A Day In the Life of a Conscious Consumer (1/2)
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be holistically healthy and sound? We firmly believe in kindness both to ourselves, others and Mother Earth and we wanted to show how one could achieve small joys and goals by being greener through our persona, Asha.
How did we stumble upon Asha?
Conscious consumerism, often used synonymously with green living or ethical consumerism, is the practice of not limiting oneself to a product’s features and “voting with one’s dollar” (as per Ela Veresiu, associate professor of marketing at York University) by buying into or boycotting brands and businesses. While keeping in consideration, the background process of getting a product from raw materials and how the life of the product would end post its intended usage, conscious consumers go out of their way to educate themselves and become belief-driven buyers, representing 64% of total shoppers today. As more than one-third of Gen Y and Gen Z are willing to pay 20% more for ethical products, it becomes crucial for businesses to address the social, ethical, eco-logical, health and wellness concerns of today’s consumer who believes in minimalism and hence will skip the purchase altogether if the brands don’t align to their beliefs.
Research has shown that even with gender-neutral marketing, 90% of the customers of the sustainable businesses turn out to be women. Thus, while studying the manifestation of ‘consciousness’, we have tried to look through the lens of a working, millennial woman of upper-middle class family living in an urban setting. Going through the activities of her daily life, we have tried to look at the active choices she makes to fulfill different forms of consciousness and how businesses are successfully catering to her specific needs.
We wanted 5 things in our persona: Green, Sustainable, Supportive of Fair trade, Prefers Locally grown, Socially responsible
Thus, Asha was born. Lets dive into the daily routine of Asha and see how businesses help her live her life ‘consciously’.
What Asha’s weekdays look like?
Brushing teeth
Asha likes to start off her day with a healthy mind and body, hence she opts for a morning routine with minimal damage to her body as well as to Earth. She has opted for a recyclable and locally made, untreated plant-based toothbrush from Brown Living. She uses a dry toothpaste in the form of tablets from the same brand and sees to it that it is fluoride-free and organic plant-based, with reusable and recyclable, waste-free packaging. These choices make her feel at peace for not contributing to the plastic waste while also enabling the brand to plant a tree every time she makes a purchase. Being an advocate for ethical brands, she happily notes that Brown Living is also a growth platform for small local artists and businesses and adhere to ethical labor and cruelty-free policies.
Asha is aware of the dangers of green-washed skincare and makeup, so she makes sure to thoroughly research the products that go on her skin. For her daily morning routine, she prefers a simple cleansing followed by toning, moisturizing and sunscreen, then a light eyeliner and lip balm or lipstick.
Morning skincare and makeup routine
Asha discovered a homegrown brand called Earth Rhythm that offers a range of dermatologist-approved, certified non-toxic by ECOCERT, cruelty-free skincare products that are also plastic neutral. These products are paraben, sulphate, phthalate & alcohol-free, organic with no artificial colors or fragrances- safe and nutritious for her skin. The brand also has special provisions for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, providing job opportunities to individuals with Autism and Down Syndrome.
For her makeup, Asha was referred a luxury beauty brand called Asa Beauty by her sister who is a conscious consumer as well. Both sisters are impressed with the local chemical-free vegan beauty brand that have stepped their sustainability efforts up a notch by making their packaging refillable, reusable, and recyclable. Using Asa beauty makeup makes Asha feel beautiful both inside and out.
Change into workwear
As fashion industry produces 92 million tons of textile waste annually, Asha wants to restrict her contribution to fast-fashion trends which make manufacturers over produce by 30–40% each season. Without losing her individuality, Asha aims to achieve a ‘capsule wardrobe’ that enables her to generate more than 30 combinations of work wear outfits out of mere 5 pieces of garments. Doodlage comes to her aid by providing garments that creatively reuse the scrap fabric from other manufacturers and upcycles it into statement pieces. Asha’s patronage to Doodlage also supports training of women artisans, empowering them to build a better future for themselves.
Asha’s need for clothing for sensitive skin which ensures comfort and flexibility while being appropriate for professional settings is further met by B Label. The brand utilizes hemp, a carbon-negative natural fiber with hypo-allergenic and moisture-absorbent properties to provide a comfortable and cooling experience to the wearer. The organically grown and naturally dyed fabrics make strong and durable clothing with longer life which helps her in avoiding the pitfalls of ‘fast fashion’.
Consume prepped breakfast
Like any other working professional in today’s age, before leaving for her office Asha wants to have healthy, fast to cook or ready-made on-the-go breakfast options. Sakara Life’s Ready-To-Eat Meal boxes come to her rescue by delivering organic meals with a weekly diet plan. On the other hand, Unilever, Kraft Foods & Britannia are offering a host of recipes around superfoods like chia seeds, quinoa & a range of ragi biscuits etc. When Asha does not want to compensate with the taste & still wants to maintain her healthy diet, she can opt for Simply Salad’s tasty yet healthy salad boxes. On an unplanned day, Asha can opt for food delivery services like EatFit, that have a wide range of healthy jars & meal options.
Asha understands her responsibility towards the society & environment and opts for Sakara Life’s meal boxes as they are made of recycled paper and corn starch and are certified 100% curb side recyclable. They also claim to source their supplies from reputable farmers and organic farms that follow ethical, environmentally friendly agricultural techniques.
Drive to office or carpool
Currently, Asha carpools to office using Quick Ride to help reduce traffic congestion, emissions & delays. Asha’s cause is supported by her workplace that offers & encourages rideshare programs like Capgemini.
Asha is also planning to buy a car soon. As she knows that passenger cars produced approx. 3.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide pre-covid (2019), she is considering options like Tata Motors that offer electric, battery powered & CNG fuel efficient, BSVI-compliant vehicles which do not emit harmful pollutants into the atmosphere & have top global NCAP safety rating. During her rigorous car hunting, Asha also discovered that Volkswagen Group & Volvo cars offer several vehicles that are not only emission-friendly but also using sustainable material in car parts (seat covers, doors etc.) like rice husks, recycled plastic bottles, petroleum-free flax material, and olive leaves.
Meetings in the first shift
Working as a customer experience specialist in fashion technology with sustainability at its core, Asha needs a workspace that enables her creativity and embodies her principles of sustainability, without harming her productivity. Powered by off-site solar power supply provided by Amplus, her office is designed by Earthonomic Engineers with daylighting design, using reflective surfaces, transparent media and scientific lighting schemes that maximize the utilization of daylight for effective internal illumination. Apart from reducing overhead costs, daylighting boosts employee health without exposing them to direct harsh sunlight and ensures a healthy and comfortable environment for high productivity.
Asha’s workspace replicates the design of Edge, world’s greenest building, by combining green architecture and data-driven philosophy. Armed with a “digital ceiling” of thousands of sensors — motion, light, temperature, humidity, and infrared — to study the presence of individuals and provide the perfect environment for nurturing ideas and collaboration. Using her smartphone as a passport, Asha arranges discussion rooms for her meetings via ‘hot desking’. The intelligent building allows her to efficiently use space as per the requirements and previously tracked preferences of the attendees (from temperature to coffee combinations). With the help of collaboration tool like Asana, Asha is able to track, record and document all her work digitally (an eco-friendly alternative to paper trails) and ensure maximum productivity in her professional sphere without compromising her ‘consciousness’.
Lunch in workplace cafeteria
Asha opts to have her lunch in the office cafeteria daily & encourages them on a personal level to serve organic, fresh meals, chicken sourced from certified best animal-friendly practices, responsibly sourced coffee beans, recruit disadvantaged individuals & create self-service composting stations. She got inspiration from DBS to recommend LED lights with sensors in cafeteria that automatically turn off or dim the lights when it is unoccupied to save electricity.
When in hurry, Asha uses the Farmer’s Fridge vending machines in cafeteria that provide grab-and-go options of fresh, healthy meals. The cafeteria also does not stock any aerated soft drinks; alternatively they offer healthy juices & organic drinks from 24 Mantra Juices.
Asha does not forget about her responsibility towards the environment even when it comes to the payments. She opts for virtual receipts instead of paper bills & makes use of digital payments or NFC mobile payments through Google Pay, PayPal, Apple Pay to avoid paper & plastic usage. Asha also uses green credit cards offered by HSBC which are made from 85% recycled plastic, helping lower overall carbon emission.
Laptop work shenanigans
Post lunch, Asha intends to complete the individual tasks which require her to spend hours continuously working on her laptop. In order to ensure that the extended exposure to screens and a sedentary job does not have long-term health impacts, Asha has invested in ergonomically designed workstation. Specially designed to reduce pressure on the spine, Ergosphere has provided Asha with standing desks, active chairs and accessories which incorporate movement in her workflow. Apart from providing health benefits, Ergosphere products also boost productivity by 45% helping Asha increase her efficiency and deliver her best in work.
Furthermore, Workrave aids Asha in monitoring her breaks while working on her laptop. By monitoring the keyboard and mouse usage, the application sends reminders for microbreaks, rest breaks and also has functionality to limit daily computer usage. It provides Asha with a comprehensive set of usage statistics to help her monitor her computer usage habits and patterns and avoid potential repetitive strain injuries in the long-term.
That’s not all folks. Asha has a lot more to accomplish in her daily life of clean living. However, being conscious of the information overload (:P), she would come back to you with her post-work ‘conscious’ routine in the next installment of this series.
Co-authored by Ruchi Lathoria & Gloryna Dilbung
Avantika (IIMC ‘22), Ruchi (IIMA ’21) & Gloryna (IIMB ’20) are Business Consultants under the Strategic Leadership Program (SLP) for Tata Consultancy Services.
