These young consumers choose sustainable products

Blue jeans made from plastic waste would be the type of fashion socially conscious consumers would want to buy.

ALTHOUGH a move towards sustainability has not yet been comprehensively and extensively adopted by younger Malaysian consumers, some Millennial and Gen Z buyers say that they are doing what they can within their means to be more socially conscious about their purchases.

With increasing awareness, younger and tech-savvy consumers are holding more companies to account on how they treat their employees and the environment.

The challenge here is that with sluggish income growth among Malaysian youth, many do not have the purchasing power to exclusively buy sustainable and ethical brands. However, they do what they can to prioritise companies with business practices that are ecologically and socially conscious.

One of the main things that 32-year-old Suganya Lingan looks into when buying anything is how the company treats its staff.

“Lots of clothing and apparel companies tend to blame their contractors when it comes to unfair wages, poor working conditions and things like that, but I think that’s ridiculous because you know it’s happening and you’re engaging them [the contractors] anyway,” says the context executive.

“I always Google the companies I buy from, especially if they are big companies. I check websites like the clean clothes campaign [cleanclothes.org] to see how a company fares. I try not to shop online much, and even if I do, I try to get stuff from one shop and get it delivered at the same time,” she says. Delivering in one go helps cut down on packaging.

Suganya says that while online shopping is much more convenient and cheaper, the environmental impact of all the packaging is huge so she tries to balance saving money with being mindful of how her actions impact the environment.

“If the difference is just a few ringgit and I can easily get the stuff I need in stores, I just buy it there. I also try to support local, smaller businesses. Even when it comes to food, I try to shop for locally produced stuff but, of course, I indulge from time to time,” she says.

“Having said that, being sustainable can be expensive and you can’t be perfect lah. Do your best and, hopefully, thousands or even millions of people practicing sustainability will have the necessary impact.”

Student Syaza Munawir, 18, also places importance on a brand’s environmental footprint and the way it treats its workers.

“Most of the time it’s really hard to buy stuff from big brands that actually care about the environment. I also try to avoid brands that treat their workers horribly,” she tells Sunday Star.

Syaza explains that some big brands advertise their clothing as “ecofriendly” when in reality their sustainable efforts are very minimal – ie, they are “greenwashing”.

In an effort to become more conscious of their responsibilities as consumers, Syaza and a friend have stopped buying clothes from certain famous companies because of their unethical practices.

“Most of my friends don’t shop a lot and when they do shop, they don’t do it often,” says Syaza, who warns against microtrends, or short-lived fashion and lifestyle trends that often lead to large-scale wastage.

Writer Jun Lin believes that at least for now, price and quality will still be the main driving factors behind purchasing decisions for most people, including his own.

“Environmental, social and governance [ESG] factors are secondary as long as the company is not doing anything especially egregious. In the long run, though, good ESG is probably the only way to do business,” the 35-year-old observes.

Between price and quality, Lin leans towards quality. He says that his backpacks and photography accessories come from the same company, which promises to contribute 1% of proceeds from all sales to environmental causes.

Businessman Ahmad Rizal, who is in his 30s, says that sustainability and maintaining a good environmental footprint is big on his checklist but he may not have the bandwidth to research all the facts before making a purchase.

“I rely on general knowledge and news pieces. Companies that I know have clear-cut labour issues or are greenwashing get onto my personal boycott list. If I discover sister companies that belong to the same group, they too go onto the list.

“On the other hand, when I know a company is genuine and has sustainable practices then I go out of my way to purchase from them.”