Get Product's Environmental Information With Greenscanner

The University of California has announced Greenscanner, a site designed to be used by mobile devices to get environmental information about products just from providing a UPC number. Greenscanner is free and available at http://www.greenscanner.net/.

The site really was designed for mobile devices so when you get here you won't see much beyond a query box and some information. To access the database you just enter a UPC code from a product. I tried a few UPC codes from things sitting around my office and didn't have any luck. I even went into the pantry and dug out some sink unstopper and no luck. I finally dug out a box of Twinings Earl Grey tea ( 070177051266 ) and found that in the database, but it didn't have any reviews.

Fortunately the announcement about the site includes some UPC codes for products that have actually been reviewed, like Poland Spring Bottled Water ( 075720008513 ). When you enter this code you get a couple of reviews, one expressing some misgivings about bottled water in general, and one opining that Poland Spring tastes better than Dasani. These reviews don't seem to me to be particularly environmental.

Of course then you can go to the link that says "See company reviews instead." and you'll get more environmentally-oriented results, including concerns that Poland Spring is owned by Nestle and a pointer to an article about Poland Spring's legal issues in Maine. You'll also get a list of Poland Spring products with UPC codes hyperlinked to reviews, if any.

This is a very cool idea, but not very populated yet. Needs some time.

Posted to Business-Consumer