In The Red From Going Green: Why Are Sustainable Products More Expensive?

Now more than ever, brands and consumers alike are being called to acknowledge how the ruling class is largely responsible for moving the needle on sustainability into a popular movement. Yet reshaping the commodity system is going to take a lot more than just tacking on “for people” or “for planet” to a brand’s obvious mandate “for profit”.

It’s also possible sustainable alternatives appear unreasonably costly because we’ve been spoon-fed a misleading narrative that the race to the bottom line is what’s best for us all. Not to mention companies like Shein and Temu have normalized the idea that we should be able to buy 25 fashion items for less than $50.

We’re not suggesting you splurge $15 on artisanal handcrafted eco-soda that promises twenty pounds of ocean plastic are removed per purchase instead of a cold glass of plain water, but where do we draw the line between proudly paying for better materials and labor practices, and just paying for the ‘sustainable’ label?

Hold onto your sustainable wallets and fasten your setbelts as we explore why eco-friendly products are more expensive than their conventional alternatives—and if they have to be.

Sustainable living is on the rise, with everyone from the Harvard Business Review to Forbes eyeing the consumer drive toward the sustainability imperative.

In the past five years, the world has seen a 71% increase in online searches for sustainable goods. A whopping 73% of millennials are willing to pay more for eco-friendly alternatives and and 90% of Gen Z say they’ve adjusted their daily life to be more sustainable to reduce carbon emissions and that sustainable fashion choices played a key role in this.

That said, only a fraction of our store shelves reflect this currently, which means the low demand has a ways to go. And we get it. Times are tough. The economy just sinks lower as our grocery bills and housing costs skyrocket, and when people can barely afford the basic necessities, can we really blame them for not choosing the products that cost twice as much?

One recent poll of Gen Z and millennials revealed a whopping 96% think they can’t afford sustainability due to the rising cost of living, decrying sustainability as a pursuit of privilege.

Without a doubt, as it currently stands, sustainable products are more expensive but that just brings us to a more pressing question: does sustainability have to be expensive?

Typically the cost of goods goes down with a rise in consumer demand. This happens due to economies of scale (after all the setup costs, the larger the production, the less cost per item to produce) and also competition driving down prices. Due to less demand, eco-friendly companies also tend to lack the resources that big brands have to market themselves. This makes sustainable goods less recognizable and less purchased than their traditional counterparts.

So, if you have the option in your budget to make a more sustainable purchase, please do. It’s a privilege not everyone has, so exercise yours because you’re not only reducing your environmental footprint, but you’re also driving a demand for sustainable options which will eventually reduce costs for sustainable products.

As for how much more expensive sustainable products are, it depends on various factors, but these typically begin with what something is made of. Put simply, you get what you pay for.

The cost of sustainable products is often higher because of the quality of raw materials used. Sustainable sourcing, while more ethical and environmentally friendly, comes at a premium. (Or is it that everything else is just utterly exploited and underpaid?)

Everything from organic cotton and sustainable dyes to recycled paper and bioplastic are eco-friendly and more expensive, since the processes to create them entail more. Businesses don’t choose to source irresponsibly or to generate large amounts of pollution because they enjoy it. They do it to save money.

For example, materials like bamboo fabric or organic cotton cost more than synthetic petroleum-based nylon or fleece, since they’re grown and produced in a manner that takes account of the environment.

A farm that uses no pesticides, a textile dyeing process that is free from toxins, a factory that uses renewable energy, and a production line that handmakes and works to minimize textile waste—all facets of a sustainable supply chain—are more costly than mass-producing, charcoal spewing manufacturing processes that make plastic clothing.

That said, when you opt for the cheaper, synthetic, mass-produced and non-sustainable option, you’re essentially approving of the harmful practices. You’re funding the pollution and disincentivizing the business from having to do any differently. This is why ‘dollar voting’ for the kind of world you want to live in is so crucial, and paying a higher cost for sustainable materials is so important.

Along with traditional products being cheaper because of their poor materials, the same goes for their unfair labor.

One of the largest expenses for any supply chain are the wages paid to workers. And it’s no secret that most large corporations pay their factory workers in developing countries a pittance, with fast fashion facts stating that 93% of garment workers are still not paid living wages. As a sad example, the unsustainable ultra fast fashion behemoth Shein was recently exposed for paying its Chinese factory workers as little as $0.04 per garment.

Meanwhile, sustainable businesses recognize that paying employees fairly is not only the ethical thing to do, but it’s also good for business—even if it means higher costs than their unethical counterparts. When workers are paid a living wage, that money proliferates through the local community, leading to basic needs being met, community development, improved livelihoods, and more business for everyone.

So… is that sustainable product really a higher price? Or were we lied to about what it actually costs to produce things with respect for the planet and people?

Most likely, sustainable products cost closer to what everything should, if people weren’t exploited in the process.

Especially when comparing sustainable vs unsustainable brands in the household cleaning and beauty industries, we see a significant cost difference between “clean” products and their chemical-laden conventional counterparts.

While there are countless environmental and health risks associated with chemical use, the commercial benefits often outweigh the risks in the eyes of many big brands. By using these oftentimes harmful chemicals, companies keep costs down through bypassing more natural/expensive pest control or preservation methods.

An eco-friendly product usually uses healthier, organic,or natural alternatives that avoid harmful chemicals in the production process, which increases the cost of research and development, manufacturing, rigorous testing, and healthy chemical alternatives.

Likewise, in both the apparel industry and agricultural industry, skipping pesticides and toxic fertilizers to grow crops is more expensive and time-consuming, hence why things like organic clothing and sustainable food brands are almost always more expensive.

Of course, no one should need extra money to buy safe products for their family. Until legislation is passed to create a level playing field for all companies, we’re left to bear the financial brunt of toxin-free products as consumers.

The good news is that as eco-friendly economies of scale grow, healthy ingredients become cheaper and products become more affordable. A perfect example is BPA-free baby bottles, which were quite expensive. Once legislation passed to ban BPA from all baby bottles, safe sippy cups of today the same price (accounting for inflation, of course) as the toxic ones of yesterday.

It ups the street cred of a brand to don a notable sustainability certification. Many sustainable brands choose to get certified by voluntary third-party organizations, and in an era of rampant greenwashing, it also helps the customer to discern which eco-brands are more trustworthy.

B Corp, Fair Trade, GOTS, OEKO-TEX, MADE SAFE, USDA Organic, bluesign®, and countless others are all proof positive that business can be a force for good. While they’re not infallible, they are crucial to not only raise the bar on standards of integrity, but also to provide consumers with some reasssurance that they aren’t paying premium prices for sustainable products that aren’t so sustainable after all.

Yet most are costly, especially for smaller sustainable start-ups. Since they require rigorous inspection, testing, audits, quality control, and admin work, certifications will often drive a brand’s prices up to cover the overhead.

The corporate world is obsessed with the idea of “ESG” (Environment, Social, Governance) as of late as people are demanding that corporations take care of people and the planet, and not only their profits—and we think that’s a very good thing!

But “walking your talk” costs money. Adopting ethical and eco-friendly business practices like waste reduction, installing solar panels or wind turbines, investing in energy-efficient appliances, or allocating staff time to contribute to environmental or social causes, for example, all take effort, organization, time, and money.

So, how can socially and environmentally conscious companies continue to make a difference AND pay their overhead?

You guessed correctly; They pass the buck on some of those operational costs to the consumer by way of price. After all, they want to make the world a better place—as long as their profits aren’t the ones being sacrificed to do so.

As Tara Button’s book A Life Less Throwaway suggests, many of today’s products are not only built to be disposable, but also built to be busted. Although there’s an up-front cost-saving for products of low quality, consumers will have to replace the item promptly.

Then there is planned obsolescence, which makes reusables at the quality of disposables. It’s a longstanding business strategy (and sustainability nightmare) to ensure the current version of a product becomes outdated or useless within a known time period.

Have an iPhone? Ever wondered why their performance (speed, battery life, etc) seems to decrease with every all-too-frequent software update? Planned obsolescence is written into Apple’s very marketing strategy. Because what better way to convince people who may barely be able to afford rent they need the latest $1,000+ luxury iPhone than to make their old one non-functional?

Fortunately, the French government has launched an investigation to finally crack down on it, calling on Apple “​​to guarantee the right to repair devices under the logic of a real circular economy”.

Then there are reusables made to replace disposables that are made with integrity, durability, and yes, saving money in mind. These reusables often have a higher upfront cost than their disposable counterparts because of better quality, but they will save money (and the planet) over time. So if you were wondering, “Does sustainability reduce costs?”

Yes, it does… eventually. But for many who live paycheck to paycheck, the upfront investment of quality items can be an issue. A college student living on a $30 per week stipend likely cannot afford a reusable menstrual cup upfront, even though in the long run it will be far cheaper than the $10 monthly box of tampons.

Likewise, an eco-friendly water bottle may cost $40 upfront, which is a lot more than a $2 plastic bottle of water. But over the course of a lifetime, that reusable water bottle is going to provide enormous savings (not to mention enormous carbon footprint reduction).

There’s an undeniable market opportunity for sustainable products that attracts businesses who greenwash for the purpose of mucky marketing and inflated prices. As countless polls and studies have demonstrated to brands and marketers, people often anticipate sustainable products to cost more, and tend to pay more willingly.

Vulture businesses will seize this opportunity, and we’ve seen it already to such a degree that the EU and UK are now developing stringent legislation to stop pervasive industry greenwashing.

But despite these bad eggs who manipulate the system, sustainable pricing is NOT really just greenwashing.

That said, beware that a lot of faux sustainable products are greenwashed exactly for the sake of jacked up prices. As consumers, it is so important to do your own research. We do our best at SJ to provide the most up-to-date research to limit some of the legwork, but we really encourage everyone to stay savvy and sovereign.

Let’s get one thing straight: extremely low prices typically come at the cost of the planet and people. The average consumer has gotten used to prices that are only possible from cutting corners such as exploiting workers, ruining the environment, or using cheap materials and toxic ingredients.

That said, is sustainable living expensive? It certainly can be a luxurious eco-pursuit of the elite with prices seemingly aloof and pretentious, but it doesn’t have to be.

And really, it shouldn’t be. Because how awkward and unjust would it be if everything affordable was made by exploited POC of the global south and everything “ethical” was produced to soothe white affluent guilt in the global north?

Modern sustainability tends to receive this very criticism. We’re acutely aware of the hypocrisy in sustainability circles bereft of social justice, which is why we advocate for sustainability that is both intersectional and inclusive, meaning it also has to be accessible—or rather, affordable.

And no $14 wild foraged Japanese matcha with hand pressed oat milk in a sugarcane bioplastic cup with organic bamboo straw from a bespoke “green” cafe will convince us otherwise.

With that, here are a number of tips for budget-friendly sustainable shopping:

• Time Management: Like they say, time is money. While sustainability can seem intimidatingly time-consuming and costly, carving out space every week to take pleasure in tasks like meal prep or making DIY home products will help increase cost savings while living sustainably.
• Thrifting: Shopping from second hand stores stops the sourcing, manufacturing, and shipping impacts of a new item, while stopping an old item from being landfill-bound. As if those two positives alone weren’t enough, did we mention thrift shopping and flea markets are also the most affordable shopping that exists?
• Clothing Swaps: Instead of shopping fast fashion, hosting and attending community clothing swaps is a more circular, sustainable, AND social alternative to buying new things.
• Shop Final Sale Items: If they remain unsold, they’re likely destined to become deadstock that rots in warehouses or landfills for millennia, so we’ll support buying new if it’s off the clearance rack.
• Buy In Bulk: Buying in bulk is cheaper, plus buying from bulk stores helps support the zero waste movement.
• Buy Refills: Purchasing refills where possible cuts down on costs, since many brands offer refills at discounted prices for everything from refillable cleaning products to refillable body wash.
• Buy Locally & Seasonally: Especially when it comes to produce, this will not only be cheaper, but more eco-friendly (and local-friendly!), since it reduces shipping carbon emissions.
• Food Waste Solutions: Food waste accounts for not only huge amounts of landfill waste, but also financial losses at home. The average 4-person US household wastes $1,500 worth of groceries each year. Imagine what you could do with $1,500! Food waste solutions are sustainable AND save you money.
• Buy Less, Invest More: Most importantly: consume less and you’ll have more money to spend on high-quality purchases of durable goods!