BLACK FRIDAY, FOR OR AGAINST?

NOVEMBER 2023

EVERY YEAR, OPINIONS DIFFER ON THE QUESTION.
HERE'S SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON WHY WE'D RATHER NOT PARTICIPATE.

Once again this year, we've taken a step back to reflect on the impact of Black Friday, a period often associated with impulse buying.
There's no doubt that Black Friday, with its intensive marketing, encourages a form of over-consumption and therefore waste. Every year, Switzerland exports some 70,000 tonnes of used clothing and footwear to open-air dumps in Africa. Figures that make your head spin! (UNIGE 2023 Report - Sustainable fashion for Geneva?)
This goes against the sobriety needed to solve a central problem that everyone is talking about today: global warming. And yet, to reduce greenhouse gas levels, we need to limit production, because in our industry, it's the use of machines that accounts for 70% of greenhouse gases (McKinsey 2020 study - see note below).
Sales are, of course, essential to any commercial activity, as they enable us to manage unsold stock. However, we see this as very different from a special operation like Black Friday, which encourages customers to buy in a hurry.
From now on, we prefer to highlight our collection actions for recycling, an initiative we've been running year-round since 2016. If this idea appeals to you, we'd be delighted to receive your used Benjies, so that we can try to recycle them.

*According to the preparatory report for COP 28 (dec 2023), countries' current commitments lead to a 2% reduction in emissions between 2019 and 2030, instead of the 43% recommended to limit warming to 1.5°C. In other words, reduction is not happening at all.