Why is it so hard to go green?

Whilst many argue that being 100% sustainable is “impossible,” it is not hard to change many of our shopping habits to become more sustainable. Indeed, the aim of fourstate.co.uk is not to make 10% of the world 100% ‘Ethical, Eco and Sustainable’, but to help make 100% of the world at least 10% Ethical, Eco and Sustainable! In an age where it is increasingly urgent to become more sustainable for the future of our planet, why are so many of us still finding it so hard to “go greener”? The answers are more obvious than we might think, and it's often not even down to us as individuals.

 

Green Light Bulb

 

We Live In A Brand-lead World
Big brands have dominated the marketplace for decades, and some would argue that they have been a huge contributing factor to our current global sustainability crisis. They have vast market followings and even bigger marketing budgets. To be heard in such a competitive environment with massive retail giants can be very difficult, especially as a startup or small business with a mission to make a real difference to 'go greener'.

 

Brand Packaging

 

We Are Overwhelmed
The issues that constantly arise in the news with climate change, deforestation, extinction and much more appear to be so existential that we feel we have already gone past the point of no return. You may be thinking: how are the actions of one person supposed to solve all these enormous problems? Being pulled this way and that way, we diffuse the situation by burying our individual responsibility to remove us from the situation in the hope that someone else will sort it for us. But is there someone else sorting it for us?

 

Pollution Drawing

 

We Can’t See The Impact Of Our Choices
Carbon dioxide is “a colourless, odourless gas…”. Water is “a colourless, transparent, odourless liquid …”. How can we comprehend our carbon footprint, or ocean temperatures rising, or any other impact that our buying habits have that altogether are changing our earth for the worse? They’re very real though. Coral is bleaching on the great barrier reef 9,000 miles away from us. 150 species go extinct every day on average in the rainforests of South America 6,000 miles away. These are all consequences of our individual actions.

Our Lives Are Often Too Busy
They are full of things to do, so why add big issues such as the future of our planet to an already packed schedule? We all cut corners where possible, and flying around all day means that often, the first things to be cut are our conscious shopping habits. Instead we choose the easy options that socially irresponsible businesses put in front of us to save time. “Just this once” turns into a habit, and then that habit turns into a routine and before we know it our homes are full of single-use plastic, harmful palm oil products and other unsustainable items.

 

Busy People Silhouette

 

Will Our Individual Actions Even Make Any Difference?
Because the scale of the problem is so large, we don’t expect our actions to have any impact whatsoever. It is hard to conceive that choosing to buy toothpaste in a single-use plastic tube will ever affect our future. But scale this choice by the 7.5 billion people in the world and suddenly we have a huge problem; it’s now obvious how we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess. Multiply the counter-ideology by 7.5 billion people and suddenly the problem becomes an amazing and limitless solution.

We Don’t Know Who To Trust
Much of the information we read and absorb is unknowingly (or sometimes knowingly) biased or exaggerated. We are even quoted different “stats & facts” for the same issues - who are we to trust? It’s not easy with diversity of opinion creating differing subjective views. Uncontrollable factors also vary seemingly conclusive evidence - when millions of units are involved in a survey it is easy for the same test to come up with different readings. So which research do we trust? Which news articles are genuine? What sources are correct?

Change Can Actually Be Really Hard
As humans, we are incredibly motivated and proactive…. We like to think. But, we are also creatures of habit. The reality is that we are now in the situation where change is needed but with so much information, so many opinions and so much troubling research, we seem paralysed to make the changes. Where do we start with all of this? It seems the odds are stacked against us.

 

Road Through Trees

 

A New Beginning

FourState is a British startup with a serious mission - to solve these issues for you.

They believe the problem starts with businesses and they have set out to change this for good. Being a business themselves you may think 'hang on a minute?' However, the FourState founders believe that to best tackle a problem you should start at the source. They recognised that people aren't going to stop spending money on things they want or, in fact, need. By supplying Eco, Sustainable & Ethical products to consumers FourState are working to turn 'businesses creating our problems' to 'businesses creating our solutions'.

FourState aim to be change leaders themselves by providing transparency to consumers. They write interesting blogs on current world issues to keep you informed in a balanced and factually correct way. They also provide a Purchase Impact tab tailored to every item on their site so you can see exactly how you are impacting the planet through your purchase.

By finding the best Eco, Sustainable & Ethical products on the market and supporting small businesses to get their voices heard, Fourstate brings together the best of the best under one roof. Making it as easy as possible for you.

There is more though. With every purchase, 4 reward points are earned per pound spent. You allocate these points to Causes, and when these Causes reach their points quota, FourState will go ahead and fulfil their promise to execute them at their expense whilst updating on their progress. Fourstate is helping the future of our planet through measurable and relatable Causes that you can help fund. Sign up now to find out more. There’s no excuse not to go greener now!

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