Ethical & Sustainable Shopping Guide | How To Start

so many people ask me why why do I shop ethical why do I shop sustainable why do I even care the list of reasons is really endless but the first reason is because I care for people I care for people around the world who are not being treated the way they should workers being taken advantage of in the most horrible ways I shop ethical for the world for the planet for clean air and for green trees I shop ethical because I like wearing clothes that tell a story that talk about taking care of people taking care of the world and making a difference in my mind every dollar I spend is a vote and I want my vote to count and I want my vote to make a difference I love shopping with a purpose and I love shopping with even a bit of a challenge finding beautifully curated clothes that are made by people that are treated as people and that take care of us and take care of the planet so how do you shop and that is about as inspirational as I get older muchachos welcome here I am so excited for today's video I've been so determined to put this video together for it to be really informational inspirational maybe and just giving you guys a ton of info on what it is to shop ethically how I do it why I do it leaving some links for you guys down below if you want some more information because you know what never just take one person's word for something always dig deeper look further so I want to encourage you if this is the first type of video that you've ever seen on ethical clothing ethical fashion ethical shopping don't just stop here and take my word for it but just go beyond and do more research figure some more stuff out if this is something that sounds really interesting and important to you I want to give a huge shout out for 10 tree for sponsoring this video giving me the ability to give you guys some more info show some of their products that are ethical sustainable and are really doing a lot of good for every item that 10 tree sells they go ahead and actually plant 10 trees which i think is great there's been over 24 million trees planted because of 10 tree and I think that is a huge accomplishment and from there they just go beyond and that's what I really want to focus on in this video put your money towards charities companies brands that don't just stick with doing a little bit here and there but really go the extra mile 10 tree is committed to being ethically responsible in what they do when it comes to labor when it comes to fair wages and beyond just planting trees they provide education shelter and food to local communities to places that really need it and really really love getting it actually have a list here of what they do they help to offset co2 they preserve wildlife habitats maintain healthy waterways and food sources by planting trees and they also go ahead and recycle a lot of things and use them in some of their apparel clothing pieces which is so great for the environment so so great like you saw in the intro of today's video I have some tooks that I put on that are really really awesome daughter Ivy she absolutely loves this knitted one we also have just some great mitts I live on the west coast of Canada and it gets cold over here so things like this are always a go-to I didn't show these in the beginning of this video in the intro but these are my beautiful sweats these are so cool it's made with a blend of recycled polyester and organic cotton and the recycled polyester is actually made from plastic bottles which is very very cool I've been wearing this beautiful fleece hoodie like crazy everything that I'm talking about will be linked down below it's very very soft it's very very flattering I am pregnant right now but I'm wearing all of these into my third trimester comfortably and it recycled polyester and then a bunch of their tees they sent my way these are made with organic cotton recycled polyester and tensile I think it's tensile I think this and if you want more info on that I'll actually just put it in the description box and you can read up on it so like I said more info and entry is linked down below as well as discount codes some links links to the items that I have shown here so be sure to check it out thank you very much tension for sponsoring this video and wanting to get out the message all the more so about ethical shopping and putting your money towards brands that are truly making a difference I very much hope you guys like today's video if you do if you share subscribe and we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna get started so like I send the intro there's just various reasons why I shop ethically but some of the main ones are very near and dear to my heart so one of the main ones for sure is just the amount of people that are working in sweatshops that aren't paid fairly whatsoever a lot of it is actually at slavery women men and children being forced into slavery to work at these sweatshops in fear that if they miss their shift or they decide to try to get away from the sweatshop they will be hunted down and either killed or taken advantage of like raped that's so sad and to me it doesn't matter to me that I don't know who these people are people are people and we need to take care of each other so this is my way of taking care of people all around the world and showing them that I care and showing them that I love them because especially as a mom I was reading up on this story and it was a mom who works in a sweatshop she gets paid about 40 bucks a month in Bangladesh which that's way under the normal salary she has to bring her three kids to work with her because she can't afford school for them or daycare and the daycare the daycare that the sweatshop provides is run by men and a lot of the kids if not all of them have been raped in that special day care that the sweatshop provides so moms can work so she actually has her kids with her as she's working 14-hour days 6 to 7 days a week crazy as someone who's a mom I couldn't imagine that people died it's absolutely tragic just looking into sweatshops if this is completely new to you I recommend watching the true cost on Netflix I also do it for environment reasons the amount of pollution and just horrible emissions that are put out into the air from factories is disgusting there's a ton of other reasons but those are just my two main ones my main question is how do I start and the one thing I want to really encourage you to not do is go through your closet and check out all of your H&M clothes or forever21 clothes that is not the idea of ethical shopping a lot of it has to do with actually getting as much wear out of your clothes as you can so I've started ethical shopping about three years ago and I do have a couple things in my closet that are from you know something from H&M something even from Walmart that I purchased years before I decide to shop ethically but I am going to get my full worth out of those products and use them until they're literally unusable or I can pass it on to someone else who will get more use out of it but at the same time I do want to encourage you to clean out your closet I'll link my minimalism playlist down below if you want to know a little bit more about minimalism maybe some tips on how to start and just learning how to love every single piece in your closet so there's a couple different ways that you can shop ethically the first one I would say is maybe the most important it's the most affordable it's best on the environment you're supporting your local community and that's thrift shopping or charity shopping this can be hard for some people charity shopping Earthcare shopping can really be like almost a demeaning like I'm not gonna buy someone's used clothes the last time I went thrift shopping I saw a legit pair of Christian Louboutins $4.99 not even kidding I was gonna buy them and then resell them but I was like you know what no someone's gonna find these and fall in love with them probably an elderly person and not even realize that they're wearing like $2,000 pair of shoes when you throw a shop you need to really just open your mind it can be hard certain thrift shops I don't shop acts I know never find anything here that's always this kind of clothing never really caters to me and then some thrift shops I find a lot of vintage pieces which are always the best pieces and different thrift shops have different prices but the main thing you can buy anything in that thrift shop and no you're not supporting any of the brands that you are buying some people ask me is it still okay to buy a forever 21 t-shirt at the thrift shop or a Nike sweatshirt or whatever and my answer is yes and the reason why you're not putting that money towards the brand but you're putting money towards the thrift shop that is gonna take that money and donate it to whatever that thrift shop usually caters to you there are a couple exceptions I do if there's something that says like Nike or adidas across the front I don't wear it because that's not a brand I want to advertise but if it's like a Nike pullover hoodie and there's nothing on it that says Nike or has like the Nike symbol I'm not too worried and if people ask me where I got it I'm honest I thought its first store and at the same time you buy clothes off of ebay you can do Poshmark I think it's called there's deep pop shops you can do so if you want our ethical shopping but you're kind of like I don't know if it's gonna be a lot of money how do I start start at your local thrift shop and go from there one of the best feelings in the world is going into a thrift store with 10 bucks and coming out with two pairs of awesome jeans a nice t-shirt and maybe like a faux leather jacket that just looks so bomb also thank you to everyone for all the love over my green smoothie recipe if you want clear skin if you want detox your body if you want feel better and it literally feels like you're drinking just a yummy shake you need to give this green smoothie a try and I can link the smoothie recipe that I use down below I did actually formulate this myself and it took a little bit of time but we're there and it's good okay continuing the next way I shop at the Col is knowing the stores around me so I have a handful of local stores that sell locally made ethical sustainable goods or just made worldwide goods that are still ethical and sustainable they're what I call slow fashion stores these stores are always more expensive your average store so when I go in I don't shop willy-nilly and like I'll buy this buy this buy this usually I do go in with a plan and go you know what I really need a nice white top that's going to look great with this outfit that I have this outfit something that will really transition throughout the whole year depending on the season something that's good quality I like going in with a plan just because it is more expensive way better quality way better material the service is awesome and I really believe in supporting local businesses around me it's a huge blessing actually for me to support all these local businesses and so many amazing people but at these local slow fashion stores again it is more expensive my sister she just bought this beautiful timeless coat my one of my favorite local slow fashion shops and it was expensive like hundreds of dollars but when she looked at that coat she went this is something that is timeless this is something I can wear from fall right into winter and even into the springtime this is something that's very neutral it's gonna go with a lot of outfits and this is something that because it's so timeless and it's not a trendy piece I can just wear it till it dies and if that's ten years awesome she invested a good chunk of change into a certain piece of clothing that's very basic but at the same time gives her a lot of I guess happiness that looks really really nice and she's gonna get use out of that coat every single day well made the people that make that coat are just such amazing people that brand is really really good and ethical that's money well spent if you're shopping at a slow fashion store you're not spending your money willy-nilly you look at every single piece and really think is this something that I can put my money into that I'll get my monies use out of and something I'll really enjoy because the higher price tag because of higher quality proper fair pay for the people that work there and all that stuff you really look at a piece and you don't go oh it's five bucks I'll buy it you look at a piece and go okay it's $85 is this worth my coin it's really interesting how you view different things once you start shopping ethical and of course my local shops will have sales which is really nice and helpful but I find because I invest in a lot of just basic main pieces I don't really shop that often because I don't need to and that's my next point shop out of need not out of hobby I do consider shopping a bit of a hobby for me specifically grocery shopping I love grocery shopping so much but I used to be that person when came the weekend I'd go to the mall and I'd buy random stuff I didn't even really have to like it it just had to be like a good deal which is really bad don't just buy something if it's a good deal because that is still a waste of your money but I used to be that person and there went all my money and I was shop out of hobby instead of need and now I'm going what do I need what is my closet really missing not just trend wise because when you shop ethically trends are really like way in the back of your mind because you don't have the ability to buy this coat that's $300 but it's only on trend for this year you want something very timeless and classic that's going to last forever and not look ridiculous so I actually have saved more money shopping ethically buying good quality pieces and investing in my closet versus before shopping just with a hobby so just some more tips I want to throw your way like I said before don't do trendy trendy pieces is just a fast fashion thing it's in and out in two weeks and it's not worth it and then you just throw it out or you donate it or whatever it's a waste it's a huge waste so stick with pieces that are very timeless very classic something that you could look back on 50 years from now and not be cringing at all so before you buy a certain clothing piece whether it's really expensive from a fancy store or a thrift store ask yourself some questions how often can I wear this through the year is there a certain season this caters to the most and if so can I still wear it for the next five years and be happy with it does this correspond with the rest of my wardrobe is this going to be very versatile piece really important how do I feel about it how do I feel when I wear it will I regret walking away from it long term like there's been some pieces where I'm like mm I don't know we'll see and I walk away from it and then maybe even a year later I go man kind of really wish I bought that I would have gotten a lot of use out of it do I already have something like this that serves the same purpose don't feel like you have to buy multiples basics yes like shirts and jeans of course but when it comes to jackets shoes purses jewelry accessories do you really need multiples ask yourself that question if you do great and if you don't see if you can switch it up a little bit lastly can I put my money towards something better yes this $300 jacket looks really great yes this 100 pair of jeans they look awesome but you know what I'm actually really trying to save up for a new camera and that comes first or I'm wanting to get some new cool stuff for my computer that comes first I have to eat this week that comes first really think that through before you go ahead and purchase something it will really change your mind either to really realize you need it or maybe you don't need it so much so to wrap things up I just want to tell you guys I'm going to put a bunch of links down below of places that I shop that sells slow fashion clothing I'm gonna link some blogs just some more info on like 10 tree the description box is a party an info party so I really recommend for you guys to check that out if you're more interested in just epical shopping sustainable shopping feel like this was a long video and I'm just trying to remember everything I covered and it's still a little blurry so I may have forgotten some stuff and I may have to do episode two maybe I'll do like a Q&A on my Instagram asking you guys to ask me questions about ethical shopping and then I can go from there I think that could be really good anyway guys thank you very much for watching today's video I hope you enjoyed it just to get the basic ideas about why I shop ethical and how it's just really awesome I love the clothes that I wear now I feel very comfortable I like the money that I've put towards my wardrobe and the money that I have not put towards my wardrobe because it can be better served elsewhere pretty interesting stuff hey pretty interesting so thank you for watching and I'll see you all in the next video

Channel: Sarah Therese

Views: 94,713

Keywords: ethical, ethical fashion, ethical shopping, fast fashion, slow fashion, sarah therese, sarahtherese, sustainable, shopping, the true cost, sweatshop, free, documentary, tentree

Id: TjAAM3avcus

Length: 17min 24sec (1044 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 02 2018