Our research on animals is divided into three main areas:
- Animal Testing
- Factory Farming
- Animal Rights & Cruelty
Our Ethical Ratings
The scores on our Product Guides are compiled from ethical ratings, fed live from our unique research database.
The database is a result of over 20 years work conducting primary and secondary research and systematically organising it using our ratings system. We continue to update it daily.
Our ratings cover around 300 topics in 19 areas in 5 main categories:
Environment
As 'environment' is a very broad area, we use five different categories:
- Environmental Reporting
- Climate Change
- Pollution & Toxics
- Habitats & Resources
- Palm Oil
People
Our 'People' category is divided into 5 areas of research:
- Human Rights
- Workers' Rights
- Supply Chain Management
- Irresponsible Marketing
- Arms & Military Supply
Politics
Our research into a company's politics is divided into 4 areas:
- Anti-Social Finance
- Boycott Calls
- Controversial Technologies
- Poltical Activity
Sustainability
We have two categories rewarding those brands making a positive impact:
- Company Ethos
- Product Sustainability (organic, fairtrade, energy efficient, vegan & vegetarian products)
Download: pdf of the full detailed definitions of all the categories we use to rate companies.
Rating Companies
Some websites or magazines look at ethical products, but Ethical Consumer is the only organisation which provides fully transparent rankings of the companies behind the brands.
Some products might be considered 'ethical', but the company that owns the brand might not be. Isn't it better to buy a cruelty-free product from a company that doesn't test its other items on animals, or recycled toilet paper from a firm that isn't cutting down virgin forests for its other ranges?
Using the tables in the magazine or looking deeper into the Product Guides on this website, subscribers can see which companies own each brand, and their ethical record across all the different categories.
Each story we add to the database affects the score of a company for five years. After this period it remains on the database but no longer impacts the company score.
Information Sources
Most of our information comes from previously published sources. These sources include publications and reports by campaign groups like Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and War on Want.
We look at the daily newspapers, public records on pollution and health & safety prosecutions and use directories on the defence and nuclear industries.
We also request information directly from the companies on their environmental policies and reporting, and other policies, such as their attitude towards animal testing and to workers in their supply factories.
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