How Our Black Friday Initiative Supports OpenAQ’s Mission for Clean Air

As you might have already read, Black Friday is something we don’t participate in for several reasons. It is a holiday that embodies everything we stand against – overconsumption, impulse buying, and the harmful environmental consequences that come with it. But we recently learned that it doesn’t have to be that way. We decided to participate in the event in a way that was more aligned with our mission and values. After thoughtful consideration, we decided our intentions were best expressed by offering a discount code that would give customers $30 off, while donating $30 to an NGO for every purchase made with the code.

Even though we approached Black Friday in a way entirely opposite to its usual intent, the promotion still turned out to be a success. The codes we provided were used 93 times, which means that we’ve ended up raising a total of $2,790!

In our initial blog post, we shared that we would be donating the total amount raised to an NGO. At the time, it wasn’t clear to us which organization we would be supporting, but we made a promise to write a blog post about it once we made that decision.

After a few brainstorming sessions, we came to the decision that it would be best to partner with OpenAQ. For those of you who are already familiar with OpenAQ, it might already make sense why we’ve chosen to contribute the amount we’ve raised to this organization.

OpenAQ is the world’s largest open-source, open-access platform for ground-level ambient air quality data. To give you a better understanding as to why donating to OpenAQ feels like a natural fit, it’s worth noting that OpenAQ was founded on the principle that “people have a right to know what they are breathing and should be able to freely access, use, reuse, and redistribute air quality data.” Our mission aligns very closely with this sentiment, as our air quality monitors are open-hardware and open source, which helps us promote free and open access to air quality data. This alignment is one of the many reasons we are proud to support OpenAQ through our Black Friday initiative.

When we reached out to OpenAQ about our contribution, their response captured the spirit of our shared mission. “We are truly honored to receive this Black Friday contribution from AirGradient,” said Chris Hagerbaumer, executive director of OpenAQ. “We also thank AirGradient for encouraging their customers to share their data with OpenAQ. When data is made fully open and available to the public at large, clean air progress is accelerated because everyone can lend their skills to developing and implementing solutions.”

To provide more clarity on how the donations will be utilized, OpenAQ outlines on their site that any donations to their organization will support the following causes:

• Key programs like the OpenAQ Community Ambassador Program, which trains and engages emerging air quality leaders in using air quality data to fight air pollution in their communities.
• The development of new tools on the OpenAQ platform to support users of all abilities in accessing, understanding, and using air quality data.
• The expansion of data coverage in low- and middle-income countries and environmental justice communities.
• Key infrastructure costs to ensure the data and tools are available to everyone.

We also wanted to use this blog post as an opportunity to thank our community, which made the success of our first Black Friday event possible. It serves as a reminder that we can always challenge the narrative – an event that is rooted in consumerism can be reimagined and celebrated in a more ethical and impactful way.

We are committed to finding more ways to involve the community in as many meaningful initiatives as possible. We hope that our approach to Black Friday inspires you to seek out more sustainable deals, and more importantly, encourages other brands to adopt ethical practices in events like these. Let’s keep the momentum going and always practice mindful consumption, even beyond Black Friday.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback on how we can further our mission, we’d love to hear from you.