, or is there something more? (Credit: Lars Ploughmann via Flickr)
With the possible exception of Buy Nothing Day, every day we all vote with our dollars. But not just for the product purchased.
Whenever you buy something — from a cup of coffee to a can of paint — you support all the companies involved in getting it to you, from raw materials and manufacturing, through packaging, shipping, and marketing.
The opposite of voting with your dollar is boycotting. Remember when Greenpeace led a five-year Kleercut campaign to convince Kimberly-Clark to protect the boreal forest? It worked. Last year, the maker of Kleenex announced a new paper policy to obtain 100 per cent of the fiber used in its products from environmentally responsible sources.
People are looking for more than coupons, two for one deals or membership-only pricing. They want to know where products are made and whether packaging is easily recycled. They're supporting socially responsible, "green" companies that give back to their communities and encourage employees to adopt sustainable behaviours at home and at the workplace.
These days, many companies have more than one type of green in mind.
Genuine Health, for example — dedicated to the pursuit of health and happiness — runs their office on green-energy from Bullfrog Power, offsets their sales teams' carbon emissions and promotes staff participation in Pollution Probe's Clean Air Commute.
They also source local and organic ingredients for their products, use the smallest bottles possible (to reduce packaging), choose containers that are fully recyclable, and cartons made from 100 per cent post consumer waste.
The icing on this cake is that every year Genuine Health contributes thousands of dollars in support of organizations that protect nature, including the David Suzuki Foundation. Because like the David Suzuki Foundation, they realize that we cannot do this alone.
What moves you to vote with your dollar?
Sincerely,
Lindsay Coulter, Queen of Green
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3 Comments
8:52 AM
I use to be vegetarian, but my husband couldn’t deal with a strict no meat diet. So now I adopted a free range, organic, hormones free only animal products policy in our house. I guess these are not necessarily green but it causes my budget worried husband to eat less meat (which is good for the environment) and ease my mind that the animals I cook for him were at least treated better than others. It also encourages an industry that I feel is more positive for the environment.
Also forcing ourselves to buy local produce and limit our exported good purchases, aside from having a positive impact on the environment and local economy, curves our general consumption. When things are a little more expensive, you think twice about over consumption. We also home-can a load of seasonal produce.
2:22 PM
So very, very true! Every time I buy organic/fair trade veggies, I feel great that I’m sending a message that people want more of these!
10:34 AM
I try to limit my purchases to products coming from companies that really try to keep the Earth in mind, especially when it comes to cleaning supplies. So many companies like to greenwash! It usually takes a bit of research to find out which are actually environment friendly. I also try to stick to products sold in bulk, or that offer refills to limit packaging.
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