Conscious Consumption?

Conscious consumption is simply the act of recognizing the impact of every purchase you make.

Before you hand over your money, ask yourself: How is this packaged? How long will it last? What happens to it when it no longer serves me? Is the purchase material, or is it experiential? Are the materials sustainably sourced? Did they come from plants, animals, or minerals?

There are massive, systemic changes that need to happen in our world, but none of us, as individuals, are capable of implementing them single-handedly. What we can change is our own personal behavior. When we recognize the power of that behavior—and become diligent in how we exercise it—change actually happens. The “market” does respond.

The Hidden Cost of “Cheap”

We need to become conscious, compassionate consumers. We have to recognize that when we buy something on the cheap, it almost always means someone, or something, is being paid on the cheap.

There are exceptions, of course—sometimes you catch a genuine sale or benefit from surplus harvesting. But most of the time, cheap products mean something is being exploited. Cheap meat usually means rainforests are being chopped down for grazing. Cheap electronics usually mean exploitative labor conditions and unsustainable mineral extraction.

We need to be conscious of these impacts. We need to recognize that every time we purchase something, it ripples throughout our entire society, and right now, those ripples are creating waves that are making life untenable for our species.

The Petroleum Problem

A conscious consumer recognizes that even driving to the grocery store—buying that next tank of gas—is participating in a deleterious action. It’s an action that is actively harmful to our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

Why? Because it’s pumping pollutants directly into the air, and it is burning up a precious, finite resource that could be utilized for so many better things.

Petroleum, as a feedstock, creates the medical-grade plastics we rely on. It creates fertilizers. It creates all sorts of materials that are genuinely productive and necessary for the modern lives we live. Taking that incredible feedstock—that prime, beautiful gift from Mother Earth—and just setting it on fire so that you don’t have to exercise your legs is a profound misplacement of value.

It is an unconscious behavior. The only way people can rationalize it is to simply not think about it. They do it because “everybody else is doing it”—a phenomenon well-documented in psychological studies on conformity.

The Ripple Effect

We can change. Each and every one of us needs to change.

My goal is simply to help other people see that it can be done. We can make different choices. And those choices, added up, change the world.