Shopping with climate data

Do you ever have that moment where you read a big claim, and your instant reflex is to say “Ah, bullsh*t”.

Seeing the words “Sustainable” and “Shopping” together often does it for me.

In the moment, I just think they’re jumping on a green bandwagon so they can sell more stuff.

But we all need… some stuff.

A startup called Finch have developed a Chrome extension that helps you choose products based on their enviro footprint, using a 1 – 10 ranking system.

Using a combined process of aggregating climate and supply-chain data from hundreds of datasets, a sprinkle of machine learning, and manual ranking, the Finch team is gradually growing the number of products it can rank – and states that nothing achieves a perfect 10.

“If it’s physical and out there, it’s probably having some sort of negative impact on the environment. So what’s important to us is to show where it falls, given the relationship to the other products out there.”

I haven’t tried it so no idea if it works in Aus, but it’s an interesting concept. Would love to know your thoughts if you give it a go.