Green Friday: The sustainable alternative to Black Friday
Sustainable Shopping Tipp and one hack how to make this day greener
No? No worries, we’ll introduce you to the Friday siblings today. At the same time, we will tell you sustainable shopping tips and show you how to make your Green Friday even greener.
You might have come here for one thing only, but we’re giving you everything today. Let’s get down to business.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the unofficial name for the day after Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on the last Thursday of November. While Black Friday rings in the holiday season, it also has quite a funny story behind it.
As Thanksgiving holiday falls on a Thursday, people in the 1950s started calling in sick the next day. Duhhh, obvious, if you have a holiday on a Thursday, who wouldn’t call in sick the next day to enjoy a four day weekend. (Pssst…I hope my boss doesn’t read this article. If you see him, tell him I looked really pale the last time you saw me.)
So, people were calling in sick to relax after a whole night of eating but also to get an early start on holiday shopping. Stores noticed the uptake in sales and therefore promoted different kinds of deals to get shoppers into their stores.
And still to this day it is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
The Dark Sides of Black Friday
Black Friday is very valuable for many businesses. However, from an ecological perspective, due to the immense extent it carries these days, it’s the Friday with the darkest shades of black.
There are lots of things wrong with Black Friday, but today, we’ll just touch on one of the negative aspects.
The attractive Black Friday discounts make it hard to look away, which leads to impulsive buying, which then oftentimes leads to buying things people don’t actually need.
This then, results in waste and unnecessary CO2 emissions. Which is not so good for our planet.
However, at Click A Tree we prefer to focus on the positive and rather find solutions to existing problems.
But don’t worry, we’re not telling you to stop shopping and to not buy presents at all. Because, there is an amazing sustainable solution to Black Friday:
Green Friday enters the scene.
What is Green Friday?
(While I’m writing this, I imagine you singing Summer Nights from the movie Grease “Tell me more, tell me more. How much dough did he spend? Tell me more, tell me more.” And now that this melody is stuck in your head, we will continue with the actual article.)
In 2015, first ideas of Green Friday have formed¹ as a counter movement to Black Friday. Instead of “shop ‘til you drop”, supporters of Green Friday encourage people to shop more mindfully and sustainably.
It is as simple as taking a moment to think about whether you want and actually need this item.
While the Green Friday movement encourages people to shop more sustainably, they also motivate people to spend more time with their loved ones. Yup, you guessed it, in the green nature.
So, yes, you can still go shopping (more on special Green Friday deals below). But you can also do a lot more than that.
Can I still shop on (Black) Green Friday?
We know how great it feels to buy gifts for yourself and your loved ones. Therefore, we’d never tell you to stop doing it. It just feels too good.
And truth be told, these Black / Green Friday discounts make it really hard to resist.
However, we encourage you to shop sustainably. Which is super easy nowadays with many shops following criterias to offer sustainable products.
And, same as there are Black Friday deals, there are also special Green Friday deals (more on that below).
1 Hack to make your Black Friday Green
You know what happens when you’re hungry, out and about, and you go to the grocery store? Yeah, you’ll come home with way more things than you need.
A similar principle goes for shopping: before you enter the (online) store, make sure you know what you need. This way, you’ll not only save yourself time but you’ll also only purchase the items that are actually on that list.
Ideally, start your shopping list one month prior to Green Friday, and stop touching the list a week before Green Friday. This way, you’ll be sure that these are exclusively the items you actually need.
And while you’re thinking about what to buy: Take a look at our list of 16 sustainable gifts – it even includes the perfect surprise for people who claim they don’t need anything.
Pro Tip: Take 25% from the money you saved from the Black / Green Friday Deals and give it as a tip to the parcel carrier. Invest 50% into saving the planet and planting trees.
Then use the remaining 25% to treat yourself to a nice meal or similar. Enjoy it in the good conscience that it basically costs you nothing, since it is the money you actually saved, while being responsible and doing lots of good things – hence, you truly deserve a nice meal.
And guess what, we can actually learn a thing or two from the British royals, since Prince Charles’ mantra is ”Buy once, buy well”². This is a great way to go about sustainable shopping.
How to make your Green Friday even greener
What do you think? Have we convinced you to switch to Green Friday?
Here is one thing you can do to make this day even greener: plant a tree for every product you buy on Green Friday. By planting trees for your purchases, you make the planet greener at the same time.
Of course, it's not just trees you’re planting. These trees become part of a self-sufficient ecosystem that creates habitats for animals while providing safe food sources for local people.
Every tree counts.Click here to plant trees.
What can you do on Green Friday if you don’t go shopping?
Colorado made it Fresh Air Friday – go outside into the woods, into a park, into the mountains, visit a nearby lake or similar⁴.
Green Friday can’t get any greener than you spending it outside in nature.
In case you’d like to take things one step further, go plogging. (Plogging is a Swedish invention, meaning “jogging while picking up trash”.) Feel free to go plogging without the actual jogging part, if you like. Mother Nature will love you for that.
It’s great for you, it’s great for our planet, and great for your wallet. (Note: You can still overtip the mail person next time you see them. And you can still plant a tree right now.)
When is Green Friday 2021?
Green Friday 2022 is like Black Friday 2022 on November 25th.
Have you set up your Christmas tree yet or are you still looking for sustainable alternatives? Check out these 6 Christmas tree alternatives here.
What can you do now?
If you liked the idea of Green Friday, then share this article with your friends and family, so they also hear about this amazing movement!
Alone we’re strong. Together we are stronger. And together we can save the planet.
Sources:
¹https://matadornetwork.com/change/age-black-friday-ending-era-green-friday-just-begun/
²https://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/article/prince-charles-interview
³https://cpw.state.co.us/Pages/Fresh-Air-Friday.aspx