In recent years, Black Friday has become synonymous with frenzied shopping and massive deals. It's a day when shoppers queue up outside shops from before dawn and frantically reload web pages to score the best discounts on everything from electronics to clothing. However, at Choose a Challenge, we’re joining the growing movement that believes there might be a more meaningful way to approach this shopping frenzy: Green Friday.

What is Green Friday?

Green Friday is an alternative to the consumer-driven chaos of Black Friday. Rather than indulging in mindless shopping for items that may quickly get moved to a cupboard to start collecting dust, Green Friday encourages us to make more sustainable and thoughtful choices. It's been put forward as a day when we focus on conscious consumption and invest in experiences that enrich our lives and the world around us.

Why Choose Green Friday over Black Friday?

• Mindful Purchasing:

Black Friday often leads to impulsive purchases driven by the appeal of securing whopping discounts. However, these bargains can lead to buyer's remorse when we realise that the items we bought don't really add value to our lives. Green Friday invites us to pause and think about what truly matters. Instead of acquiring material possessions, consider investing in experiences that create lasting memories. Or, just hovering over the ‘Buy Now’ button for a few seconds longer to make sure we’ve considered whether it’s something we really need!

• Sustainable Travel Opportunities:

As a tour operator for charity challenge events, we reckon we’ve got a very good alternative way for you to spend your money! We believe that the charity challenge events that we run truly do make the world a better place. By booking a charity challenge adventure with us, you not only embark on an incredible journey but you also make a positive impact on the world, both to the charities that you might choose to support but also to the local communities that you’ll be visiting.

• Meaningful Discounts and Donations:

But of course we also don’t want you to miss out on grabbing a discount! So, to mark this Green Friday, we're offering special discounts on our charity challenges throughout the whole of November. These discounts provide you with a chance to explore the world while supporting a charitable cause. 

And, to put our money where our mouth is we’ll also donate a portion of the proceeds from your booking to a charity of your choice. Once you book, we’ll get in touch to ask you which charity you want a donation to go to and we’ll do the rest. 

• Support Local Communities:

When you embark on a charity challenge with us, you’ll be met by our teams in-country. We don’t work with foreign owned businesses or use international guides. If you’re in Tanzania then you’ll benefit from the experience, knowledge and passion of Tanzanian guides, porters, cooks and support staff. This way, more of the money you spend is sure to go into those communities.

In countries we operate in where there’s been recent natural disasters, the return of tourism is a vital and highly valued way for people to rebuild homes, livelihoods and economies. 

• Reducing Environmental Impact:

Green Friday is also about being conscious of your environmental footprint. Obviously international travel has a significant carbon footprint. There’s no getting away from that fact.

Our belief is that the economic benefit to communities in developing countries and to the charities that our participants fundraise for go a huge distance towards offsetting the carbon footprint from our trips.

We make every effort to reduce our carbon footprint on our challenges. Hopefully you won’t see single-use plastics on our trips, will eat locally sourced, seasonal produce and will observe our teams carrying our waste out so as to leave no trace. We’re continually looking to improve and so please do let us know if you’ve got any ideas, suggestions or feedback about where we can make further reductions to our footprint.

Conclusion:

One of Green Friday’s initiatives invites you to step away from the shopping frenzy and invest in experiences that make a difference. By booking a charity challenge event with Choose a Challenge, you not only enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime adventure but also contribute to meaningful causes and invest in local economies reliant on tourism income. 

We obviously would say this but we reckon that choosing experiences over possessions is definitely the way to go! We’re sure that you'll find that the memories created will last far longer than any discounted item you might have purchased on Black Friday!