Industrial ecology, the precise analysis of the ecological impacts any manmade item has over its life cycle, has consumers clamoring for more information concerning not just their own health but the health of the planet as well. All this new information is causing eco-angst for consumers. I asked Jody Victor® to tell us more about it.
Jody Victor®: Standard incandescent or compact fluorescent with mercury? Glass bottle that can break or plastic bottle with Bisphenol A (BPA)? Organic food from distant lands or local non-organic? Remember the sunscreen product that contained a chemical that became a carcinogen when exposed to sunlight? The lesson learned from that was not to stop using sun block, but to use sun block that didn’t use the chemical. Most of our current industrial platforms, processes and chemicals were developed at a time when people were oblivious to ecological impact. It’s not that we didn’t care- we didn’t know. Industrial ecology has only come of age in the last decade or two.
Thanks to the rise in industrial ecology, and the transparency it affords, consumers are becoming high impact shoppers by tipping market share to products with lower impact on the environment and, in turn, their health. According to a recent Gallup poll, thirty-six percent of the US population “worries a great deal” about global warming and its effects on human health. In fact it rated third in the list of important problems facing us today, just behind a lack of energy sources and Social Security. Eco-angst among consumers is spreading, as information about products is increasingly easier to find. Websites, such as GoodGuide.com and SkinDeep.com, can help you instantly compare tens of thousands of products based on their environmental, health and social impacts.
Many US manufacturers are developing ecological ratings for their products that will be included on their labels. These new ratings systems will eliminate the sleight-of-hand label advertising called “greenwashing” that takes a single virtue of a product from the multitude of a product’s ecological impacts to tout its ecological goodness. Consumers will be able to read the eco-label rating and may decide differently when a tee shirt label not only says “organic” but also lists the dye used to color it (some dyes have been shown to cause leukemia in workers). Or how much water is consumed in the process of making the tee shirt in an arid, impoverished land. Or if it was stitched together in a sweatshop where the seamstresses get injured repeatedly by needles and have no access to even rudimentary healthcare.
So as all this new eco-information becomes available try not to get too stressed out with eco-angst when a new bit of information is revealed about the products you use. Get used to doing some homework again and take the opportunity to vote with your dollars by buying products with a lower impact on your health and the health of the planet.
All the Best!