Australia
Shop Ethical!
Shop Ethical! is produced by the Ethical Consumer Group, a community based, not-for-profit organisation and network, set up to help facilitate more sustainable purchasing practices for the everyday consumer.
As well as producing the Shop Ethical! website, the Ethical Consumer Group runs projects, community events and workshops, providing opportunities for people to explore living out practical alternatives in a consumer culture and share experiences, goals, and be inspired by what others are doing.
What do they do?
The Shop Ethical! pocket guide and app focus on the environmental and social record of companies behind the brand names of common products available in Australia.
They provide company ratings under the headings of animals, people, planet, companies and alternatives, with a wide range of sub-categories, from palm oil, factory farming and animal testing, to cleaning products, fabrics and the living wage.
Information on products and companies is available free through the website. The printed guide and mobile app are designed to help consumers when they are out shopping.
Ethical Consumers Australia / Good on You
Ethical Consumers Australia is an independent not for profit organisation, helping people to make consumer choices that match their values and to overcome barriers faced by people who want to make ethical consumption choices.
What do they do?
One of Ethical Consumers Australia' main tools is the free “Good on You” shopping guide app and blog which lists more than 3,000 clothing, footwear, electronics and accessory brands available in Australia’s 100 largest shopping malls and provides ratings for around 1,000 brands, showing how each brand performs on labour rights, the environment and animal protection.
The information for their rating scheme is based on information from certification schemes and other independent rating projects. The rating consists of a 5-point score, which takes into consideration the key issues “people”, “the environment” and “animals”.
Ethical Living
Ethical Living is an online shopping website for fair trade and ethically made goods, which also promotes ideas on how to ‘be the change you want to see in the world’.
What do they do?
The website offers a range of products, including apparel, children’s toys and home decoration. The website also offers information on the artisans producing the goods.
Austria
Bewusstkaufen
Bewusstkaufen is an initiative of the Environment Department. It is the official platform of the “Bewusst kaufen” initiative. Bewusstkaufen is the first web portal for sustainable consumption in Austria.
What do they do?
With information on over 250 labels, 60 shopping guides and about 2,000 sustainable products, the platform provides consumers with a wide range of information. The “Bewusst kaufen” (“Buy Aware”) initiative serves to increase consumers’ awareness of sustainable products and provides extensive information on conscious, sustainable consumption. It includes current news and events regarding sustainability, a product database with about 2,000 sustainable products, a label database with more than 250 labels, 60 Shopping guides for sustainable consumption, and a blog written by experts in the field.
Belgium
Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken
Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken is a “community website about sustainable living, consuming less and consuming differently”. It was founded in 1998 in the realm of the CRIOC, the Research and Information Centre for Consumer Organisations.
What do they do?
Today, more than forty of consumer, environmental and development organizations are part of the network, which encourages collaboration and information sharing between the various member organizations. Through thematic campaigns, projects, class action and formations, Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken wants to inspire and motivate adults to live in a more environmentally friendly, simpler way and build a “green online community”, using also Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
The main content of the website consists of thematically oriented news articles, with a special section on "my fair baby“ as well as information on sharing projects in Belgium (e.g. share housing or food swapping).
Brazil
Akatu
The Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption emerged in 2000 and is a non-governmental non-profit organization that works to raise awareness and mobilize society for Conscious Consumption.
What do they do?
The website provides tips for consumers, short informative video clips, a news section and reports which are published in co-operation with corporate partners. The website does not offer a shopping guide.
Denmark
Danwatch
Danwatch is an independent media and research centre that publishes investigative journalism focusing on CSR, human rights, environment and conflict areas in a global perspective.
What do they do?
The aim is to document whether and how states, investors and businesses demonstrate social responsibility toward developing countries and emerging economies. This website does not offer shopping guides.
Estonia
Bioneer
Bioneer is a non-political and independent web portal for sustainable lifestyles, which was established in May 2008.
What do they do?
The aim is to provide Estonian consumers with easy to understand information on issues like eco-friendly products, organic produce and environmental protection. The website also features a news section, information for educators, and promotes a range of events. This website does not feature a shopping guide.
Finland
Konsumentförbundet Kuluttajaliitto
The Consumers' Union of Finland (Konsumentförbundet Kuluttajaliitto) is an independent consumer interest NGO, which advises consumers and provides them with information. The Consumers' Union of Finland is an independent promoter of the interests and rights of consumers.
What do they do?
The objects of Konsumentförbundet Kuluttajaliitto include the furthering of the principles of fairness and sustainable consumption and to work for environmental protection.
France
ConsoGlobe
ConsoGlobe is a for-profit magazine-style website that focuses on all issues concerned with "responsible“ consumption.
What does it do?
It mainly consists of editoral pieces concerning product information, spanning from food to energy and home furnishings to travel. The website also includes an online shop selling "super-foods“ and supplements. It also features a platform where users can advertise, trade, donate and exchange products for free.
Mes Courses Pour La Planète
Initiated by Seeds of Change, the for-profit site Mes Courses Pour La Planete provides educational content to help consumers better understand and to better control the impact of their purchases both on their own health and the health of the planet.
What do they do?
The website features themed articles, e.g. on Christmas or banking, as well as product files, e.g. on water or spices and consumers can also order information brochures. The website also contains a database on French labels and quality seals, which are rated by the editors of the website. It does not contain a shopping guide.
www.mescoursespourlaplanete.com
Le Marché Citoyen
Conceived in 2006 as "directory to consume differently“, Le Marche Citoyen offers a for-profit web-based yellow pages of French outlets that comply with values like eco, fairness or sustainability.
What do they do?
The directory is divided into the main categories of food, fashion, beauty, services, travel, living, leisure and transportation and provides information on the services offers as well as the social or ecological engagement of the business. The directory is supplemented by editorial articles and news reports. A mobile app is also availalbe. This website does not provide a shopping guide.
Germany
Öko-Test Magazine
Öko-Test was incorporated in 1985 as monthly magazine that tests and grades products based on very strict criteria like health and safety or sustainability.
What do they do?
It awards the “Öko-Test Label” which can be used by producers to promote their products. Öko-Test also provides information regarding problematic production processes and business practices in editorial articles featured online and in their magazine.
Enorm Magazin
Enorm is a for-profit magazine published bi-monthly in print and digital form via a mobile app.
What do they do?
The objective of the website is to provide information on economic models, businesses and individuals and their reactions and solutions to the mounting social and environmental challenges. It aims at promoting sustainable businesses and conscious consumption.
Some content is also available through the website, which features critical articles on “economy”, “environment”, “society”, “consumption”, “education” and “health”. The website also runs an e-newsletter and an online job market which focuses on sustainable businesses and NGOs. They do not publish a shopping guide.
Enorm also runs an annual competition for startups who engage in social entrepreneurship. The winner is voted for by the subscribers of the magazine and receives an interest-free loan to sustain the start-up phase of the business. The loan is financed through subscription and advertising revenues.
Karmakonsum
Karmakonsum is a for-profit agency that is focused on the fields of healthy and sustainable lifestyles (LOHAS) and Corporate Social Responsibility.
What do they do?
The main fields of business are to develop marketing and communications campaigns and the organisation of the Karma Konsum Conference. The conference aims at networking of businesses involved in the field. Moreover, they publish a weblog, newsletter and podcast aimed at the broader public. They do not publish a buying guide.
Utopia
Utopia is a for-profit corporation that delivers web-based buying guides on sustainable goods. The objective is to inform consumers to help change their consumption behaviour and lifestyle.
What do they do?
Utopia publishes an e-newsletter as well as editorial news articles. Utopia combines the advice of an independent editorial department with the opinions and recommendations of more than 80,000 registered community members who test and evaluate sustainable products and services. As Utopia is profit-oriented, it relies on online advertising, advertorials, sponsored product tests and corporate profiles.
The website runs an extensive user-based community forum as well as Q&A section. Utopia.de also has an extensive link collection to car sharing sites, alternative online search engines and sustainable online shops.
The featured buying guides range from clothing to financial investments or energy suppliers. Each of the buying guides states the respective criteria used, e.g. in the case of energy suppliers their independence of nuclear power and big players in the market. Other product guides are based on consumers’ ratings, the basis of which is not entirely transparent.
VERBRAUCHER INITIATIVE e. V.
This not-for-profit organisation was incorporated in 1985 and has since been involved in the distribution of information on ethical and healthy consumerism in Germany.
What do they do?
There are five core projects:
1. www.label-online.de is supported by the Germany state. It aims at rating existing product labels and quality seals available in Germany. It is also available as an app.
2. www.nachhaltig-einkaufen.de focuses on CSR and aims at informing consumers specifically about CSR activities by Germany corporations.
3. www.oeko-fair.de was founded in 2002 and is supported by state stakeholders. Oeko-fair.de aims to promote sustainable consumer behaviour by publishing reports on organizations who are committed to ecologically and socially fair products.
4. www.zusatzstoffe-online.de is an online database for information on additives that are legal within the European Union
5. http://resterechner.de is a one page web app. It allows the visitors to select an amount of food, i.e. pork, oranges or cheese, which they can throw into a “virtual trashcan”. The app then calculates the amount of energy and money that is being wasted by throwing out food.
Wegreen
Wegreen is a for-profit information hub and marketplace that provides accessible information on eco-friendly and fair trade products.
What do they do?
The website has developed a rating system to indicate the sustainability of a product; the scores are based on third-party certifications and the producers’ own information. The website offers links to more than 180 online shops and 4 million “green” products, including Amazon and Zalando. A web based app shows whether a product is “green” and “fair”. The website also offers a blog and e-newsletter.
Christliche Initiative Romero
The Christian Initiative Romero (CIR) has been active since 1981 to foster labour and human rights in Central America.
What do they do?
The focus of its work is the support of grassroots movements and organizations in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as campaigning and education work in Germany.
The campaigns featured on the website include issues connected to ethical consumption, i.e. clean clothing. The website also links to further projects, like I Shop Fair, as well as enables visitors to sign featured petitions directly. It does not include a buying guide.
Hungary
Tudatos Vásárló
Tudatos Vásárló (Association of Conscious Consumers, ACC) has been promoting ethical, environmental and socially conscious consumption and lifestyle choices since 2001.
What do they do?
Their output is entirely web-based, although this includes an archive of a magazine they produced from 2004-2011. Editions covered diverse themes, from household chemicals, beauty and sweets, to electronics, transportation and finance.
Their website publishes original articles within the following topic areas: food and drink; healthy body; home and office; advertisement; transportation; finance. Moreover, they publish tests, which compare the environmental impact, the functionality, health concerns, and the consumer protection aspects of different products.
Tudatos Vásárló publishes a “good product database”, which is developed in co-operation with the group’s supporters and features many different product categories, from toilet paper to notebooks and are selected mainly by ethical and environmental aspects. In addition, they run databases for labelling schemes as well as food and cosmetics additives.
Italy
Consumietici
Consumietici is run by Acea Onlus, Association of Ethical and Alternative Fuel consumption, Public Goods and Lifestyles, a voluntary association that focuses on the protection of individual rights, the promotion of ethical consumption and sustainable lifestyles, and solidarity, and the protection of common goods for public welfare.
What do they do?
On the website, the editorial team publishes articles on issues concerning human rights, education and consumerism. They do not publish a shopping guide.
The Netherlands
GoedeWaar
GoedeWaar is a donation-based consumer organisation that is committed to sustainable consumption. The aim is to to enable consumers to make fair and ethical choices by collecting, analysing and publishing information about the sustainability of products and production practices. GoedeWaar consults with businesses, the Dutch government and civil society organizations.
What do they do?
The website is its main tool, which publishes comprehensive research and other information concerning the sustainability of consumer products throughout the production chain. The research and evaluation of products are based on internationally recognized standards and conventions in the areas of sustainability such as ILO and ISO. Products and services evaluated by GoedeWaar.nl include cosmetics, clothing, tourism and transportation.
The website includes a "Hall Mark Checker“, which evaluates a number of food and beverage labels as well as clothing product labels and quality seals. The labels rating is visualized by a 3-3 matrix, evaluating social, economic and ecologic aspects throughout the production processes of sourcing, producing and distributing.
Moreover, GoedeWaar developed a clothing brand evaluation scheme "De Checker“, which includes more that 300 popular brands. The brands are each rated and ranked for their "relative sustainability“ in the areas social (e.g. avoiding child labour), economic (e.g. fair pricing) and ecologic engagement (e.g. avoiding pollution).
Poland
Buy Responsibly Foundation
Buy Responsibly Foundation is a nationwide organization focusing on of sustainable development and environmental protection, responsible consumption and production, as well as respect for human rights and environmental principles in business. They have been active since 2002: first as a programme of the Polish Green Network, and then since January 2014 as an independent foundation.
What do they do?
They organise events and workshops, cooperate with activists, and monitor factories, travel to plantations and interview workers to deliver advice guides to the public.
Spain
CRIC
The Centre for Research and Consumer Information (CRIC) is a non-profit, independent organisation established in Barcelona in 1996 to provide research and information in the field of conscious consumption.
What do they do?
Since 2002 they have published the quarterly magazine Opcions ('Options', published in Catalan and Spanish) providing reports and guides on diverse consumer items and issues, including wine, sunscreen, nappies, banking and pasta. All issues, except the current one, are available on their website.
CRIC also produce 'Consumpedia', a browsable collection of product 'studies' covering thirteen areas, from light bulbs and wooden furniture to tourism and computers. The studies are the result of independent research drawing on corporate, academic, governmental and organizational sources. They include advice to consumers about how to meet their needs with minimal resources and how to use products in a way that makes them last longer. The studies also provide insight into the environmental and social impacts of products, the character of some of the companies that offer them, as well as suggestions for action.
Sweden
Sveriges Konsumenter
The Swedish Consumers' Association is the national consumer organisation in Sweden, representing the Swedish consumer interest on national, regional and international level.
What do they do?
The website provides some information on sustainable consumption, but no buying guides.
Medveten Konsumtion
Medveten Konsumtion (Society for Conscious Consumption) is a politically and religiously independent non-profit association in support of consumer sovereignty and sustainable consumption.
What do they do?
The website provides information on the live projects, events and lectures undertaken by the association, as well as news, advice for shopping, a label-evaluation guide and the “ekoguider” tool. This tool, which is available locally for different areas and cities of Sweden, is designed as an interactive map to each city’s sustainable shops and services. Users can themselves contribute to the guide.
Swedwatch
Swedwatch is an independent, non-profit organisation reporting on Swedish business relations in developing countries.
What do they do?
They investigate human rights breaches and push companies to act according to international standards. Swedwatch also seeks to spread best practice cases and gives seminars in order to constantly raise the bar in the area of CSR. The overall goal is reduced poverty and sustainable social and environmental development in the South. A sub-goal is to minimise the negative footprint of businesses and instead see improved contributions leading to positive impact through our research connected to CSR, human rights and the environment.
The website publishes critical reports in 6 languages but does not offer a buying guide.
Switzerland
Labelinfo
Labelinfo is an online information platform for environmental and social labels and is operated by the Foundation Pusch.
What do they do?
The service currently offers detailed information on 135 quality labels and 19 declarations in both German and French and is the most comprehensive label database in Switzerland. Labelinfo helps to inform business and consumers objectively about labels in order to make their consumption choices more responsible.
Codecheck.info (Switzerland, Germany, Austria)
This is a for-profit enterprise, which derives revenue from “native advertising”, i.e. sponsored ads on the website.
What do they do?
This website and in particular the mobile app are designed to provide consumers with detailed information about the contents of everyday products, including food, cosmetics and other non-food items. Via a barcode scanner, the app provides a shopping guide.
The main concerns addressed by Codecheck.info are health and sustainability, including issues like animal welfare or palm oil use. The data for the product ratings are derived, amongst others, from Oekotest, Greenpeace, labelling schemes and consumer reviews. Each product is provided with a simple green ring-shaped seal which indicates the quality. Red segments within the ring indicate an alert to potentially harmful ingredients.
Turkey
Eco Cadi
Eco Cadi (Eco Witch) is a Turkish website by a blogger who provides general information on ethical consumption and some shopping guidance.
UK
The Good Shopping Guide
Run by The Ethical Company Organization, this guide aims to "help people make informed decisions about which brands are best for the planet, best for animals and best for people worldwide". The research focuses on three general areas: People, Animals and the Environment. The Ethical Company Organization awards an Ethical Accreditation as an independent mark of endorsement.
What do they do?
The Good Shopping Guide is available as a book, as an online tool and as mobile app (for a fee), and ranks more than 700 brands in 72 product-specific categories according to how ethically they have been produced. The ratings are based on research into the corporate social responsibility (CSR) records of the UK's biggest brands. Over 60 different product categories are covered, and for each category, there is an at-a-glance summary of the overall ethicality scores of different companies and brands.
http://ethical-company-organisation.org/the-good-shopping-guide
USA
Green America
Green America is a US national membership-based non-profit organisation, founded in 1982. Its mission is to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society by focusing economic action to solve social and environmental problems, i.e. mobilising people in their economic roles as consumers, investors, workers or business leaders.
What do they do?
Green America runs several programs, focusing on food, labour, finance and energy. They publish a blog and an e-newsletter, as well as Green American Magazine and thematically oriented buying/investing guides (at a fee). They also run the National Green Pages, which operates on a separate webpage.
Green America also operates the Green America Seal certification scheme for “Green Businesses”, i.e. businesses that are committed to using business as a platform for social change. Green businesses adopt principles, policies and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, employees, communities, and the planet. Since 1982, Green America has evaluated over 8,000 small businesses.
International
Consumers International
Consumers International (CI) is a not-for-profit company and the world federation of consumer groups that, working together with its members, serves as the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers. There are eight basic consumer rights which define and determine their principles.
With over 200 member organisations in 100 countries, they are building a powerful international movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere.
What do they do?
Their website offers advice on how best to exert consumer rights. It also has a members area where organisations can benefit from exclusive networking communities. They currently are campaigning on a number of different issues such as antibiotic resistance, salt reduction and food marketing to children.
www.consumersinternational.org
Project Just
Project Just is building an online community to help consumers change the way they shop for clothing. They are a global project with team members based all around the world.
What do they do?
The online platform tells consumers stories behind their clothing, featuring brand profiles researched by ethical, social, and environmental factors and a series of fashion focused content. They publish a series of category guides under a Seal of Approval rating. Anyone can submit a brand for Project Just to rate if its not already been included.