Hooze

http://www.hooze.org Hooze was the venture I supported when I worked for Grass Commons. Here's some label data I've gathered to enrich the data set at Hooze. Here's an example of a card I created regarding How the American Way of Life is Destroying the Earth, inspired by John Elkington's Green Consumer. Here are some useful links about different certifications and sources of information similar to what Hooze was trying to aggregate as a base for consumer information. Sample Pitches Certifications range from Fair Trade to Forest Stewardship Council to organic. The last alone has at least five other names: QAI, USDA, OCIA, PCO, Oregon Tilth. Do you know the difference? I don't…yet. I believe that when the sticker on my produce begins with a "9", it's certified organic by some organization or another and that if the number on the sticker starts with a 4, it's conventional. I think that this means the organic produce never met a pesticide or herbicide. Without reading all the details from all the certification orgs, though, how can I know? Should I trust a governmental body to certify my food? Do you trust the FDA? UDSA? Some of what I've read from Rachel Carson indicates that these organizations have lied to and/or misled the public in the past. For now, I trust them, ut have a preference for Oregon Tilth and other, smaller organizations who have, in my opinion, established a more trustworthy track record. Grass Commons enables everyone to create and arrange information collaboratively, as on wikipedia, and then retrieve it precisely, as with databases. By doing so, we intend to make it practical to align your money with your values. Although certain online retailers offer basic feature comparisons, individuals are expected to remember which brands are associated with which companies, as well as scores of issues: global warming, which itself is composed of myriad sub-issues: nuclear waste, coal pollution, deforestation, feedback loops, ocean wildlife endangerment, and more. These layers of complicated gray areas make for convoluted decision-making processes as best, and mind-numbing, paralyzing quandaries at worst. Al Gore gave us the internet and Ward Cunningham invented Wiki for stuff like this. Grass Commons helps make the power of the internet work for you, making it practical to align your money with your values. Hooze makes it practical and rewarding to align your money with your values. We improve the access to information about products' impacts on the things we care about. We help individuals and organizations present information about products and companies in a way that makes it easy to find, filter, and use. Quickly finding fair trade, shade-grown, certified organic coffee and a hemp-based coffee filter, free of pulped virgin forest can take a lot of time if you're alone. Good news: we're here. We figured, "Why reinvent the wheel with every purchase? Why not build a free, community-edited database with a few million of our closest friends? After all, many hands make light work… Each time we buy something, from toilet paper to electronics to coffee or beer, we support a chain of company and, indirectly, their business practices. Seen another way, we sponsor company. The language is important, since corporations are some of the most influential individual entities in the world. You deserve to know and share your thoughts about these citizens' records with respect to human rights, environmental stewardship, gender and race inequities, and anything else you might observe about the behavior of any citizen. You deserve Hooze. Grass Commons – it's about the data ("It's the data, smarty"): what you do with it is your business, we just want to make sure everyone has access to good data. The speed of a human sternal release, known to laypeople as "sneezes" could be anywhere from 90 to 600 miles per hour. Regardless of the velocity of your sneeze, you may want a facial tissue after you have a release. For years, Kimberly-Clark made their leading Kleenex facial tissue with fiber from virgin forests. Whether you want to reward them for changing their ways or punish them for past environmental transgressions with allegiance to another brand, Hooze can help inform your decision. For all things consumer product related, and some things beyond, trust Grass Commons to bring you open source community-edited tools for efficiently managed, reliable information. Patagonia is an outdoor clothing company that leads its industry in transparency and sustainability with initiatives like the Footprint Chronicles, 1% For The Planet, committing to 100% organic cotton, and their now famous process of repurposing plastic bottles into fleece jackets. New Belgium is a craft brewery that leads its industry in sustainability measures, powering 100% of their operations with wind energy, giving away bicycles to employees, enabling employee ownership, recapturing methane and CO2 from their brewing process, and making generous contributions in the realm of sustainability. We at Hooze believe in finding out these details and sharing them with others who care. Thought on Messaging Motorola 1st 100% energy star compliant – important to movement to publicize this information vs. greenwashing, which could be a conflict if one was dubious of EPA program, etc… This is a note about something that came to mind as I was going over the Motorola opportunity. What I mean to convey is that I respect greenwashing as a superior messaging to traditional advertising because it implies that people should care about the issues we care about. There is a long road to building solid/comprehensive understanding of these issues. I recognize my impatience for progress and understand that I should instead take a deep breath and, essentially, embrace greenwashing. Not only is it recognition from companies that the issues are important, but it increases public awareness at some level, which is the first step. I invite you to convince me otherwise, just in case I'm embracing a straw man :-) Messaging Pattern "we look at X and see Y" X:Y Wheat : Water (embodied water) Burgers : CAFOs Produce : Runoff Corporations : Citizens* This one feels like it might have the juice for a theme on Hooze or for some Hooze messaging - I'll work on that along with the other message over the next few days. Pertinent TOOLS, ORGANIZATIONS, and LINKS I want to find homes for, here: TOOLS: I believe these may offer integratable data sources or streams Good Guide : http://www.goodguide.com/?ontology=default Fair Food : http://www.fairfood.org/en/ Corporate Watch : http://www.corpwatch.org/index.php Interra : http://www.interraproject.org/ Low impact living : http://www.lowimpactliving.com/ Farm Fresh Delivery : http://farmfreshdelivery.com/ Food Routes : http://foodroutes.org/ Local Harvest : http://www.localharvest.org/ Healthy Green Goods : http://www.healthygreengoods.com/ Alonovo : http://www.alonovo.com/ How Stuff is Made : https://wikis.nyu.edu/howstuffismade/ Green Pages from Coop America : http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/greenpages/ ...and their Responsibe Shopper : http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/ Eat Well Guide : http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home Make Me Sustainable : http://makemesustainable.com/ Foundation Center : http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/faqs/html/sponsor.html Can we get an in-kind donation? ORGS: Ethical Consumer : http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/ShoppingEthically/WhyBuyEthically.aspx We can solve it : http://wecansolveit.org/ Earth Share : http://www.earthshare.org/ NTEN - Nonprofit tech : http://nten.org/ Ecowiki : http://ecowiki.org/ Boston Community Card : http://organizerscollaborative.org/BostonCommunityCard Green Business dot net : http://www.greenbusiness.net/ New American Dream : http://www.newdream.org/index.php Coal River Moutain Watch - mountain top removal mining ; http://www.crmw.net/ LINKS: Nigel's eco store : http://www.nigelsecostore.com/ Fair Companies : http://www.faircompanies.com/main.aspx?uc=noti Walkscore : http://www.walkscore.com/ Lifekind : http://www.lifekind.com/ Drainbo : http://www.drainbo.com/ Ode marketplace : http://shop.odemagazine.com/ Businessgreen : http://www.businessgreen.com/ Earth institute at Columbia NY : http://www.earth.columbia.edu/sections/view/9 Brandingforsustainability.com : ode, csrwire, bbmg, sustainAbility Green Counsel / Green Maps : http://nylawline.typepad.com/greencounsel/ this is the tool, which is 'not quite there': http://www.greenmap.org/greenhouse/about Woody Harrelson's site : http://www.voiceyourself.com/site/home/ Clean Air Act : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act - also plain english version from EPA : http://www.epa.gov/air/caa/peg/ Clean Water Act : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Water_Act also a subset of personal interest : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Areas_of_Concern