Was The Environmental Movement Only A Fashion Statement?

Only a couple of years can make a huge difference in the way individuals spend money. What customers seek when they're buying is often affected by evolutions in trends. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the fashion sector, where shoppers change their tastes by the season, routinely guided in their decisions by magazines and celebrities. The trend for all-natural foods and eco-friendly products peaked in 2008 but has been on the decline ever since. Since the economic downturn arrived, money strapped shoppers have seemingly opted for price over sustainability, and sales of organic food alone dropped by 13% in 2009. But just as magazines can have an effect on fashion, could the media at large have been responsible for guiding a green style statement? Now that the newspapers are full of stories of financial woe, has the green concept become outdated, much in the same way a dress loses its appeal after a few months? It's an idea that is worth exploring. How many people can honestly say that they fully grasp the meaning of organic foods, or even the Fairtrade symbol? Indeed, how many products that are advertised as eco-friendly can honestly declare that they are making any positive difference to the state of the planet? There's no doubt that businesses cashed in on these principals during the boom times, and many shoppers, often with a lot of disposable income, were willing to play up to the role of the ethical shopper. It essentially grew to become a statement of your character rather than an effort to shop more ethically. It also became a popular device in the world of business, with an increasing number of organizations keen to show off their green credentials to appeal to those consumers that adopted that ideology. It can be argued that for all its fine intentions, the eco movement did more harm than good. The issues it highlighted were regularly trivialised by individuals seeking to jump on the boat, and surely any increase in consumerism will only result in an increase in waste further on down the line. These environmental conundrums are even played out in the world of promotional items. There's an argument that states that considering the disposable nature of promotional products, such as promotional bags and promotional pens, could there ever be any such thing as an eco friendly promotional product? The solution has to be that if there's going to be a desire for promotional gifts, it makes good sense to try and produce these in as eco-friendly a way as is possible. While they will be used to some extent to enhance the eco-friendly credentials of the organizations that use them, it also makes good sense to produce an often disposed of product in as ethical a way as possible. If the eco craze was a fashion statement, it certainly was a popular one. But surely if it’s going to show us any lasting lessons, it’s of our duty to develop products, promotional or not, in an ethical way.

Alan composes posts on factors concerning the promotional USB drives industry for Promotional USB Flash Drives.