Why Flora & Fauna is Turning Black Friday Green this Year

With e-commerce sales experiencing unprecedented levels, it may cause further damage to the planet. Flora & Fauna, winner of the ORIAs ‘Best Woke Leader’ award, is planning to turn this Friday Green with its initiative.

While Black Friday is a great day for customers to get their hands on awesome discounts, it’s also important to remember its impact on the planet. “It’s a huge day in everyone’s calendar so the perfect day to really highlight the impact we all have but also do something about it and work with an Australian business to make a difference,” explained Julie Mathers, the Founder of Flora & Fauna.

On Friday, 27 November, Flora & Fauna will be carbon offsetting the customer’s individual carbon emissions for the day. This equates to roughly 63kg of CO2-e for every order, Mathers explained.

“We’re turning this Friday Green! We know there are huge sales out there at the moment and my inbox is flooded with sale emails this morning so we’re doing something a bit different today,” she shared on LinkedIn.

Flora & Fauna works alongside Greenfleet, a not-for-profit organisation that plant native biodiverse forests across Australia and New Zealand, which captures carbon emissions.

“We’ve run Green Deal sales for a few years now and last year we planted a tree with every order. This year I wanted to do something different and have a positive impact with all the consumerism happening but also help people be aware of their impact. So we thought we’d Turn this Friday Green! This year we’re offsetting the personal carbon emissions for the day of anyone who orders with F&F. We’re doing this with Greenfleet, an Australian charity that regenerates land here in Australia,” she told Power Retail.

As sustainable retailing becomes an expected part of strategies for retailers across the globe, this initiative may inspire other retailers to incorporate the concept into their strategies. So, will this be the future for retailers?

“I really hope so; I think it’s imperative that we consider our impact in every decision we make,” she explained.

“Customers are wanting it so we need to start thinking differently. We do need bigger businesses to get behind these movements as well though. We struggle hugely with Facebook when talking about anything that is helping drive change.”

While sustainable and ethical practices are encouraged by customers and retailers alike, some social media platforms have disapproved the initiative.

“Facebook has disapproved our Turn Friday Green as an ad,” Mathers told Power Retail. “This has happened multiple times with Facebook before and it’s frustrating, and disappointing, that a platform with so much power can’t get behind movements to help our planet and future thinking.”

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