Wallet Mouth

Knowing glances

Founded by a hip-hop artist and a spoken-word poet in Rhode Island, Knowmore.org is a wiki-based repository of information that rates companies (using a method it describes as “evolving” and “unscientific”) in six areas: human rights, workers’ rights, ethics, political influence and litigation, environment, and fair trade/globalization. The site radiates grassroots activism, with photos of anti-war protesters sprinkled throughout.

The organization’s interns are working to pump up the database, but as mentioned earlier, this is a wiki, and editors are sought. Knowmore aims to be a “people’s corporate and political encyclopedia,” expansive enough so that users can search it for products, services, and brands they buy and learn more about what their dollars are supporting.

Knowmore certainly has its work cut out for it: Curious how many companies it had ratings for, I counted 210, which is probably not even a drop in the bucket when you consider the gazillions that must exist in the world. Plus, how do you keep all that info current? But all power to this effort, I say. I like the fact that there’s an immediate, reachable-sounding goal to cover every Fortune 500 company by the time the site is redesigned in the fall.

Knowmore is also handing out the code for anyone who wants to put its banner and interactive search bar (for companies, brands, and products) on their site.

Keepin’ it local

Here’s another cool shopping-based tool, this one for use at brick-and-mortar outlets.

The Interra Project is a Seattle-based nonprofit that aims to spur “a values-based economy” in which consumers “take back ownership of their communities” and help "speed the growth of environmentally and socially minded industry.” Its model is a community loyalty card, essentially an incentive program that rewards people for spending their money locally or at outlets that are committed to principles of sustainability. Along with a group called Boston Main Streets, Interra launched its first program, Boston Community Change, in November of 2006. It considers the initiative to be a template for future such programs across North America. Its website says it has identified more than 100 cities as probable markets over the next three to five years.

Say you’re a Boston Community Change cardholder. At the cash register of your local health-food store, you pay for your organic OJ and bread (using cash, debit, or credit) and then swipe your community card. A portion of the transaction will eventually come back to you in the form of a rebate. Another portion is donated to a community-based nonprofit of your choice, and the rest goes back into the program.

I just wonder—and I recently emailed Interra to ask—what mechanisms are in use to determine which businesses are really committed to sustainability?

It’s less of a jungle out there

I’m done with Amazon. Well, sort of.

Instead of buying stuff on Amazon, I’ve started using Alonovo, an online shopping outlet that provides ratings of its merchants (some of them, anyway) in such categories as social responsibility and business ethics. Users can customize those ratings (which come from KLD Research & Analytics and the U.S. Federal Elections Commission) according to their own values—for example, assigning more importance to how well a company complies with environmental regulations and less to how generous its charitable giving program is. In addition, Alonovo donates a portion of its revenue to nearly 100 nonprofits and activist organizations (such as the ACLU, the Breast Cancer Fund, and Unicef); shoppers choose which group their purchases will benefit.

Here’s how it works: Alonovo is a member of Amazon’s Associates program, so it’s basically a portal through which Amazon’s wares are sold. Shoppers get the same selection and price as they would on the e-commerce giant—in fact, Alonovo’s site is powered by Amazon, and the checkout process takes place on Amazon—but with the added benefit of the ratings and donations.

For each purchase on Alonovo, Amazon pays Alonovo a referral fee of up to 8.5% of the revenue associated with that purchase. Alonovo donates either all or half of that commission to the beneficiary organization chosen by the shopper. The group gets 100% if it’s an “active” partner of Alonovo’s (active partners promote Alonovo in their newsletters, websites, and email campaigns); otherwise it gets 50%. There are currently 22 active partners and 73 passive ones.

Registration on Alonovo is free and not required; Alonovo adds no fees to the products purchased through its site. It also offers forum discussions and links to CSR-related news stories.

I only wish the site could provide ratings on more companies and products—as does Alonovo itself, I’m sure—but acquiring and streamlining the data required to do that is hugely complicated, to say the least, so I’m not going to blame them.

Open up and say ‘ah’

Ethical consumerism, economic citizenship, values-based buying, socially responsible investment, boycotting, buycotting, voting with your wallet… 

All of these terms point to the same simple idea: that if we spend our money on things that jibe with our ethics—and avoid buying things that don’t—we can make a difference, however small, in the world. The more people who do this, the greater the potential for change, and the more the world starts to reflect the beliefs and desires of its inhabitants.

The notion isn’t new. But nowadays it seems that more and more people are engaging with ethical consumerism in ever more interesting ways.

I’m starting this blog so I can cover those efforts and ruminate over the tangle of issues involved with aligning spending habits with values. Along the way, I plan to keep track of how this enterprise affects my own wallet.