In “How Does the Minneapolis Fashion Scene Prioritize Sustainability?” a world is imagined where we can change how the fashion industry works by focusing on sustainable and ethical shopping practices. The project operates under the assumption of consumer sovereignty or the idea that consumers’ desires and needs influence the people making the products, but does the way you shop actually make a difference?

Ethical consumerism is the idea that purchasers are not only consuming goods but, by extension, the process in which they are made. Purchasing becomes a political act. As Christopher Kirchhoff puts it, “By choosing certain products over others, or even whether to purchase at all, consumers can embrace or reject particular environmental and labor practices and make other value claims based on the ethical values they hold.”

The Holidays may be a time for cheer but also a time of excess spending. According to a report by Ana-Ioana Ciochia, in 2022, Americans spent $929.5 billion on holiday-related purchases. However, many use this season to express their opinions on America’s overconsumption problem and reject holiday shopping entirely. They’ll either avoid shopping during events like Black Friday or holiday sales or vow to only purchase from brands focused on sustainability.

Due to this behavior from consumers, some companies have changed their tune. “More consumer brands have used Black Friday as an opportunity to reinforce their ethos around sustainable behavior or positioning as a fair-priced brand all year round, making a statement out of their non-participation and hoping to encourage a general mindset shift in the years to come.” Says Clara Ludmir.

An example is Ikea, which has had “Green Friday” rather than Black Friday since 2021. Ikea has also committed to becoming fully circular, meaning that waste from one product will become the input for another by 2030. They use Green Friday to highlight their buyback program, which allows shoppers to buy discounted pre-owned products. As good as these intentions are, this whole initiative was likely in response to the year-long investigation by Earthsight, published in 2020, that found that Ikea was using illegally chopped wood from protected Russian forests. This was in addition to another Earthsight investigation that found that Ikea was doing the same thing in Ukraine.

Ikea is far from the only brand that promotes itself as more ethically conscious than it is. This practice is known as “greenwashing.” According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, “Greenwashing is the act of making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or practice.” Earth.org has an article called “10 Companies Called Out For Greenwashing,” which includes brands like Volkswagon, Starbucks, and H&M.

YouTube channel Our Changing Climate warns, “Corporations' ethical deeds should be seen not as progress towards a more ethical form of capitalism but instead as a flimsy protective shield that masks corporations’ true ecological and human exploitation.” In their video “Why Ethical Consumerism is a Trap,” they state, “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Not because everyone is evil and everything is owned by multinational corporations. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism because the nature of capitalism itself demands environmental destruction and worker exploitation.”

In the 2019 article “Capitalism Is Destroying the Planet—Let’s Destroy Capitalism!” it’s argued that using fossil fuels allows capitalists to bring work to places where the cheapest labor resides. There’s a reason why clothing is no longer made in the U.S. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 1990 and 2011, about 750,000 apparel manufacturing jobs in the U.S. disappeared. On average, the remaining U.S. garment workers make about 38 times the wage of their counterparts in Bangladesh.

So, does changing our individual shopping habits make any difference? As Our Changing Climate puts it, “Individual choices matter, but they’re like a single mosquito trying to drain an elephant of blood. Power comes in the collective form.” However, Maddie Barron argues, “When we engage in unproductive discourse that allows us to refuse accountability, we end up nowhere.”

In “How Does the Minneapolis Fashion Scene Prioritize Sustainability?” there are tips on how to shop more ethically and sustainably. Though shopping and consumption habits are a great place to start and can make small changes, we must recognize that it will not be enough to create true social change. “Yes, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, so we must organize. We must support unions, shop used when we can, and lower our consumption of goods we don’t need! We must do better in the ways we can, putting in effort even if it’s excruciating to flatten a box and put it in the blue bin,” says Barron.

Does the way you shop actually make a difference?

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