This months we've been looking at sustainable workplace, and today we're sharing a reminder on why it's important to look after our local sustainable workplaces first!
In western culture a majority of our time per week is spent in the workplace. At 1 Million Women, we often talk about reducing our carbon footprint at home, but with so many hours per week spent in our places of work, shouldn’t we look at our eco-habits at work too?
1 Million Women is about practical action on climate change, through our everyday action and the way we spend our money. Each time you are spending your money, you are casting a vote for a better future. That's why it's so important to support independent, locally owned workplaces.
Check out these top 10 reasons to shop local brought to you by Sustainable Connections
- Support community groups : Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.
- Keep our community unique: Where we shop, where we eat and have fun -- all of it makes our community home. Our one-of-a-kind businesses are an integral part of the distinctive character of this place. Our tourism businesses also benefit. “When people go on vacation they generally seek out destinations that offer them the sense of being someplace, not just anyplace.” ~ Richard Moe, President, National Historic Preservation Trust.
- Reduce environmental impact : Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.
- Create more good jobs : Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally and in our community, provide the most jobs to residents.
- Get better service : Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.
- Invest in community : Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.
- Put your taxes to good use : Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
- Buy what you want, not what someone wants you to buy : A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
- Encourage local prosperity : A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenised world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.
- Buy Local -- Support yourself: Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than a nationally owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms -- continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.( Click here to see summaries of a variety of economic impact studies ; these include case studies showing that locally-owned businesses generate a premium in enhanced economic impact to the community and our tax base.)
If you'd like more information on shopping local check out these posts
- Stephanie Perry- Our 1MW Woman of the Moment
- How to break up with the supermarket
- No Waste Christmas: shop local this holiday season