More Information means smarter decisions

Coffee, toilet paper, what couldpossibly follow? The intent of these pieces is to shed light on how thechoices we make in the marketplace affirm our values. Some of us buyFair Trade-certified coffee because it is more likely to be grown inenvironmentally sensitive ways and supports the grower and workers witha fair price for their product and work. If we value the use ofrecycled content in our paper products and cleaner production practiceswe may be willing to pay a little extra. We don’t all hold the exactsame ranking of values, so while I may find income inequality high onmy list of no-no’s, others may put maltreatment of animals on theirs. 

But as the Nobel Prize-winning economistJoseph Stiglitz notes, the market can only work effectively when thereis full and honest information available to the consumer.  Thus,as we make choices in the marketplace we need information, like thenutrition labels on the back of food packages that let us know what’sin it. Most products come with very little information and usually onlywhat the marketing folks conclude will tempt us to buy them. Somepowerful interests want to keep it that way — see the fights over thelabeling of GMO’s (genetically modified organisms in food), country oforigin, and so forth. To try and ameliorate this diminishment of marketeffectiveness, organizations have devised many labels or certificationprograms that add potentially useful information for the consumer,e.g., Fair Trade, Energy Star, Underwriters Laboratory, etc.

These labels add some measure ofinformation otherwise unavailable. For a long list of existing labels,who runs them, and what their criteria are, visitwww.ecolablesindex.com, which now lists more than 240 labels from 26countries and 25 industries. For those who want to dig deeper yet, a2010 survey of 340 ecolabels from 42 countries was created that you canfind at their site.

This clearly doesn’t show all labels orcertification schemes. For instance, it doesn’t list Michigan’s GreenLodging program (www.michigan.gov/greenlodging/). Created by theMichigan Energy Office and DEQ about a decade ago, it assessesperformance along a list of environmental practices for hotels,B&B’s and other lodging businesses. The website includes a fewlocal listings: Partner Level ratings (more than 25 points) given toCozy Koi B&B and Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center; and StewardLevel (more than 50 points) to Comfort Inn and Suites in Dimondale andLansing, and Quality Suites in Lansing.

These lists also don’t include thecertifications from the International Standards Organization (ISO) thatencompass quality management (ISO 9000), environmental management (ISO14000) and, more recently, social responsibility (ISO 26000). These arefairly rigorous standards used by businesses to help them selectsuppliers and partners. For example, much of Europe expects firms to beISO 14000 certified if they want to do business there.

The point in all this, I think, is thatwhen you go to the polls on election day you wouldn’t arrive withoutdoing a little homework on the candidates so that you pick the one whomost closely aligns with your values. If you’re a single issue voterthis might be easier, unless the candidates are the same on that issue.Untangling whom we vote for in the marketplace every day is equallyimportant to how society develops. If our single issue is price, we areexternalizing all other costs to poorly paid workers, pollutedcommunities, and to future generations. 

There is no perfect information to makedecisions that involve a myriad of values. The objective of this columnis to offer some things to consider, some tools to help identify thoseproducts and services in the marketplace that most closely align withYOUR values so that your consumption choices consciously  shape  thefuture in ways that are more sustainable and thereby bequeath to thosewho follow more opportunities for a just, peaceful, flourishingexistence. Questions or suggestions for topics to cover are welcome.

Next semester, MSU Professor Phil Howardwill teach a graduate course on the Political Ecology of Beverages thatlooks at the impacts of coffee, tea, soda, beer, wine, orange juice andwater. We hope their study and research will produce nuggets we canshare with you.