At fordicia we believe that we, you and me, can change the world for the better, one decision at a time. Every time you buy a product or a service, you give it your tick of approval, although often unintentional.

You have probably heard that the ‘power lies with the consumer’, but then thought ‘I am only one person so surely what I do can’t make much of a difference’. At fordicia we want to change that thinking. The power is with you and me. We would like you to imagine that every decision you make come into force for everyone around you as well, whether it is where to buy your fruit and vegetables, whether to pay a bit extra for fairly traded coffee, to buy a recycled ream of paper for the office or put a ‘no junk mail’ sticker on your mailbox. Just imagine if a whole community or a whole city suddenly all said no to junk mail. What would the companies and stores do to reach us? They would have to rethink their approach completely. We, the consumers, would be telling them that ‘no thanks, we don’t approve of cutting down trees in order to get colourful pictures of all the things we can buy, but don’t need’. Or imagine what message we would send the third world if we all suddenly stopped buying regular coffee, because we know the pay they get and the conditions most coffee farmers work under. The coffee farmers would hear that we care, that we don’t think the way it is today is ok.

Of course, the reality is that most people will still buy the coffee they’ve always bought; after all we very rarely change a habit that works just fine. But just imagine that if your actions were noticed by just one or two other people who changed their ways, and then their actions were maybe noticed by another couple of people, who again may make a new and better decision. It would be a version of ‘pay it forward’, based on ethics and sustainability.

 

 

One of the best and easiest ways to do this is in your gift-giving. Instead of buying junk that they probably already have, don’t want or don’t need, get something that sends a positive message. How about a personal gift card? You can offer baby-sitting, lawn mowing, a dinner etc. A great gift is to give money to a charity in the recipient’s name. You can also give carbon offsets, buy lottery tickets from a charity or ‘adopt’ an endangered species. If you’d rather give an actual ‘thing’, there are great options at stores like the Oxfam shop, who have a great range of fairly traded products. Not living near one of their shops is not a problem with online shopping. Another great and meaningful gift can be an organic food hamper, maybe with a little note explaining the benefits of choosing organic for the planet and for your health. Or how about clothes made of organic cotton, hemp, soy, bamboo or other sustainable material. And again, by including a note on the reasons for your choice the gift becomes even more meaningful.

 

 

The 4 R's:

Refuse – Reduce – Reuse – Recycle

Refuse –do I really need it? Is it essential to my existence or my happiness?

Reduce –less is better.

Reuse –someone’s trash may be another’s treasure

Recycle –be 'landfill conscious'