Ethical consumerism happens to be a kind of consumer activism which is practiced through the processes of positive buying or moral boycott. The former means that ethical products seem to enjoy a more favourable position among customers while the latter indicates company-based buying and negative buying. Ethical consumerism is also known as green consumerism or ethical purchasing or even ethical consumption.
Limits of Ethical Consumerism
The scalability of a corporation is determined not only by its size but also by the ideology motivating its activities which can be attributed to Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. History has taught us that the ethical consumer is one of the major opponents of progress.
At first, the statement might seem to be ridiculous to some but it has a number of facts supporting it – by creating a niche market for ethical consumption at a significantly higher price, many businesses have been able to put forward a responsible front to the public, while, at the same time, leaving the greater portion of their manufactured goods – which happen to fall short, by implication, of the high ethical standards expected of the company – unaffected and unquestioned. A lesser group, mainly comprised of affluent Western consumers, has been capable of soothing their conscience at the same time by maintaining an optimistic point of view that they are in the process of bringing about a positive difference through their CSR-related philanthropic activities.
Critics are not usually concerned with the nature of ethical consumption which may be fair-trade, organic or eco-friendly as these schemes have offered a large number of producers, including impoverished farmers in third world countries, a lot of advantages. However, the controlled nature and high pricing of responsible and sustainable items have been severely condemned by them. These two diverse factors have been combined together in order to ensure that, with the exception of a few specific cases, these items have never been sent to scale. Ethical consumption, even though more beneficial in the long run, when compared to the overall and constant effects of the shopping practices of the majority, has remained at a marginal level at best and completely irrelevant at worst.
Relevance of Ethical Consumerism
The increase in the level of popularity enjoyed by ethical consumerism over the last twenty years or so has been seen to be linked to the development of CSR. The concept has come to the attention of the public due to the latest and enduring corporate scandals, exploitation of child labourers, ecological catastrophes and unsafe work environments all over the globe. However, the relevance of ethical consumerism has still remained a pertinent question.
The behaviour of consumers has undergone changes depending on the availability of information regarding the public liability of the manufacturer and the setting in which a particular product was manufactured. As the overall population of the world goes on increasing constantly, the demands on limited natural resources necessary to fulfill the rising needs of consumers also swells significantly. Consumers have now grown to be greatly aware of the impact their everyday buyer decisions have on society as well as the environment and are now starting to make their choices related to their moral and environmental concerns.
