Ecological intelligence: knowing the hidden impacts of what we buy [rare books]

Most of us want to make the right choices as consumers. But how can any one individual's choices make a difference? And, more importantly, what are the right choices?

In this provocative new book Daniel Goleman shows that everything about what we buy and why is about to change. To date, he argues, our consumer thinking about issues such as the environment, health hazards or child labour has been one-dimensional, focusing on single problems in isolation from the rest. Our 'green' awareness is so superficial we often do more harm than good by ignoring the adverse impacts of the far vaster proportion of what we buy and do.

Ecological Intelligence shows how the phenomenon of radical transparency - the availability of complete information about all aspects of a product's history - is about to transform the power of consumers and the fate of business. Companies will no longer be able to control their own reputations. For the first time what they say will matter far less than what they actually do. They will be genuinely accountable.

Ecological Intelligence sends a fresh and hopeful message to readers. By mobilizing consumers to create an enormous market force for virtuous business decisions, it is the essential handbook for understanding the coming information revolution.