dotherightthing: Social Networking Meets Corporate Social Performance
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 01.25.07
We've taken a look at a couple of new sites harnessing the power of Web 2.0 to facilitate communication and organization on sustainability issues. The newest, dotherightthing, gives users the power to rate major corporations such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and Starbuck's on their performance in non-financial areas. Users control every aspect of the rating and evaluation process, from the choice of companies to the standards by which they're critiqued. According to the site's announcement of its launch on Tuesday:
Companies are evaluated by the dotherightthing community in three stages. First, a company is submitted for evaluation by an interested user and its first "stories," describing its activities with social and/or environmental impacts, are posted. Second, once the community has shown significant interest in the company's activities, it is selected for evaluation, during which the community has a limited time to evaluate its social performance. Third, at the end of the evaluation period, the company's "social performance" score is revealed to the world and tracked in real time, as additional information is contributed about the company.The idea is to get companies and their executives talking to consumers. While this isn't a completely new idea, dotherightthing may be the first site to harness a Digg- (or Hugg-) like ratings system on corporate social and environmental performance. The site itself is really easy to use, although if you're one who wants to dig into the methodology, it may appear complex at first: we were a little confused at numbers and rankings generated, but finally came to realize that's it's all about user submissions and ratings -- the system does the rest. ::dotherightthing.com
Zerofootprint launched the first ecological footprint calculator with social networking functionality at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York, in May (www.zerofootprinttoronto.org). The Zerofootprint Calculator measures more than just carbon. It measures other important ecological impacts including water, trees and land. You can compare your carbon, land, water and tree footprint with those living in other countries, for example, and learn how to reduce through a comprehensive library of tips. You can make pledges and commit to certain goals, too. Individuals can also form groups around goals and track their success through time. Try a beta version of the Calculator at www.zerofootprint.net/calculators/. The Zerofootprint Calculator is being deployed in major US and Canadian cities, universities and corporations. Zerofootprint’s calculator is customizable. This means that it can be developed in different languages, like Italian or Arabic with different measures, like miles or kilometers. See the links below for examples. The final release of the product will take place in September. The ZFP Calculator has been built scale to millions of users and combines the best business intelligence software from Business Objects.
www.zerofootprintkids.com - CANADIAN
www.zerofootprintkidsegypt.com - EGYPTIAN
http://zfpkidsitaly.trioro.com/kids_home.aspx - ITALIAN
http://www.meetthegreens.org/features/carbon-calculator.html - AMERICAN
For more please visit www.zerofootprint.net or write to info@zerofootprint.net