Australians Encouraged to Shop Ethically This Christmas     

Australians have been encouraged to shop ethically this Christmas and support social enterprises, with an online marketplace offering a broad range of conscientious consumption choices for consumers.   

Goodsmiths is “the home of responsible, sustainable and ethical goods”, and lists a number of different purpose-driven businesses, from youth homelessness enterprise STREAT, to streetwear company HoMie, to street magazine The Big Issue.    

While an all-year-round initiative, Goodsmiths has launched a campaign focusing on Christmas, a period where Australians last year spent $25.6 billion on shopping.

Goodsmiths’ co-founder Clifford Moss, told Pro Bono News how the idea for the organisation came about.

“Goodsmiths was born out of a marketing initiative that took place at Christmas time in 2015, to get people to consider celebrating Christmas and buying gifts at social enterprises,” Moss said.

“Because that worked quite well, we ran it again in 2016 and it grew quite a lot. And the feedback we got from people was that they wanted something all year round.

“And a lot of social enterprises don’t have the skills and resources to do extensive marketing. And so we offered them a solution by taking care of the marketing and pushing out messaging about conscientious consumption.”

Moss said Australians shouldn’t underestimate the impact just a few conscientious purchasing decisions could make.

He said purchasing from a social enterprise could provide safe drinking water, tackle homelessness and protect the environment, amongst many other important causes driven by social enterprises.

“We’re encouraging people to think slightly differently about how they buy and how they think about Christmas gifts and celebrations. That is, there is this whole network of fantastic gifts and services that actually have a positive impact as well as providing a great product or service,” he said.

“You have to deliver a great cup of coffee, or your catering service has to be just as good as the non-cause relating service. And then, the fact that it also does good adds huge extra weight.

“That’s why Christmas is such a good time. Because you match up this sense of goodwill with celebrations and people coming together. We can utilise those bonds to create social impact.”

Moss added that he thinks conscientious consumption is on the rise in Australia, especially compared to when he first became involved with the social enterprise movement.

“Surely the fact that there are more ethical options available and more social enterprises cropping up, must reflect that people want this kind of thing,” he said.

“I started in this scene of socially responsible business in 2007 and I can tell you that in 10 years, it has been a very steep curve [upwards] of Australians’ desire and inclination to get involved and shop ethically.”

The full range of more than 80 Goodsmiths’ businesses can be viewed here.