Publications
GoodBuys began as a research-backed project focused on making ethical, sustainable shopping the default — not a niche hobby.
In an economic system that prioritizes profit, humanitarian and ecological ethics are often treated as a drag on productivity. Making conscientious consumerism the norm is critical for holding companies accountable and making the world more equitable.
Although many consumers are willing to pay more for ethically produced goods, they are usually unaware of the ethical scoring of the products they buy. GoodBuys is a social justice mobile application that allows users to scan consumer goods’ barcodes to see how ethically those products were produced. The app shows which ecolabels a product or its producer has obtained, and what obtaining — or lacking — each of those labels entails.
Because this information can steer consumers toward or away from specific products, producers, and distributors, large-scale adoption of GoodBuys and similar technologies can support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12: "Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns" — especially target 12.6, which focuses on encouraging companies, especially large and transnational ones, to adopt sustainable practices and integrate sustainability information into their reporting.
