Toxins, child labor, pollutants, oh my!  If you are like most consumers, trying to figure out what’s really behind a brand’s “green” or “cause” marketing campaign to truly understand the safety, ecological and ethical background of a product can be overwhelming. GoodGuide, our Greenest Mobile App (and also a website), was essentially created to do this job for you by getting down to the nitty gritty details and fostering a new conscious consumer movement. 

GoodGuide draws from a bright team of chemists, toxicologists, life cycle analysts, nutritionists, sociologists and computer scientists to gather and analyze information from hundreds of public and private databases. The concept is to help consumers make informed decisions by revealing the social, environmental and health impacts of products and brands, following them all the way from manufacturing and transport to utilization and disposal. 

Users can choose filters to help narrow down their search based on the issues that are important to them, including such topics as nutrition, organic food, animal welfare certification, energy efficiency, climate change, pollution, fair trade, labor and human rights, resource conservation and the avoidance of controversial ingredients. Using a ten point rating scale and transparent methodology, every brand is given a score based on each of these criteria individually as well as an overall collective score.

This demo page illustrates how the GoodGuide “Transparency Toolbar” functions to relay information about a particular product based on users’ personal values, thereby giving customized product recommendations. As of this year, GoodGuide’s team has scored over 120,000 personal care, food and household products. 

Even better is GoodGuide’s mobile app, which makes it possible for consumers to compare and assess products and brands while they are out and about with just the touch of a button. Simply snap a photo of the barcode on a product and within seconds the screen brings up the item’s rating and details. While there are certainly an array of green apps on the market, GLR sees GoodGuide as the most comprehensive data-wise and the most likely to change corporate behavior in addition to that of consumers.

Founder Dara O’Rourke, environmental and labor policy professor at UC Berkeley, told the New York Times that the idea for GoodGuide struck him one day when he was putting sunscreen on his daughter’s face and recognized that he had no idea what ingredients were in the SPF. After doing some research, he came to understand that the product included potentially harmful components such as skin irritants, endocrine disruptors and a sun-activated carcinogen. This caused a chain reaction whereby he began investigating other items his daughter used. 

Initially, O’Rourke was turned down by several investment firms who didn’t have the foresight to recognize that a good cause could – yes, shockingly – also be a successful business.  In the end, O’Rourke was able to fundraise $3.7 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and New Enterprise Associates, and launched his vision in 2007. The site is ad-free, one reason being that O’Rourke sees a conflict of interest in receiving funds from companies whose products are rated by GoodGuide.

O’Rourke explained to Fast Company, which rated GoodGuide as one the “Most Innovative Companies” of 2010, "Our goal is to first inform the public, but ultimately it's to improve the products – reduce toxic chemicals, sweatshop labor, carbon and water impact – and change company behavior."

GoodGuide is already turning corporate boardroom heads, with companies like Clorox, Method and SC Johnson asking O’Rourke’s team what steps they can take to lift their scores.

Photo source:  Inhabit