The Concept of Luxury Sustainability

I’m coining a new phrase.

High-End Sustainability. I also like the term `Luxury En-fren.’ Enfren is the term I’ve been using to describe environmentally friendly (because I’m lazy), but it’s come to mean to me not just good for the environment, but also incorporating human rights, sustainability, fair trade etc.

So anyway, the concept of Luxury Sustainability has been twirling around my brain for a while. It’s the idea that very wealthy people like to buy the best of everything, and some of them also want to buy what’s best for the common good as well. So High-End Sustainable products and services are the best you can get, at all levels. So I don’t mean `the best that you can buy’ is a hand bag costing $4000 because of the name on the label. I mean that a handbag costs $4000 BECAUSE it’s made by people who receive fair wages for their work, the materials are organic, chemical free and come from sustainable sources, and perhaps you can also recycle the bag after you’ve finished with it, and get a discount off your next purchase. Now that to me, is the best that money can buy. And if I think that, then there are others out there that are thinking the same.

Take beauty products for example. Now there are a lot of very expensive beauty products out there, but perhaps it’s the brand name or the advertising costs of the supermodels that factor most in these costs, rather than that they are made with the best quality ingredients available. If you take a look at many high-end beauty products, you’ll find they are made with mostly chemicals with a few buzz words/natural ingredients, and have `enviro-destructo’ packaging. Luxury enfren beauty products would be the ones that are made with organic locally grown ingredients, by small companies, using ALL natural ingredients AND had cool, attractive AND recyclable packaging.

Clothing is another big one. Even five to ten years ago I could pay a bit more at Myer or DJs and buy clothes made in Australia. Now I go to these stores or designer stores, and even though I’m paying a lot more for clothes than I would at Kmart, they are still made in China! So what am I paying the extra money for? It’s getting harder and harder to buy products that are made here, or made where people are receiving fair pay for their work.

So the idea is to source products and services that are great quality AND sustainable. Actually, I’d like the term `luxury’ to mean the best that money can buy in real terms. Not just because the label is known as an expensive brand but because there is real substance behind the product. So it’s the best money can buy BECAUSE it’s the best money can buy in ALL areas. So the dream would be that the term `luxury enfren’ eventually dies out, and the concept of ‘luxury’, actually means the best for the individual and best for the common good as well.

I’m starting to source products and services now, and will do a Buyer’s Guide in the New Year, which I can update annually. If you know of products and services that are top of the range in all aspects, please let me know. Just thinking on this, it’s probably a good idea to have a list of criteria by which we measure these products and services. Again, any ideas, drop me a line

IDEAS FOR CRITERIA
* packaging – sustainable source and able to be reused /recycled
* ingredients – organic, natural, best quality available
* where the company invests, and in what
* wages/fair trade
* worker’s/human rights
* effects of product and process on the environment