- Advocacy
Cool “green” apps that help you shop ethically
Choosing to purchase products that are ethically-sourced, healthy and environmentally friendly can prove to be a challenge at times. Many large companies are purposefully non-transparent when it comes to their supply chain and what goes into their products. Being more mindful about how we choose to spend our money and the impact those choices have is one of the cornerstones of the Quiet Revolution.
Being that we humans are super technologically-savvy and awesome, there is of course, an app for shopping more responsibly. A few in fact that aim to make your life a little easier, and your purchases better for yourself, your values, and our world.
GoodGuide is a beautifully designed, easy use app that rates companies and products on a scale from 0-10. The overall rating is an average score based on their health, environmental and social impact. You can search for specific products, browse in various categories, or better yet scan the barcode with your phone! The app boasts over 1000 different sources for acquiring data so the information is reliable and robust.
Buycott allows you to scan or search products to determine if your purchases are in conflict with any issues that you have identified within the app (and in life). The app does this by determining what brand the product is and which company it belongs to. Boycott then cross-checks the product information against the campaigns you have joined and lets you know if that particular company or product conflicts with any of your campaigns.
Similar to the Quiet Revolution Map, Social Impact is sort of like Yelp for social purpose businesses. It uses your location to determine the socially responsible businesses near you. You can research businesses that fall into a particular category and find out a little bit about what makes those businesses great.
This app from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program enables businesses and consumers to make better choices when purchasing seafood. The app highlights if seafood is the best choice, a good alternative, or one to avoid. The app is constantly changing its recommendations based on the most up-to-date information.
Notable websites and web extensions that aren't apps...yet:
A great way to find and share socially-driven organizations and businesses like credit unions and food co-ops. Help us make the map great by sharing your favorite businesses and organizations that are hip to a New Mutualist economy.
Free2Work is a project that was created by Not For Sale, an organization that is dedicated to ending slavery and forced labor globally. Through extensive research Free2Work has assigned brands grades on a scale from A-F. The grading scale informs consumers on the likelihood that products from particular brands were made using forced or child labor.
aVOID is a web plug-in that works with Safari and Google Chrome that blocks products from companies that are suspected to use child labor. The data is sourced from the German organization Active Against Child Labor.
Freelancers, what information do you use to make ethical purchases?