Ethical Consumer magazine has been publishing information on the social and environmental impacts of business, developments in the ethical market place and political consumer activism since 1989.

Carbon Calculators - weighing up the ethics of climate change

Carbon Calculators are essential tools for the growing movement of voluntary carbon reduction, but they can also misrepresent the costs of climate change. Dan Welch investigates and recommends some of best…

Corporate Social Responsibility
In November 2006 the Oxford-based campaign group Corporate Watch published an important critique of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This short feature has been extracted, with permission, from the report.

Ethical takeovers - swallowed up?
With The Body Shop’s acquisition by L’Oréal, the rate of takeovers of smaller ethical companies by multinational corporations is increasing. Ethical Consumer magazine asks whether we should be alarmed or jubilant.

Ethically Certified Timber and the FSC
A growing range of forest protection organisations are criticising the Forest Stewardship Council, claiming that it’s not a cast-iron guarantee of sustainability. Ethical Consumer asks Simon Counsell of the Rainforest Foundation/FSC Watch and Andre de Freitas of FSC International about consumer choices on sustainable timber.

Export Processing Zones - a beginners guide
Export processing zones or exploiting people zones? Ethical Consumer Magazine gives the low-down.

Pornography - a human rights issue?
Ethical Consumer Magazine: Is pornography a human rights issue? Workers rights? Irresponsible marketing? In the light of the complex and extremely heated debates over the rights and wrongs of portrayals of sex, why do we feel that pornography is
worthy of criticism?

Public Spending - an ethical manifesto
Ethical Consumer Magazine looks at how the UK government could spend public money in support of social and environmental objectives. 

Stop trying to save the planet
In this extract from his new book, George Marshall challenges us to think differently about climate change before we take the “Carbon Detox”.

Sustainable Palm Oil
Palm oil is found in 10% of supermarket products. Ethical Consumer Magazine asks what to expect from The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a voluntary organisation to promote sustainable practices in the industry.

Trading Standards - can Fair Trade make Trade Fair? 

Dr. Nicola Scott looks at the full range of fair trade and alternative ethical trading standards.

Reflections on reaching 100
As Ethical Consumer magazine reaches its 100th issue, Rob Harrison takes stock and asks whether the pace of cultural change is really increasing

Our Manifesto Six Years On
In September 2001 we published the Ethical Consumer Manifesto for Change. six years later, in 2007, Dan Welch took a look at which recommendations had made it into policy, which areas had progressed and which areas saw no movement.

Is it all over for the ethical market?
New evidence from market research suggests that the doom-sayers have got it wrong.