This year New Zealand is sure to see even more retailers gearing up for gigantic sales on 29 November. Rather than fuelling the consumer frenzy at this time of year, we celebrate Green Friday, a conscious alternative to America’s Black Friday tradition.
Even though Kiwis don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, Black Friday sales have become increasingly common here. These sales first started in the USA back in the 1800s, when the Thanksgiving holiday and shop-associated parades marked the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. These days, while Black Friday sales can be a huge earner for retailers, they also promote rampant over-consumption, in our view, with people often buying up lots of stuff just because it’s cheap.
In 2022, an analysis of historical sales data and emissions by UK-based clean transport and energy advocates T&E found that emissions from trucking retail goods across Europe increased by a whopping 94% during Black Friday week. This is not to mention the waste from all that packaging and the many items that get thrown out when the glow of the sale has faded.
As nature lovers, we can’t get behind this – even though Topflite products make great gifts! Instead we follow the Green Friday movement, which sees companies and individuals all over the world making a stand against consumerism. For some, this could mean scheduling a ‘Buy Nothing Day’, while others will set out to do a good deed for the Earth instead.
Here at Topflite, instead of running a Black Friday sale we schedule a day to down tools and head out to plant native trees with our local DoC team. We are a few years into this tradition now and it is so joyful to see our planting sites growing and flourishing. The days spent outside together are always amazing for our team morale.
Looking for ways to celebrate Green Friday yourself? Try these:
Fix it
Look out for Repair Cafe events occurring near you. By bringing together volunteers who are handy with the tools or know their way around a sewing machine, these pop-up events offer a chance to get that toaster fixed or that sticky zip sorted without the outlandish price tag. For items you can’t fix and don’t have the space to keep, try joining a Buy Nothing page on Facebook. Even the most seemingly random bits and pieces can find a new home on these pages.
Get crafty
Homemade gifts are the ultimate way to show you care, and for the less artistically inclined, there are many ways to create homemade gifts easily, spanning from baking a Christmas cake to framing beautiful photos or potting up seedlings. For some inspiration, we've collated some of our best homemade gift ideas.
Buy local
For those items that must be outsourced, visit your local farmer’s or craft market and see what’s being created on your doorstep. You might even like to make it a family-wide policy to only buy each other sustainable and locally made gifts – this way everyone is sure to unwrap something unique.
Give your time
Green Friday is an opportunity to help out the natural environment. Get out and join your local tree planting group, clean up your neighborhood, or attend a sustainability event in your local area. Learn as much as you can about the impact your shopping can have on the environment and see if you can make some swaps for the better.
We get that sales can be enticing, but through these simple acts of sustainable action, we can not only put a spotlight on the waste generated by Black Friday sales but do something a whole lot more meaningful.
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