The Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday have just passed and Christmas is just around the corner, three occasions characterised by trade and consumption, lots of trade and, to a large extent, a triggered over-consumption. Greenlab, a newly established business run by creatives at eXpression Umeå, is focused on the circular economy. During Black Friday, they and several creatives showed alternatives to overconsumption in the Green Friday event.
Greenlab founders Julia Sénécal, Anthony Sorsa and Munashe Chivaura are all passionate about sustainability and during the Black Friday weekend they organised Green Friday at the eXpression Pop-In in the MVG gallery in central Umeå. Together with other creators, they want to inspire a more sustainable trade and a future beyond mere economic growth driven by overconsumption.
During the event, workshops were held where visitors had the opportunity to upcycle, exchange and resell their clothes, consume recycled products and create music from upcycled and recycled products.
Sustainable trade does not mean that we should stop consuming, but change the way we consume. For example, if you need a pair of warm shoes for the winter, you should buy them, but you don't have to buy ten pairs," says Cecilia Berglund, one of the active creators at the event.
At the same time as consumers need to change their purchasing behaviour, businesses need to move from a linear economy to a circular economy, where they use used materials to produce new ones.
The video below shows a selection of the activities during the Green Friday event.
Film by Isak Lundberg and Oskar Sandström.
