Ethical Holiday Preparations

Holiday clothing

Whether you need a new pair of trunks or some trainer socks, few of us can get away with going away on holiday without buying at least one new item of clothing, usually to replace the moth-eaten gear that hasn't seen the light of day for 12 months. 
 

Check out our guides to high street clothing and alternative clothes stores for the best places to buy your summer holiday wear.

Best Buys

There is an abundance of exciting sustainable and affordable fashion brands, from established brand People Tree* to Know The Origin, a new brand that has jumped to the top of our ratings for its completely transparent supply chain. We also recommend Brothers We Stand* for menswear. 

Holiday read

We all like a good book (or eBook) to take with us on holiday. 

Check out our guides to e-readers & tablets and bookshops to find the best alternatives to Amazon and the Amazon Kindle.

Buy your books online from Hive Books* and support your local bookshop with every purchase. 

Sunscreen

It is important to pack the sunscreen to protect you from those rays. 

Check out our guide to sunscreen to help you find a brand that works. 

Buy vegan and organic sunscreen from Green People* which is a recommended best buy.  

Digital Cameras

We all love to snap away when we're on our holidays. 

While there are no truly ethical camera brands available some manufacturers are more ethical than others.

In our guide to digital cameras we recommend Sony’s more environmentally friendly models whch are free of Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs).

We also recommend avoiding Nikon which is the subject of a boycott call by Viva! for selling telescopic sights for hunting rifles and promoting hunting, particularly big game in Africa.

You can read more about optics companies and the hunting industry in our influential special report.

Sandals

Make sure you soak in the sights wearing an ethical pair of sandals.  

A number of alternative brands make our recommended list in our guide to shoes, with many vegan options like Eco Vegan Shoes, Ethical Wares, Vegetarian Shoes, Bourgeois Boheme, Vivobarefoot and Po-Zu. 

Travel Insurance

The insurance industry is guilty of indirectly financing everything from tar sands to the sales of arms. Luckily, our guide to travel insurance has found a growing number of companies offering an ethical policy on investment. 

We recommend Co-op insurance. Its low score on our table reflects its supermarket business not its approach to insurance. It has a robust ethical investment policy. 

Bon voyage!

*Ethical Consumer makes a small amount of money from your purchase of these brands. This goes to fund our research and campaigning. We ethically screen all the sites we link to.