White Monday — Clear Conscience
The initiative ‘White Monday’ trumps ‘Black Friday’ and the more recent ‘Singles Day’ — any day of the week. This is a story about why organisations that preach consumerism need to take a good look in the mirror or loose risk millennials, young professionals and people that regard sustainability as important.
This is also the story of how companies adapting either of these strategies, after the launch of the We Don’t Have Time social network in 2019, may suffer from or embrace sustainable consumers.
On November 19, White Monday is celebrated in Sweden with a multitude of offers from sustainable companies. Discounts, cheap meals, special-price access to services — you name it — will be available all over the country. More than 120 companies, organisations and influencers have signed up to the White Monday campaign, with the explicit aim of counteracting the overconsumption and greed promoted by Black Friday.
We Don’t Have Time interviewed two of the people behind White Monday, Henning Gillberg, founder, and Jonna Elofsson Bjesse from the non-profit organization “Conscious Consumption” (Medveten Konsumtion).
What exactly is White Monday?
Henning: Well, White Monday actually works as a media platform where companies are invited to display their logos. We arrange the yearly White Monday event — always on the Monday before Black Friday — and this is the day the companies really get to promote their goods and services. But — and this is important — only companies that are not involved with the Black Friday campaign are admitted. Black Friday is a day of unbridled consumerism and competition, and a prime example of the so-called linear economy: the “throwaway consumerism” that has taken over most of the world. White Monday, on the other hand, stands for co-operation and a circular approach to the economy.
Jonna: White Monday is a good way of providing the public with alternatives to their usual shopping habits. Most people want to act sustainably but don’t know how. By providing information about companies offering sustainable goods and services, we give people a chance to choose a lifestyle more in line with today’s ecological needs.
When did White Monday start?
Henning: A colleague and I came up with the idea last year, shortly before Black Friday actually, and just managed to launch it in time. Calling it White Monday was a kind of a play on words as a way of drawing attention to the fact that it’s the complete opposite of Black Friday. This year, I realized I didn’t have the time to do it all by myself, so I asked “Conscious Consumption”, Jonna and her associate Alexandra Davidsson, to help out. With the aid of CirEko, I also asked interested members of the public to come up with ideas, and their input has helped to shape and redefine the concept of White Monday. Furthermore, people tend to get very enthusiastic when they are able to take part in the creation of an event — as opposed to only taking part in the event itself — and their willingness to spread the word has benefitted us immensely.
What made you interested in sustainability?
Jonna: I went to London and worked for a wholesale business that imported entire boatloads of furniture from China every week. This kind of perfunctory buying and selling and “damn the consequences” attitude really made me feel sick, and I realised that I had to be on the other side of that fence — so I embraced the concept of sustainability. From then on, one thing led to another and, well, here I am now: trying to teach people that their private buying habits affect not only the immediate area around them but the whole world.
Henning: I grew up on a farm. You don’t throw things away lightly on a farm; it’s unthinkable. So the current mentality of buying new stuff as soon as something breaks is kind of an immense wastage to me. Nature simply doesn’t work that way. Nature mends things and reuses them. And we should emulate nature in this respect. That’s common sense, in my book anyway.
Could you give us a few examples of goods or services on offer on White Monday?
Jonna: There are loads of wonderful new circular business concepts out there, but I’m particularly fond of the app services, since these appeal to younger people. There’s one app — Karma — that sells leftover food from restaurants, cafésand supermarkets to app users at half price. This is a very good way of addressing food wastage.
Henning: We have restaurants doing the same thing: cooking meals with leftover comestibles. But we also have companies that rent outfits, mend clothes or electronics, swap clothes, sell second-hand items, offer sustainable travelling, etc. The range of commodities and services is enormous!
What do you mean when you talk about a “circular economy”?
Jonna: Well, a circular economy means no wastage. In a circular economy, things are never just thrown away, but recycled and reused. Secondly, quality is prioritised over quantity. Durability is a keyword here.
Henning: And all products must be assembled in a way that makes them easy to mend, to upgrade, to take apart and to reuse.
What about the future? What possibilities and challenges do you see?
Henning: As for possibilities, we are confident that the concept of White Monday will spread to the international community. We’ve already been contacted by lots of interested people from other countries, and we’ve also been interviewed by foreign journalists. As for challenges, well, White Monday is all about cooperation and striving towards a common vision, but sometimes individual companies want to prioritize their own activities at the expense of others, and this kind of competitiveness doesn’t really belong here.
Jonna: One of our future main challenges is to make people understand the difference between ordinary consumption (which is necessary) and overconsumption (which is killing the planet). The concept of a circular economy must be embraced by people in general. But how do you do make that happen? We hope that showing people alternative ways of shopping, of living, and of relating to the world will do the trick. Common default behaviors such as ‘Shop till you drop’ must give way to sustainable habits. That’s the only way forward.
Any final words?
“The future is circular!” they both say with one voice.
And indeed it is! After having seen all the imaginative, inventive and absolutely astoundingly smart business deals on whitemonday.se (In Swedish only), there’s no doubt in my mind that the general public will learn to appreciate this. It’s not only goods and services that are on offer here, though. White Monday also shows us a way of escaping from the current rat race, from overburdened private economies and stressful consumerism, to a world where other, better values prevail. Money and things do not make people happy, but caring and maintenance — for our valued possessions, for each other, and for our world — might just give us the satisfaction we yearn for.
Our planet definitely needs this. And we need it too.
About White Monday and it’s Founders
Web sites (in Swedish):
www.whitemonday.se
www.repamera.se
www.medvetenkonsumtion.se
About We Don’t Have Time
We Don’t Have Time are currently building the world’s largest social network for climate action. Together we can solve the climate crisis.
But we are running out of time.
Web site: www.wedonthavetime.org
