Our Business Quarterly Newsletter provides:
During the 35 years of Ethical Consumer’s operation, we have built up a network of around 2,000 companies and other organisations who regularly read our magazine and web pages. Many of them also share our belief that there is an urgent need for a more ethical approach to business.
This network includes co-ops, social enterprises, B Corps, charities, universities and campaigning NGOs, as well as family-owned firms and other types of ordinary business.
Ethical organisations can learn from each other in this type of network as well as getting a sense of not being alone.
We are launching the Ethical Consumer Business Quarterly Newsletter to complement our popular consumer-focused email newsletter.
If you sign up to our Ethical Business email list, you will get a short email summary each time notifying you that we’ve uploaded the next edition to our research site.
We’re already featuring a couple of recent letters we’ve received from businesses below, but we would welcome any feedback and ideas you have to help us shape this project in the coming months.
Rob Harrison and Grace Boakye
Although, as we write, there is a shaky ceasefire in Gaza, there is every indication that the human rights abuses, the breaching of international conventions, and the apartheid-style system of rules will continue in Palestine for some time to come.
As public anger grows, we have trialled, for the first time, ranking companies on their responses to the ongoing genocide. We started this with our bookshop guide from magazine issue 217, and have included it in all the guides in Ethical Consumer Magazine issue 218.
Prior to this work we had surveyed our weekly newsletter readers about this idea and received an overwhelmingly positive response (96%).
In what feels like a return to the time when a global boycott emerged around apartheid South Africa, we currently plan to use this rating category in all our shopping guides for the immediate future at least.
Do contact us if you have any questions about how this might affect what you do.
The Ethical Consumer Conference took place in London on November 7th 2025. Themed around ‘Challenging Corporate Power’ the conference focussed on the growing need for alternative business models everywhere. Speakers talking about how their own business models work differently include Louise Pryor, chair of Ecology Building Society, Ben Pearson of Suma and Chris Butler of Ethex.
Another panel focussed on much more ambitious targets for growing co-ops, social enterprises and public ownership, following an article we publishing in EC magazine 216 arguing for this.
We heard from Tom Ebbutt from B Lab UK about their Better Business Act campaign which is calling on the government to change company law so that all business have a duty to consider the interest of stakeholders other than shareholders (rather than the option to do this as they have at the moment). Any business can support the campaign, and individuals are helped to write to their MPs too.
Both Emily Darko from Social Enterprise UK and James Wright from Co-ops UK felt that a higher rate of conversions of existing businesses to co-ops and social enterprises would require more ethical finance and capital as well as more good quality advice. Emily also reminded everyone not to forget the potential role of family owned firms which make up 86% of UK businesses. And Cat Hobbes from We Own It talked about how democratic representation for customers will be important in new state-owned firms that are surely coming.
Our catering was provided again by companies in our community including True Origins Best Buy label Traidcraft tea, Bird & Wild’s Best Buy label coffee and Mr Organic’s biscuits.
Do please let us know if you’d be interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at next year’s event.
Our 2025 Climate Gap Report, published in October, is free to download and details progress towards sustainable consumer lifestyles in the UK.
In this fourth quarter of the year, we look at energy used in heating, which accounts for about 14% of total UK emissions.
There were a number of suggested actions for companies to take:
The report also suggested that organisations consider supporting Business Declares, a business members network “underpinned by their commitment towards tackling the climate, ecological and social polycrisis in their businesses, and advocating for urgent systemic change”.
Updated tea and coffee guides will be coming up in the next issue of Ethical Consumer Magazine (EC218), alongside coffee shops and cooking oils. Look out for the new publication in mid-December 2025.
Over the coming year, we will also have guides reviewing travel companies, electric cars, clothes shops, sunscreen and fast food chains, among others.
Read more about a recent Best Buy Label holder, GB-Sol.
GB-Sol (solar panels)Solar Panel manufacturer GB-Sol, is one of our most recent sign-ups to our Best Buy Label scheme, after it topped the table in our 2025 guide to solar panels. Established in 1994, GB-Sol is an independent UK company that manufactures in-house, in its factory near Cardiff. It has been at the forefront of solar power generation for several decades and continues to lead in the application of solar through roof-integrated solar power systems, solar slates, ruggedised panels and marine applications. It is largely self-sufficient for electricity thanks to the solar panel system on its own roof. The Best Buy team at Ethical Consumer recently met for a discussion with GB-Sol to help their company get the best out of their recently gained Best Buy status. They plan to engage in a series of personalised marketing strategies that are available to all Best Buy label holders. |
The Path Financial, one of our 2025 conference partners, are an Independent Financial Advice company based in East Sussex. They took advantage of the ethical Screenings Best Buy product rating process earlier in 2025 and passed our standard. They then sat down with us and spoke about their company, ethical values and what sets them apart.
“For too long investments have followed the principles of ‘capitalism red-in-tooth-and-claw’ which has led to the parlous state we are in now. With enough support from ethical consumers we can change this to be a more caring capitalism or mindful money. Grass-roots support can influence this change.
“There are regrettably few ethical financial advisers in the UK. They mostly still operate on the old model of merely excluding certain unethical investments which has limited real-world impact.
"We seek out the investment managers who are finding solutions and using their votes to change for the better. We think this process will also be a predictor of superior financial returns over the longer term. We think this approach is better aligned with the values of ethical consumers.”
We published a guide to business banking earlier in 2025. A Best Buy Label holder, Green Stationery, got in touch to explain how difficult it was to bank ethically as a business.
"Good to see you doing reviews of banks again (EC214). Your focus on small business loans misses the fundamental requirements of business banking, which are the need to take and make payments and keep account records.
"Sadly, we still cannot find any ethical bank that operates a business current account that can offer business the banking services required to run a business. This situation is getting worse as we move more and more into digital banking; many small businesses now require their bank transactions to be imported into their accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks and only the big four banks are an option for these basic business services. In short, the conclusion of your piece should be that there are currently no ethical business banking options available in the UK, if anywhere!"
This is not the first email we’ve received on this subject. We’ve checked with the Co-op Bank and they do have a Xero integration. It would be good to know if businesses out there have found other solutions.
Do you agree with the view? As an ethical business, what do you do for banking services?
We welcome letters and feedback to enquiries[at]ethicalconsumer.org or use our contact form. Do mention the Quarterly Business Newsletter when you write.
Do you ever need to quickly check out the ethics of your suppliers or partner organisations?
Our quick and cost effective screenings service helps you to ensure that partners, suppliers, sponsors or potential investments will not pose a reputational risk or clash with your own ethics, values and mission.
We received the following message from Sophie Hughes:
"I work as the Environmental Sustainability Specialist within the HS&S team at Coleg Cambria, one of the largest colleges in the UK. Our Procurement Officer has to follow the Crescent Purchasing Consortium framework of approved suppliers: www.thecpc.ac.uk
"Can Ethical Consumer encourage Best Buy brands to join the CPC (and any other public sector procurement-approved supplier lists) to enable the most ethical brands to have a chance of being selected as public sector suppliers?”
We have talked about procurement by public services in our feature articles about Amazon
The research databases we use to rank brands for Ethical Consumer magazine are also available online for members of our business community who want to check on suppliers and partners.
They are also used by our screenings team who do bespoke research for clients including charities and foundations which want to check who they receive money from or give money too.
In the last few months, as well as ranking some of the private equity firms behind bookshop brands, such as Elliot Funds, we have also uploaded data on not for profits like the Ikea Foundation and Oxford University.
The database contains our independent assessments of carbon performance, such as this extract from Oxford University’s Carbon ranking:
“The charity did not appear to have an adequate target for all Scopes. It had a target to reach Net Zero by 2035 but its action plan for this included offsetting so it was not clear what the absolute carbon reduction would be. A web page discussing divestment did state: "the University’s Carbon Management Strategy has been shrinking the carbon footprint of our considerable estate since 2011. We have set ourselves the target of reducing our carbon emissions by fifty per cent by 2030 with University funding of £1million per annum." However, this target could not be found discussed in its recent Sustainability Report and it was not clear if it included all scopes.”
Reports from relevant news stories in the ethical and sustainability sector.
Global research in 31 markets shows that despite being hailed as the most climate-conscious generation, Gen Z’s commitment to reducing their environmental impact is slipping (from 76% in 2020 to 68% in 2024). From 2020 to 2024, fewer young people said they wanted to reduce their footprint. Even the belief that consuming less is essential to protect future generations is fading, along with the guilt tied to harming the environment (slipping from 66% to 56% in just four years).
And these sustainable behaviours are being replaced by a growing sense of futility. More young people believe that individual actions don’t make a difference (from 33% in 2020 to 42% in 2024). Overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis and unsure of how to help, they are disengaging – not because they don’t care, but because they feel powerless.
Source: Globe Scan
A new report from the communications consultancy, Brands2Life revealed that:
Nearly half (49%) of people want to better understand what sustainability terminology actually means, and 70% believe it’s important to make a personal contribution towards a sustainable future.
Source: Brands2life