Green Product Ratings Background Search

When I began writing this post, my original intention was to blog about a brand of soap which I had heard through the grapevine is good for humans and can also be used as a flea killer for dogs. In order to protect the manufacturer I will not be mentioning the soap by name. You would think because it is a soap we use in bathing, that it would be safe for us as well as mans best friend. Well my blog has been turned a whole 180 degrees from my original intent. As I said , my original blog was to write about a product that was made for human use, should be safe, but it also seemed to be great for killing Fleas on your pet  (I guess that should have been my first clue that this product has some strange properties!).

First I began doing some research on the product, to see if I could find out what makes it an effective flea killer on dogs. I searched the name of the product first. Then I scrolled down to see if there were any sites that would acknowledge the flea killing power of the product. There were a couple of short articles that mentioned it, but nothing that gave any great information as to its contents, the secret ingredient. Next, I researched the manufacturer of the product, to see if it would give the basic ingredients of the product. No Luck! I searched page after page after page and still nothing. Then as luck would have it, I stumbled onto the website: www.goodguide.com

This site conducts research on products that we use. It not only lists the ingredients in the products but it also rates how “Green” the manufacturer is in its production of the product. I was really surprised at what was in this soap. There were ingredients listed that have been linked to cancer. WOW! After reviewing the information found on the site, I knew that I couldn’t recommend the soap for bathing, much less for the use on our pets.

I checked out several different products that we use in our home. I even looked up the deodorant that I use, just to compare ratings to see how their ranking system was set up. The website ranks and scores things like ‘Health Performance’, ‘Environmental Performance’ and ‘Social Performance’.

This is how my deodorant scored;

• The score for Health Performance was ‘10‘ out of a possible ‘10′.
• The score for Environmental Performance was ‘5.2‘ out of a possible ‘10′.
• The score for Social Performance was ‘6.6‘ out of a possible ‘10′.
• For an overall average of ‘7.3‘.

The specifics about each score can be found on the website. It’s very detailed and tells you what is typical to that industry. Although some things have poor ratings, it seems that in a lot of cases, almost all the products produced in that product category would have the same basic rating. It seems that no matter who the manufacturer was, that rating was typical for that industry.

This website reports on such products like:

• Food
• Personal Care products
• Organics and Vegan food
• Household chemicals
• Toys

You can even suggest other categories. They have  other topics to read up on such as ‘News and Recalls’ and ‘Learn about issues’. You can become a member to this site for FRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEE!!!!! I would definitely recommend trying the site, it can be a real eye opener, and perhaps change your mind on some of those products you use around your home. It might just direct you toward a safer, greener alternative.

Again, the name of this site is: www.goodguide.com

Thanks for reading and as always, I’d like to hear your comment.