5 Top Ethical High Street Shops

Health and beauty

Lush

You can smell Lush shops before you enter, and its ethics are as sweet-smelling as their products. This company refuses to test on animals and supports campaign organisations and initiatives such as the Lush Prize, a yearly event that funds research to replace animal-testing.

It tries to use only natural ingredients and has taken action to ensure that it does not use ingredients like mica that are linked to human rights abuses. And the reason that you can smell them from a mile away is that they minimise packaging with some of their shops only selling products that are packaging free.

Company ethical score: 70/100

You can find Lush in a selection of our health and beauty shopping guides:

Clothing

Patagonia

Patagonia is a B-Corp, or ‘Benefit Corporation’. This means that employees, communities and the environment are considered alongside shareholders in decision making processes. In September 2022, its owner donated the $3 billion company to the climate – ensuring that all profits will go towards supporting climate action.

The company has worked hard to change things in the high street clothing and outdoor gear world, where ethics are notoriously low.

It champions more ethical down – meaning that feathers used in your jacket aren’t from live plucking. It uses recycled plastic in the vast majority of its polyester fabric, including for its trademark fleeces. And it has a target of 2025 to make all of its membranes and water-repellent finishes without PFCs or PFAS.

Company ethical Score: 64/100

You can find Patagonia in a number of our clothing shopping guides:

Food/supermarkets

The Co-op Group

The Co-op now has food stores in most town centres and is a leader in supermarket ethics including for fair trade ingredients. The company is also owned by an active membership (rather than shareholders) and has a strong internal democracy.

It has started publishing a yearly report and action plan called the "Co-operative Way". This sets out its latest commitments to a tackling a number of issues including climate change, loneliness and waste.

Company tthical Score: 52/100

While it has a lower score than ethical brands in other industries, within the supermarket sector it is generally the best out of a bad bunch. For example, it scores well for tax conduct, receiving 100/100 points in this category in our rating system.

See how the Co-op score in a range of our guides, particularly for food and home products.

General shop / pre-loved

Oxfam

Oxfam Shop is a top ethical option in our ‘Alternatives to Amazon’ Booksellers Guide. Secondhand is undoubtedly the most ethical option on the high street, and Oxfam sells a wide range of pre-loved books, clothes, furniture and electronics in its shops.

In our ethical clothing guide, we include secondhand shops and apps, with many being recommended brands or best buys, including Oxfam.

For new products that it sells, Oxfam makes sure that workers are treated fairly, and scores 80/100 in the workers category in our rating system.

Company ethical Score: 90/100

You can find Oxfam in a number of our retailers shopping guides:

John Lewis

The John Lewis' Partnership's company structure makes it one of the more progressive shops on the high street. The Partnership is an employee-owned business with the workers sharing in company profits and having a say in how the business is run. It also scores well for tax policy, receiving 70/100 points in this category in our rating system.

While its ethical score leaves a fair bit of room for improvement, it does outrank many of the other high street alternatives, including in our supermarkets guide, with its Waitrose brand. 

It is also sells some of the recommended brands in our electrical appliances guides. 

Company ethical Score: 44/100

John Lewis feature in many of our home and garden product guides: