by Livia Minca
We make choices every day. Now
more than ever the choices we make are likely to have impacts beyond our
limited scope. This is because living in a globalized world, that is more
interconnected than ever, makes us all more vulnerable to other people's
choices. For this reason, it is important to think about all the effects that
our choices might imply and pick the most responsible alternative.
However, when we go shopping, for
example, we often get carried away by special offers, quality and a good price,
forgetting that our purchases have other added social or environmental
considerations. What we need is to achieve a mindset that is constantly on the
watch: is this product tied to a local economy? Is it locally produced? Is it
packaged efficiently or is it recyclable?
Living sustainably is about
living within the means of our natural systems (environment) and ensuring that
our lifestyle doesn’t harm other people (society and culture). It’s really
about thinking about where your food, clothes, energy and other products come
from and deciding whether you should buy and consume these things. For example,
you can buy timber imported from other countries to use in your home, but do
you know enough about the rules in place in those countries to prevent animals
from being harmed during the timber harvesting process, or if the local
indigenous people support the harvesting, or how much they get paid?
At the other end, companies
should also strive to comply with and promote environmental and social best
practices. Recently more and more companies have included environmental
performance and carbon emissions information, social welfare and charitable
activities in their corporate responsibility policies and programmes. This is
definitely a step forward and it means they have adapted to the requirements of
their clients, who are more concerned with these issues. However, in many
countries these considerations are still lacking. Every so often in the less
developed countries the branches of multinational corporations have adopted the
policies only on paper, while nothing is being actually implemented. People in
these countries need a stronger voice to demand fair and environmentally sound
practices.
The same applies for governmental
and state institutions. People pay taxes, so they should expect that the
service they pay for (clean air, safe water, clean city) is being delivered.
Unfortunately, in many countries people do not react when the service is not
delivered, for various reasons: they have more pressing needs that they have to
think about, the lack of information, which leads to lack of interest and the
fact that they are not used to question the authority of the state. Whatever
the reason, the results is the same: things will not change.
Making good choices often
involves looking at existing alternatives. Certified organic products, for
example, were grown without the use of toxic pesticides, while products with
the Fair Trade logo have come from producers that were paid a just wage for
their work. In addition to fair trade and organic products, the two well-known
classes of "responsible" products, there are also those that are
produced by cooperatives, where workers share a greater amount of profits and
responsibility, and local products, which require less transportation and, as a
result, generate less climate-changing greenhouse gasses during shipping.
It is important to bring more
often into attention the issue of choosing responsibly. Because the choices we
make every day can improve not only our lives, but also the ones of other people.
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