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As I picked it up at the library having not carefully reading the subtitle, I thought if was more along the lines of Gardner's multiple intelligences, so it was quite a bit different from what I was expecting. That being said, generally the topic interests me so I kept reading. He makes a case for "radical transparency" (making clear the environmental and social impact of goods), but I don't have his faith that making such a database will massively impact peoples' spending habits. Some of the th...
The thesis is that buying power can change the world. Goleman may have slightly over-extended his argument, but he makes a persuasive case.
Two recommended apps for concerned consumers: Skin Deep for personal hygiene products and Good Guide for everything else. The triple bottom line is evaluated: toxicity, social responsibility and environmental responsibility. Otherwise, here's what stands out in this book: notions of life-cycle assessments (LCAs), the triple bottom line (health, society, environment), and most of all radical transparency - the notion that if we had more information available at point of purchase, we would make be...
“Ecological Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman was such an inspirational book for me. Before reading this book I thought I knew enough how to take care for my health, to save environment and to treat it well, but this book was an “eye-opener” for me. I learnt a lot about health, environment, activism, or entrepreneurship. “Ecological refers to an understanding of organism and their ecosystems, and intelligence connotes the capacity to learn from experience and deal effectively with our environment....
I found this book to be repetitive at the beginning and pretty depressing. As I continued reading I was appreciative of information about links such as GoodGuide which consumers can use to help make decisions about what they purchase based on a number of parameters."GoodGuide can evaluate a company's policies, its disclosure of key information on products, and ultimately a company's impacts on consumers, workers, communities, and the environment."Warning: GoodGuide can eat up a lot of your time....
This book is a must-read for every consumer! The author talks about how we really don’t have a transparent marketplace – meaning that we really don’t know the labor force that goes into making our products and the true carbon cost of items since companies hide this information and we don’t do our best to look for it. If we did, we could make wiser decisions as consumers. Goleman talks about how this is changing and how to support the change.One of the BEST things I learned in this book is to go
I really enjoyed this one and had a hard time putting it down! Goleman writes about how "green" really isn't "green." We may think we are buying green, but he says that nothing made industrially can be utterly green, only relatively more so. He talks about how "freegans" are green, as they try never to buy anything new, try not to drive, etc. Not a way of life that most of us will live, especially when it comes to food. Good Guide is evaluating a lot of the chemicals found in the products we use...
If individual readers and businesses haven't heard previously about Life Cycle Assessment, radical transparency, and websites like Good Guides and Skin Deep, this book is worth a look. Toxins accumulating in the environment and our bodies could be a depressing topic, but the author presents a hopeful message and a vision of how to move forward to improve things. Some changes have, in fact, already begun using information technology and consumer power. More change is on the horizon to give indi
A solid 3.5 stars(rounded up)FINALLYREVIEW SECTIONIn terms of the length, this book was about the right length. The content was at times obvious or slow--or I just wasn't sure where the author was going or what point he was trying to come to. I think this book should really be named 'Ecological Transparency' because it's mostly about how transparency in the market could impact purchasing decisions and help the environment; it doesn't really cover what I would imagine ecological intelligence to d...
I really liked the treatment of incremental improvements:"Finally, are radical transparency and all its incremental improvements enough? The adequacy of perpetual upgrades alone was questioned from a surprising source: John Ehrenfeld, the executive director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology. One of the founders of the field, Ehrenfeld fears that in terms of the massive challenges facing our planet, these gradual improvements may be too little, too late. Ehrenfeld points out tha...
Goleman argues that radical ecological transparency — displaying information about a product’s health, environmental, and social consequences at point of sale — would align the interests of the free market and the public good. I agree that filling this informational gap is important and would yield many benefits, but the fields of toxicology, epidemiology, industrial engineering, and economics can’t work fast enough to answer these questions, and his assumption is that most people would eagerly
essential read on how to turn emotional intelligence into ecological intelligence; how to convert internal awareness and well-being into external awareness and well-being; written by the NYT award winning psychologist Daniel Goleman who was incremental in shifting Western focus from IQ to EQ and showing the strong overlap between areas of modern psychology and ancient Buddhism. Must read for Chinese (but not only) who are stuck in family or nation mindedness, ie a form of magnified selfishness,
I kept wishing this would be more interesting. It's such an earnest book that details how we can make purchasing more transparent, such that consumers will spur an ecological revolution by buying only goods made in an ecologically safe fashion. The problem with the book, for me, as with many such 'green' books, is that - by the time I've finished reading it - I feel overwhelmed by the number of toxic chemicals in our environment and completely incapable of doing anything about it.Good quote:"To
Honestly, after this, I feel ashamed of making ANY purchase (including local, organic vegetarian foods)! Believing I'm a conscientious shopper has apparently only been vanity on my part. No matter how much I keep my lights off, turn my heat down, take public transit, refrain from making frivolous purchases, and don't contribute to population growth, it's not enough. I feel discouraged by this book.There is a lot of information contained in the book and it could be well used to fuel the fire for
I do not recall the specifics of how this particular gem of a book found its way into my hands; it was , however, highly fortuitous event, even if it was heartbreaking to loose my ignorance of at least the basics of this novel science industrial ecology. And there is no dancing around it - this book is as hard-hitting as "Silent Spring", and it is at the same time undeniable, impossible to argue with, laden with facts and nothing but the facts, but these are facts most people don't know (and tha...
This book has some good information on how we as consumers can influence the business sector to make the shift to environmentally sound choices and sustainability. It’s a little dated (publishes in 2009 and I read it in 2020) and some of the resources provided either have fallen in quality or don’t exist. Also, I felt it became a little reparative and the argument could have been slimed down a bit. Still, it’s a great starting point to get people thinking about how to change habits and choices t...
Warning: not for the faint of heart. The more I read books like this, and start thinking about the thousands of environmental effects connected to even the simplest of everyday activities, the harder it gets to live in the world. Although a little redundant at times, Goleman presents critical information and ideas about how we can start moving toward a less toxic, more sustainable world. I especially appreciated the section on how many modern diseases, including autism, COPD, multiple sclerosis
Assumes you know the ecology. This book is focused on the idea that 'radical transparency' regrading the origins and production processes of the goods we buy would allow us to make market choices that would create more sustainable consumption. It shows some interesting examples of what market pressure can do when the public is informed. But we are far from the state of information Goleman considers necessary and would take a lot of activism in people demanding the information which many, if not
A wonderful book. At least understand the Life Cycle Assessment of products that we pull from shelves and try to get those which are environmentally better: from the fertilizers used to farm the raw materials, to the fair treatment of workers, the energy used to transport the raw materials to factories... All that chain to what you can see on that shelf.Quite an eye open.Definitely improved my Ecological Quotient!
After learning the phrase ‘eco-literacy; in Bali a few months back I investigated the literature in the area and stumbled across this book. I have always meant to read Emotional Intelligence but have not got around to it yet. This title jumped out at me straight away. And it answered some of my pondering over the last 2 years. How can we make supply chains more transparent and - dare I say it- sexier? How can we move consumers to be more engaged and active and mindful over their purchases?I lear...