Book Review: Ecological Intelligence

Ecological Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman, is a book that will make you think twice about what you buy and the implications that purchase has. The premise behind this book is the idea of 'ecological transparency', where consumers would be able to find out how products rated in terms of human health, ecological health and social responsibility.
Goleman discusses the idea of "greenwashing" and how many items that are marketed as 'green' are oftentimes worse for the environment then non-green products. He also discusses how transparency in the market place would likely encourage competition between companies to become more environmentally and socially aware.... if you had the choice between 2 products and one was slightly more expensive than the other, but the cheaper product was labeled as "made in a sweatshop with child labor", most of us would opt for the more expensive choice. However, when consumers are kept in the dark about where our products came from and who or what they harmed in the process, we use price as the best way to judge the value of an item. If we were fully informed of what it took to make the products, value would likely include more than just price. Often, when we think we are getting an item for a low cost, we just end up paying extra for it later in terms of environmental remediation, health care, or other aspects of society.
As more consumers choose responsibility over price, the price for environmentally friendly and socially responsible products will go down, because that is what the market demands, and the producers will find ways to reduce costs without reducing responsibility. Additionally, many methods that will give an item a greener footprint will also save money in the long run (for example, increasing efficiency in a factory will produce less emissions and use less fossil fuels and will also cost less to operate. That saving can eventually get passed on to the customer.
This book was a quick, interesting and informative read. I would recommend it to anyone concerned with the future of our planet.
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