Lucid Design Group's Building Dashboard

Eco-labels, move over.

In 2007, companies from Seattle-based REI to Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) expanded their eco-label programs, offering consumers more information about the environmental impact of particular products. REI’s “Eco-Sensitive” hang-tags dangle from an anticipated 70 REI-branded apparel and gear in the spring 2008 collection, designating items manufactured with a high percentage of recycled, rapidly renewable or organic materials. Timberland began providing “nutrition labels” for its products, with information about how and where products were manufactured, including materials, energy use and factory location. Grocers introduced or expanded private-label organics and Marine Stewardship Council–certified seafood. The companies seem to have been at the forefront of a growing trend: Seattle-based consulting firm The Hartman Group released a report in October 2007 showing 30 percent of consumers read product labels “much more often” than they did in 2006.

But consumers now have access to much more information that goes beyond how a product was grown or made. While eco-labels help consumers change one behavior (purchasing habits), a number of new products and technologies aim to help consumers change behaviors with environmental impacts—especially how they use energy.

In 2008, a growing number of savvy companies are providing value-added services that help individual users make sense of the environmental data available, using the now-ubiquitous cell phones, PDAs, laptops and other personal communication tools available.

“It was only a matter of time,” says Michael Murray, president of Oakland-based Lucid Design Group. “People expect to be able to buy ringtones on their phone, and Chase lets you check your bank balance on your mobile phone. … There’s the expectation that more and more info is going to be put online.”

As the data available to energy companies and their customers become increasingly detailed, systems are needed to display the relevant information to the people who can make behavior changes that have an impact.