Welcome to Naked Sustainability Podcast. This bold podcast helps busy millennials navigate real-life sustainability with practical tips, no-nonsense advice, and a zero-fucks-given attitude, all through a transparent and authentic lens of living in the real world. Join Ginny for lively conversations, expert interviews, and hilarious anecdotes. From eco-fashion to zero-waste living, we’ll empower you to be an eco-warrior without compromising your badass lifestyle. Get ready to kick some eco-ass.
Discover the real talk on personal shopping habits, where Ginny spills the tea on trying to find the perfect sustainable unicorn products in an imperfect world.
Table of Contents
Why Shopping Habits Matter?
Hi friends, welcome back to the Naked Sustainability podcast, where we discuss living real-life as sustainably as possible. It’s Ginny, and today I wanted to gossip about my personal shopping habits and explore how our everyday purchasing decisions can be used to make a positive impact on the environment, society, and the economy.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read my full disclosure for more information.
Breaking Down My Recent Purchases
Before we begin, let’s take a look at some of my most recent purchases. In my household, we’ve bought kitty litter, underwear, shampoo…actually all on freaking subscriptions, and my opinion goes either way on those…but that’s for another day. While these purchases were necessary, the rise of the internet in our capitalist society has allowed for increased flexibility in choosing sustainable options.
I try so damn hard to make every product purchase a unicorn product, that means all of my sustainability checkboxes, but unfortunately, those products are as rare me leaving mashed potatoes on my plate. Sometimes we have to “settle” for products that meet our needs in the moment. Life can be a fucking chaotic mess sometimes (at least mine is) and not everything always runs smoothly.
But I’m learning that’s okay, and changing my shopping habits to align with that. It’s important to note that finding products that meet all sustainability criteria can be challenging, but every small step towards sustainable shopping counts.
What is Sustainable Shopping?
So, what exactly does sustainable shopping mean, at least to me? Sustainable shopping is about making conscious and informed choices when purchasing goods and services.
It involves considering the whole picture of the products we buy from environmental to social, event to the economic impacts. While it may seem like a tall order, shopping in a way that is better for the environment doesn’t have to be inconvenient. In fact, it can save you a shit-ton of money in the long run.
The Impact of Sustainable Shopping
First, let’s talk about the long list of benefits that shopping sustainably can have an impact on. We’re talking the environment, boosting the economy, and serving some social justice…every politicians wet-dream, right?
Okay, the environment—the whole reason I started this community. Making informed shopping decisions impact more than we think. From the materials utilized, and how they source through production, transportation, and eventual disposal—every step is fucking important. By choosing products made from sustainable materials and manufactured using eco-friendly processes, we actually can help save the planet in a big way.
Our wallets, at least big picture, talk a way larger talk than say my blog posts or this podcast. We live in a modern world, that (at least in the United States) runs entirely off money.
Imagine buying products made from recycled materials. Not only does this reduce the demand for mining or fracking new materials, it also saves energy from sourcing and manufacturing new materials. And, it reduces the overall waste that hit the landfills. I mean, recycling a single aluminum can can save enough energy for you to binge-watch your favorite show.
Or, by choosing products made with organic materials, you’re ditching harmful pesticides. Both from your life (and potentially being ingested, touching your skin or leaching into your laundry waste water), and reducing demand for those pesticide treated materials…ooooff, I could talk for HOURS the impact pesticides have on the environment, the whole fucking food chain from pollinators and other insects all the way up, our soil we grow food in, our health, the waste water produced. Don’t get me started on that tangent.
Reducing Your Carbon Salary
And then there is (insert eye roll) the carbon footprint reduction. I know, it’s super high level, and ultimately was started by big oil…yadayadayada. What I wanna talk about is how we can reduce the carbon salary YOU personally pay for a product. Such as how far drive for it, or if it’s a product from half-way across the world. You control those decisions, and that’s all I wanna focus on.
By choosing products that require less energy throughout their lifecycle, such as those made from recycled materials or produced locally, we can actively reduce our personal carbon salary. We can do that by supporting local farmers or CSAs, or combining many trips into one larger trip. So instead of driving once a week to our nearest “city” for some asian food market items that aren’t available in my area, we might make one trip once a month. That’s an example though because we super bulk buy our food and then freeze everything we can so that we have it for months. Frozen tofu, way easier to remove the excess moisture. These small changes in our shopping habits can add up and make a significant difference in conserving energy and resources
Financial Gains
But really, the immediate impact of shopping sustainably is felt in your wallet. When we support companies that are committed to sustainability, we’re actually creating demand for eco-friendly products. And you know what that means? More options, more innovation, more competition in the market…and cheaper prices for us. Just look at EV battery technology. Super expensive to begin with, and coming down to more realistic consumer prices as demand EVs has shot up and battery manufacturing has gotten easier.
The Hidden Cost of Unsustainable Choices
There’s actually more, a much larger picture to this, if you will. By choosing sustainable products and companies, we’re actually helping minimize long-term costs associated with environmental damage. By supporting companies trying to do better, we’re NOT supporting companies that take their massive profits (paid for by us as the consumers) and use them to clean up disastrous environment events…like oil spills perhaps?
And the third type of cost-savings is actually directly to us…not having to buy as much because sustainable products can be longer lasting. Take the period products we talked about last week. Switching to a reusable option, saves so much fucking money every month! The reusable menstrual disc I use was less than $30, which is like tampons for three periods, and I’ve been using it for a couple years at this point.
Switching to a bidet eliminates needing toilet paper…saving you money. I think our bidet paid for itself within the first year of having it…and now we’re basically shitting for free.
On the other hand, we want to make sure we’re supporting ethical practices in our purchases as well. We should all want to lift workers up and promote social justice. This means buying from companies that are transparent in their practices, treating their workers fairly with a living wage and reducing worker exploitation, especially in developing countries where a lot of sourcing and manufacturing takes place.
Those sustainable product made from natural materials we talked about earlier? Not only are they good for you, but also for the production workers involved. No chemicals delivered to you, means no chemicals that the workers have to worry about. Healthier materials means a better well-being for everyone involved.
Is this too much to think about for every purchase? Probably. Especially as companies start creating stances on socio-economic issues that have been (at least in the US) politicized lately. I want to only support companies that meet all of my ethics and sustainability goals. And I’m working towards that, starting with where I store my money so that it doesn’t fund any fossil fuels. In my head, it doesn’t seem hard…you know be a good human kinda thing. But, in reality, it can make my head spin and I’ve been shopping with sustainability in mind for over a decade.
Small Changes, Big Impact
My advice, make small changes..not all changes. Maybe start with focusing on buying products with less chemicals involved. Once you’ve master that, add in another habit….like considering how a product is disposed of at the end of its lifespan. Master that, and add another layer like supporting businesses that support social justices you believe in. Each layer compounds, and each step forward is a step forward that ripples and makes huge sustainability impacts. This sustainable habit layering is the exact technique I teach with the EcoMindful Method.
As consumers, our choices have the power to shape the market and drive positive change. By demanding transparency, environmentally friendly options, and ethical practices, we can encourage businesses to adopt sustainable practices as the new normal. The point, make informed decisions with your purchases, and don’t get wrapped up in ALL the research. That’s what I’m here for.
That’s it for today’s episode. Thanks for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and join us next week as we explore more badass ways to care for the planet, while living this busy millennial life.
Until next time.
