It has become obvious that consumers are interested in environmentally friendly products however, more and more of these same consumers are asking themselves questions to decipher which product is more environmentally friendly then the next. Questions such as 'Can this product be recycled after it's use?', 'Was this food grown locally, organically or neither?' and 'Is paper or plastic preferred if I've forgotten my canvas bag?'

It is reassuring to know, that not only are consumers looking at these questions, but now companies are looking into a product's environmental footprint from beginning to end. In a recent article published in the Chicago Tribune, Dan Heiges, director of research and development, standards and quality assurance for Boulder, Colo., was quoted as saying "'You have to measure the entire life-cycle of a product, to determine how environmentally friendly it is, to come up with its ecological footprint' ...That means, he said, figuring out how much energy is used to take a product from growth to harvest to processing to packaging to shipping, with recyclability factored in".

This information cannot be easily calculated by consumers, but experts are starting to gather this information, first for industrial/institutional use, then for public knowledge. 

So, although we may need to wait some time for a product to have a nice little lable pasted on to show it's true sustainability, it is reassuring that companies are attempting to help in educating the average consumer.

In the mean time, consumers will continue to ask their questions.

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