In an age where more people want to be aware of their impact on the world, where we spend our money and what businesses we support is an important and rarely discussed topic of conversation.
Is it even possible to live a life where you can spend your money fully knowing that it’s going to a company with ethical business practices? Are there even any businesses with these qualities out there?
Unfortunately, businesses that are entirely ethical in all aspects are few and far between. Even if they are deemed moral and ethical businesses, it begs the question of personal ethics. Everyone has their own ethical standpoint on how a business should run, but the question of what is ethical to each person is a conversation too big for this article.
It’s well known that many established and trusted businesses stray from the best practices. Well-known businesses such as Temu, Shein and Amazon come to mind, but the list runs further than you would expect.
Companies use cheap labor from foreign countries that have relaxed labor laws and may even employ children. They pollute the environment with waste and use materials that are detrimental to the health of the employees and consumers. These companies save money, but at what cost to their employees, the environment and the consumer?
With all these concerns, how should consumers learn to spend their money to support ethical businesses? Research seems to be the simplest answer. Identifying which businesses are certified B Corporations is a trusted way of knowing that a company meets high social and environmental performances.
Doing this research appears to be an easy fix, but life is not so simple.
The reality is that most people can’t sacrifice their time to research every single product they use in every area of their lives and ensure the brand they support is proven to be ethical in its practices. There are too many products and services that the average consumer uses.
If someone does happen to have the time to go through with the research, then I’m sure you’ll find that many of the businesses we currently support as consumers are unethical in some way.
If you want to educate yourself and pursue ethical consuming behaviors, that means severely limiting your choices on where you spend your money. To pursue this, it means the average person would have to completely turn their life around with their spending habits.
Customers are already limited in where and what they spend their money on due to a variety of personal factors. How is one supposed to go to the store to buy a notebook for class when you’re worrying if the company that produced the notebook contributed to deforestation or pollution?
The realization is that it’s almost impossible to live a life where you only spend your money on ethical businesses because there are too many commonplace businesses that harm the world in one way or another.
Changing our habits won’t do the world any good unless businesses change. But the conversation of businesses changing for the better has been discussed too many times with little or no change.
I want to spend my money wisely and ethically, but how can I? I have the pessimistic view that, on an individual scale, we won’t change the world. Even so, changing even a few aspects of where to spend your money may create a spark in others for the better.
Even a little effort means that you care and you’re trying to be a more active and aware consumer.
If you want to learn more about what businesses are certified B Corporations, visit bcorporation.net/find-a-b-corp to learn more.
