There are several “sustainable” buying guides out there these days. I thought I would post two I recently came across which can help anyone make wiserbuying decisions. The lists rank businesses on their efforts to become better global citizen in one or more of the following categories: human rights, environment, climate change, philanthropy, employee relations, financial, corporate governance. Both are in a downloadable pdf format.
1. CRO’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens – Just released, this ranking can be used as a product and service buying guide. I like this list the most because it considers ALL corporate responsibility areas. Some of these companies I know have a long way to go; however, at least they are moving forward and are way ahead of their competitors.
http://www.thecro.com/files/CRO100BestCorporateCitizensList2009.pdf
2. ClimateCounts.org Pocket Shopping Guide – Released in 2008, this guide scores companies annually on their voluntary climate actions. It also compares their scores from 2007 and ranks each with a green, yellow or red score. I look forward to the 2009 version. I would like to see more companies ranked in the apparel/accessories section since this is where I am more likely to spend money and because there are many more companies trying to do the right thing in the apparel industry.
http://www.climatecounts.org/pdf/ClimateCountsPocketGuide08.pdf
Again, there are several buying guides out there varying in due diligence efforts– just search “free sustainable shopping guides” to find others!
Cheers!
