Consumer Influence

Relying on the Government to make the world better is seldom a good strategy.  First the Government can't decide what is better.

We have power as individuals and certainly the most effective one is our pocketbook.

Making contributions to candidates who support your views is one way.  We have turned the political process into a quest for money to run campaigns and publish or air ads.

A even more effective way to influence is by the products we buy.   Many of us do this to some extent already, if we are aware of a company that supports policies we oppose.  Of course what would be more helpful is a way to easily know if products and services we but are made by responsible companies.

We see that many of us are willing to buy products that are organic, and some of them are even certified to be so.  They do generally cost a little more and may or may not be better, but the concept that they eschew harmful pesticides is certainly a good goal.

What is not as clear is what products are made by environmentally sound companies.  There are some products that are certified for various attributes, often related to a specific issues, we don't generally know if the company is in fact trying to minimize environmental damage.

There are a number of organizations that will certify environmentally safe products, such as Good Housekeeping Green, but generally the labels are poorly understood and often ignored.

Take Energy Star products.  These are helpful if you want to know the carbon footprint of that particular product but not if you want to know whether it was produced in an environmentally safe manner.

We need to demand that products we buy do what they can to protect the earth in their manufacture.  The more we choose safe products the more they will be produced.