Join the movement to Green Out Black Friday
This is a rally cry, to planet-positive brands across the world to come together to take a stand against unconscious consumption and support sustainable businesses, by encouraging their communities to vote with their wallets across the biggest sales weekend of the year.
429,000
The amount in metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions churned out by Black Friday deliveries in the UK last year.
50m
The tonnes of e-waste that is generated each year. Only 20% of it is recycled.
80%
The amount of Black Friday-purchased electronic goods, clothes and plastic packaging that will end up in landfill, incineration or low-quality recycling after a very short life.
80b
The amount of new pieces of clothing purchased globally every year, while the average American generates around 80 pounds of textile waste a year, much of which ends up in landfills.
72%
Number of millennials are willing to pay more for sustainable goods.
121%
How much more consumers in the US spent on Black Friday in 2018, compared to every other day of the year. At the same time, 48 million Americans were still paying credit card debt from the previous year’s holiday shopping.
What is the real cost of bargain shopping?
Black Friday is a 20th Century shopping tradition that’s lasted the decades, fuelled by impressive marketing and carried by the wave of our 20th Century love affair with buying more and more stuff. Stuff that we need, perhaps? Or stuff that we feel pressured to buy by clever marketing campaigns or the sheer fear of missing out on “a bargain”… But, is it really a bargain?
It’s time to reinvent Black Friday for good
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become a part of the festive season shopping process, and many smaller businesses and sustainable brands depend on sale events like these to generate revenue. The problem with Black Friday is that the voices of these planet-positive legends end up being drowned out by multi-billion dollar corporations, which pocket most of the profits, supporting supply chains to make more of the stuff we don’t need and sell it at a price that impacts the social and environmental ethics of a product’s development, fuelling a culture of over-consumption that delivers more waste than is needed, into a waste system that’s overloaded and unable to deal with it, resulting in the pollution of soil and water systems. And so the cycle continues. It’s time for change.
Green Out Black Friday
We don’t need to boycott Black Friday completely. Rather, let’s work with it to: Raise the profiles of the businesses who really are driving positive change for the planet - like yours; Inspire millions of conscious consumers to make a positive, slow choice about their festive purchases; and Encourage everyone to shop only with brands who we know truly care about the future of the planet. Join us to create a movement that makes so much noise that planet-positive businesses like yours can not only cut through the clutter, but rise above it. There is so much strength in the Collective - the more businesses that collaborate, the bigger the impact will be.
