Interesting Fortune article about ecolabelling hitting the mainstream in the UK.

Fortune spins the rise in provision of additional environmental information as the food industry responding to pressure from NGOs and other advocacy groups. This contradicts market research like that highlighted in our (GREEN) post yesterday. That research suggests that what we are seeing is a consumer demand driven phenomenon based on a need to understand where their products are coming from and what their impact is.

This is just capitalism. There’s nothing new or scary about it, and no one is being blackmailed into doing demanding quality food. US Companies like Whole Foods are doing very well responding to that demand. According to the Wall Street Journal the company posted a 35% increase in sales for the third quarter 2007.

I enjoy reading publications like Fortune and the Economist, but it increasingly seems like their bias is becoming clear, and it’s only going to make them look more like Statler and Waldorf the longer this trend continues.

There’s a great article in the NY Times about the (red) campaign. Here’s an excerpt:

According to a 2006 poll by Cone Inc., a marketing agency in Boston, 89 percent of Americans between 13 and 25 would switch from one brand to another associated with a “good cause,” if products and prices were comparable.

Over all, more than $59 million has been contributed by Red and its corporate partners to the Global Fund. Red-financed projects have helped put more than 30,000 people on antiretroviral treatment and provided more than 300,000 H.I.V.-positive pregnant women with counseling and treatment, according to data from Red and the fund.

Although (red) is a small portion of all funds that go to the global fund, it has certainly raised awareness about the possibility of cause based marketing and has also made a positive impact.

(red) may not be an ecolabel, but it is certainly an example of cause based labelling done well.

So says the executive director of Earth Pledge in a NY Times article about the eco-fashion industry. Right on.

Rather than feeling guilty about not having a closet full of eco-clothing, we’re better off recognising that a lot of people are looking for ecolabels and it’s not that hard to do. A key statistic in the article notes, “More than half of the 2,007 respondents in a shopper survey in September by BBMG, a branding agency, said they were looking for certification seals on green claims to feel confident about their purchases.”

Life is full of compromises and choices. Like it or not, most of us need clothing and right now most of what’s on the market isn’t top notch eco-friendly. I’m not going to feel guilty about my wardrobe. Looking ahead, it’s going to get easier to find clothes with ecolabels and choose them.

Hopefully, they’ll eventually become the norm, and I can go back to choosing clothes solely on the basis of what is going to impress the ladies. In the meantime, there’s some labels here dedicated solely to textiles (two are Swiss, why are the Swiss always so far ahead? Is it the cheese?), and some others here that cover a whole range of retail goods.