Surprisingly, the Tibetan village of Sher has existed for over a thousand years. Surprisingly, because Sher is perched on a small, dry plateau surrounded by mountains. The average rainfall is a mere three inches. And the annual temperature is zero degrees centigrade.

But the villagers of Sher use the resources they do have as efficiently as possible. A complex irrigation system makes the best use of the meagre rainfall. They use the highly-thermal wool from their sheep to make warm clothes and blankets.

Willow trees are planted by the irrigation canals. The branches from the trees are used to roof the villagers’ stone and daub houses. But the trees are not permanently damaged. New branches are grafted on to replace those that are taken. A willow tree lasts over 400 years and dead ones are always replaced. Human waste is used as fertilizer for crops.

Sher lives in harmony with its eco-system. But most of the world does not. Complex global supply chains make it difficult to known how and where items were made and who made them. Many different suppliers can contribute to one product. Unlike the people of Sher, modern consumers are completely remote from the production process.

Daniel Goleman in his book Ecological Intelligence wants us to expand our awareness about the green credentials of the goods and services we buy. He argues for a concept that he terms ‘radical transparency‘. According to Goleman, ‘it means tracking every substantial impact of an item from manufacture to disposal – not just its carbon footprint and other environmental costs, but its biological risks, as well as its consequences for those who laboured to make it – and summarizing those impacts for shoppers deciding what to purchase’.

Those companies that adopt radical transparency early are likely to gain a comparative advantage over their competitors in the first instance. But companies will need to adopt the concept just to stay in the market. As consumers are more aware of their impacts, Goleman hopes that they will act to minimize those impacts. But how pro-active will consumers be? Will inertia rule?

Ecological Intelligence is a thought-provoking book. There are signs that some companies are adopting some of the concepts. For example, Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in the UK plans to introduce carbon labelling, charging points for electric cars and zero-emission stores. Tesco’s chief executive told the Sunday Times, “It is the same as anything else in a modern economy. It starts with getting the consumer interested in the subject. As Arnie Schwarznegger has said, ‘you have to make it cool to be green’ and make it worthy. You have to encourage people to want to consume the same as other people”.

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