2 Top Brands for a Greener Black Friday

Business
Outdoor store Patagonia promotes sustainability and environmental donations.

Motivating slogan "Make Friday Green Again" urges consumers to ignore Black Friday sales. anyaivanova / iStock / Getty Images

Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and the consumption it encourages can take a toll on human and planetary health.

“For people who don’t have purchasing power, the ability to be able to buy something that is a necessity at a discounted price is obviously a benefit,” MIT professor Nicholas Ashford told National Geographic last year. “For other people with more than enough, it just perpetuates a consumption-oriented society, which has an adverse effect on the environment.”

In recent years, however, some companies have come to agree. This is what two brands are doing to encourage more environmentally-friendly activities for the day after Thanksgiving.

1. REI Opts to Act

The outdoor gear company has closed its doors on Black Friday for five years now, encouraging its customers and employees, who are paid for the day, to #OptOutside and spend time in nature.

Originally, this decision was made for the sake of the company’s employees, since Black Friday tends to pull retail workers away from their families, Ben Steele, the company’s executive vice president and chief customer officer, told HuffPost.

But this year, REI is adding an environmental component and encouraging its customers to Opt to Act by joining one of the cleanups it has organized around the country with the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and United By Blue. The store said those who don’t live near a cleanup can still pick up trash while they spend time outdoors.

“Today, that future is at risk,” REI CEO and President Eric Artz wrote in a letter announcing the campaign. “We are in the throes of an environmental crisis that threatens not only the next 81 years of the co-op, but the incredible outdoor places that we love. Climate change is the greatest existential threat facing our co-op. I believe we do not have the luxury of calling climate change a political issue. This is a human issue. And we must act now.”

2. Patagonia Will Match Your Green Gifts

Outdoor store Patagonia will remain open to shoppers Black Friday, but it is also using this holiday season to encourage a different kind of gift giving.

Starting Nov. 29 and lasting through December, the company will match any donations made to one of environmental groups it supports through Patagonia Action Works, even if the giver doesn’t purchase anything from the company. Customers can donate in their own name or as a gift, and the store will provide eCards and cards to print online or physical cards in store.

“Black Friday is often a day when we go out and buy things we don’t really need and give them to people who don’t really want them,” Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario wrote on LinkedIn. “This year, consider giving to our home planet in the name of someone you love.”

In her message, Marcario pointed out that environmental groups only receive three percent of charitable giving, despite the urgency of the climate crisis.

She also wasn’t above encouraging a little passive-aggressive gift-giving when donating in others’ names.

“With a wink and a friendly nudge, you might include those relatives or friends who refuse to believe in climate science,” she wrote.

The Elephant in the Room

While these brands are offering a different vision of Black Friday, HuffPost writer Laura Paddison cautioned that the movement away from a door-busting Black Friday doesn’t change the underlying culture of consumption that drives environmental harm year round. Both Deciem and REI offered November sales. (REI discounted items by up to 30 percent between Nov. 15 and 25.)

“[T]he elephant in the room here is that, even for companies that work hard to toe an ethical line, a business model predicated on growth means the ultimate aim is always to get people to buy more, which means producing more, which means more resources extracted, and more stuff in the world,” she wrote.

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