Against the consumption driven by the Black Friday offers, Green Friday was born, a counterpoint to this initiative that advocates exercising a thoughtful and responsible consumption, questioning the need to buy compulsively and encouraging the consumer towards a sustainable bet.
Black Friday is a day set on the calendar due to its striking offers as well as the sales seasons, and due to its proximity to Christmas it is considered one of the dates on which it is most consumed.
For years, and marked by sustainability, Green Friday was born as a sustainable alternative, trying to mitigate unbridled consumption towards a more measured and sustainable behavior.
The Friday after Thanksgiving marks the Black Friday of each year, a tradition imported from the United States, but which is consolidated in the world over the years through great discounts, which they also extend to the Monday next to “Cyber ​​Monday”, intended for online purchases.
What began as a tradition of buying in a single day has ended up turning the month of November into another season of offers, with shops that maintain their Black Friday discounts for two weeks of the month, encouraging consumers to consume in sectors such as computing, fashion or lifestyle.
Alternative
In this context, the Green Friday alternative was born, a global ecological campaign that seeks to raise awareness about consumption, guiding it towards a responsible and also sustainable act with the environment and people, and promoted by representatives of the European Commission and organizations such as Ecodes, WWF and Ecoservis.
Although “Green Friday” arrived in Spain in 2015 from the United States, each year it gains more strength through brands that join this proposal.
The Scandinavian chain Ikea has joined “Green Friday”, through an initiative in which they acquire furniture that users no longer use, to assign it to “someone who really needs it”. In exchange, the person receives a credit from Ikea with no expiration date, so that they can use it whenever they want.
Fashion is one of the sectors that will be invested the most during this Black Friday, according to the Google platform published in its latest study, giving 32% to products in this field, which is also one of the most polluting industries and in which some brands position themselves on the side of sustainability.
“Repeat more, need less”, reads the slogan of the latest campaign presented by Adolfo DomÃnguez, featuring outfits from more than twenty years ago presented together with garments from other “low cost” brands.
Fashion
Thus becoming one of the first campaigns to introduce the names of other brands, it urges the consumer to reflect on the versatility and timelessness of clothing. “Repeat with H&M, repeat with COS, repeat with Zara”, can be read on their posters.
A firm consecrated in sustainability is Ecoalf, which works its products in a sustainable philosophy, based on creation processes that do not harm the environment and recycled materials.
Javier Goyeneche, its founder and a great champion of “eco” causes, is clear that “the business system has to change”, since “asking for products that are very cheap, ecological and of quality is incoherent”, he remarks during the virtual chat “Voices united by the planet in the following seasons”.
From full-time initiatives such as that of Ecoalf to more drastic measures, such as that of the designer Christopher Reaburn, who directly opts to close his stores during “Black Friday”, in addition to disabling the purchase section from your website.
And from large firms consolidated in the market to others that, although with a shorter journey, walk with lead in fashion under a clear philosophy, as is the case of the Valencian brand Becomely: “We do not participate in Black Friday because we do not encourage our clients to buy on impulse. We are committed to a sustainable purchase, to buy less and of better quality “, Quique Vidal, creative director of the firm, tells Efe.
“Our products are manufactured one by one, to order, so it makes no sense to discount a product that we have not yet manufactured. Our prices are set to be able to produce ethically and sustainably,” he explains.
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