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Responsible consumerism
Nov. 5th, 2010 08:58 amSo how do you find a responsible company, one you feel good giving your money to?
I started with a company I wanted to find out more about, and I have to say, it is not going very well. It's not a giant company, BBP Industries. Its "about us" page says some nice, if vague, things about giving away backpacks to people in need, and donating money to charities at different levels. Well, that's nice, but I want an outside perspective and more information.
I tried looking at "Corporate Social Responsibility." It sounds so nice, doesn't it? But according to at least one source, it's basically just greenwashing. It is definitely essentially self-policed, so it's not giving me that outside perspective I'm asking for. I noted that the list of things that must be done to be a "socially responsible corporation" are, in my opinion, a really bottom line decency standard, what everyone should be doing, not any kind of above-and-beyond. Maybe that's a different problem. More importantly, I was not able to find a list or ranking of companies that even claim to follow these standards - if you google the term, you'll find some companies claiming they do this, on their own sites, but this is far from objective or exhaustive.
Okay, fine. I decided that this approach is too focused on the corporation. Maybe I need to look from the consumer end. So I searched for "how to be a socially responsible consumer". One of the first sites I found sounds good, with goals to provide clear assistance to people on companies' environmental, human rights, and animal rights related practices. It also acknowledges that it doesn't have the resources to independently verify information, though, which I understand but is disappointing. This site doesn't have what I'm really hoping for, a way to look up a particular company and see what their sourcing and practices are.
However, it did give me some good shopping tips, with a short list of recommended places to shop, and a reminder to me about Co-op America's National Green Pages. We used to have this directory on hand at home and be members, but we let it lapse because we weren't really referring to it - a failing on our part, not theirs. It has listings that basically recommend companies for their environmentally friendly practices - but it's not like it lists every company and rates them, it just tells you about the ones that are good and registered with them. If a company isn't listed, that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad; it might just mean they haven't gotten around to doing this.
The Responsible Purchasing Network sounds great but only gives its info to members. I kind of get that; they have to pay for their data somehow, but I also don't think it's very productive in terms of getting people to purchase responsibly!
Another thing to consider is companies' political contributions. Goodguide and OpenSecrets.org give some decent information on this, for major companies/donors. Obviously how a company donates politically doesn't make it "responsible" -- I'd kind of rather they didn't do that at all -- but since they do, it might be something you want to think about.
...
To keep links in one place, here's a little roundup of places you can shop and feel good about it from me and others:
Costco
The Body Shop
Ten Thousand Villages
Anything in the aforementioned Co-op America's National Green Pages
The New American Dream's Marketplace
How about Alternative gift registries?
Local shopping, like (for Minnesotans) the shop at Rosedale Center called Celebrate Art, the MN Historical Society's store, or hey, check out this Made in MN gift guide!
For investing, try the Social Funds Report, or the Social Investment Forum.
...
Mixed in with this is a concern over what companies are putting IN their products, so I thought I'd share this:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/
This database has information on personal care products of all kinds - shampoo, makeup, lotions, etc. It notes an overall score and also gives information on what kinds of ingredients are linked to what kinds of things - cancer, e.g. While I don't use it regularly, I do occasionally, and it's nice to be able to see what brands & products I should aim for, and which ones really are just nicely labeled bottles of carcinogens.
...
In conclusion, so far, I am finding that it's much easier to start by looking for a company that's ethical and then shop with them, versus finding a company and trying to figure out how ethical they are. It's a start.
I started with a company I wanted to find out more about, and I have to say, it is not going very well. It's not a giant company, BBP Industries. Its "about us" page says some nice, if vague, things about giving away backpacks to people in need, and donating money to charities at different levels. Well, that's nice, but I want an outside perspective and more information.
I tried looking at "Corporate Social Responsibility." It sounds so nice, doesn't it? But according to at least one source, it's basically just greenwashing. It is definitely essentially self-policed, so it's not giving me that outside perspective I'm asking for. I noted that the list of things that must be done to be a "socially responsible corporation" are, in my opinion, a really bottom line decency standard, what everyone should be doing, not any kind of above-and-beyond. Maybe that's a different problem. More importantly, I was not able to find a list or ranking of companies that even claim to follow these standards - if you google the term, you'll find some companies claiming they do this, on their own sites, but this is far from objective or exhaustive.
Okay, fine. I decided that this approach is too focused on the corporation. Maybe I need to look from the consumer end. So I searched for "how to be a socially responsible consumer". One of the first sites I found sounds good, with goals to provide clear assistance to people on companies' environmental, human rights, and animal rights related practices. It also acknowledges that it doesn't have the resources to independently verify information, though, which I understand but is disappointing. This site doesn't have what I'm really hoping for, a way to look up a particular company and see what their sourcing and practices are.
However, it did give me some good shopping tips, with a short list of recommended places to shop, and a reminder to me about Co-op America's National Green Pages. We used to have this directory on hand at home and be members, but we let it lapse because we weren't really referring to it - a failing on our part, not theirs. It has listings that basically recommend companies for their environmentally friendly practices - but it's not like it lists every company and rates them, it just tells you about the ones that are good and registered with them. If a company isn't listed, that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad; it might just mean they haven't gotten around to doing this.
The Responsible Purchasing Network sounds great but only gives its info to members. I kind of get that; they have to pay for their data somehow, but I also don't think it's very productive in terms of getting people to purchase responsibly!
Another thing to consider is companies' political contributions. Goodguide and OpenSecrets.org give some decent information on this, for major companies/donors. Obviously how a company donates politically doesn't make it "responsible" -- I'd kind of rather they didn't do that at all -- but since they do, it might be something you want to think about.
...
To keep links in one place, here's a little roundup of places you can shop and feel good about it from me and others:
Costco
The Body Shop
Ten Thousand Villages
Anything in the aforementioned Co-op America's National Green Pages
The New American Dream's Marketplace
How about Alternative gift registries?
Local shopping, like (for Minnesotans) the shop at Rosedale Center called Celebrate Art, the MN Historical Society's store, or hey, check out this Made in MN gift guide!
For investing, try the Social Funds Report, or the Social Investment Forum.
...
Mixed in with this is a concern over what companies are putting IN their products, so I thought I'd share this:
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/
This database has information on personal care products of all kinds - shampoo, makeup, lotions, etc. It notes an overall score and also gives information on what kinds of ingredients are linked to what kinds of things - cancer, e.g. While I don't use it regularly, I do occasionally, and it's nice to be able to see what brands & products I should aim for, and which ones really are just nicely labeled bottles of carcinogens.
...
In conclusion, so far, I am finding that it's much easier to start by looking for a company that's ethical and then shop with them, versus finding a company and trying to figure out how ethical they are. It's a start.