1. The Promise of
Ethical Consumption
Dara O’Rourke
UC Berkeley and GoodGuide

2. New Market Dynamics

3. Failure of Traditional
State & Intergovernmental
Regulation

4. Consumers as Potential
Point of Leverage
over Global Production

5. Consumers Say
They Care…

6. 76% say they consider
environmental and social
issues when purchasing.

7. 73% say they are
willing to pay more for
green products.

8. 67% say they have
boycotted a company on
ethical grounds

9. Variations of Ethical
Consumption

10. Growth in Ethical Consumption
Organic Food: from $12 billion (2005) => $21 billion (2009)
Fair Trade: from €200 million (2000) => €3.4 billion (2010)
Local Foods: from $4 billion (2002) => $7 billion (2011)
Farmers’ Markets: from 1,755 (1994) => 6,132 (2010)
Ethical Personal Care: $5.3 billion (2005) => $8.1 billion (2009

11. Product Introductions with Green Claims
800
Alcoholic Beverages
Baby Food
700 Bakery
Breakfast Cereals
600
Color Cosmetics
Desserts and Ice
500
Cream
Dishwashing
Number per Year
Products
400
Fabric Care
Hair Products
300 Non-alcoholic
Beverages
Paper Products
200
Pet Food
Skincare
100
Snacks
0 Soap and Bath
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

12. New Businesses
and
New Business Models

13. Alta Gracia

14. Still…a Huge Gap
between What People Say
and What They Do

15. Consumers are
Constrained by Habit,
Status, Manipulative
Marketing, and
Lack of Information

16. People Need:
Better Information,
While Shopping,
Showing Impacts of Decisions,
Showing People “Like You” Care,
Simple, Easy, Empowering,
“On Ramp” to Collective Action.

17. A platform for transparency
into the environmental, social,
and health impacts of
products and companies.

19. Actionable Information
• Summary rating combines health, environmental and social impacts
• 0 – 10 scale for ease-of-understanding
• Distributional information for quick comparison
• Ratings explanations spotlight key indicators driving scores

20. Science-Based

21. @Moment of Decision

22. Social Graph + Interest Graph

23. Personalized

24. Shop Online with Your Preferences

25. Feedback on Your Purchases

31. Lessons
• Changing Consumers is Difficult
• Make Visible the Invisible
• Show People They Can Have an Impact
• Scientific Information Alone Will Not
Change Most People
• Need to Bring in Behavioral Dynamics
• Need to move from Individual to Collective
Action
• Key Roles for Government & NGOs

32. Turning Point in
Market Transparency and
Consumer Empowerment

33. Ethical Consumption
can complement
NGO Strategies and
Government Regulation

34. Dara O’Rourke
@daraorourke