Tech Crunch 50: GoodGuide: Environmental and CSR Assessments for Everyday Products

Green is in. Green is happening. Green is now. And with lots of research indicating that genuine corporate social responsibility is important to many customers, especially younger ones, it is only natural that more and more people are seeking and will seek reliable information on the products they use.

Enter GoodGuide, a website that evaluates and ranks products according to environmental, health and social performance.

Environmental ranks the earth impact of those products -- in terms of manufacturing and use.

Health evaluates the ingredients and formulations -- are there ingredients that pose health hazards?

Social evaluates the manufacturers of the
products and their policies.

They emphasize highly credible data sources and methodologies. From their site:

To ensure that GoodGuide takes only the best data available into consideration for its ratings, a dedicated content team carefully assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the data sources, particularly from scientific and verification viewpoints. Evaluation of data sources include whether they are:

Based on trustworthy government, NGO, or academic sources;
Reliant on multiple data sources in their own right;
Produced according to clear and well-defined standards and procedures;
Verified or checked for their quality by independent authorities; and,
Honest and open in acknowledging their uncertainties and data gaps.

Here for example are the ratings for Wisk:



So how does a site like this make money? Well, here's what they have to say on the subject:

So Why Does GoodGuide Give Away this Information?

Frankly, GoodGuide is the product of a group of scientists and engineers who love data, and who really want to know ourselves about the impacts of the products we consume. We happen to enjoy researching products and the global supply chains behind them and thought it would be cool to make the best scientific information in the world available for free, for non-scientists to screen through their personal preferences, in hopes that it could potentially improve peoples' lives, and maybe even make the world a slightly better place. So enjoy!

Since the testing is brand blind, I don't see how companies can influence results -- and isn't that an absolutely marvelous thing? Certainly, supporting GoodCause could be an excellent decision from a CSR standpoint, and lots of companies are looking for ways to be more out front in this area.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.