Apps for navigating the complicated world of conscious consumption.

When I vowed to become a more conscious consumer last New Year’s Eve, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Measuring the impact of your purchases can be a hefty task, between considering environmental impact, ethical manufacturing, animal cruelty, anti-trafficking practices, carbon footprints… it’s enough to make you reject shopping for good. But neither is the “Buy Less” philosophy a perfect one, and even the most ardent minimalists need to buy necessities like soap and toothpaste from time to time (we hope). These iPhone and Android apps can help you put your dollar where your values are.

GoodGuide

By scanning a product’s bar code, the popular GoodGuide app lets you instantly access health, environmental, and social performance ratings for over 120,000 food, personal care, and household products. The app also provides customized product recommendations and lets you create your own personal shopping lists.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Fair Trade Finder

Discover and share fair trade products with the Fair Trade Finder app from Fair Trade USA, which relies on crowd-sourcing to spotlight fairly traded items available in local shops.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Green Globe App

Travelers can locate sustainable hotels, resorts, attractions, cruise lines, tour operators, and other sustainable tourism projects that have received the Green Globe stamp of approval through the Green Globe App.

Available for iPhone for free.

Cruelty-Free

Find products that haven’t been tested on animals with the Cruelty-Free app, which pulls from a database of companies approved by the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics’ Leaping Bunny Program.

Available for iPhone and Android for free. 

Free2Work

Created by anti-trafficking organization Not For Sale and supported by the International Labor Rights Forum, the Free2Work app lets you instantly see how different products and brands relate to trafficking and forced labor with rankings on a scale from A to F.

Available for iPhone and Android for free.

Closet Swap

“Don’t shop – swap!” proclaims the Closet Swap app, which facilitates clothing swaps by letting you snap pictures of items that have been sitting in your closet and share them with friends.

Available for iPhone for free.

Thrift Buddy

If your ethical shopping strategy includes thrifting, the Thrift Buddy app can help you locate thrift and vintage stores in your area from a database of more than 10,000 spots.

Available for iPhone for free.

The Good Shopping Guide

Drawing from the popular print Good Shopping Guides from the U.K.-based Ethical Company Organisation, the Good Shopping Guide app lets you compare more than 700 brands across seven categories: Food & Drink, Health & Beauty, Travel, Energy, Fashion, Home & Office, and Money. Summary tables display the good, bad, and ugly within each product category.

Available for iPhone for £2.99 (around $4.75).

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The post 8 Apps to Help You Become a More Conscious Consumer appeared first on EcoSalon.

With billion of products on the market claiming to be organic or eco-friendly, shopping for sustainable products can be a hit-or-miss affair. GoodGuide, a free app for the iPhone, wants to be your shopping buddy and help you get your hands on products and do more than just pay lip service to environmental responsibility.

Next time you’re in the cosmetic aisle and can’t figure out the safest lipstick brand to buy, whip out your iPhone, fire up the GoodGuide app, and snap a picture of the barcode. You’ll get instant detailed info on the lipstick’s effect on health, the planet, and whether it’s produced in a socially responsible manner.

GoodGuide doesn’t just limit information to cosmetics – categories include Food, Household Cleaners, Personal Care, and Toys. In fact, there are more than 65,000 products in the app’s database, with more being added with every update.

GoodGuide is an incredibly handy app to have in your purse while shopping. Indeed, I’m disappointed that I couldn’t find similar ones for BlackBerry and Android mobile devices – if they exist, let me know in the comments. This is exactly the kind of information that’s great to have on the fly, especially if you encounter an unfamiliar or new product on the store shelf.

Until manufacturers put this kind of information on their packaging voluntarily, GoodGuide is a terrific way to figure out if the products your buying are in line with your goals for environmentally sustainable living.

The post Find Green Products While Shopping with the GoodGuide App appeared first on EcoSalon.