Text messaging, a favorite mode of communication for many college students, can now be used to help make environmentally conscious purchases thanks to a program developed by nonprofit group Climate Counts.
The group, which is based in New Hampshire and funded by organic yogurt manufacturer Stonyfield Farm, has taken on the task of rating 56 major corporations on how their operations contribute to global warming with its Climate Counts Company Scorecard.
Points are rewarded to each company for meeting specific criteria, including whether they've set a clear goal to reduce carbon emissions or support public policy initiatives to fight climate change, classifying them overall as "stuck," "starting" or "striding." Consumers can see how the companies stack up by viewing rankings using text messaging or on the group's Web site.
"What we want to do is give consumers the tools they need to make better choices," said Project Director Wood Turner. "Our goal is to engage as many people as we possibly can, not just the activist base."
Eighteen of the 56 companies scored placed in the striding category, meaning they are considered to be doing a good job fighting global warming. Canon, Nike, Unilever and IBM received the highest scores. Microsoft and Coca-Cola also placed in the top category, as did Stonyfield Farm, the company that funded the project.
Eighteen companies - including Apple, Levi Strauss, Time Warner and eBay - placed in the stuck category, the lowest ranking.
"We wanted to pull back the curtain on companies that people don't normally associate with climate change," Turner said.
Geraldo Dutra '11 said he was surprised by the results for some companies. "Apple has always been the good guy - Microsoft has always been the bad guy," he said.
But Apple's poor rating won't dissaude Kurt Walters '11 from buying from the stylish technology company. "If you want an iPod, there's no alternative," he said.
Clem Marshall '08 said global warming is still viewed by most as a distant problem, and when making purchasing decisions, "it wouldn't be the top of my priorities." But, he said, if he were about to make a purchase and was debating between two products, the company's environmental record might sway his decision.
Nathan Wyeth '08, organizer of the student-run climate-neutrality group emPOWER, said he thinks the ratings will have more of an impact on those companies that didn't score so well, instead of on the companies with good records.
A downloadable pocket-sized scorecard is available at climatecounts.org. To check a company's score by text messaging, individuals can text "cc(company name)" to 30644.
