By Ahmad Muttaqi
Nowadays, consumers need to be aware what is it that decides in purchasing products, whether or no the decision might be beneficial to others. As a responsible consumer, the decision should not give harm to the society and environment.
This matter should be taken into account by all generations, from children until the elderly, and it needs wider exposure in the community so that people will realise how big the impact would be.
Gen Z or millennials play a vital role in spreading awareness to the society as the youth are holding the future of tomorrow. As the world is developing, the use of modern technology is widely applied in the community and it is best for the youth to lead the awareness of sustainability as they are more adapt with the current technologies.
Other than using the technologies, Malaysian youth can create awareness by purchasing ethical, sustainable and eco-friendly brands. The obstacles here are that most of the youth citizens in Malaysia do not have a stable income and will lose purchasing power. In that case, what they can do is to find out and support ethical companies that practice social consciousness and are environmental friendly.Â
To create consumer awareness, people can start using online shopping as it will reduce negative impacts to the environment. It is due to the fact that people would not need to use plastic bags when buying online. In addition, on online platform it is much cheaper and convenient in several aspects.
When it comes to buying products, it is quite hard to actually determine whether the products are eco-friendly. There are even cases where some big brands are greenwashing the customers. What is greenwashing? Greenwashing is a type of marketing tactics in which green marketing are used to deceive the market into believing that a company’s products and policies are environmentally beneficial.
Furthermore, as a concerned consumer, we can avoid and boycott brands which treat their workers badly and carry out business practices unethically. It is to show empathy and to create awareness to the society about unethical practices of some companies.
With regard to price, sustainable products could be expensive. Even though we would like to support the products, we cannot buy the items recklessly as it does not picture ourselves as responsible consumers. Instead, we can try our best to support them and spend only on what is necessary.
As a user, we need to always check our expenditure to avoid wastage. We should not easily be influenced by lifestyle trends which could be unnecessary for us. The ability to evaluate the price and quality of a product is definitely important since it helps us in spending efficiently and wisely. ***
(Ahmad Muttaqi is a student in Department of Business Administration, Kulliyyah of Economic and Management Sciences (KENMS). The article is part of ˜Responsible Consumerism course. The views expressed here are those of the writer/author and do not necessarily represent the views of IIUMToday,)