You could imagine that if Consumer Reports and LEED got together and had a baby; it might look something like GoodGuide.
The Guide currently has close to 80,000 products evaluated in
categories like personal care, food, household chemicals, paper
products, and toys.
So, the idea is, as you are walking down the aisle of your favorite
store, trying to exercise your purchasing power in the most responsible
fashion, you stop in front of the dishwasher detergent to mull over your
choices. You pick up Cascade, your usual brand and scan the barcode
with your iPhone. You find that it gets a respectable rating of 7.1 out
of ten. A perfect 10 for health (no issues), but a more average 5.5 for
environment and a 5.9 for society. Curious, you drill down and see that
it gets dinged on biodiversity with a meager 1.9 for habitat
conservation. Thirty-five people recommend it, nine say to avoid it. A
little disappointed, you set the box back down. It had always done a
good job getting the dishes clean, but you like animals, so you look
around to see what else there is. You pick up a bottle of Seventh
Generation Automatic Dishwasher Gel and scan its barcode. It gets an
8.2, including an 8.4 for environment and 7.6 for biodiversity. A
whopping 293 people recommend it and only 3 said to avoid it. Even
though it costs a little more, and it only got an 8.0 for health, you
decide to give it a try. |
