Does buying products like the ones on this website actually help save the world?

Question

i was surfing the internet, and found this website http://helpthisworldgogreen.com

I was wondering if buying products from the "green" merchants does somehow help keep down pollution and stuff like that. Or if that sort of thing is for hippy environmentalists. And doesn't really do anything for the Earth?

Answer 1

I looked around the site and they seem to have ecofriendly products, the only negative thing I can say is the companies don't list ingredients for the cleaning and beauty products.

It doesn't matter where you buy what you need there are a few basic things to think about. Reduce is the number one consideration, if you don't need it don't buy it. Try to repair instead of replace. Minimize toxic chemicals, natural cleaning products are usually cheaper and work well without putting you at risk. I use baking soda, natural soap and vinegar to clean almost everything. If you can do it without gas or electricity that is better, push mowers are great. Reduce packaging, it is a waste of resources and a major portion of what goes into landfills.

I would also consider how and what you eat, buy as much of your food that is produced as close to your home and grown organically as you can. The chemicals conventional farms use get into our water supply, and the less food has to travel the fresher it is and the less pollution created.

Answer 2

As long as there are people who are willing to go fanatical about something, there will always be someone willing to make money off from them.

So what are they going to start making the computer cases from?

Recycled metal?

Answer 3

Good question - I think credibility comes down to what kind of certification the product has. For example, if I manufacture a product, check it on my own, then tell you it's eco-friendly, you should be skeptical because no one else has inspected my product. I stand to gain from the sales, so it's possible that I'll say anything to get you to buy it.

But if I make a product and have an unbiased, officially certified expert check it and he/she approves of it (based on a well-known, trusted test or standard developed by a group of other experts), then you can trust my eco-friendly claims a lot more. This is how certifications like the USGBC's LEED program (for buildings looking to be recognized as green) work, and it's why they're so popular. In the end, you want a second and third opinion before you can feel comfortable that what you're buying is legitimate. I've written on the subject before; below are some links that might help you out. They're more about furniture and buildings, but the same principles can apply to other products too.

Answer 4

If you want a yes or no.. Yes.

Answer 5

Buying green products is really positive, but i don't hope some business man use this slogan to make big money.

they provide some tips which are useful.

Answer 6

I feel the products my business offers helps save the planet.

Waste-Free Lunch systems, stainless steel lunch jars and stainless steel water bottles all help reduce waste, but please only buy from me if you are in the local area (Ontario, Canada) otherwise find a closer supplier as the cost of transport affiliated from buying on-line often does have a negative impact on the environment. The benefit of on-line shopping is us merchants often offer'novelty items' that are not easy to find in stores....but still please please please shop local!

www.enviromomonline.com  

Answer 7

When someone offers to sell a computer that will operate on 3 to 5 watts, and its plastic shell is made of soybeans, it is powered from a solar panel  or a hand crank, and lots of other great attributes, then that vendor would like to present it to people who want to enjoy the benefits of that computer while saving energy for some environmental reason.

But if you have no need for that product, it does the world no good to buy it just to create a market. Leave that product for someone who does really want it.

If you see someone selling wind generation equipment it may harm the world if you buy that equipment only to store it in a garage. Leave it for someone who has a site to make it productive.

Answer 8

The tips section has a few bad pieces of advise in it.

'Organic' food and clothes isn't really well defined enough to be useful (unless you use the scientific definition which most of the proponents of it dislike), it's mostly just a feel good label that is applied to inferior products to convince people to pay more for them although the ideological components of it mean that technologies that reduce the environmental effects of growing crops often can't be used in something that is sold as 'organic'.  If you want to save the planet you should be staying well away from anything advertised as 'organic' given the higher land usage required and the fact that they often use fertilisers worse than what conventional farms use (yes, they often are allowed to use synthetic fertilisers although it's quite inconsistent as to what they can use) any environmentalist should be staying as far away from 'organic' foods and clothes as possible.

There is also advise to put the windows of a car down instead of using the air conditioner completely ignoring that the drag from having the windows down increase fuel use of a modern car by more than running the air conditioner (except when the car is stopped or moving really slowly which is when the windows down method works least well).

They also say good things about carbon offsetting scams.  Whilst carbon offsetting doesn't have to be scam the way it is used in the real world means that it is (although if it weren't a scam it'd probably be too expensive to work as an indulgence which is basically what it is).  The basic problem with most carbon offsetting schemes is that they are giving the money to things that would have happened without the money from carbon offsetting (not to mention the amount the offsetting company gets a profit) which means that nothing has really happened to help after paying for the carbon offsetting.

They also advise the use of ethanol as a fuel which is actually worse from a global warming point of view than petrol from the ground.

That's just in their tips section, if they are giving counter-productive advise there, how can you count on them to select merchants properly?

Although even if everything on that site were completely correct it is still possible for it to be a negative as many people will just purchase a few things and then think they've done all they need to do for the environment, every little bit doesn't really help and may actually hinder if it prevents more effective means from being used.