and why not..

Hi everybody,

i'm working on an idea to establish a labelling system which can easily demonstrate a seller's environmental footprint.
To make such a label obvious for the critical person to use, along with chain-accountability upto the 3rd degree in the supply chain, it will have to display an indication of improvement measures. Likewise with a farmer switching to bio-agricultural, it will take a number of different steps to get there. Such steps ought be rewarded, a system based on punishing "bad" deeds is not effective here, not something i want to advocate.

I do think the results from Copenhagen are not farfetching enough, i don't think our political systems are adequate to carry such initiatives and i don't expect politicians or political organisations to change. I don't think it is good enough.

The last 90 years have seen an increased effort in shaping us humans as consumers. Well, there are a lot of things i would rather not buy, use, eat or get treated with if i were to know where it came from. The recession of the last two years shows a large many people are ethicaly bankrupt or just overwhelmed by the magnitude of the issues we're facing. Our value systems seem unfit for the challenges ahead and the means we have at our disposal. But maybe we start off small, and use our collective power as consumers to turn the issue inside out. I am hoping to get a consumer and academic movement going.

The last two years I’ve seen the international academic world having a surprising impact on local level without any intervention of national politics, and this has been in a very realistic pragmatic way such as avoiding overfishing of certain species. Likewise, this label can have a simple start mapping interdependencies, possible alternatives, consolidate different rating systems and get something as simple as Fair Trade.

I'll give it a shot this year to get this moving, and hope enough people will join in to make this worthwhile.

Take care
Paul

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