German Magazine to Include Ethics Data in Product Ratings

《洛杉矶时报》: 德国消费者评价商品又有新标准

　　企业的社会责任也将与商品的使用性和价值一道被消费者评价。

　　德国的消费者在购物时将会大吃一惊。今年德国的主要消费者杂志“检测”(Test)要开始让商品显现新的标准评价，其中包括企业在生产中的活动究竟是否符合国际社会和劳工标准，企业活动对环境究竟是有益还是有害。尽管进行包括这些道德规范信息产品的试验似乎并不引人注意，主要在全天候夹克衫、洗涤液和大马哈鱼三种产品，但易于让消费者理解该杂志提出的这些标准的重要性。

　　出版“检测”杂志的消费者组织Stiftung Warentest在决定将道德规范信息作为评价标准后，的确在社会上搅起了一番论战，但杂志月销65万测的规模也的确对消费者产生巨大影响。

German shoppers are in for a surprise. This year, Test, the country's leading consumer magazine, will begin featuring products assessed on new criteria — whether the practices used in their production comply with international social and labor standards, and whether they are good or bad for the environment.

Though the first three pilot tests containing the ethics information appear unspectacular — covering all-weather jackets, detergent and salmon — it is easy to grasp the significance of their inclusion in a magazine that is the buying bible for many German households accustomed to reading about value-for-money and ease-of-use rankings. In Germany, issues that companies are tackling under the broad banner of corporate social responsibility are now finding their way out of the battleground between business and campaign groups and into the product pages of a mainstream consumer magazine.

Stiftung Warentest, the consumer organization that publishes Test, stirred controversy when it decided to include the ethics information — not least because, with sales of 650,000 a month, the magazine has a real effect on consumer choices.

"Depending on where you stand, our initiative has created either hope or fear that these social and environmental issues will gain extra weight in society if a major player such as Stiftung Warentest addresses them in a more concerted way," said Holger Brackemann, research coordinator for the consumer group.

Stiftung Warentest has been slower than its European counterparts to make the link between corporate social responsibility and product tests. Consumer magazines in about 10 countries have already published tests that include social, labor and environmental criteria, according to Andrea Klag of the London-based International Consumer Research and Testing group, which coordinates product tests for consumer magazines.

Rob Harrison, editor of Britain's Ethical Consumer magazine, sees a "general trend among mainstream consumer groups around the world to satisfy the growing consumer appetite for information on ethical issues."

Last year, the British consumer magazine called Which? included social responsibility criteria in tests on running shoes and mobile phones, and Consumentenbond, the Netherlands' main consumer association, has published 20 reports containing such information.

The trend creates challenges, such as how to assess the social responsibility qualities of a product and how such assessments should be presented to consumers. Companies, consumer magazines and nongovernmental organizations all admit these challenges will take time and effort to overcome.

"We are still in the learning phase in terms of methodologies, in getting sufficient data from companies, and on whether consumers can really use this extra information," said Jane O'Brien, Which? magazine's head of research.

Brackemann said that Stiftung Warentest's decision was consumer-driven. "It is clear from surveys that consumers are increasingly interested in social and environmental issues, so we are responding to that. Products are becoming more similar in terms of quality, so consumers are looking for other ways of making purchasing choices."

The first test with the criteria will be on all-weather jackets — a good choice, according to Stiftung Warentest, as these are made not in Germany but in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, where production standards are often lower.

Stiftung Warentest has prepared a 20-page questionnaire with 39 criteria to be sent to companies with jackets in the main product test. The questions cover a company's social, employment and environmental policies, its relations with suppliers and whether monitoring structures exist to check whether policies are being properly implemented.

The information from companies will be supplemented with data from nongovernmental organizations and the media, and from auditing companies commissioned by Stiftung Warentest to run independent checks on what the company has said.

Brackemann stressed that, as far as possible, the criteria would focus on the production processes behind specific products, not on the companies that make them, as a company such as Siemens with many products may perform better or worse on telephones than on refrigerators.

The BDI, Germany's main industry federation, opposes Stiftung Warentest's move because of the methodological difficulties in gathering and presenting the data in a balanced way. This could lead to "market distortion," said Marie Luise Eul, the BDI's environmental policy expert. "We have high social standards in Germany, but smaller companies in particular are unaware what 'corporate social responsibility' means."

In contrast, Heinz-Dieter Koeppe, director of environmental and social policy at retailer KarstadtQuelle, said the issue had become "how, and not whether, such tests are done."

Brackemann at Stiftung Warentest said the focus would be "as much on [corporate] policies … as on the realities on the ground of how products are made."

Perhaps surprisingly, the Clean Clothes Campaign, which lobbies clothing retailers to improve working conditions of their suppliers, said magazines should avoid presenting "oversimplified" information in the form of rankings or score cards.

Said spokeswoman Ineke Zeldenrust: "The issues are complex, and it is dangerous to present snapshots of company practices that change over time. Fake consumer advice is of no use to anyone."