I have been intrigued by my readings about Extreme Transparency and how it has the potential to influence the marketplace (by affecting how millions of consumers make buying decisions – see this summary of the work by Daniel Goleman). The idea is to generate a system where data is available for every item in a store detailing everything from measurements of its carbon footprint across every part of the production chain, to how well workers along the production chain are treated. It’s a complicated calculation, since even a simple man made object involves thousands of parts and a long supply chain. Quantifying the data is daunting, making it uniform and verifiable seems insurmountable.
The idea is that if consumers have that information, it can influence what products they buy at the store. And if consumers balk at buying product X because it’s carbon footprint is greater than that of Product Y, the makers of Product X will be motivated to innovate and improve how Product X is made. And if enough consumers make enough small decisions like that, and enough companies take note and make changes, it can make a real difference.
It’s an intriguing idea and it made me think of the possibilities. And also some of the obstacles to overcome. Some questions that occurred to me included:
- How do we make it easy for consumers to access information on the products they are considering (environmental impact, social impact, other?)? Easy enough that they will actually look for this information when they go to the store?
- How do we present the information in a way that it is effective at influencing a person’s decision of what product to buy? For example, humans have evolved a disgust reaction to things like the smell of rotten meat. Could we tap into that – a bracelet that releases a pheromone when the “environmental health” of a product is below a certain level (maybe this is something that can be set by the wearer?)?