There’s been a lot of hype around conscious consumerism of late, amongst both the sceptics and the evangelists. Some say that it’s a lie; that the acts of individuals buying less and making better purchasing decisions creates no significant difference on their environmental impact compared to someone making less eco-conscious choices, and that capitalism needs to evolve in order for real change to happen. Others say that the change has to start from the bottom and work its way to the top. The truth probably lies somewhere in between these two extremes, and is certainly not as black and white as the stances outlined before.
Despite critics of conscious consumerism, we still believe that small changes can make a big difference, and that together we can change the world. At Kinetic, we always look at a suppliers’ credentials when it comes to ethics, sustainability and environmental impact. We use recycled and recyclable packaging produced from post-consumer resin, and all our products are biodegradable formulas created with safe ingredients.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are upon us. Brands and companies that don’t offer some kind of promotion are almost non-existent, as are consumers who don’t pick up some kind of product on offer for themselves or for gifting this Christmas. We all want to have nice things, but we all have too many things.
As retailers we need to sell to make a living, and ultimately the goal is to sell more as we want our business to grow. We mentioned before about capitalism needing to change, and for those who want to be the change, we highly recommend reading Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey and Raj Sisodia. For those unfamiliar with the movement, here are the four tenets of conscious capitalism, as outlined in John Mackey’s book:
Conscious Leadership
If you are the owner of your business, think about your actions and behaviour. It has been proven that organisations mirror the personality of their leaders. We need to be seen as thought leaders, inspiring change in our workers, the industry and our consumers.
Stakeholder Orientation
Rather than thinking about their shareholders and the board, conscious leaders take into consideration all their stakeholders, right down to individual customers, without whom their business would cease to exist. In the book, this is represented by the acronym “SPICE”: society, partners, investors, customers, and employees.
Conscious Culture
This means that ensuring that your staff and work culture are on board with your work ethics, they aren’t just turning up to collect their pay at the end of each month. In the book, the acronym TACTILE is used to represent this point: trust, authenticity, caring, transparency, integrity, learning, and empowerment.
Higher Purpose
What is the driver for your business? Working in or alongside the natural products industry, we are sure that your purpose goes beyond making money, be it improving the health of others, giving a percentage of your sales to charity, or helping make changes in your local community.
