We see a gradual rise in the eco-friendly buying patterns of individual consumers and companies alike. And the trend is going to be the same in the 2014 as well.
- Eco -conscience – People are moving away from the fast life nowadays. This sort of life has just brought misery and sickness and ill health and people are trying their level best to change it. Consumers are opting for a slower pace, slow food, slow fashion, slow lifestyle. They are trying their level best to lessen the impact of their lives on the planet’s and it is reflected in their buying behaviour. Consumerism is more about wise-buying and mindful nature of the environment nowadays rather than the mindless thinking nature of the people and companies like some years earlier.
- Sustainable homes – We see homes and districts that cater to both needs of being futuristic and high-tech without harming the environment. Paul Burns, founder of Fireclay Tile purchases CRT glass, removes leftover metal and makes beautiful and colorful kitchen and bathroom tiles, all from recycled materials. His “This Tile was your TV” initiative raised $16,080 on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to fund the production of a new line for creating moulds. The Carbon Buster building block or the Prosolve 370e are example of eco-friendly walls that help cleanse the environment and sound like something which is something so futuristic but in actuality is available right now. More and more people are going to go for them. The concepts in the Electrolux Design Lab 2013 provided a sneak peek into the future with an air purifier and stress reliever incorporated into a necklace to an cleaning system of mini-robots that clean with just drops of water.
- Food sharing services and ‘freegan’ movement – Sustainable usage of food will perhaps see supermarkets sending alerts to the interested consumers informing on when certain food products are nearing the expiry date, or special scanners will allow to detect such food.
- Sustainable fashion – In mid-2013, Nike released a new app,Making, to inform product developers on the environmental performance of the materials they use in their work across five areas such as Chemistry, Energy/Greenhouse Gas Intensity, Water/Land Intensity, and Physical Waste. Levi’s, which advocateswashing jeans sparingly, has introduced a more durable Wellthread line of Docker’s apparel, made of innovative firm fabrics. Hangbag is a paper bag that can tranform into a portable hanger for light pieces like tank tops or summer dresses. The era of self-repairing apparel and footwear is also here with the concept of self-repairing trainers being recently unveiled.TOMS launched its one-of-a-kind brand platform,TOMS Marketplace, on its official site, encouraging consumers to buy items from other ethical brands.
