50 Acts of Green: Day Thirty Eight - Purchasing Power

Consumer purchasing power is a very strong power indeed. When a large number of people united to buy or boycott a specific brand or company, that purchasing power can have a huge affect on the company. People tend to think it doesn't really matter whether what they buy is made environmentally friendly or not, but when groups of people together decide to tell a company what they care about, it can change the whole culture of a company. 

In economics, consumer purchasing power can change with inflation and prices, with supply and demand issues, with the general economy. There are indexes to measure types of consumer purchasing power and whether consumers have more or less power at any given time. However, the real end game is that if enough dedicated people use their purchasing power to let a company know what they want, the company will either have to make changes or suffer from lack of sales. 

Becoming more environmentally friendly is one of the many messages consumers can tell companies, and have had good success in influencing. Many companies have started to look into their environmental impact and see what they can do to be more environmentally friendly. Companies looking to reduce their environmental impact have many outlets for doing so, changing their processes or product materials, buying carbon offsets, investing in renewable energy sources. Any search for environmentally friendly companies will pull up lists from blogs, magazines, and reporting agencies with grades for the environmental impacts of different companies. 

What we can do is buy from companies with environmentally friendly processes, products, and investments. When we go to make purchases, especially purchases of significant amounts, we can do some research about the possible companies and buy from companies who care about their environmental impact and are making a difference in their industry.

One small act of green, lots of energy, waste, and plastics saved.