Green Consumerism

There is something that all of the following have in common: driving a hybrid car; eating organic and/or local food; building with certified “sustainably produced” wood; joining the “back to the land” movement; boycotting Shell Oil, Esso, and Nestlé; using nonchemical housecleaning products; investing in “ethical” stock portfolios; recycling aluminum cans and glass bottles; sourcing electricity from wind or solar energy; purchasing energy-efficient washing machines, refrigerators, and lightbulbs; and swaddling a child in cloth reuseable diapers.

While disparate activities, at a general level, these are different forms and means of green consumerism. Green consumerism works from the recognition that the Earth's resources are limited, environmental damage is directly and indirectly related to the exploitation of these resources, and consumer power and choice can be utilized to produce positive environmental change. It is argued that the market signals of green consumer demand encourage the sustainable production of goods and services by businesses and governments. This is characterized as (mostly well-off) consumers “voting” for environmental responsibility with their money. Green consumption has become an increasingly powerful but loosely organized movement in the last decade; to paraphrase Julie Guthman, a researcher on California organic food, the production and consumption of organic salad mix has done more to reduce pesticide use than all the organizing around pesticide reform.

Green consumerism is a broad and bewildering term given the vast nature of its forms, means, and meanings. It is closely allied with the concepts of sustainable consumption and, these days, the growing movement for ethical consumption. These are both subsets of green consumption: sustainable consumption includes a concern for social justice, and ethical consumption incorporates moral responsibility and care. All three are often used interchangeably, leading to potential confusion in policy and popular discussions. Clearly, however, green consumerism has shifted academic and popular debates around the even broader concept of sustainable development; how to make consumption greener, more sustainable, and more ethical has moved to the forefront of the problems and policies for sustainable development.

Coming out of the environmental movements of the 1960s and 1970s and gaining serious traction in the 1990s, the demand for and production of green commodities has expanded rapidly. One of the earliest statements was the publication of the wildly popular 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth (1989) in the United States. Published simultaneously [Page 813]in the United Kingdom (UK) was The Green Consumer Guide: From Shampoo to Champagne—High-Street Shopping for a Better Environment, which begins, “Every day, whether we are shopping for simple necessities or for luxury items, for fish fingers or fur coats, we are making choices that affect the environmental quality of the world we live in.” Newer writings include The Newman's Own Guide to the Good Life: Simple Measures that Benefit You and the Place You Live (United States) and The Good Shopping Guide (UK), with the publishing trend spreading to The Ethical Consumer magazine (UK) and to the Internet. In addition, almost all of the major environmental organizations like the Sierra Club, Conservation International, and Friends of the Earth now urge their members to shop more responsibly.

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