The tag line for GoodGuide suggests they provide ratings of Natural Products, Green Products, and Healthy Products… Well not necessarily… What they actually do is aggregate multiple product ratings roughly divided into three categories, Health performance, Environmental performance, and Social performance. You might chuck the shampoo you are using in the dumpster recycle bin after learning more about what you are buying.
GoodGuide goes a long way to fulfilling an idea I’ve been kicking around with some of my friends lately. The idea is that we need to become more conscious of the “Global cost of Ownership” or GCO of the stuff we make, buy and consume. The idea is not “what does it cost me?”, the consumer, but “what does it cost the planet?” What is the total toll on our environment, health and social well being as the product moves from cradle to grave.
There have been many efforts to rate products over the years but they have often been focused on a singular or narrow concern for example child safety, carbon footprint, health and toxicity, etc.. But a product strong in one area might be weak in another. By exposing all the data, or as much as we can, we can encourage manufacturers to improve there products in all the columns as we educate consumers about what a particular product is doing to their local and global body. GoodGuide also follows through and reveals the sources of it’s ratings. Verifiability is very important if we are going to be able to trust rating systems like this. Try it out. look at a product on GoodGuide and click on the link to “See all data”. Sources for ratings are revealed, sometimes accompanied by a direct link to the source.
Here are some other characteristics of GoodGuide as summarized in a recent post by Wikinomics blogger Paul Artiuch:
- Easy to understand 10-point based rating for the health, environmental and social performance of the product
- Aggregate 10-point product rating based on 600 criteria derived from 71 product facts
- Scientific approach to calculating scores using information from government, not-for-profit and private databases
- Comparison ratings in various product categories
- Ability for users to add their own ratings and reviews with links to reviews by Amazon
- iPhone application for mobile browsing
- Tips on reducing environmental impact
- Intuitive interface which greatly speeds up browsing
Hey, this works for me. So in my opinion the upshot is that GoodGuide is indeed a good guide and one I think I’ll use., but more importantly it may be a model for how we can make guides good.
Jodie at GoodGuide | 11-Mar-09 at 7:41 pm | Permalink
Thanks for the great post about GoodGuide. Transparency is one of our highest priorities as we empower consumers to expect the same from the manufacturers of consumer goods. Transparency will be an important focus of our upcoming food ratings launch. There is hardly a product more important than the kind you put in your body and, unfortunately, food manufacturers and government agencies make it difficult for consumers to know all the facts about their food. GoodGuide’s ratings intend to begin to clarify what’s actually in the foods we eat, while consumers continue to push for more disclosure from companies and more regulation from government to ensure healthy, safe, green choices. Stay tuned for our food ratings, launching Monday, March 16. And remember, you are what you eat. So, choose wisely!