Is There a World Beyond Supermarkets? Bought These from My Local Farmers’ My Local Box Market Scheme Delivers This I Grew These Myself!
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
www.ethicalconsumer.org EC178 May/June 2019 £4.25 Is there a world beyond supermarkets? Bought these from my local farmers’ My local box market scheme delivers this I grew these myself! Special product guide to supermarkets PLUS: Guides to Cat & dog food, Cooking oil, Paint feelgood windows Enjoy the comfort and energy efficiency of triple glazed timber windows and doors ® Options to suit all budgets Friendly personal service and technical support from the low energy and Passivhaus experts www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk t: 01484 461705 g b s windows ad 91x137mm Ethical C dec 2018 FINAL.indd 1 14/12/2018 10:42 CAPITAL AT RISK. INVESTMENTS ARE LONG TERM AND MAY NOT BE READILY REALISABLE. ABUNDANCE IS AUTHORISED AND REGULATED BY THE FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY (525432). add to your without arming rainy day fund dictators abundance investment make good money abundanceinvestment.com Editorial ethicalconsumer.org MAY/JUNE 2019 Josie Wexler Editor This is a readers choice issue – we ask readers to do ethical lifestyle training. We encourage organisations and an online survey each Autumn on what they’d like us networks focussed on environmental or social justice to cover. It therefore contains guides to some pretty issues to send a representative. disparate products – supermarkets, cooking oil, pet food and paint. There is also going to be a new guide to rice Our 30th birthday going up on the web later this month. As we mentioned in the last issue, it was Ethical Animal welfare is a big theme in both supermarkets and Consumer’s 30th birthday in March this year. In the pet food. There is a new Business Benchmark on Farm September issue we will be reflecting on the last 30 years Animal Welfare report out, which we report on in our and what we have seen change in Ethical Consumption- supermarkets guide. And while it is profoundly ironic and the rest of the world- over this time. that our love of animals should cause more animals to We’ll be discussing this further at our conference, which suffer, that is the reality of what having a pet means if you will be on the 25th October. The title this year is “The feed it on most mainstream pet food brands. power and politics of Ethical Consumption”. Tickets will Toxics are a big theme in the paint guide. We look at be on sale soon. paints made from less processed ingredients such as clay, We’re also celebrating our 30th birthday with a magazine chalk, orange oil and balsamic turpentine from pine redesign, so expect to be blown away by our stylishness trees, as a way of addressing the problem. in EC180, as well as our main report on clothes shops. The Consumer’s Association m New Best Buy Label nsu er o .o We’re really pleased that we’ve been able to do some work c r products l g with Which? recently. The magazine used our research on a c i smartphones in its April edition. In more general news, we’ve h t awarded the Best Buy label to e Y This marks a step change at our big sister organisation B U three new companies recently: ES T B the Consumer’s Association, which although great on price and quality, has generally seen ethical issues as • Conscious Skincare for skincare, beyond its remit for more than 20 years now. Lets hope shampoo, shower gel and soap: this is the beginning of a trend. www.conscious-skincare.com • Kings Vegan Grooming for aftershave: CTRLShift https://kings-grooming.com We’re also working with the group CTRLShift, which • Veo World, as an ethical online retailer: aims to develop a shared agenda to shift power over www.veo.world our democracy, economy and environment, from Westminster and multinational corporations, to people This brings the number of accredited companies to 38. and communities across the UK. See page 42 for a list of All of these companies can now use the logo on their partners. products and services. See all the companies here – www.ethicalconsumer.org/promote-your-business- Ethical Consumer will be attending their Emergency ethical-consumer/best-buy-label-for-business Summit for Change in May, where we plan to run a regenerative business session and a focus group on Ethical screening of: Microsoft Corporation For: Amnesty Date: 4th May 2018 Company overview: Microsoft is one of the world’s top computer software companies. Its Windows operating system and Office suite dominate the workplace computer market and is included in many personal computers, including those made by Dell Technologies, HP Inc. and Lenovo. Microsoft also makes its own devices, such as tablets (Surface), game consoles (Xbox), and laptops. It owns the video-calling service Skype and in 2016 it bought the business networking platform Ethical Company ScreeningsLinkedIn for $26 billion. Microsoft is also present in the cloud computing market with its ‘Azure’ platform. Ownership: The largest shareholders in Microsoft are the Vanguard Group Inc (6.75%) and BlackRock Inc Past and present clients include: (6.0%). Bill Gates is the largest shareholder among Microsoft’s named executive officers with 1.3% of the company’s common stock. Ethical Consumer rating (including what EC identifies as the main ethical issues with this company): Microsoft receives an Ethiscore of 5.5 out of a possible 15 on Ethical Consumer’s database. It loses whole marks under the following Ethical Consumer ratings categories: Pollution and Toxics, Habitats and Resources, Human Rights, Workers’ Rights, Arms and Military Supply, Political Activities and Anti-Social Finance. It loses half a mark under the following Ethical Consumer ratings categories: Environmental Reporting, Climate Change and Supply Chain Management. Ethical Consumer offers quick The company did not gain any additional positive marks for providing an environmental or social and cost effective screenings alternative. Address: to help you to ensure that One Microsoft Way Redmond partners, suppliers, sponsors Washington or potential investments will 98052-6399 Website: not pose a reputational risk, www.microsoft.com or clash with your own ethics, Email: values and mission. Screenings are available from just £129 Phone us on: 0161 226 2929 Or email: [email protected] Contents www.ethicalconsumer.org MAY/JUNE 2019 who’s who news product guides this Issue’s editor Josie Wexler supermarkets proofing Ciara Maginness (littlebluepencil.co.uk) p6 writers/researchers Jane Turner, Tim Hunt, Rob 10 our broken food system Harrison, Anna Clayton, Joanna Long, Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange, Mackenzie Denyer, Clare Carlile, 12 score table & Best Buys Francesca de la Torre, Alex Crumbie, Madeleine Jones, 13 A-Z of supermarkets’ policies Tom Bryson regular contributors Simon Birch, Colin Birch 16 sustainable alternatives design and layout Adele Armistead (Moonloft), Jane Turner cat & dog food cover Adele Armistead (Moonloft) cartoons Marc Roberts, Andy Vine 18 introduction ad sales Simon Birch 19 can cats be veggie? subscriptions Elizabeth Chater, Francesca Thomas press enquiries Simon Birch, Tim Hunt 20 score table & Best Buys enquiries Francesca Thomas web editor Sophie Billington cooking oil thanks also to Marlous Veldt, Merle Büter 06 food & home bottle return scheme, bread bag 26 introduction All material correct one month before cover date and © recycling, Pepsi buys SodaStream, . 28 rapeseed & sunflower oil score Ethical Consumer Research Association Ltd ISSN TreeAid, product guide updates, 09 8608. table & Best Buys can you write a green story? 30 olive oil score table & Best Buys Printed with vegetable ink by RAP Spiderweb Ltd, 08 clothes c/o the Commercial Centre, Clowes Centre, Hollinwood, 32 coconut oil score table & Best sustainable fashion report Oldham OL9 7LY. 0161 947 3700. Buys Paper: 100% post-consumer waste, chlorine-free and 09 boycotts sourced from the only UK paper merchant supplying 34 profile of Zaytoun University of London, Eurovision only recycled papers – Paperback song contest (www.paperbackpaper.co.uk). paint 40 beyond consumerism 36 introduction Retail distribution is handled by Central Books on Community RePaint 0845 458 9911. Ethical Consumer is a member of INK 38 score table & Best Buys (independent news collective), an association of radical 41 ethical novice and alternative publishers - www.ink.uk.com. paint p10 We are a Living Wage employer, a multi-stakeholder 42 thinker co-op, and Fair Tax Mark accredited. CTRLshift summit 43 climate British Museum, Barclays 46 money banks’ non-disclosure, Ethex solar about the advertisers investment ECRA checks out advertisers before accepting their ads 47 tax justice and reserves the right to refuse any advert. international tax reform, 50th Fair Covered in previous Product Guides: Co-operative Tax Mark phone & broadband (145), Kingfisher Toothpaste (165) Vegetarian Shoes (162). Other advertisers: Abundance, Friends Of the Earth, Green Building Store, Infinity Wholefoods, Investing feature Ethically, Juno, Medical Aid for Palestine, Refugee p8 Council, Veo World, Womankind. 44 electricity & gas revisited what’s happened in the market Ethical Consumer Research Association Ltd regulars Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester, M1 RF t: 0161 226 2929 (12 noon-6pm) 42 gift subscriptions e: [email protected] for general enquiries give a gift that lasts a year [email protected] for subscriptions. 48 letters a regular forum for readers’ views Follow us: @EC_magazine 50 inside view Ethical Consumer Magazine why you should buy recycled paper Food and home MAY/JUNE 2019 ethicalconsumer.org Government dragging its feet Greenpeace campaigners march the 29 ft bottle to Michael Gove in protest against single-use plastic. The huge sculpture over plastic bottle scheme was made up of 2,500 plastic bottles that had been collected from streets, river banks and beaches around the UK by In March, Greenpeace activists took a message in a 29 volunteers. foot bottle to Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, to tell him to give people what they want: a strong deposit return scheme (DRS).