5 simple ways small businesses can be more sustainable at Black Friday 2022
Here at Wildings, we (Rach and Simon) love embedding sustainable practices in our business!
5 ways to be more sustainable as a business this Black Friday & Christmas
As a website design studio in South Devon, designing stunning websites for creatively-inclined businesses across Devon and the UK, we've been on a bit of a journey over the past few years to reduce our consumption and live more sustainably.
Whether that's through choosing green energy, reducing meat, choosing to shop second hand-vintage-pre-loved, it's been a gradual process, and one which has ultimately been rewarding for us.
The 2022 Black Friday-Christmas festive season is upon us (it effectively starts at the end of the summer holidays these days!) and we wanted to share a little something about sustainability. This goes too for Amazon Prime Day or any other ‘black mark’ events brands may hold - they are part of the same concept.
We are no experts and there is always more we can do with our choices and habits, but we have observed trends in this period, especially with small businesses offering huge reductions on their products and services because others are doing it.
Overall this season has led to promoting overconsumption, which is bad for our own finances, but also because of the waste generated and the impact on the environment.
Here are some of the ways we can be more conscious and run more conscious businesses
1. Do you need to order online and have products delivered to your door?
Every website purchase means greenhouse gases are created and emitted through browser searches and shopping.
An order will need to be packed and posted generating carbon for producing extra packaging and for the delivery.
Online shopping is convenient - and we are still in a global pandemic, but do consider if you can have the option to collect the package locally rather than to your door. This is greener.
Also, consider local purchases through local independent makers and sellers who offer the option for collection.
2. Ask the question: ‘why am I buying this stuff?’
We are all seduced by a bargain, but according to statistics 80% of black Friday purchases are thrown away after one or even zero uses.
With over half of shoppers purchasing electronic goods and almost a third buying clothes (source: Cheaperwaste.co.uk), it is estimated that up to 80% of items, and any plastic packaging, will end up either in landfill, incineration or, at best, low-quality recycling, sometimes after a very short life.
This kind of waste says it all when it comes to hugely discounted sales...
One of the big things you can change is buying something that you will use more than once.
Consider before you buy - will you be able to use it more than once?
Last year we worked on a website for an industrial waste management business and saw first-hand the volume of goods incinerated.
Companies had over-ordered and then needed to destroy perfectly good toys, makeup and electronics to make way for more stock.
Amazon was accused of ‘wanton waste’ as recently as June 2021 and came under scrutiny for the the destruction of unwanted laptops and tablets (source: The Guardian).
In order not to devalue their goods it was better to destroy products than sell discounted or donate to charity.
Black Friday fuels this kind of waste.
3. Know your value as a small business (& stick to it!)
Offering huge discounts on products can devalue your brand and your goods.
Selling this way may increase your sales, but slashing prices on courses, products or services teaches your consumers to wait till you slash prices to buy from you.
It cheapens what you are selling and offering.
Jamie Rackham, founder of Facebook group, NOT ON AMAZON, says:
Black Friday is a celebration of the careless: corporations that don't care about their customers or the planet, consumers who don't care about each other or how any of this affects the world and communities they live in.
(Source: The Star)
4. Think of other ways you can reward loyalty as a business
Many coffee shops offer 10% off if you make a purchase using a refillable cup.
Are there ways you can reward loyalty?
How about offering a refill scheme if you sell candles or beauty products? How about planting trees to offset carbon? or even donating a portion of sales to a charity?
As Neil Patel says, ‘discounts = desperation’ (source: Neil Patel) - they basically signal that your product or service is perhaps not as valuable as initially thought.
This can start a process of erosion in which the only way to catch up is to cut prices further, or remove features from your product or service; or ideally, stop discounting and reprice.
5. Help your business community make better-informed choices
Hopefully, as a business, you know your supply chain and are aware and accountable for your own sustainability goals.
Ask yourselves, ‘if there is more that you can do to make your supply chain more ethical and transparent?’.
Swap out packaging materials that are not sustainable.
Perhaps show your community how they can reuse or upcycle packaging of your products.
Talk about your sustainability goals and share your own journey.
For us, we now plant trees to offset carbon for any digital project via MoorTrees, a local charity that partners with businesses to plant trees on Dartmoor.
We insist clients use sustainably managed paper stocks for printing, such as with GF Smith’s ColorPlan and make clients aware of their carbon footprint.
Social media, websites, online cloud storage all need electricity to keep things online - and carbon is emitted with every click and image view.
We cannot get around this in our line of work, so we offset. It's by no means perfect, but it's a start.
These are our reflections so far on sustainable brands, and we’d love to hear any of your thoughts or reflections. Do head over to the corresponding post on Instagram to join the conversation and share your opinion. You can read more of our blogs on website design too.
