In today’s world, most of us are primarily consumers of products and services. While consumption plays a central role, unchecked growth cannot continue indefinitely on a planet with finite resources.
Amidst the climate crisis, social division, and environmental anxiety, it’s understandable to feel overwhelmed about making a positive impact. However, being an informed and conscious consumer is an important starting point for change.
This database aims to empower you with objective information on companies, supply chains, and the impacts of consumption. With access to diverse perspectives, you can align your purchasing decisions with your values and beliefs.
Transforming consumption patterns is complex due to lack of corporate transparency, policy challenges, and practical constraints we all face. But together, we can take steps towards a more sustainable future.
Whether you like to read long format or you’re only here for the bullet points, we have you covered.
Each article will respect a predetermined structure to make navigation easy, a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) section with the main ideas and a links section that references articles, videos, documentaries and books on the topic at hand.
To make skimming the articles easy, a highlighting technique is also used throughout the articles (look for the bolded words/paragraphs).
Join in as we explore two main questions:
This database explores consumer topics through guided inquiry rather than prescriptive answers. We help readers develop critical thinking skills to evaluate product claims, understand market dynamics, and make informed decisions. Our approach emphasizes recognizing reliable information sources, understanding common cognitive biases in consumer behavior, and developing effective ways to discuss consumer choices within communities. Each topic highlights key questions to consider, common misconceptions to avoid, and practical frameworks for decision-making.
We’re building a community where everyone can learn and share insights respectfully. To maintain this environment, we ask all participants to follow these guidelines:
Many of the concepts that shape how we see the world are not necessarily wrong but outdated. One example is the splitting of our world into developed and developing countries. The current official split is done by income levels from 1 (extreme poverty) to 4 (high income or rich) and most people live in the middle.
In a fast-changing world we must continuously update the information we have as it is impossible to change and improve the world we live in if we don’t have a correct understanding of how it functions for most people.
Despite doing our best, it might be that our articles contain some outdated information. Let us know if you find any!
