Buy Local
- Shopping local is a fantastic way to not only reduce your environmental footprint but also to invest back into local economies.
- Local businesses make up a large sector of the job market, often offering employment that follows stricter ethical principles than big businesses outsourcing at larger national or international firms. This translates to better working conditions and benefits for employees and ensures that employees are paid fair wages according to US labor laws.
- The physical location of local businesses also makes them more desirable. Usually, local businesses are located in city centers or central locations, which decreases urban sprawl, habitat loss, congestion, and construction-driven pollution.
- Locally owned businesses also tend to source from local vendors, reducing transportation emissions on both business and consumer sides. In addition, shopping locally generally requires little to no shipping processes, minimizing waste from packaging as well.
- Local businesses also tend to understand their product at a more detailed level, providing consumers with more transparency and traceability of the supply chain. Smaller-scale operations allow businesses to fully audit and supervise resource sourcing, manufacturing, and treatment of workers, which can be more difficult on a larger scale.
