
The savings is growing at 11 times the rate of the retail apparel industry and is expected to reach $77 billion by 2025.
Photo: stock photography
By means of Alina Clough
We have passed another landmark in the population of the planet: eight billion people. What with today’s climate alarmism many young people still believe it is a bad thing.
Gen Z’s fear of the future of the environment warrants investigation into whether “eco-anxiety” warrants its own clinical diagnostic criteria. Anxiety is exacerbated by a general feeling of lack of self-efficacy, and climate anxiety is no exception.
Politicians investing in climate programs at the state level will push the narrative that grassroots change is futile and climate solutions are out of the hands of the average person. This only increases the fear of the youth. By promoting the idea that effective climate action must come from top-down legislation, we are convincing young people that their best hope for change is to throw soup at paintings and stick to themselves on the walls of the museum.
Supporting sustainability does not mean seeing humans – and ourselves – as threats to the environment. In contrast, many of Gen-Z’s climate-friendly trends promise to cause real change, regardless of how many people walk the earth.
The ethos of thrift, community reuse and right-to-repair programs has evolved from merely budget-friendly to climate-friendly, and is increasingly being used to connect us with our neighbors. By investing in initiatives at the community level, we can develop a vision of conservation that supports the planet and our fellow eight billion.
We can transform this generation’s well-intentioned anxiety from being psychologically destructive to being environmentally productive by changing something that Gen Z already loves: thrift. While mothers in the 90s may have seen their local Goodwill as a useless necessity for household budgeting, the younger generation sees used clothing not as trash but as treasure.
Thrift is growing at 11 times the rate of the retail clothing industry and is expected to reach $77 billion by 2025. Its appeal reflects an attitude that connects personal decisions to sustainability, about a larger “slow fashion” movement that encourages its followers to think before they buy. The fashion industry generates twice as much CO2 as aviation and maritime transport combined, so a more sustainable approach to fashion is no small step towards landfill reduction and climate action.
Encouragingly, this approach doesn’t have to stop at fashion or thrift stores. Activists and entrepreneurs began expanding grassroots movements using community-based giving to curb consumption and unite people in their conservation efforts. Buynothing, an initiative that links geographically bound community giving through Facebook groups, has started an effort to prevent more plastics.
Now with up to 6.5 million members, it has moved beyond a climate action track, emphasizing “people over things” in its mission and using hand-offs of household items as opportunity for neighbor introductions. Similarly, Freecycle, which is now available in more than 100 countries, started as a way to keep waste out of landfills but now says it seeks to instill a “generous spirit as they strengthen the local community relations and promotes environmental sustainability and reuse.โ
Regardless of whether people are drawn to these groups for environmentalism, for their neighbors, or just for free stuff, the result is overly local groups that feel more strongly rooted in their values โโof community amidst a more transient consumer culture.
Climate action and sustainability are marathons, not sprints. Although our environmental challenges are great, they have local solutions. If we want to progress, we need an activity that lasts. This means resisting doomism by emphasizing the snowball effect of many small changes, and the positive impact that individuals can make right from home.
The grassroots initiatives that are taking hold prove that people do not need to be legislated to love where they live. Building the self-efficacy we need to combat climate anxiety and climate change can be as simple as supporting healthy communities. With the right connections at home, climate change can come from every neighborhood, not just central governments.
Alina Clough is an Energy & Environment Fellow with Young Voices and the American Conservation Coalition (ACC).