Living in Sustainable Symbiosis

I don't know why I've never found this website before but I found this website today.
Rank A Brand, a great website for finding out "How sustainable is your favourite brand" 
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Oh there are so many more connections that this post could lead on to but I'm going to restrain myself from running around in circles and filling your heads with too much information. So as you can see from the title, this post is about brands. 
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What gets you to pick a brand? 
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The cost? Ladies, you will understand me when I say that our 'pampering products' can get rather expensive. As a student I personally choose my shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser etc. due to its price and if it's on offer then it's going in my basket.  
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The packaging? Mens deoderant. This is a huge one where packaging plays a huge part in my opinion. I remember my brother choosing his deoderant spray just because it looked really manly with the black can and graffiti-style text. 
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The advertising? How come creme eggs have become such a huge thing around this time of year? Just think about it. 
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Anyway, without further ado, we arrive at the main point of this post. Brands are all very good at catering to our needs and they always have a specific ploy with certain people in mind that will be drawn in to buy their product. But as always, how do we choose to use this purchasing power? Again, back to the creme egg. The brand value is estimated at £45 million and in a 12 hour shift they make the weight of 3 elephants in creme eggs (www.theguardian.com/culture/picture/2013/mar/29/creme-egg-everything-you-need-to-know). DOES THAT NOT SHOCK YOU?! How did one little egg become so popular? 
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Big brands. They have so much revenue and so much power but some brands are beginning to realise they need to cater towards people like you and I. People concerned with the environment and ethics. And so Greenwashing was born. 
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Greenwashing: Disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image (Oxford Dictionary)
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"How much can we trust that we are buying responsibly?"
"I buy fairtrade food but I don't ever look at brands for anything else"
Does this sound anything like you? I was feeling these exact same feelings about 6 months ago until I found sites like Rank A Brand which helped me out huge amounts. It all gets rather confusing when it comes to anything other than fairtrade and so most of us take the easy way out by never going any further than that. But there is so much more to purchasing power than just fairtrade. 
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So head on over to these websites and have a look around. Don't be dismayed at the bad brands you buy from, I'm not asking you to suddenly never buy from your favourite clothing shop, or never buy your favourite chocolate bar or shampoo again. But it's the thought. The slow conversion away from the worst brands, which can make YOU into a more sustainable person. 
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www.rankabrand.org/

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www.goodguide.com/

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And then just if you're interested, there are a few interesting articles to read on this website:
www.sustainablebrands.com/

Happy Shopping!