Transparency is everything. Namely, our future.
Every company that makes the noble decision to disclose the impact that its product has on the environment is taking an unprecedented leap of faith. Companies that do this do so realizing that their product’s impact could be higher than their competitors’ and, thus, they potentially condemn themselves in the eyes of the consumer. This kind of deliberate and voluntary exposure is rare today and, therefore, risky. Such transparent companies understand, however, that the only way to move toward a place in which the planet can handle human activity and produce all that is needed to sustain it, is to closely examine their impact on the world. This self-exposure gives them and society a reference point as to what measures needed to be taken to lessen their impact.
With the growing demand for this kind of information, each company that takes the initiative to be upfront and disclose the environmental impact of their products puts direct pressure on all other companies that fail to do that. It is rapidly becoming socially unacceptable for a company to ignore the impact it makes on the environment because when it does so it passes on to others the detrimental effects of that impact. And as time passes, it becomes harder to trace to its source the cause and beginnings of that negative outcome. This is especially important but difficult when trying to account for the source and trails of greenhouse emissions.
Before this point in history, generations have “dealt with” the condition of the world that was passed on to them by the previous generations. The ecological conscience of humankind was not yet attuned to issues of consumption or responsibility for one’s impact. Today, however, the knowledge and technology to trace, analyze and make sense of how production affects this planet now exists. The individual should be allowed to know a product’s environmental impact. Such knowledge is the fuel for the choices the individual will make.
As we now have the benefits of knowledge to help us in our decisions about our own health, for example, the nutrition labels on food today, we also need to have access to pertinent information about what impacts the health of our home, planet earth. With what we now know about our collective impact on the climate and how our actions can be detrimental for all of us, it is now time to move forward with additional information pertaining to any product’s environmental impact. And such discernment must be available in an easily understandable form.
The legal definition of a Blu-nit is:
“Provide consumer product information relating to the impact of consumer products on environmental preservation”; and “Rating the environmental qualities and impact of consumer products of others for the purpose of making purchasing decisions.”
In other words, a Blu-nit is a unit of measurement that helps us understand our impact. Our purpose is simple, namely, to offer an environmental common denominator that is used to measure a product’s environment impact. Much like the calorie has become the common denominator for food and weight control, Blu-nits offers the ease of immediate understanding of impact on the environment. This environmental common denominator will empower us as individuals and enable us as a community to, through the informed choices we make and our own consumption, influence the manufacture and processing of goods and services in the country.
By establishing ourselves as a 501(c)(3) corporation that is not motivated by profits, the Blu-nit Organization’s highest priority it to never compromise its core value of transparency as the organization’s baton one day passes on to future generations. After all, everything we do it with them in mind.
In our next Blu-nit Blog, I’ll say more about how it all works. I hope you will join me there.
Mitchell Cetuk
Founder, The Blu-nit Organization