April 29th, 2009

We call this a Good Find

So GoodGuide hums along, cataloging products and stamping them with a rating, from 1-10, based on how the product and its manufacturer perform on several environmental/social factors. (The rating matrix considers pollution, equitable pay, water conservation, place of origin, recyclability, toxins, health factors environmental payback etc.)

Then via links on GoodGuide you can pop over to TheFind, to actually, well, find what you want you’re seeking at retail outlets and compare prices, in both online and local stores. Land upon an item that’s been checked out by GG and you can see their rating while shopping.

Or, you can operate in reverse, shopping on TheFind, and then popping over to check a product’s rating and company profile on GoodGuide. Click, click, you’re in control, and you’re getting info instantly on your computer or iPhone. (You didn’t think they’d forget to have an iPhone app did you?)

GoodGuide’s ratings seem to run pretty deep.

For instance, I just called up the “fresh strip steak (grass-fed, lean only, organic). Grass-fed we know is the most environmentally friendly way of raising beef, because the bovine are grazed as nature intended. But we also know that meat has issues, and the Good Guide flags them: This grass-fed hunk of food is best in its category when compared to other fresh beef, but it still has a “high impact” on global warming and energy use and “some impact” on water, land and air. Also noted, beef is a high cholesterol product. Also present, the USDA nutrition label, which shows this steak is chockful of B vitamins, iron and protein; all good for you.

So you can see that GoodGuide has a lot of ground to cover, and there are complexities.

Let’s look at another product, Barbara’s Bakery Honey Crunch’n Oats (Organic). We know oats are good for us, and if you shop at natural markets you’ll recognize Barb’s brand as member in good standing. GG gives the Honey Crunch’n Oats a 7.9 rating on the 10-point scale, noting that it has good nutritional value (low sugar and low fat) and is a non-GMO, Organic and Green America Seal of Approval product. But some ground has yet to be covered. GG is still working on assessing the Energy, Global Warming, Water, Land and Air impacts of this product. Apparently Barbara’s needs to send more details.

It must be yeoman’s work, rating and ranking and parsing all this info about so many products, the green, the nearly green and the green imposters.

“It’s a humongous undertaking,” concedes Van Horn, who is part of GoodGuide’s 12 full-time and 10 part-time member staff , which includes researchers, a toxicologist, environmental engineer, life cycle analyst, greenhouse gas impact analyst and a nutritionist.

University of California at Berkeley professor Dara O’Rourke was inspired to create the guide after applying sunscreen to his young child, only to realize that he hadn’t a clue what was in the cream. He researched the sunscreen and found that it contained a well-known carcinogen.

O’Rourke’s epiphany launched a crusade to “help consumers determine what the true health, environmental and social impacts are of the products they buy every day,” Van Horn said.

“The idea is to provide comprehensive info and allow each user to make decisions based on their values,” she said. “…everybody comes to purchasing decisions with different values and they can determine what is right for their family.”

As consumers learn more, and demand green products at a reasonable price and with the characteristics that they care about, they won’t have to wait for regulators to uncover “greenwashing” practices or penalize companies for making misleading claims.

When the consumers have full knowledge, they will shape the marketplace, helping drive up demand for the products they value and the green goods that come clean about their background, Kumar said. “That’s what it’s all about — giving information to the consumer.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

MORE FROM GRN

Pages: 1 2