Consuming more responsibly as a family : how?

Imagine a house in which lives a family composed of two parents, David and Laura, and two children, a teenage boy named Baptiste and a little girl named Isaure. They do their shopping at the supermarket or at the drive-through, regularly buy their books or DVDs on online sales platforms and love fast fashion brands to dress themselves. Their purchasing behaviors are similar to those of many French families but precisely, they want change! To better understand how this change will take place in their daily lives, let's take a look at each room in the house.

The bedroom: dressing fairly, the new challenge!

 This is the biggest challenge the family faces! Until now, at home, clothes had a limited lifespan. They bought a lot on impulse, and they didn't care if the clothes fell apart after a few washes. In their new responsible approach, they decided to boycott fast fashion brands as much as possible and think twice about what they needed during sales. They are now turning to French brands that manufacture their products in France or in Europe and display a real ecological commitment, labels and recognized know-how.

They buy less but better and also look at second-hand clothes. At first, the two children pulled a face but finally rejoiced to have more solid clothes made of quality materials. The family also now sorts out regularly and donates to the Red Cross or another association the clothes that are too small or that have been piling up in the cupboards for years.

The show: to consume better, fight against obsolescence!

Their grandfather's television dates back to the early 90s and is still working. Isaure and Baptiste, on the other hand, have already seen several televisions and other DVD players since they were born. This phenomenon has a name: planned obsolescence! Not only does marketing make consumers believe that they must regularly change their equipment for a more sophisticated device, but in addition this equipment is promised certain death in a very short time.

Consuming fairly also means buying objects that are made to last and that can be repaired. Laura and David have discovered that consumer associations and certain brands have revealed the list of brands that break down the least often, while certain labels, such as the EPEAT label, allow you to compare different devices based on their ecological characteristics.

Cooking: consuming and eating better

According to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), 30 kilos of food per person are thrown in the trash each year in France. Yogurts forgotten in the fridge, half-opened jars of jam, expired meat or cold cuts, there are so many foods that Laura is more than tired of throwing in the trash. So she developed a quasi-military strategy in several points that she posted on the fridge:

1. First, she reorganizes the fridge: foods that need to be eaten quickly are placed at the front and the opening dates of the products are written on the packaging (especially to avoid opening three bottles of milk!). This does not only concern parents but also children who now help put away the shopping and must take responsibility when they take something to eat.

2. David prints an annual calendar of seasonal fruits and vegetables. No more tomatoes or strawberries in December!

3. Shopping: From now on, the family decides to go shopping with a REAL list and to decide in advance on the menus for the week. This allows for less waste but also to avoid making unnecessary purchases on impulse. Rather than buying fruit from the other side of the world at the supermarket, David and Baptiste go to the market every Saturday morning and favor small local producers, organic if possible.

4. Three days a week, Isaura goes to study after school and has to bring a snack. Rather than giving her a bottle of water and a packet of cookies, Laura sets up a baking hour every Sunday to make a cake or a pound cake for the week's snacks. And for the drink, she invests in a water bottle!

5. To limit waste, the family tries as much as possible to buy in bulk: sugar, rice, cereals and increasingly favors “homemade”. Nothing like a good chocolate mousse and “homemade” yogurts to satisfy the taste buds of the whole family!