These posts take examples of everyday items and examine a few social and environmental factors to consider in each case. The goal is not to be the authoritative guide to ethical consumerism. Rather, the Green Stars Project is all about user-generated ethical consumerism: I eventually want to see Green Stars reviews on the sites we all use (Yelp, Amazon, etc.) so that they are visible to everyone. So, these posts aim to help you to make your own decisions, wherever you live. And please consider incorporating a Green Stars rating next time you review something!
Indulging in chewing gum can have pretty severe consequences. A junior world champion gum chewer by the name of Violet Beauregarde transformed into a giant blueberry after trying an experimental gum during a visit to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. She had to be juiced by the Oompa Loompas and I’m not sure if she was ever the same again. In Singapore it’s illegal to import … Continue reading Daily Footprint, #18 – Sustainable Chewing Gum
Five Factors to Consider when Buying Bread.
1. Ingredients.
2. Packaging
3. Energy Use
4. Leftovers
5. Employees Continue reading Daily Footprint, #13 – Bread: Five Social and Environmental Factors to Consider.
When my old iPod earbuds finally expired and went to the big Apple in the sky, I decided to search for a replacement that had a relatively positive social and/or environmental impact. Continue reading Daily Footprint, #11 – Ethical and Sustainable Headphones
Based on everything above, I’m least likely to go with AT&T and it looks like T-Mobile is a decent option in the US. Continue reading Daily Footprint, #10 – Cell Phone, Mobile Network Operators
A reasonable place to start is to look at existing ethical consumerism guides and see how different phones rank. The figure below compares phone rankings Continue reading Daily Footprint, #9 – Cell Phone (ethical mobile phones)
Overall, my opinion is that the Fair Trade movement, although not perfect (what movement is?), has performed and still does perform a very important role in stabilizing prices, and supporting small coffee farmers. Continue reading Daily Footprint, #8 – Coffee (Part 2, fair trade and direct trade)
Here are four certification schemes that correlate to various extents with shade-grown coffee. Continue reading Daily Footprint, #8 – Coffee (Part 1, Shade Grown).
In part one, I took a look at some issues to consider when rating textiles from a social and environmental perspective. Here are a few remaining factors to consider, but do make a choice based on what’s most important to you and then share your information with others by writing a “green star” review (of an item of clothing or a store). So, this isn’t … Continue reading Daily Footprint, #6 – Clothing (Sustainable Textiles, Part 2)
Time to get dressed! Clothing is a huge topic so I’ll just go into one aspect here – choice of textile. Hopefully I’ll go into the other main topics in future posts: the human impact of cut-and-sew factories and the environmental impact of dyeing and finishing. Since clothing is one of our major needs in life (besides food, water and shelter) it’s worth putting some … Continue reading Daily Footprint, #6 – Clothing (Sustainable Textiles, Part 1)
I rated Nature’s Gate and Avalon Organic’s 5/5 green stars (they are not perfect but I think they are in the top 20% of shampoo products in terms of impact) and I would rate Clairol’s product 1/5 green stars for social and environmental impact. Continue reading Daily Footprint, #5 – Shampoo + Good Guide Update
The Green Stars Project 