The GoodGuide Product Ratings

Imagine scanning the barcode of a product you were thinking about buying with your internet-enabled phone and immediately finding out how that product could impact your health and how socially and environmentally responsible its manufacturing company is.

This technology already exists.

Currently in its beta version, the GoodGuide is a customer-oriented, product-focused rating system (also available as an iPhone app) that incorporates user reviews.  The GoodGuide provides ratings for over 65,000 food, toy, personal care, and household products, and users can save a list of their favorites.

According to their website,

“GoodGuide is in business to provide authoritative information about the health, environmental and social performance of products and companies.  Our mission is to help consumers make purchasing decisions that reflect their preferences and values.  We believe that better information can transform the marketplace: as more consumers buy better products, retailers and manufacturers face compelling incentives to make products that are safe, environmentally sustainable and produced using ethical sourcing of raw materials and labor.”

But where does the GoodGuide get its information?

Its website claims that the GoodGuide crew gathers data from over 1,000 sources, including scientific institutions, governmental agencies, socially responsible investment rating agencies, non-governmental organizations, the media and companies that manufacture the products rated.  You can find the specific sources used for each product rating by clicking on ‘full rating details’.

Here’s how it Works:

Course on Reporting Environmental Performance

Every year, more companies across the globe are recognizing the importance of sustainability and CSR reporting for improved reputation and financial returns from customers and investors, in addition to increasing cost savings and risk aversion.  In 2008, 84 percent of the 250 largest global companies by revenue reported on sustainability performance, 75 percent of which used the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework for their reporting process[1].

The GRI provides a standard framework and guidelines for measuring and reporting an organization’s economic, environmental, and social performance.  The GRI framework yields reliable, credible and comparable metrics through its use of performance indicators in 6 key categories: Environmental, Human Rights, Labor Practices and Decent Work, Society, Product Responsibility, and Economic.  By reporting on the indicators most relevant to their operations, organizations can present their significant environmental, social and economic impacts and opportunities. 

But at first glance, the number of indicators within each category may seem intimidating and even confusing.  To help organizations understand what these indicators mean, as well as where and how to start their reporting process, BrownFlynn Learning provides its signature course, “The GRI Process”, and has recently partnered with Symbiotic Engineering to offer a comprehensive course on GRI’s 30 Environmental Indicators.

On February 11, 2010, BrownFlynn Learning will complement its training session for “The GRI Process” (February 9-10) with the one-day course focused on the GRI Environmental Performance (EN) Indicators.  Environmental engineers (bios below) will help participants garner an in-depth understanding of the standard protocols and methodologies for setting goals and for tracking and reporting environmental performance toward those goals.  Instructors will delve into how the environmental indicators relate to benchmarking, reporting GHG inventories and life cycle analysis, and addressing problems faced by participants.