Sustainability And The Environment

Sustainability and the environment: Green the new Gold

A revolution in trade today is the many alternatives consumers have in the products which they consume. Walking in a mall, supermarket or bazaar consumers are confronted with an overpowering range of choices to consume more ethically and morally through being sustainable and environmentally conscious. These alternatives include clothing decisions like sweatshop and child labour free products, to buying organic food, fair trade food or items such as free range products. ‘Whether through injunctions to buy ‘guilt-free’ fair trade chocolate, to minimize the consumption of energy and water on behalf of the planet, or to recycle, re-use or swap goods as a means of reducing consumption overall,

Its original and defining purpose is the fair price. According to Friedberg ethical, in the food trade lexicon is not synonymous with the older term fair though the two designations like organic are not rely on the same kinds of conventions such as labels. The term fair trade is used to establish the social, economic and environmental sustainability and equity behind consumerism. Fair trade is important as it allows the social and environmental standards of human survival to be met. ‘Fair Trade is a specific type of trading relationship in which buyers, generally, in the global North and producers in the South co-operate to provide a fair price/wage for the producers, and encourage consumers to make ethical decisions based on how products are produced’ (Le Mare, 2012: 96). “Whereas relations between supermarkets were once characterized by a policy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ regarding, say, pesticide use and labour conditions, now supermarkets do ask, and suppliers must tell all about the production process: what chemicals are used, how the labour is clothed, housed, fed and supplied with health care; how the environment is protected. All this information is required in addition to the data required to assure product ‘traceability’” (Freidberg, 2010:

all forms and practices of consumption are in some way influenced by moral considerations including care for the self and proximate others, as well as financial responsibility (McEwan1) This is reinforced by Posel who highlight the relationship between consumption and ethics claiming that people’s modes of consumption are integral to their senses of self and sociality as the quest for things can be an expression of care and support for others (2010:162). Ethical and moral practises can be seen as a physiological response to consumption. Ethical and moral consumption education is a strong determinant of ethical buying, possibly due to the cognitive burden of making consumption decisions with extra considerations in mind; and people are more likely to consume ethically when others around them do too, consistent with social norms heightening their attention to social implications of individual behaviour (Starr,