Better World Gudide
Team Members:
Margarida Costa, Feminist Studies & Sociology with GISES, Stevenson ’23
Maggie Johnson, Environmental Studies with Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Crown ’21
Partner Organization: Better World Guide
The Better World Shopping Guide rates the ethics and sustainability of over 2,000 companies on an A through F scale from over 20 years of research by Dr. Ellis Jones. His research is available as a pocketbook, on his website, and through a mobile app, which is not very user-friendly and is not able to update. The Better World Shopping Guide is a public research project intended to provide consumers with a readily available resource for accessing information on company ethics and sustainability, so consumers can use this knowledge to democratize their spending and make more ethical shopping decisions.
Total Funding: $3,600.00
Project Description
The Better World team will be developing a new mobile app to make Dr. Jones’ data more accessible to the public while also embarking on social media campaigns on multiple online platforms to promote the app. We began this project in January 2021 and expect to complete it by November 2021.By making Dr. Jones’ data more accessible to the public, and reaching wider audiences through the mobile app and social media promotion, we hope to further his goal of giving more consumers the first tools toward building economic democracy. We aim to make the mobile app easy to update and it will include more interactive features with a user-friendly design to keep the app relevant and useable over time.
Project Outcomes
We anticipate more consumers will use the mobile app as a practical everyday tool to make more ethical decisions when shopping, while also raising overall awareness of The Better World Shopper Guide. For our team, we anticipate learning app development, social media management, and graphic design skills, as well as develop professional team-building and communication skills.