Welcome to Take Care!

We’re so glad to have you here. A quick reminder: Take Care is a newsletter created in collaboration with LOLA that’s all about caretaking and the various forms it takes in women’s lives.

We focus on the more traditional kinds of caretaking, but we also broaden the scope a bit to include things like caring for the environment, for our communities, and for ourselves.

Today’s edition falls into that second category: We’re tackling conscious consumerism – and, more specifically, conscious consumerism for those who’ve opted not to forsake the material world and live in an abandoned school bus in the Alaskan wilderness à la Emile Hirsch in Into the Wild. 

In other words, how do real, busy women navigate their purchases with care for the planet in mind? 

Let’s dive in. 

Today’s Topic: How to Consume Consciously, As a Person Who Wants Things

A confession: There’s a t-shirt that haunts me. I looked at it online a few months ago and it continues to pop up in my Instagram feed and in display ads in my browser.

It’s white (but not blinding), and it would work well with trousers, jeans, or dressed up with a patterned skirt and jewelry. The neckline and sleeves hit just where I like them. It costs $15 and part of me wants to order five or six and make it a wardrobe staple. 

The only problem? My dream t-shirt, which I feel certain would deliver me to a new era of sartorial convenience, is sold by a famously wasteful fast-fashion brand (hence the accessible price point).

Ordering a few wouldn’t make me solely responsible for runaway temperatures, increasingly frequent storms, and the plight of climate refugees around the world…but it would make me a small part of the problem. 

Therein lies the difficulty of being a consumer in the age of climate change. And many of us are looking for ways to navigate that difficulty without abandoning creature comforts altogether.

The key: Choose your own adventure

Here’s a basic truth: Our purchasing habits matter. Collectively, they’re responsible for over 60% of global greenhouse gas pollution that’s fueling climate change. We all know this, and we know we should probably shell out for the pricier white t-shirt that was made with care for the planet and future generations in mind. 

But there’s also a second truth that shouldn’t be overlooked: Conscious consumerism is in the eye of the beholder. There is no specific set of habits any of us can adopt that puts us definitively in an objective “conscious consumer” category. And so we have to decide what the category means for ourselves. 

How to find your own definition of conscious consumerism

While there’s no one-size-fits-all model, you can construct an approach to buying habits that aligns with your unique perspective on how you want to help reshape the world. For inspiration, you can pull from the following possibilities: 

• Use sites like good on you and DoneGood to find out how different brands’ sustainability practices measure up 

• Review your investments. Whether you have a portfolio that would make Warren Buffett sweat or a humble retirement plan, you can look over your holdings and tweak any investments in companies whose mission or operations don’t fit your values. 

• Shop local by heading to the nearest farmers’ market on the weekends. Little tip: Get a tote bag with compartments, so your apple haul doesn’t crush your spinach. I like this one from Food52. 

Self-reflection is crucial 

The foundation of all this is the eternal Gandhi quote: Being the change you want to see in the world. Spend a few minutes thinking about the ways consumerism causes harm to the environment that you personally find most objectionable, and build new habits around them. 

The task of living in a world that demands constant consumption, while also scolding you for the effects of that consumption, can be overwhelming. But keep in mind that descending into nihilism doesn’t help anyone, least of all you. All any of us can do is figure out our own definition of “doing our part”...and then actually do it.

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Care-fully Selected Product Recs

Every product and service listed in this section is independently chosen by us, Take Care’s highly discerning editors Maya and Eliza. We have two rules for our recommendations: We only recommend things we’d use ourselves, and we don’t earn a commission from these links —  we just want you to have the best of the best. No, seriously. 

Buying from B corps is a great way to incorporate sustainability in your shopping. Below are a few items we’ve tested and loved, from companies that earned B Lab’s illustrious certification. 

• Humanscale’s desk chair isn’t just sustainably made and comfy as hell – it’s a lovely, sleek piece of furniture. 

• Instead of creating a generational family rift with another game of Monopoly, pick up one of Big Potato’s board games. 

• If the change you want to see in the world is sustainable tights that don’t rip, Sheertex is the move.

Best of Web

What we’re reading

• Potatoes are the perfect vegetable — but you’re eating them wrong. WIRED writer Matt Reynolds makes a compelling case for a spudaissance.

• Why your cat is weird. A collection of pieces on the weird and wonderful interior world of the feline species.

• Biden and Trump will debate on Thursday. Here’s what you need to know. CNN is switching things up a bit for tonight’s debate, so I plan to tune in if for no reason other than to see if those tweaks make the whole experience a bit more pleasant.

• 55 beloved regional dishes from across the U.S. From scrapple to fluffernutters, it’s always fun to contemplate the culinary daring (genius? lunacy?) that can be found in this great country.

• The case of the missing Chacmools. Nothing better than a well-told cult tale, this one from Alta Magazine.

— Eliza Carter, Take Care Publisher

P.S. — If you have a minute, let us know what you’d like to see covered in Take Care right here. We’d really appreciate it.