Yesterday, GoodGuide released a tool they say will help shoppers instantly reorganize any retail website around their personal values. Once installed in your web browser, the Transparency Toolbar reveals whether products you’re shopping for are safe, healthy, green, and socially responsible.
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Posts Tagged ‘conscious consumption’
New Consumer Sighting: GoodGuide’s Transparency Toolbar
Zero-Packaging Grocery Store to Open in Texas
Last fall, we wrote about London’s Unpackaged grocery store. Now the packaging-free concept has come to the United States, courtesy of a group of entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas. They’ve created the country’s first ever “package-free, zero waste grocery store.” Specializing in local and organic ingredients, In.gredients will replace unhealthy, overpackaged products with local, organic, and natural foods; the new store also hopes to foster a sense of community with cooking classes, gardening workshops, and art shows.
Check out the video below and read the full story on GOOD.
| Tags: conscious consumption, food, GOOD, In.gredients, mindful consumption, New Consumer, organic, packaging, simplicity movement, Sustainability, waste 
Post a Comment | 3 Comments | in Corporate/Brand Leadership, Eco-Consciousness, Growing Up, New Consumer, Shopping, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Values
New Evidence That CSR Drives Profitable Growth
In Good for Business: The Rise of the Conscious Corporation, we wrote:
Devising a new blueprint for the successful corporation of the future is not just about corporate responsibility or paying attention to the triple bottom line of “people, planet, and profit.” Nor is it simply about finding new ways to engage consumers and become a more integral part of their lives. It is about all those things—and a lot more.
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Can Businesses Make Consumers More Mindful?
An interesting piece by Terry Slavin in The Guardian, reporting on last month’s Guardian Sustainable Business Quarterly event. In it he discusses how leading companies such as Marks & Spencer in the U.K. are committed to pushing consumers toward a more sustainable lifestyle. An excerpt:
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| Tags: conscious consumption, CSR, green, Guardian Sustainable Business Quarterly, Marks & Spencer, Mike Barry, mindful consumption, New Consumer, packaging, provenance, recycling, reputation, Retail, Sustainability, waste Post a Comment | 2 Comments | in Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate/Brand Leadership, Eco-Consciousness, Growing Up, New Consumer, Purposeful Pleasure, Shopping, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Values
Are William and Kate New Consumers?
All indicators point to yes!
Wedding ring made with repurposed Welsh gold? Check.
A call for charitable contributions rather than gifts? Check.
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| Tags: conscious consumption, green, Kate Middleton, mindful consumption, New Consumer, Prince William, provenance, recycling, royal wedding, sourcing, Sustainability Post a Comment | in Consumerism, Eco-Consciousness, New Consumer, Purposeful Pleasure, Responsibility, Rightsizing, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Values, Youth
Frugality Holding Strong
Euro RSCG’s New Consumer study found signs of a populace grown weary of throwaway culture and the constant quest for more. Looking at the U.S. stats:
- 87% felt good about themselves when saving money
- 49% were getting a sense of satisfaction from reducing their purchases during the downturn
- 52% claimed they wouldn’t go back to their old shopping patterns even when the economy rebounded
- 48% were making an effort to buy fewer disposable goods
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| Tags: Ali Dibadj, conscious consumption, consumer spending, Euro RSCG, financial crisis, frugality, mindful consumption, New Consumer, Recession, Sanford C. Bernstein, The Citizen, thrift, values, waste Post a Comment | in Consumerism, New Consumer, Recession, Rightsizing, Shopping, Uncategorized, Values
New Consumer Sighting: Rockaway Taco
As our world becomes increasingly artificial, people have begun to feel less “real.” Nearly six in ten respondents to Euro RSCG’s New Consumer study worry that we have become too disconnected from the natural world. Nature is seen as an embodiment of our ties to a more “authentic” past–and it has become a place of escape, somewhere to rejuvenate and relax. This longing for the real is one reason we’ve seen a surge in home vegetable and fruit gardens, in home cheesemaking and the revival of other hands-on crafts. It’s about eco-consciousness, but also a desire for self-sufficiency and connectedness to something inherently real.
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Planting a Seed to Grow a Movement
Are you ready for April 12?
Get out your spade and seeds, it’s Home Farming Day!
Since 2010, Kraft’s Triscuit brand has been on a mission to get Americans to discover “the simple joy of growing and sharing their own herbs and vegetables.” It’s healthier for people and the planet–and it’s a great way to save money in tough economic times.
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| Tags: conscious consumption, CSR, Euro RSCG, food, green, Kraft, mindful consumption, New Consumer, Sustainability, thrift, Triscuit Home Farming, Triscuits Post a Comment | 1 Comment | in Branding, Community, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate/Brand Leadership, Eco-Consciousness, Marketing, New Consumer, Purposeful Pleasure, Recession, Rightsizing, Social Media, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Value, Values
Extreme Couponing
Have you seen “Extreme Couponing”? OK, we haven’t either. 
It’s a new show on TLC (U.S.) that showcases those obsessive penny-pinchers who make creative use of coupons and promotions to reduce their grocery bills by as much as 90 percent. The show has elicited some strong reactions–pro and con. We thought we’d share with you one comment from a visitor to the Entertainment Weekly website. The response perfectly encapsulates the mindset of the New Consumer and how passionately some are fighting back against our culture of hyperconsumption.
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The Repair-Ware Revolution
Respondents to Euro RSCG’s New Consumer survey are tired of living in a culture of “throwawayism.” Just more than half (54 percent–ranging from a low of 48 percent in the U.S. and Japan to a high of 75 percent in China) are making an effort to buy fewer disposable goods, and around three-quarters (72 percent) said reducing the amount of waste they create makes them “feel good.”
Assisting in the cause is a young British designer named Samuel Davies, who hopes to spark what he calls a “repair-ware” craze that will inspire other designers to build products consumers can actually fix themselves.
Click here to read more about the repair-ware revolution on AlterNet.
Image credit: Creative Commons/postbear@flickr.com
