• Will Radical Transparency Save the Earth?
    Will Radical Transparency Save the Earth?
    By Joel Makower, June 17, 2009
    There's a growing school of thought that unfettered information about the environmental impacts of our world will smoke out the bad guys and help the good guys win. I wish it were that simple. I've just finished reading Ecological Intelligence, the new book by Daniel Goleman, whose 1997 bestseller, "Emotional Intelligence," helped broaden our thinking about what it means to be "......
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GreenBiz.com Executive Editor Joel Makower and psychologist and author Daniel Goleman explore some of the ideas presented in Goleman's new book, "Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything."

Will "radical transparency" -- the virtuous circle that develops when companies lift the veil of secrecy to reveal the ingredients and sources of their products, enabling consumers to make smarter choices -- end up moving markets toward less-harmful products, as Goleman argues? Or, in Makower's words, will it remain true that all of the data in the world won't get mainstream consumers -- the 80 percent or 90 percent who aren't true-blue green consumers -- to become part of the solution?

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Daniel Goleman is the author of the new book, "Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything."
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Joel Makower is chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group Inc., producer of GreenBiz.com, and lead author of the annual State of Green Business report. He also hosts the State of Green Business Forum, the GreenBiz Innovation Forum, and other events. He is author of more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy.

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Gregory A. Norris, Ph.D., founded and directs Sylvatica, an international lifecycle assessment institute. He also founded Earthster, an open source sustainable information platform, and New Earth, a global fund for community-driven sustainable development. Greg teaches LCA at Harvard, and is an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health.