The means to inform purchasers about the ecological or social impacts of processes, products and services is increasing. Emerging communications technologies and social network channels are helping to balance power between people and businesses by enabling interested stakeholders to scrutinise each other and share more information than ever before.
In 2011, the barcode turned fifty-seven years old, an invention that has changed how people shop, transport and organise products. There are now eco-friendly uses of barcodes being developed, such as the ability to scan a product in-store and not only know the price, but also its environmental and carbon footprint. At a recent Australian Food and Grocery event involving diverse stakeholders, discussions revolved around embedding packaging recyclability information into barcodes or QR codes.
QR – Quick Response – codes can be added almost anywhere, from magazines to signs to the business cards, to packaging and onto products themselves. QR codes add web based content to real-world messages, objects or locations. This tool provides for increased website and social media interaction via a mobile platform, such as a smartphone, with a simple scan and “click” to access useful content.
The proliferation of apps has well and truly moved into the environmental and social sector, becoming tools for promoting greater transparency. Apps are offering the public key information, directly at the point of purchase, to make choices that fit with their values and lifestyles. “Voting with your feet” is quickly becoming “voting with your phone.”
Barcode and QR scanning software for mobile phones allow consumers to check what’s in the products on shelves and whether the product harms the environment. Other key CSR information can also be accessed, such as how the company treats its staff, pays fair wages, or whether it has an environmental management system.
These apps provide company rankings, company statements and user-generated ratings concerning health, environment and social responsibility ratings of products and companies. The hope is that consumers will reward leaders and punish laggards, ie. rank ‘em and spank ‘em!
For example, with GoodGuide a person can browse, search or scan a barcode to see detailed ratings for health, environment and social responsibility for more than 165,000 products and companies, and they are adding thousands more every month. The company employs environmental scientists, chemists, toxicologists and nutritionists, who rate various products. Each product gets a numerical rating from 1 to 10 in three categories: health, environment and society. The ratings are then made available on GoodGuide’s website, on Facebook and its smartphone app.
The Just Means app also offers CSR and Sustainability news. The app allows consumers to post comments on the site, as well as post links directly to Twitter and Facebook. The app also features access to a ratings system which scores companies on sustainability performance.
In Australia, the Shop Ethical application rates more than 2800 products, including food brands. The app is produced by not-for-profit company, Ethical Consumer Guide, and claims to provide shoppers with the low-down on the environmental and social record of companies behind our common supermarket brands. The group also produces an annual guidebook (100,000 copies sold) designed to give shoppers information that’s not printed on the label.
The ethos behind such tools is to help persuade consumers to move towards more sustainable products and companies, and thereby help tackle the big challenges of population growth, excessive natural resource use, climate change, biodiversity loss and industrial pollution. Transparency is widely seen as helping bring pressure on companies to reform their environmental or social practices or risk alienating customers.
Consumers can change markets and there is a section of society – the LOHAS consumer – who value this sort of sustainability information. If, however, there are enough people who care enough to change their behaviour and spending habits to create real change is another matter, especially when coming up against the squillions of dollars spent on marketing campaigns to sway our buying patterns and get us to open our wallets. However, putting the spotlight on corporate malfeasance in the social media era can help drive change, as many brands are learning.
Other sites to check out:
Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics (rates the big electronics companies)
Climate Counts (scores big corporations on their efforts to mitigate climate change and urges consumers “to use their choices and voices” to pressure more companies to act)
BuyGreen.com (shopping website)
The Sustainability Consortium (includes retailers, consumer products companies and universities that are building the Sustainability Measurement and Reporting System to measure and report on the lifecycle impact of thousands of products)
Shane Gladigau
More information on this topic is available in Equilibrium’s series of papers: The Evolving Landscape and I will also be presenting at the “Taking Care of Business: sustainable transformation” conference on the Gold Coast, 21-22 May.
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