Universal Eco-Labelling

Dear WWF-community

I am a recent zoology graduate, and i am currently out of a job. This has given me a lot of time to think about things, such as why, in general, i seem to be the only person in my circle of friends who cares enough about the environment or social injustice to do anything about it, or how it is that people can be so entirely self-absorbed without giving a second's thought to how their daily lives affect the daily lives of others.

They're heavy questions.

But, that doesn't mean they don't have an answer.

To me that answer -primarily- is information. The world is growing more and more interconnected, but transparency is lagging far behind. I don't know whether the product i am buying is the result of sweatshop labour, or not. Sure the price might be a give-away, but how do i discern fair trade price levels from companies just trying to make more profit? When i look at wood products, one might have a forest stewardship council label on it, another might be labeled by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Scheme. How do i know which label can be trusted more? I could most certainly look it up once i get home, but by then i'll already have bought my product, and am likely not to be moved enough to return it. When i look at labels that say dolphin friendly tuna, i am not reminded of the enormous damage the alternative -bottom trawling- does to the seabed.

I am not a social scientist. I am in no way qualified or experienced enough to think my own observations and opinions can do the actual solution I am pursuing any justice. But i do think it is safe enough to say that the consumer is far more powerful than any government in promoting responsibility in large scale coorporations.

It is my own opinion that, what is more, the consumers know exactly what to do to do their part in promoting sustainability. It is a simple choice: they either buy the product, or they don't. At that split moment when they choose to buy the product or not -the moment at which the consumer is most powerful as an individual- any centralized, universally recognisable effort to inform them of reasons for buying the product other than price and quality - reasons such as social and environmental viability - that may sway their decision are -in my everyday life experience- quite few and far inbetween.

I write to you, so that i may ask for your advice, and hopefully cooperation in changing this situation, and coming up with a scheme that involves all products.

My vision is this:

To set up a non-profit organization intent on targetting the consumer at the very moment they are considering to buy a product. I wish to create system of constant awareness, a system whereby the consumer is reminded, every time he or she buys a product, of the social and environmental history of that product.

In my opinion, this would best be done through a simple labelling system, on par with the current labelling system depicting nutrional content on food and beverage products. It will display -in very simple terms (e.g. very good, good, poor, very poor)- the product's level of environmental sustainability on the one hand, and the product's level of social acceptability on the other. Standards for each category of labelling would be set with the input of the relevant NGO's all over the world. These standards would be based on absolute first principles as to apply to as broad a spectrum of products as possible. The goal is not to be specific, but to allow for a general impression to be made about the product, other than quality and price.

Further down the line i can only dream that someday we might go that step further and have each and every product hold a reference code linking it to an online database whereon a report is displayed describing in more detail the story behind the materials and production process behind the product and how that amounted to its current rating, so that there is complete accountability... not only for the companies, but also the Non-Profit Organization setting the standards, and allowing people to draw their own conclusions as to whether we're being too strict or too lenient.

It is a gargantuan task. And i most certainly do not expect it to be done overnight. It is all based around a steadfast belief i hold, which is that once we bring the information straight to the people, as opposed to expecting them to come to us, we will find that they care a lot more about matters such as social injustice and the environment than the cynics would have us believe. And what better way to bring the information forward than by putting it right on the products they buy.

I sincerely hope the vast, exhaustive scale of this proposal doesn't discourage you from at the very least considering it. I can only remind you how extremely valuable any help you could give me in getting this project off the ground would be. Even if it is only advise on how to better present my idea. Every little helps.

Kind Regards,

Gordon Rose