“It is because it is so firmly rooted in our daily lives that it is one of those things that silently regulate our way of life, and it is for that very reason that it does not worry us. It is with us every day and we do not pay enough attention to it. Do you remember the last product you put in your shopping cart at the supermarket?”

“It‘s’urgent to rethink the consumption”

When in front of a shelf, as we are about to put a product in our basket, at best we look at its label without necessarily being able to grasp all of its implications. At worst (and it is often the case), we simply make a synthetic assessment of the packaging, the colour and possibly the presence of labels, the objectivity of every one of which is uncertain.

Both approaches are known to manufacturers and distributors who use this behavioral mechanism to influence the choice of the buyer. This relationship, between the consumer and the seller, is an intrinsic feature of commerce, it is taught in business, sales and even marketing schools. This relationship is not bad, it is normal and relies on seduction more than on deception.

Beyond this observation, this relationship also reveals the variables that intervene in our consumer actions. These variables turn the price, the visual aspect and the need into preponderant components in the purchase decision, but often minimize other parameters that are just as crucial, such as the manufacturing method, the ecological impact or the potential or proven consequences on health. Of course, the manufacturer cannot write everything on the label, nor can they compromise their objectives by listing the doubts or inaccuracies that may exist about the product or its components. This is the case for a considerable number of products that we consume or use.

Becoming a smart consumer means becoming an informed and vigilant consumer. It is also understanding that consumption is not an automatism, that it implies consequences which transcend it and that one must be interested in it. In any case, becoming a smart consumer is a challenge that, in many ways, is not personal but collective and based on the combination of a need, a common will and an instrument.

Individual consumption but collective challenge

Consumption is above all a personal matter. No one would think of asking their next-door neighbour to go shopping together and cross-reference their advice with yours as to the choice of one product or the other or the composition of tonight’s dinner. Their budget is probably different and so are their tastes.

On the other hand, there is something that is essentially identical for the both of you and that brings you together: the effects on your bodies caused by the consumption of a litre of bleach. No matter the price, whatever your taste may be, this litre of bleach will have the same catastrophic consequences. Your neighbour and you are thus connected by what we could call “the equalising power” of the toxicity of the bleach.

Let us present things differently, not with bleach this time but with another equally toxic component: titanium dioxide (E171). Titanium dioxide is a component used in the manufacturing of plastics, paints and building materials, but it is also used as an additive for many everyday products such as toothpaste, sweets, ready meals, biscuits, in sunscreens and in various pharmaceutical products. Its usefulness is relative since, in these instances, it is incorporated into the products for mere appearance considerations! (for its whitening and shining power).

When we look at this component, we realise that, despite its commercial use, serious doubts about its dangerousness are legitimate. It was thus classified in 2006 as a “possible carcinogen for humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer[2] (IARC[3]). In 2017, it is the European Chemicals Agency that classifies[4] this component as a category II carcinogen, a classification confirmed by a study carried out on rats by the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA France) that same year[5] …

You probably did not know that by buying a simple toothpaste, you were being exposed to a risk probably not as swift as the bleach but the effects of which may eventually be similar. Your neighbour might have known…

Now, if you extend your field of vision and it is no longer your neighbor but the entire community, would it not be relevant to be alerted to the existence of these risks? This is how an individual action can become a collective challenge, that of being objectively informed of the risks associated with a product or its components. Being a smart consumer is contributing to this challenge by being a relay, a contributor or an alert for the entire community. “Intelligent consumption” is then made possible by the sum of consumers who are interested and involved in this quest. An individual watch that finds its utility through the networking.

Individual need but common will

Although consumer products have never been as safe as in our time, the series of scandals and health warnings on a global scale over the past two decades has significantly reinforced two trends: the loss of confidence in information related to these products and consecutively, the strengthened need to obtain more readability and transparency.

From the intersection of these two curves emerges a common will, that of consuming better or, at least, to consume intelligently. This involves varying levels of commitment, which are confined to the personal sphere; we are more interested in what is written on the label, we impose on ourselves new consumer disciplines, we prefer products from short production circuits …

The absence of a collective approach can be explained by the fact that we always consider that the purchase is a personal and interested act and that it is of no concern to our neighbor. It can also be explained by a common misconception that “good products” are expensive products and therefore that consumer intelligence is reserved for a small part of the population; those who have the means. The lack of a collective approach can finally be explained, depending on the country, by the proactivity of institutions and associations in protecting the consumer: it is estimated that if a product is available for purchase, it is harmless and that’s probably the catch.

If in most European countries or even in the United States, the precautionary principle is fundamental to the regulation of marketed products, it is scientifically and physically impossible for them to fully control all of the parameters that can lead to the dangerousness of a product or its components. In other words, if most of the dangerous products can be filtered and banned, it is only the most visible or obvious part. This is partly the cause of the food scandals of recent years. States cannot ban everything because of the slightest doubt, and sometimes these doubts turn out to be much more serious than they initially seemed.

Personal instrument but community tool

The common desire to have more visibility and readability on marketed products can find an answer in a collective instrument, complementary to the global institutions responsible for consumer protection: a technological application for informing, monitoring, ans sharing expertise and warning about the dangerousness of everyday products.

This instrument must be both personal and community-focused, but above all it must be independent in regards to those with interests in the sale of products. This instrument can be the basis of a new consumption mode: smart consumption.

This tool must be personal because consumption will always be an individual act. It must be easy to use because you cannot go from a country where purchasing takes a couple minutes to one where you would have to take 10 minutes for the same action.

This tool must be decentralised and linked to a community without any geographical consideration: if a product is dangerous for a European, it will be the same for an American regardless of the difference between the standards applicable in each country.

This tool must finally be independent and based on a clear contract between the community and those administering the instrument. Transparency and independence are parameters that structure the relevance of a tool for global use.

It is these reflections that animate the construction of Wiji, our instrument of smart consumption.