We are proud to have held Ethical Shopping accreditation since 2008.
What does this mean?
Since 2001 The Ethical Company Organisation have aimed to provide information which promotes positive environmental, human rights and animal welfare practices. The point is to make it easy for consumers to choose to buy from companies that take care to treat animals, people and the planet in the best way possible.
The main way they reach consumers is with The Good Shopping Guide. The online guide provides ethical comparison information and aims to help people make informed decisions about which brands are best for the environment, people and animals.
Why does this matter?
As the Good Shopping Guide says, most of us are now aware of our carbon footprint, but we should also know that we leave an ethical footprint every time we shop in the current economy.
What many are not aware of is the supply chain behind the purchases we make. Poor practises further down the line can fund slavery operations, cruelty to animals and human rights offences, even nuclear development – all for the sake of a quick buy.
By exposing many of these connections, listing the level of corporate social responsibility of the companies behind hundreds of everyday product, it makes it harder for practises like slavery, greenwashing and illegal trading to go unnoticed.
Ultimately it allows the consumer, you, the right to buy genuinely compassionate products, fully confident in every stage of the manufacturing process.
How did we get Ethical Accreditation, and what does it tell you?
Ethical Accreditation is quoted as being: "A cross-spectrum (people, animals and environment) accreditation, which exists to reward ethical companies’ behaviour.”
The Ethical Company Organisations researches extensively to find the highest ethically ranked 33% of any particular product sector – these companies are then eligible for accreditation.
Our membership is audited annually, which makes sure that member companies maintain high ethical standards - those falling below the benchmark are not allowed to maintain membership. This means you can be reassured that we are regularly, rigorously assessed in our standards and processes.
Ethical Accreditation also encourages those companies which fall short of the ethical benchmark, to improve in certain areas where they do not receive the highest rating (whether that be: producing a suitable Environmental Report; attaining other 3rd party certification(s) eg. Soil Association, CFI’s Leaping Bunny etc; sending us specific ethical policies etc). In this way, companies who are keen to perform well and be as ethical as possible are given fair, productive advice and support to do so.
It means that you can buy from us, secure in the knowledge that we have been scrutinised by an independent body and proven to offer products that are truly ethical and fair in every way, and every stage of our manufacturing and buying process is the same.