Our money – Our impact

Money, no matter how much you have, is in your hands to decide what you will spend it on. Every Euro, every Dollar, every Pound, Franc, or Yen gives you a little bit of power: the power to make a choice. Will you buy a cheap shirt produced by the fast fashion industry causing environmental destruction from hazardous chemicals, or will you buy a fairly produced, environmentally friendly piece of clothing for a price slightly more expensive than the first one? Will you try an organic brand of coffee or tea, protecting the area it was planted in, or keep purchasing the same brand you have been buying for years despite knowing they are exploiting animals and humans all over the world?

It seems incredible how large the impact of just one purchase can be. The cash handed over the counter has a long road ahead of it. While one part of it will be the salary of the workers who produced your goods, another part will go towards paying the electricity, water, and heating bills of the shop you purchased from. But one of the most crucial aspects of where our money goes is the resources that are used to produce our goods. It’s important to consider what kind of resources were used: natural, sustainable ones, like wind and water, or limited ones, such as fossil fuels and coal. If we are talking about plant-based products such as some of our food products, our clothes, or our beverages, we must consider cultivation. First, we need to think about the land that had to be destroyed in order to have a plantation of, say,  soybeans, cocoa, or sugar cane. Unfortunately, it is often the case that rainforests are being burned down for the sole purpose of opening up land for agriculture. This leads to millions of animals losing their home and numerous species of plants and animals becoming extinct. Another key point to consider is if the land will be used for a long time, or if it will quickly become infertile due to the usage of hazardous fertilizers. The quicker land is used and then discarded, the more land that’s being wasted, resulting in a mass amount of forest area destroyed. Skipping a few steps ahead in the goods production process, our product needs to be packed appropriately. Commonly used plastic wrappings, bottles or bags will all eventually end up somewhere in the ocean or in the landscape of a country far away, torturing animals who accidentally swallowed, choked on, or tangled in it. Alternatively, reusable glass jars or bottles, recycled paper, or biodegradable packaging serve as more suitable choices regarding its impact on the environment.

These are just a few points of the many points that should be considered when it comes to the environmental impact of purchasing an item.

However, everything starts with the product that ends up in our shopping carts. We pay for these products and hence make the choice for deforestation or reforestation. Our money is our silent voice. Every time we pay, we vote for the world we want to live in. Let us consider our receipts as our voting ballots. The companies you give your money to are the ones you vote for. They decide how they treat our environment.

So, buy and, therefore, vote consciously!