3 tips to know if a product is sustainable

Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish

It is true that in the society in which we live, the consumption of all kinds of products is the protagonist of our daily lives.

The label or qualification of “sustainable” is very present nowadays when referring to any type of these products, and every day more. And the concern for making a better and more “sustainable” world often clashes with the obvious need to sell, on the part of most companies.

The user, in many cases, may feel confused when it comes to knowing when what is being sold under the label of sustainable.

We are going to review three basic points that will help us to know, with less margin of error, when a product can be considered truly sustainable:

1. What is its price? Is it truly accessible to the average family economy?

A sustainable product cannot cost a lot of money and it must be in this sense accessible to the majority of people.

We are talking about products within the everyday needs, not about whims or small punctual luxuries.

Many (mostly) electric cars, or a large amount of food from organic farming, are still too expensive to be considered truly sustainable.

2. Do we really need this product? Will it help make our lives better? 

There are many products that we do not need in our daily consumption. Sometimes, they can be small appliances that we hardly use and that spend most of the time stored on a shelf, as in some cases a sandwich maker or a blender.

3. Can your ecological footprint be considered acceptable?

To answer this question we will need external information to be able to respond adequately. Some indications, however, will serve as indicators to check whether this is an unacceptable impact on the environment.

A product, for example, cannot be advertised as “bio”, “eco”, “organic” or “sustainable”, without presenting any evidence that this is the case. It cannot therefore be without an official label to support its qualification. Similarly, a cleaning product will not be a cleaning product if it carries toxic warning labels.

Excessive packaging, as well as labels on foods with excessively long text, or large labels on household appliances and vehicles, will also be suspect in terms of their reliability in the area of sustainability rating.