From tomorrow on we will surprise you every day with the opening of one window of the WeGreen Advent Calendar. 24 days of total excitement are guaranteed. For sure it is a digital calendar via our WeGreen blog. We share the links every day via facebook and Twitter. Just one click and you can see what is behind each window.

You have got to sleep only one more time before we start with the first window. Do not be afraid! Our Advent Calendar does neither lead to an excessive consumption of chocolate nor will you be dragged into a shopping frenzy due to seasonal preparations. The calendar rather should be understood as an information calendar with news, facts and background reports from the sustainability universe, from the WeGreen world and further surprises.

It will be worth it to check the calendar from day one on and to open window by window continuously.

We hope you enjoy our Advent Calendar!

The circulation of the Sustainability Footprint rises

We have positive news for you. The WeGreen Sustainability Footprint is now also integrated into the Utopia product guide. So if you are looking for products on utopia.de you can now additionally select between the very sustainable products with the help of the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint.
 

Furthermore from now on you get information from WeGreen with every scan you take with the mobile barcode scanner app ecoScan.

The internet plattform Utopia is one of the best known portals for sustainable consumption in Germany. The Utopia product guide informs about green, sustainable and fair traded products and the most important certifications. The diverse shopping advices serve as a useful guide before buying a product. The WeGreen Sustainability Footprint is displayed with the results of the product guide.

ecoScan is a mobile app that empowers consumers to find out more about product’s “green” history with the help of a barcode scanner. ecoScan is specialized on the market for organic-food. The sustainability footprint of WeGreen is part of the ecoScan system and thus will be shown during a product scanning process. Furthermore ecoScan users get supply of additional information such as images, Google Maps or videos.

To get directly to the Utopia product guide just click here. To download ecoScan from the App-Store please click here.
 

Long queues in front of stores and shops are being observed. People camp out to get the latest stuff. And all this effort is done just to obtain a product as one of the first customers. Remains one question, why complicate it that way? Because what is really desired this autumn? Of course it is the long anticipated WeGreen Firefox-Add-On! It is out now with a lot of new great features and can be downloaded comfortably from everyone’s home.

You want to see the Sustainability Footprint of a company that stands behind a website while you are browsing? When you are shopping (on amazon.de, otto.de, ebay.de or billiger.de) or during the Google Search you want to have a direct display of the Sustainability Footprint? From today on you can download the new WeGreen Firefox-Add-On very easily again and it works with every Firefox-Browser from Version 5 or higher!

What do I need to do to get it?

Almost nothing, the installation is fast and easy: You are only 3 clicks away from the free of charge download and with that you can transform your browser into your personal transparency engine. Just click on this link: Download Firefox-Add-On and install it now

• Download and install it with two clicks. Done!
• Then restart Firefox to use the Add-On
• You will now see the WeGreen Add-on in the status bar below the website.
• System requirement: Update your Firefox browser to Version 5

To get more information about the Add-On please visit our Apps-Page.

Which new features are covered by the update?

Showing the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint on the product pages of ebay
 

Showing the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint on the product pages of Otto

Showing the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint on the result pages of billiger.de

Additionally we still show the Sustainability Footprint by enhancing Amazon shopping pages and Google result pages

Showing the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint on the product pages of Amazon
 

Showing the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint on the result pages of Google

Here you can see the best companies on WeGreen

 the most seen ones

 the worst

 and some interesting triples

If you want to use these slideshows in your webcontent feel free to use this code. If you want to create your own, please visit our Widget and API page.

A public sustainability label? The Sustainability Footprint as an inspiration for the Bundestag

On October 21st intensive discussions were held in the Paul-Löbe-Haus of the Bundestag about the requirements and the possibilities of the implementation of a public sustainability label. Nicole Maisch (Member of the Bundestag) had invited to this event in her function as speaker for consumer policy of the parliamentary group of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Amongst other projects WeGreen was introduced there. After all it is a debate in which we have an increased interest. Besides eight additional speakers from diverse contexts (companies, associations, research) Maurice Stanszus, managing director of WeGreen, gave a presentation about the concept of the Sustainability Footprint.

“Conscious and sustainable buying decisions can only be achieved through education and transparency. Those who want to give priority to sustainable products need to let them be identified fast and in a simple way. […] Consumers are essential stakeholders and allies to drive a society towards more sustainability. […] While choosing sustainable products not only ecological aspects play a major role but also social criteria such as compliance with human rights, respectfulness of labour law and fair trade are decisive” (decision of the parliamentary group of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen at the German Consumer’s Day on May 25th 2011). Based on this decision the event was held as a discussion input involving different stakeholder groups to screen the possibilities for a public sustainability label in Germany.

While we totally agree on the direction of impact of this initiative, some doubts remain regarding the feasibility and the realistic implementation in the foreseeable future. In our opinion fast and simple information about the sustainability of products and companies should already be on hand for consumers. For this reason we presented the concept of the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint to show how radical transparency is already possible with the help of social media.

We followed the partially controversial discussion about a public sustainability label with great interest and we will continue doing so in the future. At this expert discussion we had another great opportunity to get a critical positive feedback by the plenum and the podium. So from our point of view the event was a great success.   

See here the list of speakers:

-    Dr. Ulrike Eberle (corsus – corporate sustainability)
-    Steffen Reese (Naturland – Confederation for organic cultivation)
-    Roland Streicher (forum anders reisen e.V./ReNatour)
-    Dr. Jennifer Teufel (Eco-Institute e.V.)
-    Stephan Krug (Viabono)
-    Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner (Technical University Berlin)
-    Maurice Stanszus (WeGreen)
-    Prof. Dr. Lucia Reisch (Member of the Council for Sustainable Development; Head of the        scientific advisory council regarding consumer and food policy of the Federal Ministry of              Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture; Copenhagen Business School)
-    Ria Müller (Institute for Ecological Economy Research)

The event was chaired by Nicole Maisch (Member of the Bundestag) and Markus Tressel (Member of the Bundestag).
 

The Critical Consumer

Human beings are being influenced by commercials and advertisement? This may be true for naive people but not for oneself. What nobody wants to admit, actually bears a piece of truth in it. While shopping and consuming, one instinctively trusts brands and their products.

Despite this leap of faith which is often a result of an attractive design, good pricing or publicity via web, radio or TV, many consumers are left with lingering doubts in the majority of buying acts. Is such a leap of faith legitimate? What really happens in the production of trousers, cars, beers or pizza? Are only winners involved or are human beings and environment being damaged during the manufacturing process?

The idea of "Rank a Brand"

The Dutch founders of rank a brand also faced those questions but only in a few cases did they find satisfying answers for their daily shopping decisions. Consequently, they decided that a platform was needed which enables consumers to shop more consciously and better informed. However, such a platform did not exist so far. For that reason rank a brand was founded. In 2009 an online research community was built up in a simple way, analyzing and ranking CSR and sustainability reports via crowdsourcing.

Since almost two years now rank a brand is online and is happy about its growing popularity and steady expansion. In 2011, the first step towards the international market has been taken, by establishing Rank a Brand e.V. in Germany.

The way it works

The main principle of rank a brand is easy to grasp and works as follows: Brands declare on their websites how fair and ecologically aware they are. Rank a brand now directly focuses on this point as trained volunteers analyze CSR data from companies. The findings are being published afterwards on rankabrand.de in form of a ranking and hence information and comparing possibilities for consumers expand with the option to buy the brands that are best ranked. This image impact of rank a brand becomes measurable for the companies when their turn overs rise or fall according to their rank. Brand producers are able to react by producing in a more fair trade and ecologically aware way and simultanously meanwhile reporting about their activities transparently and reliable.

Rank a brand collects statements about topics such as climate policy, environmental protection as well as labour conditions and human rights. The ranking is based on a short list of tough criteria which are based upon progressive standards of the individual industries.

Rank a Brand at WeGreen

How do the findings of rank a brand influence the Sustainability Footprint of WeGreen? To explain and understand that it is important to know what the percentages of a company are, bearing in mind the total amount of points that are possibly scored at rank a brand. From 60% upwards, a company gets green, from 30% on amber and the rest receives a red light. In the long term rank a brand wants to change the world of brands and therefore fits perfectly as a source for WeGreen.

To get directly to the rankings and to get more information about rank a brand click here. Detailed information about WeGreen’s sources can be found here.

We will be presenting our sources in irregular intervals – showing how they work and how they contribute to WeGreen. Episode 1: rank a brand.

Imagine the following hypothetical situation: Person X wants to go on vacation and he or she has not yet decided on the proper means of transport to reach its vacation destination. Travelling by plane, car, train or bike? With so many options at hand remains one consequence in the 21st century: Searching the web. How though can this search be carried out as much sustainable as possible regarding ecological and social dimensions? So far this was only partially possible. Now, thanks to the cooperation between Ecosia and WeGreen a holistic “green search” with “green results” is available.

Just select the search screen on Ecosia.org and enter a respective query. Ecosia’s process of searching is sustainable due to the fact that for every query a couple of cents are donated to a rainforest protection project and an offset of greenhouse gas emissions takes place. That’s about the status quo. Now the new feature covers the integration of the WeGreen Sustainability Footprint right next to the results of the Ecosia searching process. Persons that are seeking information therewith receive directly the sustainability valuation of their results. On the one hand this is an additional free of charge service for Ecosia users. On the other hand it is an additional opportunity to search for sustainable information about companies and to find those beneath the already existing options like searching via wegreen.de, WeGreen-mobile or the WeGreen Firefox-Add-On.

The pooling of activities of WeGreen and Ecosia creates synergies in favor of consumers and search engine users. While Ecosia advances its range of products by cooperating with WeGreen, we raise our range of coverage and thereby for more and more customers it is possible to get information about the sustainability performance of companies. Person X therefore now cannot only ask itself the question how fast, how expensive or how comfortable the vacation destination should be reached but also how sustainable in general one’s own travelling should be.

The press release about the cooperation between WeGreen and Ecosia can be found here. To start with the “green search” with “green results” just click here.

One of our sources, the CSR company check of the Consumer Initiative e.V. once again decorated retail enterprises as “most sustainable retail enterprise 2011”. For the second time the federal association analyzed social and ecological activities of the six top-selling retail branches with the help of a set of criteria covering 350 different points created by the Eco Institute.

All 27 companies that were decorated receive an additional green Sustainability Footprint at WeGreen. With the help of a comprehensive questionnaire retail enterprises were asked and tested about their sustainability. The valuation consists of many criteria which evaluate the core business, the supply chain and the support of sustainable consumption.  A part of the rating is for example the task to identify if companies have socially conscious consuming guidelines or which actions are taken regarding the internal sustainability management.

The best companies that participated in the survey get a gold, silver or bronze medal (dm, Tchibo, tegut). All companies on the podium receive a green Sustainability Footprint because they can be seen as sort of CSR trailblazers. Anyhow there is neither a publication of the companies that have not participated in the survey nor of those that come off badly. The following companies did receive a medal in the last company check (in 2009) but did not get one this time: Otto, Ikea and Alnatura. This source is classified as “middle strong” because the valuation coverage is not being published and therefore flows in twofold into the Sustainability Footprint. More detailed information about the methodology of the Sustainability Footprint can be found on the Method site.

Economic growth multiplies social and ecological impacts of companies and institutions.
As a consequence, some companies already feel obliged to increase their responsibility towards their stakeholders and communicate their efforts clearly. WeGreen accompanies this process with its transparency engine in the colours of green, amber and red for an increased level of information in consumers. However, we ourselves also want to cultivate a sustainable corporate culture and thus want to commit to a Code of Conduct. For that reason, we developed and now publish our own WeGreen Code of Conduct.

Within this framework, we clarify our mission and our goals as well as the appropriate measures and tools of WeGreen that are necessary to reach those. Transparency standards that are valid for others should also be valid for us. If one wegreens WeGreen, a green Sustainability Footprint of our company appears. Therefore, through the publication of this Code of Conduct we approach our own demand to keep meeting this green rating. We commit ourselves; we clearly state what we are doing, how we do it and what we do not and will not do. Furthermore, an explanation of why WeGreen is a social business can be found in the document, which aspects of our company are 'social' and which are 'business' and how a symbiosis of both goals can be achieved in the sense of sustainability. Through this disclosure of our own activities, another step on the way towards higher transparency is successfully completed. The entire Code of Conduct can be downloaded here.

Happy Birthday! The Sustainability Footprint is celebrating its first birthday and we have a huge surprise for you. We have been working hard over the last couple of months and this is the result:

"WeGreen- The transparency-engine for increased sustainability".

 We renewed our logo, introduced an intelligent full- text search, have multiple thousand companies and brands in our data base and many new features, such as the Sustainability News, a Firefox Add-on, WeGreen mobile and the possibility of user based company evaluations. But please, just go ahead and check it out, this newly developed transparency-engine.

Oh and by the way: We are still looking for great citations from fans. If a short and concise sentence about why you like WeGreen or why you are using the Sustainability Footprint pops up in your head, please do not hesitate to post here. Thank you very much for your support and now have fun with Transparency, Dialog and Sustainability.