Reflection on Week 11: Responsible Consumerism Model

Understanding responsible consumerism is quite complex, this is because implementing responsible consumerism is not only about disposing waste in its place, but beyond that there are factors to be able to fully implement responsible consumerism. After I studied this lesson, I realized that there are several natures in responsible consumerism.

These models are described in the form of human awareness of consumerism triangle. The first is economic responsibility, this model is at the bottom because it is considered the most understood by everyone. Economic responsibility means that businesses will target to attain profit as much as possible and be responsible to all of their stakeholders economically, such as investors, business owners, and employees. To implement the economic responsibilities, businesses will obviously plan their product, marketing, and pricing strategies and conduct employee training as effective and efficient as possible. By planning the best strategies, they will attract customers as much as possible and hopefully can fulfil their economic responsibility.

The second is legal responsibility, in this model a person is required to comply with the applicable consumerism rules and if you look at its function, someone should be at a high level of awareness of this but not everyone is willing or able to comply with this. For example, since 2020, Malaysia has set a fine for customers who smoke in restaurants or dining establishments of RM 10,000. At the beginning of its implementation, we can see that many of the customers are afraid to smoke in the dining area and the restaurant owners are also firm in reminding customers who smoke in their dining areas. However, after 2 years of running this regulation, we can see that this regulation is no longer as strict as it used to be. Therefore, as I said above, everyone really understands in carrying out legal responsibility but not everyone wants to practice it.

The third is ethical responsibility, the purpose of this model is to minimize social and/or environmental damage, while avoiding products and services deemed to have a negative impact on society or the environment. For example, there are many invitations to reduce the use of single-use plastics in daily food or drink consumption such as straws, bowls, drinking bottles, and others because plastic waste can harm the environment, therefore many people choose to use stainless straws and bowls as well as bring a usable water bottle that can be washed many times to minimize the use of single-use plastic. However, to maximize this consumerism model, it requires strong commitment from consumers and calculations that benefit the producers of these single-use plastic goods.

There is a saying in the Qur'an that states the importance of protecting the environment which is "And when he turns away (from you), he walks on the earth to do mischief on it, and destroys crops and livestock, and Allah does not like destruction." (Surat al-Baqarah: 205). Therefore, it is important for a company to process its production waste so as not to damage the surrounding community environment.

The last is Philanthropic responsibility, the purpose of this model is to make the corporate into a good company and good in the eyes of the community. There are many ways to implement philantrophic responsibility. For example, in my strategic management assignment, I was required to look at the allocation of corporate social responsibility funds for a company called DATAPREP HOLDINGS BHD. During the current 5 years (2016-2020) the company has carried out a lot of philantrophic responsibility, namely by carrying out blood campaigns which are related to SDG number 3, the company also has a strict internal policy of separating and recycling used materials and disposed items which are relatable to SDGs. number 8, and others. These things are intended so that the company does not only sell its products to the public, but also protects the environment and the surrounding community.

Furthermore, to apply the responsible consumerism model, a consumer policy must be established. Consumer policy is implemented to realize consumer interest. This consumer policy is delivered in many ways, such as consumer education, consumer information, and consumer protection. By having a consumer policy, things that are detrimental to consumers can be processed and the best solution found for these consumers. I think this is very important because later every complaint that comes in can be processed in a structured way, so that those who are responsible for processing these complaints can solve consumer problems slowly but surely.