Sustainable Product Indexing

Details

Author(s):
  • Barton Thompson
  • Jay S. Golden
  • Kevin J. Dooley
  • John M. Anderies
  • Gary Gereffi
  • L. Pratson
Publish Date:
August 26, 2010
Publication Title:
Ecology and Society
Format:
Journal Article Volume 15 Page(s) 8
Citation(s):
  • Jay S. Golden, Kevin J. Dooley, John M. Anderies, Barton H. Thompson, Jr., Gary Gereffi, and L. Pratson, Sustainable Product Indexing: Navigating the Challenge of Ecololabeling, 15 Ecology and Society 8 (2010).

Abstract

There is growing scientific evidence that improving the sustainability of consumer products can lead to significant gains in global sustainability. Historically, environmental policy has been managed by bureaucracies and institutions in a mechanistic manner; this had led to many early successes. However, we believe that if policy concerning product sustainability is also managed in this way, negative unintended consequences are likely to occur. Thus, we propose a social–ecological systems approach to policy making concerning product sustainability that will lead to more rapid and meaningful progress toward improving the environmental and social impacts of consumer products.