Flaws with GoodGuide

In class we have recently learned about an application for the iPhone, GoodGuide. The GoodGuide application allows people who download it to scan the items they want to purchase. Once scanned, GoodGuide gives you a rating on the product and measures how "green" it is. Is the product healthy for you, for your child, for the environment? GoodGuide can answer all these questions for you, it even provides the cost of the product and a list of other products with which to compare. The products range from bottled water, to personal care products, to toys for your children.

The merits of this application are apparent, it has now been made easy for consumers to shop while being environmentally conscious. Using our phones we can take a picture of a bar code and GoodGuide will give us information that will (hopefully) make us think twice about what we purchase.

Despite the benefits of this new found green shopping mentality, there are flaws to GoodGuide. For example, a survey conducted in 2007 by the CTIA- Wireless Association showed that 82% of people living in the United States own a cellphone (http://www.gearlog.com/2007/11/us_cellphone_penetration_tops.php).

Although this is an overwhelming majority, what about the other 18% of the population living in the United States? One of the major themes we have covered in class is the importance of saving others, because this will make it easier to save yourself. A reading from class, "Jevons Paradox" by Jeff Dardozzi, reinforce the idea that saving yourself is probably not the effective solution. Dardozzi writes about the "rebound effect," meaning that while one person is being environmentally conscious and may change their life to become less pollutant, another person is carrying their life in the same way as before. In effect, people who will not change their lifestyles to be more environmentally friendly will "cancel out" the efforts of those who do live that way. Although GoodGuide is a wonderful application for those to access to it, we need to think about those who do NOT have access to it.

In addition, as an owner of an iPod Touch, I do have access to the GoodGuide application. But because my iPod Touch is just an iPod and not a phone, I cannot take a picture of a bar code. I must wait for the application to load (a process that takes a few minutes when you first open it) and manually search different categories to find the product I am looking for. As for the 82% of people in the United States with a cellphone, it would be ridiculous to assume that they all have and iPhone or an iPod Touch. People with phones that are not considered "pocket computers" (i.e. smart phones) are also at a disadvantage. Their access to this application is limited.

It is also important to consider people in developing countries. Poverty tends to be a characteristic that developing countries share, not only are large portions of the population cellphone-less, but because they cannot afford a smart phone they would certainly not have access to an iPhone. We must remember that saving the world is a group effort. Although we must think locally to fix our solutions we are a global community. Thinking locally will only be effective if every part of the world is thinking locally and doing everything they can to eliminate waste and reduce dependency on oil.