New site rates products for safety, etc.
TEXT OF STORY
Renita Jablonski: A new internet company is making a splash at this week’s elite Tech Crunch conference in San Francisco. The firm is launching a site today to help conscientious consumers navigate the marketplace. Rachel Dornhelm got a sneak peak.
Rachel Dornhelm: It’s called GoodGuide.com. The site scores products and companies on things like climate change, toxic ingredients …
Dara O’Rourke: Animal testing, CEO pay, any issue you care about and we bring it all together in under a second.
That’s Founder Dara O’Rourke. He says the data come from academic, government and private sources. I try it out.
Dornhelm: I need to get some new moisturizer.
O’Rourke: Sure
Dornhelm: And I usually get Aveeno Active Naturals.
O’Rourke: Let’s look it up. [typing sounds]
Up pops an overall rating and individual scores on health effects, environment and social responsibility. O’Rourke says he hopes to turn a profit licensing more detailed versions of GoodGuide. Joel Makower of Greenbiz.com says there have been a lot of attempts at sites like this.
Joel Makower: The real question is will consumers find this information and use it in enough numbers that companies will say, we have to improve our products.
GoodGuide.com launches today with reviews of 60,000 personal and household products.
In San Francisco, I’m Rachel Dornhelm for Marketplace.
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