What is Giving Tuesday?
Black Friday, a day of compulsive shopping that originated in the U.S. to encourage people to buy the first Christmas gifts at great discounts. Faced with this day dedicated to excessive consumption, people have come up with alternatives such as Giving Tuesday, a global movement that aims to encourage good actions and participation in projects that improve the lives of people. The inception of the day was in the US and it was created as a response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Like Black Friday, Giving Tuesday has not stopped growing, and more and more people are joining the action, posting projects on the platform, donating or giving visibility to the initiative through social networks.
On the Giving Tuesday website you can consult dozens of solidarity projects that take advantage of the initiative to raise funds. This year it took place on December 4 and, for example, Intermon Oxfam is giving visibility to the problem of the climate emergency in Guatemala, where periods of drought are getting longer and longer and 50% of children under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition.
The SUPerando association has already completed 4 years sharing paddle surfing and surfing activities with people with functional diversity or at risk of social exclusion. This year, it is taking advantage of Giving Tuesday to raise funds to incorporate a board adapted to its material with an adjustable chair for people with reduced mobility.
Black Friday is paid for by the planet.
It's no longer just a matter of wasteful consumption. According to experts from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), the increase in online purchases during Black Friday requires a huge logistical effort: the employers of the sector of ONE Business Organisation of Logistics and Transport estimates that will be distributed, on average, about 2.5 million packages per day. And each of these movements has effects on the planet.
Although at a first glance Internet shopping may seem less polluting (for example, car trips to shopping centres or cities are avoided), the truth is that many times we talk about small shipments, which involve a large expenditure on plastic and cardboard wrappers. "There is also the difficulty of being able to deliver it in a single journey because the person is not always at home to pick it up, and international transport -when the product comes from China, for example- counterbalances the advantage that the buyer does not have to travel," explains Neus Soler, lecturer at the UOC's Faculty of Economics and Business Studies.
Green Friday: buying sustainable... or not buying at all
Another alternative to the wild consumption of Black Friday is the Green Friday which proposes, on the same day (last Friday in November), to abstain from consuming and, in the event of doing so, to verify that the product purchased follows minimum criteria of social and environmental responsibility. It is a day dedicated to responsible, green and ethical consumption
Since the Black Friday phenomenon seems unstoppable, experts also suggest measures that could counteract the negative effects of this campaign. "Public policies can promote respect for the environment by establishing a series of conditions that ensure that campaigns such as this do not have a great impact on the environment," explains Eduard J. Álvarez Palau, lecturer at the UOC. He goes on to add that using vehicles for deliveries such as bicycles or electric scooters is not the only solution to guarantee less damage to the environment. "For example, extending delivery times. If the consumer makes it easier for the seller to deliver the purchased goods with a higher margin, he will be given enough time to stop putting pressure on the supply chain. This would ease the pressure on warehouses, which would have more time to stock up, store and distribute, and in turn the carrier could organise itself better to deliver products more efficiently, carrying the most loaded vehicles," he concludes.
