Globalization has forced us to confront issues that we previously ignored. Through it, we are beginning to acknowledge that our actions have an environmental impact, our economic policies have a human cost, and that our political institutions are limited in their capacity to adapt to a hyper-connected world.

The blinding pace of technology has allowed us to innovate, collaborate, and share as never before, but even though we live in the age of information many of us remain blind to the consequences of our consumerism. Many of us are familiar with concepts like sustainability, ecological footprints, and cradle to cradle standards, but for the larger public they remain invisible, often nebulous concepts.

Despite that, in an interconnected, globalized market, our consumption has become our greatest tool of expression as individuals.

So, lets look at it this way...

You are about to make a major purchase. You have been careful to compare your options, and have narrowed down your choices to two exquisitely designed products of equal quality and price. During your research, though, you find out that one of them was created in conditions you find morally questionable.

Your curiosity raised, you begin to ponder other aspects to your purchase... What materials were the products made from? Where were they manufactured? How far were the products shipped before they arrived in the store - and how much energy went into the transportation?

With all other factors being equal, would this information influence your decision? If it were easily accessable, and freely available to you, would you use it?

Consumer Aware allows us to interface with our products in a new way. Its a website with a user-generated, searchable database that enables users to discover the dimensions beyond the shelf, to see our consumerism in a wider context. It effectually shifts perception, enabling us to see our purchases through a more intuitive lens.

With it, we offer tangible information on a per-product basis, information that users can use to create demand for ethically made products.

What this Website Aims to Accomplish:

Our goal is to see that every single product, service, and brand in the market, along with the companies who create them, are annotated on this site. We aim to create a platform nimble enough to accommodate change and powerful enough to make a difference.

Because the site creates demand for repsonsible, efficient, and sustainable goods, it is an effective tool for change. Consumer Aware also helps raise consciousness by making issues of social injustice and environmental neglect more immediate. By making these issues more aparent, we hope to redefine the meaning of value in the marketplace.

The brilliance of this new platform is that the goals are a moving target. As companies compete with each other to meet ever-increasing standards they will constantly need to innovate to stay ahead, thereby helping to ensure that innovation stays in flux.

The Answer to Greenwashing

Companies have caught on to the trend in green marketing, but do so with little oversite. We are left to trust them at face value because we lack the proper means to scrutinize claims. In the absence of information, companies have been known to resort to the dubious practice of greenwashing, labeling their products as "green", "fair", "natural", "eco" or "organic" when they only narrowly meet the requirements needed to justify the label.

Because the content on the site is user-generated and self policing, it will help to verfiy or refute claims made by Greenwashers.