Consuming Consciously

Today's consumer culture presents us with a seemingly limitless range of choices—about the clothes we buy, the foods we eat, the cars we drive, and so on. Unfortunately, it also makes it easy for us to make choices that may not be the best for our families, our health, or our environment. Moreover, making the "right" choices can be difficult, as marketers continue to send us mixed messages about the safest, healthiest, or greenest products out there.

Although consuming consciously is an important first step, we can also work more actively to transform the wider culture, so that living healthily and sustainably becomes as natural as living as a consumer feels today. This includes thinking "beyond consumerism" and considering alternative ways to access the goods and services we need—such as by borrowing, sharing, and finding creative (and rewarding!) ways to do more with less.

For tips on buying more responsibly, check out our Conscious Consumer Shopping Guide, with product guides for everyday items from baby goods to seafood.

For fun ways to have a meaningful and less-consumptive holiday season, check out our Simplify the Holidays brochure. Also, use our Alternative Gift Registry to give and receive gifts that complement your value system—our simple online registry makes it easy to choose immaterial, homemade, second-hand, and environmentally friendly gifts.

Did You Know...

• Americans spend 3–4 times as many hours shopping as Europeans do, on average.
• Every day, the average American uses about 192 pounds of materials, fossil fuel, food, and water—that’s more than most of us weigh!
• Only 1 percent of the materials used to make our stuff are still in use six months after the product is sold. 
• If the rest of the world consumed like Americans, we’d need four planets to provide enough resources for us all.
• More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, and for the first time in modern history U.S. children are projected to have shorter lifespans than their parents due to future weight-related diseases.