The Commercialization of Sustainability

by Jena Alsup

Pop culture usually characterizes sustainable living as buying $50 t-shirts, sporting expensive reusable water bottles, and purchasing metal straws. Each of these practices share one thing in common: they require us to buy more products.

Sustainability and consumerism are fundamentally contradictory principles. While some purchases are undeniably necessary, buying from so-called ethical brands is not necessarily the most environmentally-friendly method. True sustainability is characterized by buying items second-hand, reusing products, consuming less, and generally owning fewer things.

However, the capitalist agenda does not benefit from true sustainability; corporations have commodified concerns about the environment to use as a marketing strategy that ensures they can profit off of it. For example, many fast fashion brands such as H&M, Zara, and Uniqlo have been caught greenwashing. They claim that their products are eco-friendly and advertise these initiatives widely, but have been criticized for not providing evidence of their sustainable practices and using ambiguous language such as "environmentally-conscious," "green," and "eco-friendly" that no legal definition exists for.

In reality, even supporting brands that are not lying about their sustainability practices may still not be an eco-friendly practice. Once the emissions from shipping and packaging are taken into account, something like a metal straw becomes much more costly for the environment. The widespread popularization of one-day shipping and same-day delivery hasn't helped either. In theory, e-commerce should be more sustainable because it allows for the consolidation of deliveries, but when packages have to be delivered faster, it is harder to lump orders together and ultimately requires more trips. A recent study found that when a delivery truck has less than approximately six deliveries in one trip, e-commerce becomes even less sustainable than buying from the store.

Individuals who cannot afford sustainable brands are often shamed, largely because influencers glamorized environmentally-friendly living as a means of marketing and growing their personal brand. Yet, the very people who are often excluded from the traditional sustainability narrative, working-class people of color and immigrants, are the ones who are already living the most sustainable lifestyles. According to the Center for American Progress, the ten cities with the largest carbon footprints have the lowest immigrant populations and immigrants are much more likely to lead "greener" lifestyles than their native-born counterparts.

Authentic sustainable living also doesn't look as good as social media. Showing off your flashy composting system, new vegan leather sneakers, and organic cotton outfit is much more aesthetically pleasing than pictures of your washed and reused Ziploc bags and faded water bottle. However, eco-friendly lifestyles should not be about external validation — even if corporations commercializing sustainability have made it that way. Ultimately, through drawing attention to and acknowledging the commodification of sustainable living, we can learn to not fall into its traps.