A good Guide in the making

Two people recently recommended the Good Guide, and I’ve been checking it out to see what it’s got to offer. Applying Daniel Goleman‘s principles of Ecological Intelligence, the site reviews up to 70,000 products and gives them rankings to steer conscious consumers. Time magazine included it in a recent article “10 Ideas changing the world right now”:

“What if we could seamlessly calculate the full lifetime effect of our actions on the earth and on our bodies? Not just carbon footprints but social and biological footprints as well? What if we could think ecologically? That’s what psychologist Daniel Goleman describes in his forthcoming book, Ecological Intelligence. Using a young science called industrial ecology, businesses and green activists alike are beginning to compile the environmental and biological impact of our every decision — and delivering that information to consumers in a user-friendly way.”

What I like so far is that the Good Guide gives all three environmental, health, and social ratings. This includes factors like how much water a product uses; what additives a food item might have; the life cycle of the packaging; and how a company treats its employees. My friend Andrea’s found it to be very useful in picking baby food brands, for example.

But when I look through the random products they have listed, I don’t find any information that feels relevant for me just yet. I’d like to read about store brands like Trader Joe’s (where I shop a lot, I admit),  explanations to decipher egg labels (found this in the New York Times, by the way, if you never read it), clothing brand sweatshop practices, and other things I may not think of necessarily, but would appreciate knowing when shopping.

In the future what we’ll hopefully see more of are background pages shedding light on factory farms, sweatshop practices, the consequences of buying local, benefits of supporting farmer’s markets, the environmental toll of plastic containers, the truth behind bottled water brands, etc.

My friend planted the seed in my head though: what if in the future all products could be ‘Good Guide’ rated and labeled with their rankings? Imagine how much more informed people could be! I like it.