The Good Shopping Guide

The 8th annual edition of The Good Shopping Guide reveals a huge disparity in corporate social responsibility standards in UK consumer goods companies.

The research covers everything from banks to butter and uses several ethical criteria including armaments involvement, animal welfare, boycott calls, carbon emissions, child labour, corporate corruption, environmental impact, ethical accreditation, fair and un-fair trade, human rights abuse, nuclear power, political donations, pollution, rainforest timber and third world debt.

The Good Shopping Guide’s top 50 ethical brands are:

New Look Group Plc; Natural by Nature Oils; Good Energy Group Plc; Seasalt Ltd; Charity Bank; Brother UK Ltd; People Tree; Caurnie Soap Co; Medivac Healthcare Ltd (vacuum cleaners); Green Energy UK Plc; C Mobile Ltd; Woodex Ltd (Osmo eco paints); House of Goodness (Atmos boilers); Triodos Bank; Ecology BS; Honest Cosmetics; Green People Company (skincare); The Little Pet Food Company (Lily’s Kitchen); Monsoon Plc; Suma Wholefoods; The Village Bakery; Doves Farm; Redwood Wholefood Company (Vegi-Deli); Bio-D Co Ltd; Kingfisher plc (B&Q); Faith Products (Clear Spring); Casio Computer Co Ltd; Ecos Paints; GoinGreen (cars); Bskyb (Amstrad); Clipper Teas; Cafedirect; Essential Care; Aromatherapy Direct; Bodywise UK Ltd (Natracare); Hoover; Organico Realfoods Ltd; Food Brands Group; Equal Exchange (coffee); Cafédirect; Traidcraft Plc (chocolate); Highland Spring Ltd; McBride (Surcare washing up liquid); Premier Foods (Quorn & Cauldron foods); Hain Celestial Group (Linda McCartney); Rainbow Wholefood; Natural Organic Soap; Groupe SEB (kettles); Premier Foods Plc; Ecover.

The Good Shopping Guide’s least ethical brands are:

Esso; Horlicks, General Electric; Altria Group (Chocolate Orange); Chevron Corporation (Texaco); Capital One Financial Corp; Bayer AG (Aspro Clear pain remedies); Schering-Plough (Coppertone sun protection); Glaxo Smith-Kline (Horlicks, Beechams, Day Nurse, Hedex, Ribena, Aquafresh) Procter & Gamble (Max Factor, Ariel, Bold, Daz, Fairy, Pampers)

The research shows the top 50 companies score between 86 and 100 and the worst performing companies between 5 and 28.

Household names such as Ritz and Horlicks score amongst the lowest, whilst cosmetic brands Boots No 7 scores over twice as well as Oil of Olay and Max Factor. Interestingly, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose are ethically more responsible than Budgens, Asda and Tesco, with the latter scoring only 38.

Household brands such as Ribena, Pampers, Tampax and Crest score at the bottom due to Proctor & Gamble’s low score of 29.

The Good Shopping Guide enables ethical shoppers to channel their spending power in the most effective way possible. Compiled from researching public records, campaign and government information, it lists those companies that have a progressive attitude towards the environment, human rights and animal welfare, and penalises those that disregard or fail to uphold their social responsibilities. The eighth edition rates over 700 consumer brands in seven product sectors: Home & Office, Energy, Travel, Money, Food & Drink, Health & Beauty, Fashion.

Visit www.ethical-company-organisation.org for a sample PDF.