The Good Guide – Consumer Research At Your Fingertips

Photo Credit: Flickr/Mista Yuck

Hopefully we are all trying to live up to our greenest potential, but what is the one thing that usually trips us up?  Shopping!  I know this has happened to you: you are in the store buying food, or clothes, or personal care products and you want to buy the healthiest, greenest product of the options available to you.  But once you are at the store you have so many choices – which ones do you choose?

This happens to all of us, even those of us who spend hours researching products.  Even with the best laid plans and intentions, you can get tripped up.  Perhaps the product that you came in for isn’t available in the store, what is the next best alternative?  Perhaps you don’t have a plan and rely on the labels to make your product decision, which of the marketing claims are valid?  Do we believe when a manufacturer states that their product is natural or organic or non-toxic?  How do we know if the company follows sustainable practices?  It is hard to say when you are breezing through the aisles.

If you have a smart phone, you have a tool at your fingertips to help you face this challenge.  Go to your app store and download The Good Guide, a free app that helps you to decide which products are better for you and the environment.  How do they do this, you ask?  A team of scientists, environmental professionals and public health experts compile research on thousands of products, rating each on health, environmental and social responsibility factors.  Each product gets rated on a scale of 0-10, the higher the better.  Use your camera as a scanner, scan the barcode, and get your rating.  So easy!

Not only is this amazing to have with you in the store, but you can also conduct product research at home on their website for the larger purchases that need a bit more contemplation.  They even rate cars!  I looked through some of the products and was surprised by what I found.  For instance, I have been having conflicting thoughts about the environmental impacts of individual coffee pods.  I found that these products placed fairly high on their rating scale, due in part to their efficiency in brewing coffee, but also because some brands used Fair Trade beans.  But I was a bit disappointed to find that my iPhone ranked middle of the road.  Not the best, but not the worst.

As you use this tool, please keep in mind that these ratings are developed to give you a general idea of the product impacts.  There are many important factors that sometimes cannot be considered in their assessment.  And they are sometimes limited by the information available on specific products.  The ratings that The Good Guide team has developed are to be used as a general guideline, not a guarantee.  But very helpful if you are in the grocery store and would like to know which peanut butter is the greenest choice.

Eco Home Consultations provides green living consultation service in the Seattle area, focusing on practical ways to integrate green living into your household.  Learn more at www.ecohomeconsults.com or email questions about this blog or other green living issues to Melissa@ecohomeconsults.com.