IT'S ALL UP TO YOU!
My Thesis
Ecological Intelligence provides society with a way to help the world become sustainable with out impacting businesses ability stay competitive in the global economy.
My Idea
If all products had a label describing their ecological impact, I believe consumers would change their buying behavior to support more sustainable products.
What I Have Learned
1. What the Life-Cycle Assessment is.
LCA is a method to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling a list of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; interpreting the results to help one develop a more informed decision.
2. Impact of government regulations on business.
3. Walmart's sustainable index.
What I Have Learned
1. What the Life-Cycle Assessment is.
LCA is a method to assess the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a product, process, or service, by: compiling a list of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases; evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases; interpreting the results to help one develop a more informed decision.
2. Impact of government regulations on business.
Wayne's Story: New EPA Regulations Jeopardize Kansas Jobs
Jen & Jeff's Story: New EPA Regulations Jeopardize California Jobs
3. Walmart's sustainable index.
4. The impact that transparency has had on SUV production.
The SUV safety transparency system was a five-star rating based on government study that instantly allowed a potential buyer to know if a given car was among the least or most prone to rollovers. At first only one SUV had a 4 star rating and 30 models had a rating of one or two stars. However, only four years later, the pattern had changed. 40 models were given a four star rating, and only one model had a two star rating. This shows the power that transparency can have on forcing change in business. With the knowledge, of the safety rating consumers started buying safer cars. Which forced automotive manufacturers to improve the safety of the cars they buy. (Goleman pg. 132)
5. The impact Nutrition Fact Labels had on customer buying behavior.
A studying conducted by, P.H.K.Prathiraja and A.Ariyawardana, on “Impact of Nutritional Labeling on Consumer Buying Behavior”, proves that labels on products does impact what people buy. In the study they reported that among the 90 respondents 86% had awareness about the nutritional labels on food products, while 14% did not have awareness about nutritional labels. Twenty five percent of the respondents stated that they always read the nutrition labels when purchasing a food item and 62 % said they sometimes read it. Only 2% said that they never look at the label. This shows that most consumers do read nutrition labels. 77.8% considered that nutritional information on food items are vital for their purchasing decisions. This tells us that people do not just read but these labels have some impact on what consumers buy.
An Interview of Daniel Goleman
GoodGuide
