To me, it’s an act of awareness. Awareness of our society and planet as well as ourselves. Essentially, being conscious of why we’re buying something and what effect that purchase will have on us and our society.
There’s a lot of talk about conscious collections and sustainable products, often suggesting that we can shop our way to sustainability. It’s of course not that easy, and conscious consumption therefore needs more layers. But what are these layers? Maybe it’s about buying something pre-loved, or something handmade by someone locally, or something made in an eco-friendly manner with reused materials.
But maybe it’s the conscious act of properly considering your purchase that is key? Doing your research into materials and production. Looking for something second hand instead of buying it new. Checking whether you can rent it instead. Or considering whether you can do without it completely.
Taking the time
Conscious consumption to me is also taking the time to properly question a purchase. Avoiding impulse buying and figuring out what you really want and need. You might change your mind in the process, you might realise you don’t need it after all, or you might find something even better that you can treasure for longer. This was definitely one of my key learnings during my no-shopping year last year, where I was listing things I was keen to buy once the year had passed, but once it had, a lot of the things on that list had been removed. Which is (anecdotal) proof that it probably would have been an unnecessary impulse purchase had I gone ahead and bought it straight away.
One of those thoughts that stayed with me during the whole year though was that I wanted to buy a pair of loafers or sandals from a small Swedish female-owned brand (Blankens) with conscious production in Portugal that I wanted to support. I’ve been following the brand for years and after a lot of thinking, and meeting the founder in their showroom in Stockholm’s Old Town, I recently treated myself to a pair of sandals for my birthday.
We can of course question whether we need to buy new things at all. Using what we have is always the most sustainable option, and buying something second hand is probably the next best thing. But every now and then, we’ll need (or want!) something new, and this is when we need to be especially aware of what being conscious means (and also be ok with the fact that we might not always be able to follow all rules). In my case with these new sandals, I went for a conscious brand that I believe keeps a sensible approach to production and consumption. After my conversation with the founder, where we were discussing the lack of investment in female-founded businesses, I was also convinced that in this case, being conscious also meant supporting women and female-led business.