Earth Day is an occasion to honor our connection to our environment and celebrate sustainability practices in business. Businesses should take this chance to showcase their support of eco-friendly initiatives.
As a retailer, you can support your customers’ environmentally-conscious shopping habits by offering eco-friendly products that are stylish and functional. Offering such selections will satisfy customers and stay current with current trends.
Eco-Friendly Fashion
Earth Day falls on April 22 and marks an excellent opportunity for consumers to make eco-friendly product selections that reduce carbon emissions. Environmental awareness campaigns are growing exponentially and many consumers want products with reduced environmental impacts in their shopping baskets.
One way of doing that is to purchase from eco-friendly brands that promote sustainable practices and are certified B Corporations - companies meeting stringent social and environmental accountability standards. Such brands typically provide full transparency regarding workforce wages, legal processes, supply-chain activities and more.
Material selection is another key aspect of eco-friendly fashion. When making purchases, seek clothes made of natural fibers like cotton, wool or bamboo which use less energy and water for production than synthetics do. When possible opt for organic cotton fibers which do not contain pesticides or chemical dyes.
Help customers transition by selling products made from recycled materials, like T-shirts and hats crafted using recycled polyester instead of petroleum-based polypropylene or virgin polyethylene.
Consider selling items made from biodegradable materials such as recycled glass bottles or cork. Upcycling such items helps keep waste out of landfills while also avoiding new plastic production.
Some brands are taking sustainability to the next level by creating more eco-conscious designs into their lines. Eileen Fisher is taking this one step further by using recycled material for production of clothes from old ones collected through its Vision 2020 program and working closely with artisans in India and Ethiopia to ensure they receive fair wages throughout their supply chains.
Eco-friendly fashion has become more than a passing fad; it’s become a mindset. A recent study showed that 66% of consumers would spend more money on eco-friendly products; that figure rose even higher among millennials (73%).
Green Home Essentials
No matter your green goals - whether that means greening your home or replenishing your eco-friendly product selection - there are sustainable options available that won’t break the bank. Going green doesn’t need to be costly or complex - even small changes in habits can have big effects over time!
By making sustainable purchases, you’re helping reduce your carbon footprint and can feel good about what choices are being made - for instance switching to paper towels over plastic ones could save a great deal of resources.
As part of your homebuilding or renovation plan, it’s essential that you consider the environmental impact of all materials used. Recycled content drywall and insulation made with recycled cardboard may both provide more eco-friendly options than more conventional building materials.
Energy efficiency of your home should also be prioritized. Alterations to heating, cooling and lighting systems can reduce costs significantly while saving on energy usage costs.
Avoid single-use items to help the environment and reduce waste. Items like shampoo bottles, toothpaste tubes and deodorants often come packaged in plastic that takes over 450 years to break down in landfills.
Opinel from South Africa provides eco-friendly alternatives to single-use items, like bathroom towels, laundry baskets and planters!
Since 2017, this company has managed to avoid over 7M lbs of plastic waste and developed a line of kitchen tools made with recyclable material that are dishwasher-safe.
As an added benefit, this company uses recycled materials in their packaging production, so you can feel good supporting a female-founded business with positive effects in our world!
Earth Day is more than just about giving our planet one thought - it’s also about taking steps every day to be more eco-friendly! Here are the best sustainable living tips so that you can help reverse climate change and leave an improved planet behind for future generations to enjoy!
Clean Beauty
Clean beauty is an emerging movement in beauty products that offers alternatives free from harmful ingredients like parabens, phthalates and synthetic fragrances derived from fossil fuels. Additionally, this movement encourages products with ingredients sourced directly from nature rather than via chemical derivatives from fossil fuels.
According to Goop’s website, clean beauty is more than a marketing ploy - it’s a vital health decision for both your body and skin. When selecting clean products over those that contain chemicals and ingredients known to cause skin irritation, dryness or premature aging, it becomes an act of protection and healthfulness for both.
Clean beauty brands are becoming more committed to eco-friendly production, packaging, manufacturing and sustainability initiatives in all aspects of production and packaging as well as donating funds and investing in meaningful partnerships - even using bio-fermentation technology that allows them to use molecules of living marine organisms without harvesting them from the ocean itself!
To select the highest-grade clean beauty options, look for formulas free from formaldehyde and phthalates that can be found in plastics; and brands who utilize sustainable packaging or recyclable materials such as glass and aluminum.
Ere Perez (opens in new tab) is an ethical beauty brand dedicated to reducing its environmental footprint. Their products come packaged in refillable and recyclable containers and they hope to reduce waste by 2023.
Tata Harper is another cult favorite that embraces clean beauty with ingredients sourced from Colombia. For instance, their Elixir Vitae Serum contains antioxidant-rich witch hazel and moisturizing jasmine for rejuvenating skin health.
Alpyn Beauty uses sustainably harvested wild-crafted ingredients in clean, nourishing skin and body care products made from sustainably harvested ingredients sourced from wild. They’re one of Sephora’s Clean + Plant Positive Partners as well as part of the global “1% for the Planet” network.
Other brands embracing clean beauty initiatives include REN, which has pledged their two most popular masks from plastic to 20% post-consumer recycled glass jars and introduced aluminium lids that can be infinitely recycled as part of the Zero Waste Month initiative.
Earth-Friendly Tech
As its name suggests, eco-friendly technology employs greener materials, processes and designs in order to lessen its impact on the environment. Examples of eco-friendly technology include energy efficient appliances, recycled products and sustainable construction methods.
No doubt eco-friendly gadgets aren’t as exciting as a new car or an augmented reality headset, but they can serve a very practical purpose in your daily life. For instance, a smartphone that acts both as digital assistant and remote control can keep you in contact with loved ones while saving a ton of money at the same time.
There is a vast selection of smart devices on the market, but we identified three devices as standouts. These included smartphones, solar-powered LED lightbulbs and voice-activated smart speakers.
Smart home systems are awesome tools that enable you to monitor and control every aspect of your house, ensuring all essential tasks remain on schedule and working as they should be. Furthermore, these systems offer personalized recommendations tailored specifically for you in order to create the ideal living environment.
There are plenty of green tech products on the market, and there are also creative ways to promote your company’s commitment to making our planet greener - everything from eco-friendly advertising, employee participation and community outreach can help raise your company’s green credentials.
Start off right by doing research into what your target audience would find appealing. Once you know this information, finding products to meet those interests and increase profits should become much simpler. By taking advantage of these tools and strategies, your 2018 can become your greenest year yet!
In Conclusion
In conclusion, Earth Day is an opportunity for retailers to showcase their support of eco-friendly initiatives and offer sustainable product selections that are both functional and stylish. From eco-friendly fashion to green home essentials, clean beauty to earth-friendly tech, there are many ways for businesses to support environmentally-conscious shopping habits.
Sustainable living isn’t just about doing what’s right for the environment - it’s also about making healthy choices for ourselves and our families. By making eco-conscious choices, we can reduce our carbon footprint, protect our health, and create a better world for future generations. Let’s take this Earth Day and every day beyond as an opportunity to make a positive impact on the planet.