I read a great book recently: Ecological Intelligence, How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything by Daniel Goleman. The main idea is if the consumer could easily compare the social/environmental/ethical impacts of the products s/he buys then the manufacturers would be forced to change their products to impact the world more positively. Generally speaking, manufacturers are not interested in their products' impacts because it is not economically advantageous. The consumer is at a disadvantage currently because this information is not public (and in most cases, is unresearched). New research is needed to understand the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of all products and then these LCAs need to be made into a easy to use rating/label system.
There are some positive signs of movement on multiple fronts. There are a couple of websites where consumers can already get ratings like http://www.goodguide.com/. Hekhsher Tzedek is trying to put together its own ethical certification of kosher food products. And in the UK, the Department of Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) has put our a call for proposals for "Effective approaches to environmental labeling of food products".
It is time for those who care greatly that what we buy creates positive (or the least negative) impacts on the world to step up!
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