{"id":635,"date":"2019-01-15T14:20:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T14:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=635"},"modified":"2019-01-15T14:20:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T14:20:08","slug":"the-apps-that-can-tell-you-if-youre-buying-sustainably","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/635\/the-apps-that-can-tell-you-if-youre-buying-sustainably\/","title":{"rendered":"The apps that can tell you if you\u2019re buying sustainably"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"bigImg\">\n<p><strong>By Emily Waterfield<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"credit\"><strong>What does sustainable shopping look like? From environmental impact to workers\u2019 rights, the term can cover so many aspects that buying sustainably can be a daunting task. But a new app that helps people select supermarket products by ethical preferences and an online database that brings transparency to supply chains aim to change that.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Dr Johannes Klinglmayr from the Linz Center of Mechatronics in Austria is developing a smartphone app to help shoppers choose food products that conform to their own version of sustainability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">\u2018One of the problems for sustainable consumerism is getting reliable data,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">The app is designed to be used when someone is standing in front of a supermarket shelf, and allows people to assess the difference brands for between similar products such as pasta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">It works via Bluetooth, matching the customer\u2019s location with a database of product information. The app allows someone to see how each one matches their own preferences, which they\u2019ve pre-programmed into the app.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">To do this, Dr Klinglmayr and his team on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/rcn\/199870\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ASSET<\/a>\u00a0project used some 25 sustainability criteria to tag products with, including environmental factors such as being free from palm oil as well as health concerns such as being sugar-free.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">\u2018We have to take the word apart and give people the ability to build their own criteria,\u2019 Dr Klinglmayr said. \u2018The point is that everyone has a different understanding of sustainability, but on some levels there is overlap.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">For one shopper, he explains, sustainability could mean organic food, while for another it means food that was sourced locally, or has a small carbon footprint, or was produced whilst upholding workers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">But all four of those sustainability criteria would prompt a shopper to buy a product made locally, in an area he or she feels familiar with. \u2018This means that four shoppers could have different understandings of sustainability, but end up buying the same product in the shop,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"quote-view quotesBlock quote_horizontal\">\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">&#8216;One of the problems for sustainable consumerism is getting reliable data.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Dr Johannes Klinglmayr, Linz Center of Mechatronics, Austria<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\"><strong>Organic<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Dr Klinglmayr believes this type of information could be more helpful than relying only on food labels, which he says have become so diverse as to risk creating confusion. \u2018In Austria, for instance, there are 30 different labels that call an egg organic,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">The app has already been trialled by the COOP shop in Estonia and WinklerMarkt in Austria. ASSET looked at information on all food products in the Estonian shop, excluding tobacco and alcohol. In Austria, the products used included common shopping items such as tea, milk and pasta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Dr Klinglmayr said initial indications were that the app had been appreciated by shoppers and that data from the trials is now being analysed to see if a business case could be built for the app moving forward. He says that ASSET is part of a wider trend to improve product data and share the information with customers, whatever the end form of that turns out to be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">\u2018In general, I strongly encourage widely spread implementation within the EU of a transparent product information system,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\"><strong>Opaque<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">One hard-to-assess criteria of sustainability is what goes on in companies that form the opaque supply networks around the world that bring goods to shoppers and which can allow brands and companies to hide behind distant suppliers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Much of this data, about which factories are working for which companies, and which brands are produced where, is available if you know where to look. But a lot isn&#8217;t published publicly, or when it is there is so much data that even the companies themselves don&#8217;t know where to start.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Laureen van Breen, program manager with open analysis platform WikiRate, which gathers data from companies at various points along global supply chains and publishes it in an online database, says there is a lot of information about supply chains that could be made transparent, if the right systems are in place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Van Breen coordinates a project called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/rcn\/199848\/factsheet\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ChainReact<\/a>, which aims to make supplier networks easier to understand and more responsive. This includes identifying responsible and irresponsible corporate behaviour, and making it easier for workers to report problems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">One important feature of ChainReact and WikiRate is sharing research with companies, trade unions and NGOs, and developing tools for them to make use of the information. With this project, \u2018we&#8217;re able to connect companies (to supply chain data),\u2019 van Breen explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Working with the UK\u2019s University of Cambridge, ChainReact has developed an app for whistleblowers known as The Whistle. The Whistle makes it easier for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to collect grievance reports from workers, to improve transparency along the supply chain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Theresa Heithaus, ChainReact\u2019s co-coordinator, say NGOs are already using the data gathered by ChainReact. The pressure group Clean Clothes Campaign, a network of NGOs and labour unions in the garment industry, has for instance used supply chain data in talks with trade unions, with the aim of improving working conditions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\"><strong>Slavery<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Another NGO, the Walk Free Foundation, used ChainReact data to analyse the effect the UK\u2019s Modern Slavery Act was having on company behaviour in order to advise the Australian government on the development of the country&#8217;s own anti-slavery legislation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Through WikiRate, ChainReact gathered information about over 500 companies, to see whether for instance they had a training programme to raise employee awareness of modern slavery, or a whistle-blower system. ChainReact also looked simply at which companies were legally complying with the act, which turned out to be \u2018a shockingly low percentage,\u2019 says Van Breen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">Van Breen says the NGOs\u2019 work shows the important of ethical supply chains goes well beyond Europe and will always be relevant. \u2018We don&#8217;t really have a geographic limit,\u2019 she explained. \u2018Supply chains are global.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\"><em>The research in this article was funded by the EU. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Emily Waterfield What does sustainable shopping look like? From environmental impact to workers\u2019 rights, the term can cover so many aspects that buying sustainably can be a daunting task. But a new app that helps people select supermarket products by ethical preferences and an online database that brings transparency to supply chains aim to &#8230; <a title=\"The apps that can tell you if you\u2019re buying sustainably\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/635\/the-apps-that-can-tell-you-if-youre-buying-sustainably\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The apps that can tell you if you\u2019re buying sustainably\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,44,79,24,28],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-environment","tag-food","tag-research","tag-science","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The apps that can tell you if you\u2019re buying sustainably - Horizon Magazine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/635\/the-apps-that-can-tell-you-if-youre-buying-sustainably\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The apps that can tell you if you\u2019re buying sustainably\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Emily Waterfield What does sustainable shopping look like? 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