The Doug Noll Show

Doug’s guest is Dr. Ellis Jones, the author of The Better World Shopping Guide. This book is a comprehensive, up-to-date, reliable set of rankings on the social and environmental responsibility of businesses and corporations in a form that people can actually use in their everyday lives. Doug and Ellis talk about how Ellis’s training and experience in conflict resolution and international peace building led him to look at the fundamental problems of the world. As a result, Ellis began to focus on the effects consumers have in the world. He tells Doug that most consumption is unconscious. With some awareness, however, all of us as consumers wield enormous economic power. By consciously applying that power, with sacrificing one bit of comfort or cost, we can collectively shift the world.
http://www.betterworldshopper.org

Ellis and Doug talk about the five key issues that inform Ellis’s work:

HUMAN RIGHTS: sweatshops, 3rd world community exploitation, international health issues, divestment, child labor, code of conduct;

THE ENVIRONMENT: global warming, rainforest destruction, pollution, recycling, renewable energy, greenwashing, toxic waste, eco-innovations, illegal dumping, sustainable farming;

ANIMAL PROTECTION: factory farming, animal testing, humane treatment, wild animal habitat;

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: family farms, local business support, volunteer efforts, sustainable growth, philanthropic donations, nonprofit alliances, establishing foundations;

SOCIAL JUSTICE : fair wages, fatalities, union busting efforts, health & safety records, discrimination based on: race, gender, age, ability, religion, sexuality, ethnicity. All of the company and product rankings are based on these five issues.
http://www.betterworldshopper.org

Ellis explains his research and data analysis procedures for creating the rankings. We visit his website www.betterworldshopper.org to look at the rankings for beer and ice cream. As we walk through the rankings, Ellis explains why some companies receive an A while others receive an F.
http://www.betterworldshopper.org

Ellis tells us that the second edition of Better World Shopper will be out in October, 2008. In addition, the rankings can be downloaded onto an iPod so that they can be used in the supermarket as we shop. Ellis tells us that the book is available at all the usual places, but a socially conscious person would purchase it from the website -
http://www.betterworldshopper.org