Last week I wrote about the individuals who turn a blind eye to the environmental impact of what they purchase. This week, I will explain some difficulties in actually making this information available to the public.

Currently, most companies seem to be waiting around for Americans to put enough pressure on their governments to enforce regulations on transparency, responsibility, and sustainability. But some companies are starting to make their practices more transparent, and hopefully these will serve as an example for more companies to follow.

The demand for ‘green’ goods is growing immensely, and the demand for transparent goods is soon to rise as well. Once big businesses realize this, hopefully they will take the pre-emptive route and put these practices into play before they are forced. But the question remains: how does one make a business transparent?

Complete transparency is impossible. Or if it is possible, it is impossible to understand.

If one gives every detail about a products’ life there will be too much information to comprehend. In order to accurately assess the manufacturing processes involved, the energy consumption in manufacture and use, and the amount and type of waste generated in making a product, it is necessary to conduct a life cycle analysis and assessment (LCA). This is a very intensive and difficult process, and doesn’t always lead to any conclusions. For instance, an LCA can tell you that one option uses less water for production, but the other was more energy efficient in how it was made.

If companies wanted to provide information about each product, then the LCAs should to be made into a short list with significant facts that can be readily understood. For example, a product could list how much water is used, its total carbon emissions, the total miles each component traveled, how much is made from recycled goods, and other things, and leave it up to the consumer to decide which things are important. There is plenty of space on the packaging to put a list of this kind. Think about how on every food product you buy, there is space for a list of necessary nutritional information. This was done fairly recently; the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act which requires this was passed in just 1990. Also, it standardized the terms “low fat” and “light,” something soon to be a necessity in environmental labeling.

Because right now, the lack of transparency enables companies to “greenwash” their products. People are willing to pay a bit more for products they believe are better for the environment, so companies are exploiting this. This is why the standardization of eco-labels and clearer reporting of a product’s environmental impact is necessary. For example, Huggies “Pure and Natural” diapers claim to be made with organic cotton; in reality, only the outside cover of the diaper is made with organic cotton, and this is not even certified.

Obvious problems with this are the difficulties in both finding a product’s environmental impact and making companies willing to report it. As of January 1 2010, the largest companies in the U.S. that produce about 85% of our total carbon emissions have to report their carbon emissions to the government. But it is still up for debate how much of this information is to be made public; companies are pushing for confidentiality.

And in the case of water usage, things get more complicated. Currently the Carbon Disclosure Group, a nonprofit organization that has persuaded some of the largest corporations to report greenhouse gas emissions, is beginning to ask companies to report water usage. But the companies wouldn’t have to say where the water comes from; it might be extracted unsustainably from a place with stressed water resources. It is also harder to keep track of; determining water usage is not as clear cut as finding greenhouse gas emissions.

So while an LCA label may be the ideal goal, we are a long way from getting there.

Transparency international is a company whose mission is to ‘create change towards a world free of corruption.’ They exist because they feel companies don’t make any practices available because they are corrupt. They raise momentum for the anti-corruption movement; raising awareness and diminishing apathy and tolerance of corruption.

But the transparency I’m talking about isn’t always a result of corruption. Most companies are doing things perfectly legally in regards to environmental and social regulation, but their processes aren’t made available to the public, only to the government. And, in my opinion, environmental regulations are hardly enforced or strong enough to make much of a difference.

So it might not be up to the government to pressure companies into being more environmentally friendly; clearly, this is a very slow and tedious process and hardly seems to be working. It is up to the consumer to put pressure on their companies to make more information available, and then to make the choice that would best fit the planet.

Currently we are living in blissful ignorance. But ignorance is only bliss until your friend walks you into a tree while playing the “blind trust” game. Yes, this has happened to me. And yes, I had a Harry Potter-style wound on my forehead the next day at school. So please, keep your eyes open when you are walking, and keep your minds open the next time you purchase anything for the good of our planet.