Black Friday for sustainable companies

It's that time again: Advertising for Black Friday/Cyber ​​Monday discount campaigns is appearing more and more frequently. The German Retail Association (HDE) expects sales of around €3.7 billion per day this year. The mega sale event is getting bigger from year to year and with it, unfortunately, also the huge negative impact that our consumer behavior has.

However, it is one of the most important sale events for companies, especially in e-commerce, where sales of entire months are achieved in a few days.

Companies that act sustainably or advertise that they are sustainable are therefore in the dilemma of having to decide: do they take part in the campaigns or not?

How do we feel about this at Heartlight Vintage?

Sustainability has played a major role for us since our foundation. We set ourselves the goal of making our actions and thoughts as well as our actual business purpose more and more sustainable in order to contribute to a better future.
We believe that a general waiver or "consumption ban" during Black Friday is not the right approach. Instead, more alternatives should be offered to make consumption more sustainable. It should be less about not consuming anything more than about consuming the right products or the right products.
If all sustainable companies stay out of Black Friday, almost exclusively non-sustainable products will be bought and thus only non-sustainable ones company supported. For this reason, we also want to offer an alternative to fast fashion products on Black Friday and take part in the promotions.

In addition to offering an alternative, it is important for us to explain how to consume sustainably, because just because it says sustainable does not mean that it is sustainable. This phenomenon, often referred to as "greenwashing", is becoming more common as the demand for sustainable products increases.

But how do you know if something is just greenwashing or if it really is a sustainable product?

Here are 4 helpful tips:

• Don't be fooled by small details like sustainable packaging, or sustainable donation of x% per order. This is good in itself, but changes very little in the actual problems such as wasted resources.
• Instead, pay attention to the actual business model and increasingly to products from circular economies. So-called "closed loop" products are created by reusing resources that have already been used. The production chain is therefore not seen as a line but as a circle → graphic
• If you're not sure, find out more about the company! How profoundly the topic of sustainability is communicated in the manufacturing process often says a lot about how you actually feel about the topic.
• Extra tip, especially for fashion: look for the fabric composition. Products are often labeled as sustainable, but consist of a high proportion of microplastics. This can be found in particular in synthetic fibers such as polyester.