£4·25 182 Jan/Feb 2020www.ethicalconsumer.org
PLUS Updated: Our list of oppressive regimes
BatteriesBroadband Cameras Email providersSubscription TVTVs
We reveal the ethical positives & negatives of batteriesSHOPPING GUIDES TO
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 20202
T H E O R I G I N A L S I L I CO N E M E N S T R UA L C U P
®
CAPITAL AT RISK. INVESTMENTS ARE LONG TERM AND MAY NOT BE READILY REALISABLE. ABUNDANCE IS AUTHORISED AND REGULATED BY THE FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY (525432).
abundanceinvestment.com
add to your retirement pot
without avoiding social responsibility
abundance investment make good money
ethicalconsumer.org 3
ETHICAL CONSUMER
Editorial
JOSIE WEXLEREDITOR
WHO’S WHO THIS ISSUE’S EDITOR Josie WexlerPROOFING Ciara Maginness (Little Blue Pencil)WRITERS/RESEARCHERS Jane Turner, Tim Hunt,
Rob Harrison, Anna Clayton, Joanna Long, Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange, Mackenzie Denyer, Clare Carlile, Francesca de la Torre, Alex Crumbie, Tom Bryson
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Simon Birch, Colin Birch DESIGN Tom Lynton LAYOUT Adele Armistead (Moonloft), Jane TurnerCOVER Tom LyntonCARTOONS Marc Roberts, Andy Vine, Richard Liptrot,
Mike BrysonAD SALES Simon BirchSUBSCRIPTIONS Elizabeth Chater,
Francesca ThomasPRESS ENQUIRIES Simon Birch, Tim HuntENQUIRIES Francesca ThomasWEB EDITOR Sophie BillingtonTHANKS ALSO TO Marlous Veldt, Merle Büter,
Haneen Hameed
All material correct one month before cover date and © Ethical Consumer Research Association Ltd. ISSN 0955 8608
Printed with vegetable ink by RAP Spiderweb Ltd, c/o the Commercial Centre, Clowes Centre, Hollinwood, Oldham OL9 7LY. 0161 947 3700PAPER 100% post-consumer waste, chlorine-free
and sourced from the only UK paper merchant supplying only recycled papers – Paperback (www.paperbackpaper.co.uk)
RETAIL DISTRIBUTION is handled by Central Books on 0845 458 9911. Ethical Consumer is a member of INK (independent news collective), an association of radical and alternative publishers. www.ink.uk.com
We are a Living Wage employer, a multi-stakeholder co-op, and Fair Tax Mark accredited.
ABOUT THE ADVERTISERSECRA checks out advertisers before accepting their ads and reserves the right to refuse any advertCOVERED IN PREVIOUS PRODUCT GUIDES Abundance
(177), Kingfisher Toothpaste (165), Mooncup (179), Natracare (179), THTC Clothing (180), Vegetarian Shoes (162), Windmill Organics (178), Infinity Wholefoods (178).
OTHER ADVERTISERS Amnesty International, Egni Co-op, Energy4All, Fair Trade Foundation, Green Building Store, Juno, Investing Ethically, Practical Action, Refugee Council.
Welcome to Ethical Consumer’s last issue of the decade! This issue is focused on various electrical
goods and services, featuring guides to batteries, TVs, subscription TV, cameras, email providers and broadband.
Mining and minerals are inevitably a major theme throughout, as making electrical goods uses a huge cocktail of metals, with supply chains that reach from the salt lakes of Argentina to makeshift dirt shafts in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Another major issue covered is internet privacy and CCTV, because we’re not convinced by the argument that “if you do nothing wrong, you’ve nothing to fear”. As my dad says, this is backwards – it should be: “if they don’t do anything wrong, you’ve nothing to fear.”
In several of the sectors it was hard to enthusiastically recommend companies.
Given the rather unappealing nature of most of the broadband companies covered, we were interested to hear talk of nationalised broadband during the election campaign.
Our conferenceEthical Consumer held its biggest conference yet in October at Amnesty’s HQ in London. For parts of the event there was standing room only with nearly 300 people packed in to hear some great panels of speakers explain the work they were doing to help tackle climate change and environmental breakdown.
We heard, for example, from Chris Goodall about his forthcoming book where he was looking at, amongst other
things, the role of hydrogen as a key player in energy storage. And we heard from our youngest ever panel member – 14-year-old Omi – a Youth Ambassador for Action for Conservation. When asked by the audience what she felt the greatest barrier to progress was, she said parents!
Receiving the most enthusiastic applause from the audience though was a rousing speech from Asad Rahman, the chief executive at War on Want with hard-hitting data on the actual impacts of climate change now on communities in India, Mozambique, the Caribbean and Pakistan.
For readers who want to get a sense of the event, we have audio recordings of some of our speakers as well as PowerPoints available to download from our website at: www.ethicalconsumer.org/ethical-consumer-conference-2019.
Ethical Lifestyles CrowdfunderWe are nearing the end of our Crowdfunder to create an ethical lifestyle toolkit with the Permaculture Association, which will help identify everyday actions people can take to
protect ecosystems and communities. Support us at www.crowdfunder.
co.uk/ethical-lifestyle-toolkit
Signing off for 2019Our next issue is food based, and will feature guides to milk, plant milks, vegan cheese,
bananas, honey and baked beans.
In the meantime, thanks for your support in 2019, Happy Christmas, and see you in the New Year.
We are an independent, not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder co-operative founded in 1989 and based in Manchester. Our primary goal is making global businesses more sustainable through consumer pressure. Our mission is to:
1 Help consumers to challenge corporate power by using their economic vote every
time they go shopping.
2Democratise the market by enabling consumers to assert their own ethical
values by using our shopping guides.
3Have a fully transparent ranking system. All our data is available to subscribers.
4Engage with companies by telling them why we are buying or not buying their products.
We also send them detailed questions about their policy and practice on ethical issues.
5Push for wider political action and legislative change. Ethical consumerism is
not a replacement for other forms of political action. But it is an important additional way for people to exert their influence.
HOW TO CONTACT USUnit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester, M15 5RF
0161 226 2929 — 10-5pm [email protected] — general [email protected] — subscriptions
WHAT IS ETHICAL CONSUMER?
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 20204
Be part of an exciting venture delivering
Community OwnedSolar Panelson Schoolsnew share offer NOW open!The Schools’ Energy Co-operativehas already successfully installed community funded solar panels on 61 schools and a children’s hospice. It is now issuing more shares to enable it to install solar panels on more schools.
Investments in shares of renewable energy co-operatives and community benefit societies arelong term investments to deliver an environmental and social impact as well as a financial return.As with any investment there are risks. Your capital is at risk and may not be readily realisable.Returns are projected, variable, depend on performance of the project and are not guaranteed.Consider all risks before investing. As unregulated share offers, investments do not receive theprotection of the Government’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme and investors do nothave recourse to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
www.schools-energy-coop.co.ukor call us on: 01229 821028
Download your Share Offer-Visit:
target of 4.5%share interest from 1st April 2020
www.greenbuildingstore.co.ukt : 0 14 8 4 4 6 17 0 5
Enjoy the comfort and energy efficiency of triple glazed timber windows and doors
Friendly personal service and technical support from the low energy and Passivhaus experts
®
Options to suit all
budgets
feelgood windows
g b s windows ad 91x137mm Ethical C dec 2018 FINAL.indd 1 14/12/2018 10:42
ethicalconsumer.org 5
ETHICAL CONSUMER
Contents
06 Food & HomePig welfare, new Best Buy Labels awarded
08 BoycottsPuma, Israeli settlements, XR and Amazonia
09 ClothesEthical t-shirts, audit failure
10 Beyond consumerismLibraries of Things
11 ClimateBP or not BP, climate bank, climate strike
39 ThinkerTransparency and engagement desperately needed for agricultural workers in Almeria
46 MoneyShareholder democracy, Customer Union, Equator banks
47 Tax justiceManifesto, Fair Tax Mark news
Batteries12 Introduction13 Metals and mining issues14 Score Table & Best Buys15 Recycling batteries
Email Providers19 Introduction20 Score Table & Best Buys
Broadband22 Score Table and Best Buys24 Privacy26 Digital Rights
Television28 Introduction30 Score Table & Best Buys32 Maquilas in Mexico
Subscription TV33 Score Table and Best Buys
Cameras34 Introduction35 Links to hunting and
surveillance36 Score Table & Best Buys
40 Ethical NoviceTrials and tribulations of trying to be ethical: Televisions
41 Christmas gift subscriptionsGive a gift that lasts all year.
48 LettersA regular forum for readers’ views
50 Inside viewNew models for social housing
NEWS
SHOPPING GUIDESFEATURES
REGULARS
39
50
35
40
11
40 Trees for LifeHow our gift subscriptions fund olive trees in Palastine
42 Oppressive RegimesHow we’ve updated our list
13
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 20206
NEWS
Food & homePigs in chainsThe Farms Not Factories group has just launched a campaign to urge high street food chains to support high welfare pig farms. Shockingly, it found that 73% of the 60 high street supermarkets and food chains it surveyed sell pork from factory farms. The vast majority of these don’t offer a single high welfare alternative.
Pigs reared in factory farms (an intensive farming system that is permitted under the Red Tractor labelling scheme) have to endure permanent indoor confinement in barren, overcrowded pens for their entire lives. Sows are kept in narrow metal cages so small they cannot even turn around for weeks on end.
RSPCA Assured, Free Range and Organic all have significantly better standards than the Red Tractor labelling scheme and
Nine new companies have applied for and been awarded our Best Buy Label denoting that we have judged them to be one of the best brands in the product sector we have covered. They can now use the Label on their websites and packaging. They are:l Abundance – best buy for Innovative Finance ISAs l Cut.le.crap – best buy for skincare and shower gell Energise Africa – best buy for Innovative Finance ISAsl HISBE – best buy for supermarketsl Kilombero rice from Just Trading Scotland – best buy for rice.l THTC – best buy for ethical clothes shops and T-shirtsl Totsbots and Bloom & Nora – best buy for nappies and menstrual products
Companies ranked on human rightsThe 2019 Corporate Human Rights Benchmark has just been published and found that most companies are failing to meet basic corporate human rights expectations. It assessed 200 of the largest publicly traded companies in the world on a set of 100 human rights indicators including forced labour, protecting human rights activists and the living wage.
The average overall score for most companies was 24%. Tech companies averaged just 18%. It was the first year they were featured.
Monster Beverages, Starbucks and Costco are still amongst the poorest performers in the ranking, while Adidas, Rio Tinto, Unilever, M&S and Hewlett Packard are leading their sectors.
There is a growing push by campaign groups, investors and companies themselves for laws to be introduced to enforce mandatory human rights due diligence.
See the Benchmark at www.corporatebenchmark.org
the minimum UK & EU standards. Some well known high street chains have already made the switch to one of these high welfare labels. For example, the Co-op only sells Outdoor Bred RSPCA Assured pork throughout their entire own-brand fresh pork range.
Farms Not Factories are calling on people to petition high street food chain and supermarket CEOs, urging them to only source high welfare pork across their entire own brand ranges. They are also calling on the UK government to ban the importation of pork produced in conditions that would be illegal in the UK.
Farms Not Factories are also urging people to only buy RSPCA Assured, Free Range or, best of all, Organic pork. Alternatively, help pigs and the planet by giving up pork altogether.
For a full breakdown of the 60 companies surveyed and to sign the petitions go to https://farmsnotfactories.org/pigsinchains
Pigs on high welfare farms, either outdoors or indoors with plenty of straw, are healthier and happier and do not need antibiotics. They are free to roam and express their natural instinctive behaviour such as rooting, nesting and playing.
Pig factory farms are intensive, indoor facilities where pigs are kept on concrete slatted floors without straw or bedding, routinely tail docked and given antibiotics. Sows are confined in farrowing crates, too narrow for them to turn around, for five weeks in each pregnancy.
UPDATE TO LAPTOPS AND PCS GUIDE
In our last issue, we stated that one of our recommended buys, iameco (wooden-cased laptops and desktops), was out of stock but due back in stock by the end of the year.
We have since heard from iameco that they are unlikely to be back in stock before 2020. We will let you know when they are available to buy again.
The other recommended buys from those guides were Very PC, Lenovo and Apple.
l Weleda – best buy for deodorants, toothpaste, skincare, shower gel, shaving gel, shampoo, soap, perfumel WHEB – best buy for ethical investment funds
Look out for the Label when you go shopping.eth
ical
consumer.org
BES T BUY
NEW BEST BUY LABEL COMPANIES
ethicalconsumer.org 7
NEWS
Food & home
An investigation at a Finnish Fur Farm found racoon dogs, fox and mink being farmed for their fur.
Upfield buys Violife vegan cheeseUpfield, the former Unilever spreads business and owner of Flora and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, has bought the best selling vegan cheese brand Violife. Upfield will now enter a sector of the food market with fast growing sales.
Upfield is the first major mainstream company to enter the market.
We’ll be publishing a shopping guide to vegan cheese in our next issue of the magazine, due out mid February.
The Queen has ditched real fur in favour of fake fur. Angela Kelly, the Queen’s personal advisor and senior dresser, said, “If Her Majesty is due to attend an engagement in particularly cold weather, from 2019 onwards fake fur will be used to make sure she stays warm.”
Claire Bass, Executive Director of Humane Society International/UK (HSI) says “The UK banned fur farming almost two decades ago because it was deemed too cruel, now we must finish the job and ban fur sales too. We are calling on the British government to follow Her Majesty’s example and make the UK the first country in the world to ban the sale of animal fur.”
“This new policy is a sign of the times,” said a spokesperson for the animal welfare group Peta. However, she added: “It’s a disgrace that soldiers in the Queen’s Guard are still parading around with the fur of bears gunned down in Canada on their caps.”
Peta is urging the Queen to replace the fur with a “humane, luxurious faux bearskin” it says it has developed with the designer Stella McCartney.
Fur in the shopsMeanwhile, after being taken over by
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct in October, the
House of Fraser abandoned its decade-long fur-free policy and started selling real fur again in its stores.
But after just ten days of public and NGO condemnation and disgust led by HSI, House of Fraser did another fur u-turn and said that it was removing all of the fur.
House of Windsor goes fur free whilst House of Fraser does fur u-turn
Claire Bass said: “Shoppers [were] shocked and appalled to see this respected high street store turned into a House of Horrors, selling fur from factory-farmed rabbits, foxes and raccoon dogs as well as coyotes trapped and shot in the wild. British shoppers have sent the message loud and clear that fur is bad for business, and has no place on the British high street.”
An increasing number of fashion designers and retailers are dropping fur cruelty. In the last two years alone Prada, Gucci, Versace, Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, DKNY, Burberry, Chanel and other high-profile brands have announced fur-free policies.
Since the fur farming ban in 2000, we have imported more than £820 million worth of fur from overseas, including from Finland and China. Finland is by far the biggest ‘producer’ of fox and raccoon dog fur in Europe, rearing and electrocuting around 2.5 million foxes every year for the global fur trade; only China farms more foxes globally. Fur imports from dogs, cats and commercial seal hunts are banned across the EU, and HSI wants those existing bans extended to protect all fur-bearing species.
HSI’s petition calling for the UK government to ban UK fur sales can be signed here: www.hsi.org/FurFreeBritain
© J
ay A
kbar
© H
SI
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 20208
NEWS
Boycotts
#BOYCOTTPUMA CAMPAIGN
A day of action was held in protest against Puma’s sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes teams located in illegal Israeli settlements. 50 actions took place across 20 countries at the end of October.
The #BoycottPuma campaign was launched by Palestinian athletes in 2018, after 200 Palestinian sports clubs sent a letter to the company urging it to end its sponsorship.1
Actions included protests at Puma shops and matches and a ‘subvertising’ campaign on the London underground calling for a boycott.
This follows Adidas announcing in July 2019 that it would no longer be sponsoring the IFA, following an international campaign and a petition of over 16,000 signatures.2
The UN’s special adviser on sport for development and peace, and several human rights organisations, have previously called on Fifa to ban the six settlement teams.
The campaign also highlights the abusive treatment of Palestinian footballers, who it says are routinely attacked, imprisoned and killed, and denied freedom of movement and the right to attend matches.3
References: 1. https://bdsmovement.net/news/more-200-palestinian-sports-clubs-urge-puma-end-sponsorship-israeli-teams-illegal-settlements 2. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/palestinian-football-clubs-urge-adidas-to-cut-ties-with-the-israel-football-association-over-illegal-settlement-teams 3. https://bdsmovement.net/news/more-200-palestinian-sports-clubs-urge-puma-end-sponsorship-israeli-teams-illegal-settlements 4. https://amazonwatch.org/news/2019/0425-complicity-in-destruction-2 5. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypD8rTt2uKHA-Bpj1pmXTXXgfREk1qnld4MTw3SgaDc/edit?fbclid=IwAR1j6_zmzxMXuICUXIefC8DcE9Q8NZh0DRs0y1apzkYT7gZJmkxpDQftNfc 6. https://rebellion.earth/2019/11/15/extinction-rebellion-uk-hold-blackrock-to-account-and-announce-boycott-for-amazonia 8. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/12/products-israeli-settlements-labelled-eu-court 9. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/15/ban-import-of-israeli-settlement-goods
© A
nna
Sher
win
The European Court of Justice has ruled that products from Israeli Settlements must be labelled as such and said that this decision will allow consumers to make an “informed choice”.
The move from the EU’s top court covers foods produced in Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. The court stated that such produce should be easily identifiable and should not bear the generic ‘Made in Israel’ tag. It stated that without such labelling, consumers had no way of knowing that a product was from “territories in breach of the rules of international humanitarian law”.8
Human Rights Watch welcomed the ruling. Its EU director Lotte Leicht said it was “an important step toward EU member states upholding their duty not to participate in the fiction that illegal settlements are part of Israel.”
A letter signed by 13 prominent Israelis also celebrated the ruling but stated that it was “insufficient”. The signatories – who include four former Israeli ambassadors, the former Knesset speaker and the country’s former Attorney General – called for a ban on the import of all settlement products: “By banning goods that originate in Israeli settlements, Europe would help support the differentiation between Israel per se and settlements in the occupied territories.”9
It remains unclear how the ruling will be enforced. European retailers would normally be responsible for adding the label, but experts have pointed out that the real origin of produce can often be difficult to identify.
Brazil’s National Indigenous Mobilization, a coalition of indigenous leaders from more than 100 distinct peoples in Brazil, has called for a global boycott of companies involved in deforestation. The ‘Boycott for Amazonia’ responds to the widespread destruction of Brazilian rainforest for farming land, and human rights abuses. It is being backed by Extinction Rebellion in the UK.
The boycott focuses on multinational soya and beef companies, as well as on the financial institutions that are funding them, identified in the recent Amazon Watch report we discussed in the ‘Torching the Amazon’ feature in the last issue.4
Extinction Rebellion has taken up the call to boycott these companies, and has been targetting McDonald's, Burger King, Aldi, Arla, ASDA, Danone, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Marks and Spencer.5
Amazon Watch also identified companies holding significant equity investments in Brazilian beef. XR protests have targetted BlackRock in particular, as it is the world’s largest asset manager.6 It is also the world’s biggest investor in coal.6 Protestors dumped ashes outside its headquarters to highlight its complicity in the ongoing fires.
Boycott for Amazonia
Products from Israeli Settlements must be labelled
Indigenous leaders from Brazil have been touring Europe with the message, “Indigenous Blood: Not A Single Drop More.” Activists gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy to remember Amazon Guardian, Paulo Paulino Guajajara, who was recently assassinated in an ambush by loggers.
ethicalconsumer.org 9
NEWS
ClothesEthical T-Shirts guideWe now have a web-only guide to Ethical T-shirts, a follow-on from our recent fashion-themed magazine.
A staple item for most, T-shirts are perhaps the cheapest and easiest type of clothing for people to design, manufacture and sell, meaning that they're produced and consumed at a rate of knots. In this way, they have become a cornerstone of the fast fashion industry.
Fast fashion T-shirts can be cheap to produce and buy, but some designer brands also sell them for hundreds – even thousands – of pounds. This is quite an outrage when you consider the poor conditions of those employed to make them. Our guide covers companies that have detailed knowledge of their own supply chains, a situation that is rare in the wider clothing industry. Organic and Fairtrade brands such as Nudie, People Tree and Know the Origin all received ‘Best Buy’ recommendations as well as second-hand vintage clothing retailer Beyond Retro. Go to our website and search ‘Ethical T-Shirts’ to find out more.
Clean Clothes Campaign has released a damning report into the failures of the current corporate-controlled auditing system in the garment industry.
The report points to cases such as the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, which killed over 1,000 people and the Ali Enterprises fire in Pakistan, which killed more than 250. In both instances the sites had been declared as safe by auditors only months before the avoidable disasters. It turns out that, in the case of Ali Enterprises, auditors did this without ever visiting the site. And yet there have been little to no repercussions for the auditing companies who operate with impunity within the multi-million-dollar auditing industry.
The report’s criticisms do not apply to state-backed multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Bangladesh Accord, which are somewhat different.
It argues that it is crucial for fashion companies to change their purchasing practices:
“Companies must stop purchasing garments at the lowest possible price and instead instil cost-sharing mechanisms to ensure the adequate remediation of labour rights violations. Unethical purchasing practices keep workers
trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse and perpetuating the labour rights violations that costly audit programmes unsuccessfully aim to expose and remediate.”
Clean Clothes Campaign also points out that the ineffective corporate-controlled auditing system provides an ethical facade for companies to hide behind:
“While ineffective as tools to actually detect, report and remediate worker violations in apparel supply chains, corporate-controlled social audits have been highly effective in creating the illusion that corporations were taking care of labour rights, whereas governments were not.”
The government’s willingness to allow corporations to take the initiative has only served to exacerbate the problem.
The report ends in a call for systemic change alongside the following key recommendations:l State legislation, preferably on the supranational level, requiring mandatory due diligence by companies.l A central role for workers and their representatives.l Gender-sensitive auditing designed to
Fig Leaf for Fashion: How auditing protects brands and fails workerspick up on gender-specific issues.l An end to irresponsible purchasing practices, including the introduction of minimum prices.
Organic and Fairtrade t-shirts from two of our Best Buys – Know the Origin and Nudie.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202010
NEWS
Beyond consumerism
170 million new electrical items are purchased in the UK each year, and less than a third are recycled. 80% of household items are used less than once per month.
Thanks to a growing movement of item-lending libraries, or ‘Libraries of Things’ (LoTs), thousands of people around the country are already renting useful and joyful items like tents, hedge trimmers, sound systems and sewing machines, rather than buying them.
Share:Frome reports that in one year their lending library saved members £66,800, prevented 92 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and stopped 117 tonnes of raw material going to landfill.
Lent items include DIY and garden tools like drills and lawn mowers. All your camping needs can be met, from blow-up beds to bell tents and inflatable kayaks. Kitchen gadgets and appliances are also on the menu, and mirror balls, disco lights and smoke machines for events. Other popular items include projectors, pressure washers, wallpaper steamers, dehumidifiers, sanders, tea urns and gazebos.
The sharing revolution is coming!
LoTs can take different forms, from high-street shops housing up to 1000 items, to dedicated spaces within existing community hubs and book libraries. There is even one mobile LoT – a sharing shed on wheels.
The UK’s first LoTs launched in London and Frome inspired by a similar enterprise in Berlin. Since then others have sprung up, inspired by these two, whilst existing Tool Libraries have expanded their offerings beyond tools.
“Collectively, we’ve had over 1000 expressions of interest from communities around the UK wanting to kickstart affordable item rental where they are.” said Rebecca Trevalyan, ShareFest co-organiser.
Repair CafesLibraries of Things are often linked to Repair Cafes. For example, in Frome the monthly repair cafe is run by SHARE:Frome. Other LoTs exist in coworking spaces and remakeries that host repair cafes. If you have a local Repair Cafe, but no Library of Things why not suggest the idea of setting up a LoT with them?
On 16th October 2019, 12 Libraries of Things came together for the first ShareFest. SAM ATTARD reports back on how lending at scale could drastically reduce impacts of excessive consumer waste.
The UK’s first share shop was opened in Frome in Somerset.
Rose, using Frome’s Library of Things.
© S
hare
l Bath – Bath Share and Repairl Belfast – Belfast Tool Libraryl Birmingham – Via the Active Wellbeing Societyl Cardiff – Benthyg, Borrow Don’t Buyl Edinburgh – Edinburgh Tool Libraryl Frome – SHARE:Frome, A Library of Thingsl Guildford – Guildford Library of Thingsl London – Library of Things Ltdl Oxford – SHARE Oxford, A Library of Thingsl Plymouth – Borrow Don’t Buyl Totnes – ShareShed, A Library of Thingsl Stirling – Transition Stirling
If you live near any of these then do sign up and get involved. Not one near you? Contact any of the existing LoTs and they’ll help get you on board. ShareFest hopes to become an annual event, open to all those who’d like to be part of the movement.
WHERE ARE THE 12 LIBRARIES OF THINGS?
ethicalconsumer.org 11
NEWS
Climate
NOVEMBER’S GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE
Ethical Consumer once again joined the Global Climate Strike on November 29th for the urgent and necessary end to the age of fossil fuels and climate injustice. This strike came directly before the UN climate talks in Madrid and the UK general election where the majority of the youth strike leaders will be unable to vote.
We continue to call on governments to act because, while individual consumer choices play an important part in tackling climate change, they will never be enough on their own. We need to join together in movements and leverage the power to shift corporations and governments.
Pressure mounts on the British Museum to sever its BP tiesThe director of the ‘Queens of Syria’ play, a film of which is currently being exhibited in the British Museum as part of the ‘Troy exhibition’, and a Syrian refugee who performed in it, have written an open letter to the British Museum calling on it to sever its ties with oil giant BP.1
They wrote: “BP has directly profited from the widespread destruction and displacement of people, like the thirteen women who formed the cast for our play, and yet you have reached the conclusion that its logo should brand an exhibition highlighting exactly the issues BP contributes to causing…
“You place artists such as ourselves in an impossible position, where we must decide whether it is worse to try and remove our work from the exhibition - taking away the chance that this show can shine a light on the harsh realities that our team are living under - or to allow our work to help artwash the impacts and crimes of BP, a multinational oil and gas company that has wreaked havoc on this planet and its people.”
This letter adds to mounting pressure on the British Museum to follow in the footsteps of the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Galleries Scotland, who recently announced they would end their partnerships with BP.
For more information about the campaign to end fossil fuel sponsorship of culture see: www.cultureunstained.org
THE FIRST EUROPEAN ‘CLIMATE’ BANK?
The world’s largest public bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB), has agreed to phase out its multibillion-euro financing for fossil fuels within the next two years to become the world’s first ‘climate bank’. It has adopted a pioneering new lending strategy that aims to:l Align all of its financing activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement from the end of 2020.l Phase out its financing of fossil fuels within the next two years – ending its financing of oil, gas, and coal projects after 2021. l Unlock EUR 1 trillion of climate action and environmental sustainable investment in the decade to 2030.2
This decision has been described as “a significant victory” by Colin Roche
References: 1. www.zoelafferty.com/open-letter 2. www.eib.org/en/press/all/2019-313-eu-bank-launches-ambitious-new-climate-strategy-and-energy-lending-policy 3. www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/15/european-investment-bank-to-phase-out-fossil-fuels-financing 4. ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/c_2019_7772_1_annex.pdf 5. 350.org/press-release/worlds-largest-public-bank-cuts-finance-for-coal-and-oil
of Friends of the Earth Europe, and its significance can be highlighted by the estimated €6.2million handed out by the EIB every day to fossil fuel companies between 2013 and 2018.3
Although 350.org celebrates the bank’s move, it also highlights the need for further work to be done in order for the EIB to reach its ‘climate bank’ aspirations. Kate Cahoon, a 350.org campaigner, said: “The gas lobby has unfortunately managed to get Germany and the European Commission to insert some loopholes into the policy, which leave the door open for funding of dangerous fossil gas projects”.
350.org state that any project added to the ‘Projects of Common Interest’ (PCI)list before 2022 will still be eligible for EIB
In November, activists from ‘BP or not BP’ transformed themselves into Troy-inspired ‘living statues’ and covered themselves in oil to blockade the VIP launch of the ‘Troy’ exhibition forcing the event to be relocated. The activists invented this god, Petroleus, who wore an oil slick for a robe.
BP o
r not
BP
Helen Of Troy re-imagined by BP or not BP activists.
funding, and at present there are more than 50 fossil gas projects included.4 However, as this list has yet to be finalised, there is still time to ensure that fossil fuel projects don’t get ‘locked in’.5
© B
P or
not
BP
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202012
BatteriesSHOPPING GUIDE
A fully referenced version of this Product Guide is on our website
The positives and negatives of the battery market
When it comes to batteries, ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ is a good approach. Remember, all batteries are recyclable;
buying rechargeable batteries means you can reuse them multiple times; and, especially as there are no Best Buys in this guide, it is always useful to question which battery-hungry devices are actually necessary at all.
There is a multitude of different types of batteries out there, and it is currently a dynamic market, with a lot of research going into improving battery technology.
For this guide, we are focusing on the most commonly available consumer batteries so will mainly be talking about Alkaline, Lithium-metal, nickel metal hydride (NiHM) and lithium-ion batteries.
We look at the human and environmental impacts of batteries at both the start and end of their life-cycle as well as exploring some of the key ways that consumers and manufacturers can lessen these impacts.
FRANCESCA DE LA TORRE explores.
The costs of extractionWhile they are named after individual metals, many batteries actually contain a mix of the same metals. For example, lithium-ion batteries contain nickel, and some nickel batteries contain lithium. Cobalt also tends to be present in most rechargeable batteries.
The impacts of extracting these metals paints a fairly bleak picture, described below. However, none of this is reason to compleyely avoid batteries, which are
essential for us to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, as this is reliant on our ability to store power.
There are actions we can take. To start with, we can ensure we use rechargable batteries, use them as efficiently as possible and, when they do run out, make sure we recycle them rather than sending them to landfill or leaving them squirrelled away in odd corners of the house. And we can put pressure on companies to improve their standards.
ethicalconsumer.org 13
The positives and negatives of the battery market
LithiumLithium batteries are, in many ways, a step forward. The increased power holding capabilities and lighter weight of lithium technology not only means that we need fewer batteries but has also been hugely important for the development of electric vehicles.
However, the increasing demand for lithium is not without its negative impacts. Lithium is extracted from brine found under salt flats. Salt flats in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia have some of the highest concentrations of lithium in the world. This has seen mining companies flocking to the area to profit from this now highly sought-after element.
Serious concerns have been raised by the Indigenous communities living in these areas about how much they share in the benefits from the operations on their land, as well as the possible
environmental impacts of extensive mining. In land where water is already scarce, the amount being used by the mining companies can reduce access for local communities as well as contaminate fresh water sources with salt or chemicals.
“We know the lithium companies are taking millions of dollars from our lands”, Luisa Jorge, a leader in Susques, told the Washington Post, “The companies are conscious of this. And we know they ought to give something back. But they’re not”.
While the huge increase in demand for lithium is not primarily driven by consumer batteries, more and more of them rely on the metal. As well as this, many of the companies producing consumer batteries are also manufacturing phones, laptops or electric car batteries which certainly are driving up demand. For example, the Washington
Lithium is extracted from salt flats, but are local indigenous communities in South America losing out?
Post’s exposé links Panasonic to one of the lithium mines accused of sidelining Indigenous communities for profits.
Corporations need to ensure that important solutions to the climate crisis are not implemented through further destruction and exploitation: “We are not against lithium. We just want our voices to be heard,” says one of the community leaders in Argentina’s Salinas Grandes. “We are fighting for the next generation.”
NickelNickel is a vital component of lithium-ion as well as NiMH batteries.
Unfortunately, the extraction of nickel has been linked with high levels of environmental destruction and toxic pollution.
As the Guardian reported: “Plumes of sulphur dioxide choking the skies, churned earth blanketed in cancerous
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202014
SHOPPING GUIDE
Batteries
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and Recommended section to acknowledge this.
All the research behind these ratings is on www.ethicalconsumer.org Category definitions are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings. [S] = Sustainability feature: Nordic Swan Ecolabel.
ethic
alco
nsumer.orgBES T BUY
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUPGP [S] 9 H h H H H H 0.5 Gold Peak Industries Philips 9 h H h h h H H Koninklijke PhilipsVarta 9 H H H H H ETV Holding AGGP 8.5 H h H H H H Gold Peak IndustriesEnergizer 8 H H H H H H Energizer HoldingsEveready 8 H H H H H H Energizer HoldingsKodak 7 h H H H H h H H Eastman Kodak/ BlackstoneSupacell 7 H H H H H H H Multibrands International Ltd.Wilko 5.5 H H H H H H H H h Wilkinson FamilyEneloop 4.5 h h H H h H H h H h H H PanasonicFujitsu 4.5 h h H H H h H h H h H H FujitsuPanasonic 4.5 h h H H h H H h H h H H PanasonicDuracell 1.5 H H h H H H H H h H h H H H Berkshire Hathaway
Ethi
scor
e (o
ut o
f 14
+ 6
extr
as)
Envi
ronm
enta
l Rep
ortin
gCl
imat
e Ch
ange
Pollu
tion
& T
oxic
sH
abita
ts &
Res
ourc
esPa
lm O
ilAn
imal
Tes
ting
Fact
ory
Farm
ing
Anim
al R
ight
sH
uman
Rig
hts
Wor
kers
’ Rig
hts
Supp
ly C
hain
Man
agem
ent
Irre
spon
sibl
e M
arke
ting
Arm
s &
Mili
tary
Sup
ply
Cont
rove
rsia
l Tec
hnol
ogie
sBo
ycot
t Cal
lPo
litic
al A
ctiv
ityAn
ti-So
cial
Fin
ance
Com
pany
Eth
osPr
oduc
t Sus
tain
abili
ty
USING THE TABLESEthiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability.Green (good) = 12+Amber (average) = 11.5–5Red (poor) = 4.5–0H = worst ratingh = middle rating = best rating/no
criticisms found
USING THE TABLESPositive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
dust, rivers running blood-red – environmental campaigners have painted a grim picture of the nickel mines and smelters”.
In 2016, New Internationalist reported on the devastating effects that nickel mining pollution was having on local communities in Colombia, with drastic increases in birth defects, miscarriages and cancer, as well as numerous other illnesses. Dayro Romero, governor of
the Indigenous community of Pueblo Flecha told the publication: “we feel environmentally massacred”.
Extreme pollution could be prevented if mining companies were under more scrutiny to adhere to standards of
Skin defects, along with cancer and respiratory illnesses, are common in the area of the nickel mine in Colombia. This Zenú boy is from El Alto San Jorge in Cordoba province.
Plumes of sulphur dioxide choking the skies, churned earth blanketed in cancerous dust, rivers running blood-red – environmental campaigners have painted a grim picture of the nickel mines and smelters” THE GUARDIAN
© Irrael Aguilar/N
ew Internationalist
ethicalconsumer.org 15
greenhouse gases, and the harmful heavy metals can be absorbed into soil or find their way into water supplies, lakes and rivers.
Incorrectly disposed batteries can also pose a fire hazard. Forty firefighters were sent to battle a blaze in a landfill site in Dunbar at the beginning of the year. The fire was thought to have started when a spark from a lithium-ion battery ignited surrounding rubbish.
Recycling in the UKIn the UK, any company selling more than 32kg of portable batteries a year must provide a take-back scheme, and they must accept all types of battery, except those from motor vehicles or industrial equipment. The collection points at supermarkets thus do accept all kinds, not just AA.
Duracell – owner Berkshire Hathaway owns a multitude of companies in problematic industries and scores poorly across the board.
There were no brands awarded Best Buy status in this guide.
Our recommended buy is Philips (rechargeable batteries) as it was the only company not to receive our worst rating for conflict minerals, and actually received a best rating. It also scored relatively high on the table overall.
RECOMMENDED
BRANDS TO AVOID
BEST BUYS eth
ical
consumer.org
BES T BUY
Philips
9
best practice. Companies could insist on certification from independent organisations such as the Initiative of Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) to ensure that mining becomes more environmentally and socially responsible.
CobaltCobalt is an important component of both lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries and rechargeable batteries contain roughly 50% of all the cobalt produced globally.
A significant amount of cobalt is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where mining is associated with conflict and labour abuses. Publicly traded companies in the US are required to report on the tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold they source from the DRC, but it has been up to campaign groups to put pressure on companies to report on cobalt. The Responsible Sourcing Network works to create multi-stakeholder initiatives to address human rights abuses in problematic supply chains. It publishes a yearly report analysing corporate compliance under Special Disclosure of US conflict mineral legislation. The organisation included cobalt in its ‘Mining Disclosures Report’ for the first time this year. It does not carry the same risk of supporting armed conflict, as cobalt mines are generally located in the south of the country, but child slavery and poor working conditions have been shown to be widespread.
In 2016, Amnesty reported: “The children who were not attending school worked in the mines all year round. For example, Paul, aged 14, started mining at the age of 12 and worked in tunnels underground. He told researchers he
would often ‘spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. I arrived in the morning and would leave the following morning’”.
GraphiteGraphite is used as a cathode (the positive end) in many batteries, including alkaline and lithium ones.
Graphite mines and refiners are causing serious pollution in many Chinese towns and villages in Heilongjiang province.
Again, the Washington Post linked these graphite suppliers directly to Panasonic. Villagers living in the area told the journalists about “sparkling night air, damaged crops, homes and belongings covered in soot, polluted drinking water – and government officials inclined to look the other way to benefit a major employer”.
Other metalsWhile there is less coverage of these, the extraction of other metals frequently found in batteries such as manganese, zinc and potassium is not without issues either, as environmental destruction, pollution and exploitation seem to go hand in hand with the mining industry.
RecyclingThe importance of recyclingAll types of batteries can be recycled with the metals used being completely recoverable, with no limits on the number of times they can be recycled.
Recycling batteries also prevents their disposal from polluting the environment. When batteries are just left to decay photochemical reactions can release
© B
jörn
Wyl
ezic
h | D
ream
stim
e.co
m
Cobalt is an important component in many batteries but is linked to child slavery in the DRC.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202016
SHOPPING GUIDE
BatteriesThe UK has battery recycling targets
set by the EU. While it failed to meet these in previous years, the target was met in 2018. The UK collected 17,811 tonnes of used batteries against a target of 17,540. This is thought to have saved around 12,000 tonnes of C02, but it still represents just 45% of all the batteries placed into the market in the previous three years. Concerns have also been raised that lead-acid batteries are being included in these figures when most lead-acid batteries are not included in the targets.
It is interesting that while all the battery brands in this guide are recyclable, there do not appear to be any batteries out there that are advertised as being made from recycled materials.
Table highlightsTax AvoidanceFujitsu, Panasonic, Energizer/Eveready, GP, Kodak, Berkshire Hathaway (Duracell) and Philips all lost a full mark under Anti-Social Finance for having company structures often used for tax avoidance purposes. Wilko, Multibrands (Supacell) and Varta did not lose marks for likely use of tax avoidance strategies.
Conflict MineralsWith the exception of Philips, every single company on the list received Ethical Consumer’s worst rating for its conflicts minerals policy, which saw them lose whole marks under both Human Rights and Habitats and Resources. Philips received Ethical Consumer’s best rating.
Excessive director payPanasonic, Energizer, GP, Kodak, Berkshire Hathaway (Duracell) and Philips all lost half a mark under Anti-Social Finance due to having directors paid annual salaries of over £1,000,000.
Oppressive regimesAs covered on page 42 we have just updated our oppressive regimes list. Despite the reduced number of countries included on our list, five companies still lost a full mark under Human Rights for having operations in over six of these countries. These were Berkshire Hathaway, Fujitsu, Philips, Wilko and Panasonic. Energizer and Kodak both lost half a mark for having operations in two to four oppressive regimes. While they were not marked down Varta and Multibrands (Supacell) still both had operations in one oppressive regime.
Charging forward – what’s next for batteries?Professor John Goodenough invented the lithium-ion battery in the 1980s. Fortunately, the scientific community is not applying the inventors surname to the battery itself. Battery technology is the focus of intense research, due to the urgent need to transition to renewable energy and the rising demand for portable electronics.
There are possibilities for the next generation of batteries to be based on more abundant elements such as sodium, found in all kinds of salt, or aluminium. This could, in theory, mean that the elements in batteries can be extracted in locations which would cause the least damage, with vicinity to local communities, shipping miles and the local environment all taken into account.
Other technologies such as metal-air batteries, solid-state batteries and the use of silicon are all vying to try and increase capacity, and also safety, while reducing production costs.
The fact that rising demands for batteries are, in part, fuelled by a desire to reduce environmental impact, could mean that ethical considerations are given more scrutiny in the battery industry than in others. This year, Amnesty International publicly challenged electric car manufacturers to create a truly ethical battery within
CHILD SAFETY WARNING
Increasing numbers of children have been admitted to hospital having swallowed button batteries. The consequences can be very serious and sometimes fatal. If a lithium battery becomes lodged in the oesophagus it can create an electric circuit, due to its higher voltage, which can cause serious burns. Visit buttonbatterysafety.com for advice on ensuring batteries are kept out of harm’s way and what to do if you suspect a child has swallowed one.
five years. Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:
“With demand for batteries soaring, now is the time for a drastic overhaul of our energy sources that prioritises protection of human rights and the environment. With a climate crisis looming, consumers have the right to demand that products marketed as the ethical choice really stand up to scrutiny. We need to change course now, or those least responsible for climate change – indigenous communities and children – will pay the price for the shift away from fossil fuels.”
However, we may not be buying separate batteries for that much longer, as more and more products are switching to inbuilt rechargeable batteries. This does mean that people are forced to use rechargeables, but all batteries are perishable, and it can make the whole product die with the battery.
Companies behind the brands
Berkshire Hathaway, owner of Duracell, is the holding company of Warren Buffet’s corporate empire. The company’s investments and activities have led to Buffet becoming one of the richest people in the world with a net worth of around $82 billion. Berkshire Hathaway has significant investments in a range of companies including Kraft Heinz, Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom and American Express. The company has very few policies itself and states that reporting and policies take place at subsidiary level.
ethicalconsumer.org 17
Alkaline Lithium-metal NiMH Lithium-ion
Rechargeable? Non-rechargeable Non-rechargeable Rechargeable: 700-1,000 life cycles
Rechargeable: 600-1,000 life cycles
Run-time (Devices vary so comparison based on number of photos taken on a digital camera with AA battery).
100 shots 690 shots 600 shotsUnknown (AA have not been available long enough)
How to charge N/A N/A
It is better to fast charge if possible. Stop charging if battery becomes warm.Always use the charger designed for your battery.
A partial charge is better than a full charge.A partial discharge is actually also better than a full discharge (no ‘memory effect’ like old NiCad batteries which used to lose capacity if not used). Turn off devices when charging the battery. Always use the charger designed for your battery.
Shelf-life 5-10 Years 10-12 Years 3-5 Years 2-4 Years
Self-discharge rate Should lose around 2-3% per year.
Should lose around 10% of its charge over 5 years not in use.
Should lose 10–15% in 24h, then 10-15% per month.
Should lose 5% in 24h, then 1–2% per month.
How to store for prolonged shelf-life and reduced self-discharge.
Remove from the device and store below 25°C (do not freeze).
Remove from the device and store below 25°C (do not freeze).
Remove from the device and store below 25°C (do not freeze). Can be stored with any charge level but should be fully recharged once a year if storing long term.
Remove from the device and store below 25°C (do not freeze) with a charge of around 40-50%. You may need to recharge to this level about once every 6 months.
Types of battery AA, AAA, C, D, N, 9 Volt and button/coin batteries.
AA, AAA, 9 Volt, button/coin batteries. AA, AAA, C, D & 9 Volt.
Mostly button batteries and power banks (as well as phone/laptop batteries). Other sizes like AA/AAA are just coming onto the market.
Prolonging battery lifeThe following table provides a quick run-down on how not to run-down different types of batteries as well as some general information about how long you can expect them to last.
While Buffet is well known as a philanthropist, he has also published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal arguing that increasing tax credits rather than minimum wage is the real answer to preventing poverty. It is convenient, but of course entirely unrelated, that this would be paid for by the government rather than the corporations.
Energizer Holdings owns both Energizer and Eveready brands. Despite having a turnover in the billions, the company does not appear to be investing in its ethical policies. Energizer received a worst Ethical Consumer rating for all relevant policies including Environmental Reporting, Supply Chain Management, toxic
chemicals, conflict minerals and likely use of tax avoidance strategies.
Philips was the only company to receive our best rating for conflict minerals and also scored best and middle ratings in other policy areas.
However, while the company might be taking the time to develop its own policies, it also seems to be taking a keen interest in government policy as well. The company was a member of three free-trade lobby groups and spent over $1 million on lobbying in the US alone.
The company was also recently fined £25.5 million for forcing retailers to raise the prices of its products. “If a retailer was offering lower prices than Philips wanted, [Phillips] told that
retailer to increase prices, so consumers had to pay more. This is illegal under EU rules” said the European Competition Chief, Margrethe Vestager.
Panasonic sells Panasonic and Eneloop branded batteries but also sells a wide range of other electronics, including computers and communications to the defence industry.
In 2018, the company was hit with a $280 million fine under US anti-corruption law. The company had reportedly been secretly rehiring salespeople who failed anti-bribery certification as subcontractors, and also “hired a foreign official as a consultant at the same time that the official was negotiating a contract between Panasonic and a government-owned airline in the Middle East”.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202018
Chevron Sneaker Pineapple
Cheatah Pineapple
Hi Top Hemp
Veg Supreme Hemp Lo Top
Spider XT Hemp
A treat for your feet if you don’t eat meat!
Order direct: vegshoes.comTel: 01273 691913 | [email protected]
Over 200 mens &
womens styles!
Quality
‘breathable’ non-leather
materials made in England & Europe
Go Pineapple...
Go Hemp...
VEGSHOES Ethical Consumer 1/4 ad 1119v2.indd 1 22/11/2019 12:04
Moonloftethical web & graphic design
design for print
website design
www.moonloft.com
logos & branding
ethicalconsumer.org 19
SHOPPING GUIDE
Email providersIs your email private and green?RUTH STRANGE finds out.
In this guide we have ranked the big email providers: Google (Gmail), Verizon (AOL, Yahoo – now combined as Oath) and Microsoft
(Hotmail/Outlook), as well as some much smaller alternatives: Tutanota, Runbox, Kolab Now and Posteo.
If you use one of the big providers, it is free of charge, but you are in effect trading your privacy for the service, as your emails can be scanned for advertising purposes by the company (Oath) or by third-parties in the case of Google or Microsoft. Google tracks and targets you itself in many other ways, but also keeps a record of every email you’ve ever sent or received, even if you deleted them. Read more about Internet privacy on page 24 and 26.
Our four alternative options were set up specifically to offer email privacy. We have chosen to include these four out of a wider pool of privacy-focused (and many other) alternatives, as they buy their electricity from renewable energy companies. (Read more about the potential greenwash of renewable energy claims below). Out of the four alternative
options included, Tutanota is the only one to offer a basic free email option, which can be upgraded, while the others have a small charge as standard.
Two privacy-focused providers we have not ranked this time are Aktivix and RiseUp, as these work on an invite/recommendation basis, specifically for activists working in areas such as No Borders, social centres, or radical tech collectives.
We also include, in this guide, providers that only offer email to their broadband customers: the bigger players BT and TalkTalk, as well as smaller alternatives GreenNet and The Phone Co-op. Apple iCloud is only available if you have an Apple device.
Renewable energy claimsIn November 2018, articles based on a press release from EE (part of BT), stated that the company was ‘switching’ to renewable energy, and had “chucked coal and ousted oil”. One stated that BT was “within 4 per cent of running entirely on renewable energy”.
We couldn’t find an explanation of exactly where this energy came from. The nearest we got was several mentions of links with the company npower, which claims it offers tariffs which are “100% renewable”, despite its fuel mix being at least 70% made up of coal, gas and nuclear. Behold the magic of REGOs.
REGOs are certificates that companies can buy from renewable generators very cheaply, and then legally claim to be providing renewable energy, without building or buying any directly at all.
Npower unashamedly markets its ‘Renewable Energy for Business’ by telling its customers, “You can report zero-carbon emissions with our product without having to provide any additional evidence.”
A fully referenced version of this Product Guide is on our website
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202020
SHOPPING GUIDE
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUPGreenNet [S] 15.5 e 1 GreenNet Educational TrustKolab Now [S] 14.5 1 Kolab Systems AGPosteo [S] 14.5 1 Posteo e.K.Runbox [S] 14.5 1 Runbox Solutions ASTutanota [S] 14.5 1 Tutao GmbHBT 7.5 h H h H h H H H BT Group plcApple iCloud 6 H h h H H h h H H H Apple IncTalkTalk 7 H H H H h H h H TalkTalk Telecom Group plcAOL , Yahoo! 5.5 h H H H H H H H H Verizon Communications IncHotmail , Outlook 5.5 h h H H H H h H H H Microsoft CorporationThe Phone Coop 5.5 H h h h H H h h H h h H h E The Midcounties Cooperative LtdGmail 5 H h h h H h H H H H H Alphabet Inc
Email providers
The situation with Google and Microsoft is also confusing. Both claim to use levels of renewable energy which, when you look into it, are made up of energy credits as well as direct purchases.
However, some of the renewables used by providers are more meaningful than this – indeed, some are located in countries which have a grid powered heavily by renewables. Renewable energy statements from our best buy recommendations are as follows:
GreenNet (UK) – "Our primary servers are located in a London data centre which buys its electricity from Scottish Power Renewables, generated from British on-shore and off-shore wind as well as some tidal and wave power sources ...
“We also have some additional server space in Canada and Germany. Both of these facilities are powered by renewably generated electricity as well."
Kolab Now (Switzerland) – "All energy used in the hosting and running of ©
Gre
enpe
ace
Ener
gy
Greenpeace in Germany were a founder member of the Greenpeace Energy cooperative, which runs Posteo’s servers and offices.
Kolab Now and Kolab Systems is green energy. Due to our geographic position in Switzerland, our energy mix is mostly hydroelectric, some solar, and a little bit of wind."
Posteo (Germany) – "Our servers and offices run 100% on green energy from Greenpeace Energy, which comes from hydro stations and wind turbines in Austria and Germany."
Runbox (Norway) – "Almost all the energy in Norway is sourced from hydroelectric power plants (97.6% in 2014), thanks to the abundance of precipitation and waterfalls in our country.
Furthermore, our email service is hosted in a data center that sources 100% of its electricity from renewable energy."
Tutanota (Germany) – "While we have asked the data centers to switch to green electricity from the start, they did not change their electricity contract immediately. Finally, possibly because
USING THE TABLESEthiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability.Green (good) = 12+Amber (average) = 11.5–5Red (poor) = 4.5–0H = worst rating
h = middle rating = best rating/no
criticisms found Best Buys are highlighted in blue
USING THE TABLESPositive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending on sector.
Ethi
scor
e (o
ut o
f 14
+ 6
extr
as)
Envi
ronm
enta
l Rep
ortin
gCl
imat
e Ch
ange
Pollu
tion
& T
oxic
sH
abita
ts &
Res
ourc
esPa
lm O
ilAn
imal
Tes
ting
Fact
ory
Farm
ing
Anim
al R
ight
sH
uman
Rig
hts
Wor
kers
’ Rig
hts
Supp
ly C
hain
Man
agem
ent
Irre
spon
sibl
e M
arke
ting
Arm
s &
Mili
tary
Sup
ply
Cont
rove
rsia
l Tec
hnol
ogie
sBo
ycot
t Cal
lPo
litic
al A
ctiv
ityAn
ti-So
cial
Fin
ance
Com
pany
Eth
osPr
oduc
t Sus
tain
abili
ty
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and Recommended section to acknowledge this.
All the research behind these ratings is on www.ethicalconsumer.org Category definitions are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings. [S] = Sustainability feature: Buys renewable energy.
ethic
alco
nsumer.orgBES T BUY
our children are putting an increased pressure on companies with their Fridays for Future marches, our data centers switched to green electricity …
“Renewable energy in Germany comes from the following sources: 41% wind energy (onshore), 20% photovoltaic, 20% biomass, 8% wind energy (offshore), 7% hydrodynamic power, and 3% household refuse (recycling)."
ethicalconsumer.org 21
Difficult as it may be, we would say avoid Google and Verizon.
Our best buys for email providers are Tutanota, Runbox, Kolab Now, Posteo and GreenNet (this one is only available with broadband) as they are all privacy-focused and buy renewable energy.
We also recommend The Phone Coop (also only available with broadband) as although it scored poorly due to its parent company, it is still a consumer cooperative, and we still recommend it above the bigger providers.
RECOMMENDED
BRANDS TO AVOID
BEST BUYS eth
ical
consumer.org
BES T BUY
GreenNet
15.5
Clicking CleanIn February 2019, Greenpeace released a report titled ‘Clicking Clean Virginia – The Dirty Energy Powering Data Center Alley’.
The report benchmarked global internet platforms and major data centre operators on the energy they buy. Less than 5% of power generation in Virginia comes from renewable sources. Yet 70% of the world’s internet traffic is claimed to pass through just one of Virginia’s counties. Data centre electricity usage in Virginia has been increasing by about 10% a year, and Virginia’s largest electricity provider has used this rising demand to increase investments into gas generation and supply rather than renewables, including a new pipeline to transport fracked gas 600 miles across national parks and forests.
Three companies in Greenpeace’s report are included in this guide. Criticisms of Google and Apple led to both losing half a mark on our table under Climate Change. Google was criticised for not yet having taken steps to buy energy from renewable providers for its data centres in Virginia. Apple lost its half mark for its use of the AWS cloud platform provided by Amazon, one of the worst performing companies in the report. Neither Apple nor Google were said to have advocated for renewables in Virginia, although they had done so elsewhere. Meanwhile, Microsoft was commended for exploring the use of battery storage rather than backup generators, and publicly supporting bills in the state that supported a transition to renewables.
Companies behind the brands
Google has grown from a start-up search engine in 1998 to one of the world’s biggest companies, with a 2018 revenue of $136 billion, 85% of which is now earned through digital ads. The verb, ‘to google’, has become an everyday part of our vocabulary, but Google’s vast network of services including Gmail, Google Analytics and Google Maps and their harvesting of personal data are of great concern. The Irish data regulator is currently investigating whether Google is circumventing EU privacy regulations by secretly feeding advertisers the personal data of its Chrome browser users.
The ethical issues associated with ‘big tech’ are myriad and complex, not least because these companies are without any real precedent in their level of control and access to information. This makes it difficult for governments to regulate them. These companies have been allowed to eliminate nearly all of their competition. Google has actually acquired 235 other entities.
In 2018, Google and Facebook together controlled about 84% of the global digital ad market outside of China. In the smartphone market, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS together accounted for 99.9% of the global market for operating systems, and practically all mobile app sales and downloads are made through their stores. They also control the platforms through which other products are discovered, and play a central role in the distribution of information, acting as the primary gateway to news and opinion for billions of people. See our Tips and Tools section on p27 for alternatives.
Verizon is a US company that, under its new division called Oath, owns Yahoo Mail, AOL, HuffPost, Tumblr, and more. AOL itself had already acquired many other data targeting companies before it was acquired by Verizon, contributing to the company’s claim to its own marketing clients that it has the “most advanced and open advertising technology” system, “to help you monetize across every device”.
Verizon is also an internet service provider in the US. In 2018, it admitted to having “throttled” internet access to the Santa Clara County Fire Department while it was in the middle of fighting the state’s largest-ever wildfire. Full service was only restored after the department upgraded to a more expensive package. Verizon said it was a mistake.
Several lobbyists who have worked for Verizon were included in Trump’s transition team at the start of his presidency in 2016. In Spring 2017, the New York Times reported that perhaps the “most radical shift” in regulation was the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) decision to block rules previously agreed to protect data security, after companies including Comcast and Verizon had objected. In March 2019, the Federal Trade Commission took up the fight, launching an enquiry into the privacy practices of broadband companies. This appears to be ongoing.
See BT profile on page 23.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202022
SHOPPING GUIDE
Broadband
Who should we get online with? RUTH STRANGE gives us some answers.
This guide compares UK broadband providers, big and small. Privacy and digital rights are also explored from pages 24.
The big fourThe internet has become a utility much like electricity or water. And like these markets, it is dominated by a small number of big players. Nine out of ten homes with broadband internet connection in the UK are supplied by
USING THE TABLESEthiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability and up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos.
Green (good) = 12+Amber (average) = 11.5–5Red (poor) = 4.5–0H = worst ratingh = middle rating = best rating/no
criticisms found Best Buys are highlighted in blue
USING THE TABLESPositive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Maximum of five positive marks.
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUPGreen ISP 15.5 e 1 Green ISPGreenNet 15.5 e 1 GreenNet Educational TrustZen 13 H Zen Internet LimitedSSE 11 h h h h h h SSE PlcVodafone 8 H H H H H H Vodafone Group plcBT, EE, Plusnet 7.5 h H h H h H H H BT Group plcO2 7 H H H H H H H Telefonica S.A.TalkTalk 7 H H H H h H h H TalkTalk Telecom Group PlcVirgin Media 7 h H H H H h H H Liberty Global plcNOW, Sky 6 H H H H H H H H Comcast CorporationThe Phone Co-op 5.5 H h h h H H h h H h h H h E The Midcounties Co-operative LtdThree 3.5 H H H H H H H H h H h H CK Hutchison Holdings LimitedJohn Lewis 3 h h H H h h H H H h h H h H H E John Lewis Partnership/BT Group
Ethi
scor
e (o
ut o
f 14
+ 6
extr
as)
Envi
ronm
enta
l Rep
ortin
gCl
imat
e Ch
ange
Pollu
tion
& T
oxic
sH
abita
ts &
Res
ourc
esPa
lm O
ilAn
imal
Tes
ting
Fact
ory
Farm
ing
Anim
al R
ight
sH
uman
Rig
hts
Wor
kers
’ Rig
hts
Supp
ly C
hain
Man
agem
ent
Irre
spon
sibl
e M
arke
ting
Arm
s &
Mili
tary
Sup
ply
Cont
rove
rsia
l Tec
hnol
ogie
sBo
ycot
t Cal
lPo
litic
al A
ctiv
ityAn
ti-So
cial
Fin
ance
Com
pany
Eth
osPr
oduc
t Sus
tain
abili
ty
one of four companies, Virgin, BT, Sky and TalkTalk.
Furthermore, most of the other well-known broadband packages are actually supplied by these same four companies. EE and Plusnet (which also provides John Lewis broadband) are part of BT, and NOW is part of Sky.
These big four have all been marked down for excessive remuneration of directors, being members of lobby groups (except for TalkTalk), and for Habitats & Resources and Human Rights impacts, as they did not have strong enough policies around the use of conflict minerals (see p15).
As well as traditional home broadband, our table also includes a few providers of
mobile broadband, none of which score highly. O2, Vodafone, EE and Three all offer options either for homes that are not well-served by physical networks, or for better access to broadband while travelling. These devices, be they mobile routers, dongles, 12volt devices or SIM cards, may be preloaded with data bundles, or pay-as-you-go.
Tax avoidanceSeveral companies on the table received our worst rating for likely tax avoidance:
BT (BT, EE, Plusnet, John Lewis broadband), Virgin, Comcast (Sky/NOW), CK Hutchison (Three).
All the research behind these ratings is on www.ethicalconsumer.org Category definitions are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings.
ethicalconsumer.org 23
BT, Sky and Virgin are three of the very biggest providers but all score worst for likely tax avoidance.
Green ISP and GreenNet both hold our Best Buy label. They are both small independent UK companies which received no negative marks on our tables, but gained positive marks for being not-for-profit, and using renewable energy for their infrastructure.
We also recommend The Phone Co-op. Although it scored poorly due to its parent company, it is still a consumer cooperative, and we still recommend it above the bigger providers.
RECOMMENDED
BRANDS TO AVOID
BEST BUYS eth
ical
consumer.org
BES T BUY
GreenNet& Green ISP
15.5
Use of corporate courtsThe use of corporate courts is a recent addition to our ratings. Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS) are international courts through which corporations can sue states for loss of future profits if laws are changed. ISDSs usually meet secretly, are presided over by corporate lawyers and provide no right to appeal once a verdict has been made. Vodafone is using ISDS to challenge a tax bill in India, and Telefonica is challenging Columbia over an order that certain telecommunication assets are reverted to State control when the concession contracts expire.
Alternative providersLuckily, there are some better scoring alternatives. Our Best Buys are GreenNet and Green ISP, two small independent UK companies which received no negative marks on our tables, but gained positive marks for being not-for-profit, and buying from renewable energy companies. Note that they do not deal with line rental which must also be in place.
The Phone Co-op was previously also top of the table, but since becoming part of the Midcounties Co-op, which spans a range of businesses, its score has dropped. This is due to Midcounties picking up marks such as for the sale of animal products in its supermarkets. However, the Phone Co-op is still a consumer cooperative, and we still recommend it above the four big providers.
The renewable electricity provider Ecotricity, which appeared for the first time in our recent mobile phone network guide, has also informed us that it will be providing broadband from late 2019 – watch this space.
Near the top of the table are Zen Internet and SSE. As a relatively small company, Zen Internet was not taking advantage of tax havens or free trade lobbying groups like many of the larger providers.
SSE is a UK Living Wage employer and a Fair Tax Mark business, which started offering broadband in 2015. It is primarily a power company but is planning to close its last coal-fired power station in 2020. It does however still rely heavily on gas, though it is also expanding its renewable generation, and already produces the most renewable energy of any power company
in the UK. However, SSE lost marks in the Anti-Social Finance column, despite its Fair Tax Mark status, due to paying two executive directors over £1 million in its latest accounting year.
Companies behind the brands
Sky is one of the lowest scoring companies on the table. In 2018, the Murdoch empire sold its stake in 21st Century Fox to Disney, which then sold the 21CF stake in Sky to the American TV giant Comcast, which also owns Universal Studios, NBC and several digital advertising and technology firms. Comcast is also deeply involved in data-driven marketing as well as artificial intelligence.
The change in ownership means that the famously right-wing Murdoch is no longer associated with Sky, although he does still have substantial newspaper and radio holdings – The Times, The Sun, HarperCollins, Wall St Journal, Fox News, Virgin Radio, TalkRadio, TalkSport.
Reminiscent of Verizon lobbyists joining Trump’s transition team (see Email guide), the Guardian reported that Boris Johnson plotted his first 100 days in office as UK prime minister in the house of a senior Sky television executive who had risen to the top under Murdoch. This Andrew Griffith was then appointed chief business adviser to No.10.
BT was the only company on the table to be marked down for directly supplying equipment to the military. In 2014, the human rights NGO Reprieve submitted three complaints about BT, due to its contract to provide communications between an RAF base in Northamptonshire and America’s headquarters for drone attacks in Africa. These complaints were rejected by the UK’s NCP (the National Contact Point, a non-judicial mechanism for addressing the conduct of multinational enterprises) which, instead of investigating the alleged link with drone attacks, raised the threshold for evidence.
In any case, BT was marked down in the Arms and Military Supply column for having a number of ongoing contracts with the US Department of Defense. This also affected John Lewis broadband as it is supplied by Plusnet, part of BT. The Phone Co-op and Virgin Media lost half a mark in the same column as their mobile networks use the EE (BT) network.
The Virgin brand is used on a huge variety of businesses, including the
controversial Virgin Care, one of the biggest winners among private healthcare providers bidding for NHS contracts. Virgin Care has taken the NHS to court over contracts, and concerns have also been reported about the use of tax havens in its corporate family.
Virgin Care’s ultimate parent, the Virgin Group, describes itself as “a family owned growth capital investor, with a globally recognised and respected brand”, and lists Virgin Media and Virgin Mobile, as Virgin companies. However, while the Virgin Group owns 100% of Virgin Care (and 51% of Virgin Trains) it actually owns 0% of Virgin Media. Virgin Media is owned by Liberty Global, but Virgin Group Holdings still gets royalty payments, apparently almost £10 million a year.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202024
Email and BroadbandSHOPPING GUIDE
Why is internet privacy important and how are people fighting for it?
Information about our activity online has become a commodity in itself. Not only is our social network activity collected and sold to advertisers and even political campaigns, but also our Internet histories and emails.
Government surveillanceIn 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the world the mass digital surveillance being undertaken by governments, in particular the US and UK. News coverage slowly ebbed away, but campaign groups like Amnesty and Liberty have not forgotten.
Amnesty is taking action against the UK government over concerns that their communications have been unlawfully accessed by the UK intelligence services. Amnesty states:
“Because of the global nature of our work, and our sensitive communications with activists around the world, it is highly likely that our communications have been intercepted. It’s unclear what processes exist for deciding what is gathered or who it is shared with in the UK. Our right to privacy protects us so we’re not persecuted for our beliefs, lifestyle or sexual orientation. But it’s being heavily eroded without us really noticing ... [A] wide net is being cast through our private lives. It’s not being done with any grounds for suspicion, it’s being done to find the grounds for suspicion. It’s a huge rollback of our liberty. At the moment, the justification is to stop terror attacks, but what happens when that justification widens – or when the technology is sold on to less ethical states who use it to root out political opponents and journalists, and to oppress peaceful protest?”
Don’t Spy on Us, a coalition of groups including the National Union of Journalists, believes these surveillance powers affect not only personal online privacy, but also investigative journalism and freedom of expression.
It has got worse, not betterThe UK Government response to Snowden’s revelations, rather than
restraining surveillance, has legitimised and extended it. In 2016, the UK Government voted in what Liberty called the “most intrusive mass surveillance regime ever introduced in a democracy”. Its official name is the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA).
Liberty states that, “It gives the authorities the power to collect information about everything we do and say online – on our mobiles and computers – by tapping directly into communications channels, ordering companies to hold on to our data and hacking into people’s devices. It reveals our health problems, our political views, our religious beliefs, our sexual preferences, our daily habits and our every movement.”
Liberty continue to challenge the IPA and the powers the IPA gives to agencies to build ‘bulk personal datasets’ which could leave people open to abuse and discrimination.
Political manipulationIn 2018, there was another ‘great privacy awakening’. The Cambridge Analytica scandal erupted, and we heard that the personal data from millions of people’s Facebook profiles had been harvested and allegedly used to
influence voting in the US presidential election and the EU Referendum. The Electoral Commission has been called on to reopen investigations, after the former head of business development at Cambridge Analytica said that Leave.EU used datasets created by her employer to target voters in the run up to what became the Brexit vote.
Ranking Digital RightsThe fourth Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) Index was published in 2019, ranking 24 of “the world’s most powerful Internet, and telecommunications companies” on their policies affecting the human rights of users.
RDR states that companies’ failure to respect the fundamental rights to privacy, and freedom of expression and information, both of which are included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), can cause or contribute to the violation of further rights, specifically: right to life, liberty and security of person (UDHR art. 3); non-discrimination (UDHR art. 7, art. 23); freedom of thought (UDHR art. 18); freedom of association (UDHR art.20); right to take part in the government of one’s country, directly or through freely chosen representatives (UDHR art. 21).
Companies were assessed on whether they met international standards, such as the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, which were drafted by a global coalition of civil
© A
CLU
(Am
eric
an C
ivil
Libe
rtie
s U
nion
).
ACLU found in 2016 that Facebook, Twitter and Instagram gave ‘special access’ to Geofeedia, a company that actually marketed its services as a tool to track Black Lives Matter activists.
ethicalconsumer.org 25
society, privacy and technology experts in 2013 to show how existing human rights law applied to modern digital surveillance.
Although most companies had improved since the previous year, only one third scored a total of 50% or more. The report found that “Companies still do not adequately inform people about all the ways user information is collected and shared, with whom, and why” (including how they respond to government demands for data). You can view the RDR report cards for individual companies, and adapted reports for various countries, online.
Digital rights rankingl Microsoft 62l Google 61l Verizon Media 61l Telefónica 57l Vodafone 52l Apple 46l Samsung 29Percentage score across governance, privacy and freedom of expression for companies in the guides in this issue. Companies scoring under 50% lost half a mark under Human Rights.
RDR is currently revising its methodology for its next report in 2021 to include human rights harms associated with targeted advertising, algorithms, and machine learning. For example, algorithms on video-sharing platforms can prioritise controversial and inflammatory videos simply because
they have lots of views or comments.When personal information collected
for targeted advertising is shared, it can enable discrimination against groups and individuals for their particular traits. Analysis of social media has even been used for police surveillance of people involved in the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality.
Privacy is not a niche tech issueOne podcast likened threats to online privacy to the threat of climate change. Both are more distant, or more real, depending on who or where you are. As the examples above illustrate, real people’s lives are affected now, and some people are more at risk than others.
However, we can all help. The more we fight for and normalise Internet privacy, the more protected the most at-risk people are. See our links to Tips and Tools on page 27, and help to diversify the market. See point 7 of Ethical Consumer’s Manifesto online for more on breaking up tech monopolies.
Cookies, GDPR and ePrivacyCookies are small files placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites. Some are simply there to remember your settings. However, many websites allow third-parties to place tracking cookies, which collect data that is then sold to companies for
targeted advertising, a business model that has taken over the Internet.
Data harvesting could influence what terms insurance companies will offer you, or whether you receive ads for particular jobs or not. Read more about tracking cookies in our interview with the Open Rights Group on p26.
Currently, it feels like almost every website you go to pops up with a cookie policy. Some you cannot make disappear without agreeing to, while others say that your continued use of their site amounts to consent, and slip away if you ignore them.
If you do click to see your options, you may be allowed to reject all but the essential cookies which the site needs to function properly, or you may be presented with a very long list of third parties who will place tracking cookies on your computer unless you follow each individual link to state your preferences. Usually this is enough to make you give in and ‘accept’.
However, digital rights campaigner Johnny Ryan states that Article 7 (3) of the GDPR (the EU General Data Protection Regulation introduced in 2018) requires that consent given for cookies must be as easy to undo as it was to give in the first place, and that refusing should not mean you are restricted from access.
If and when the GDPR is enforced, “consent messages should become far less annoying in Europe – because if a company insists on harassing you to opt-in, and you finally click OK, it will be required to keep reminding you that you can opt back out again.” The GDPR has also inspired similar laws in countries around the world including Brazil, India and China.
While GDPR regulation is concerned with protecting our personal data, alongside it should be another directive called the ePrivacy regulation, to cover the general confidentiality of communications. The European Commission proposed this at the start of 2017, and it was quickly agreed by the European Parliament. It has since been blocked and stalled as a result of a huge amount of industry lobbying.
The Corporate Europe Observatory reported in 2017 on which individual companies and industry lobby groups were active around ePrivacy. This included Google, Microsoft, Vodafone, Telefonica, Apple, and lobby groups ETNO, DigitalEurope and AMCHAM that included BT, Verizon (as an observer), Samsung and Liberty Global (Virgin).
© R
anki
ng D
igita
l Rig
hts.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202026
Email and BroadbandSHOPPING GUIDE
Digital Rights interview
How is Internet privacy affected by our broadband and email providers and what is the bigger picture? RUTH STRANGE talks to JAVIER RUIZ at the Open Rights Group (ORG).
Can you tell us how the Open Rights Group fits into the digital rights campaigning scene?
Open Rights Group is a UK-based digital campaigning organisation working to protect the rights to privacy and free speech online. With over 3,000 active supporters, we are a grassroots organisation with local groups across the UK.
Digital technology has transformed the way we live and opened up limitless new ways to communicate, connect, share and learn across the world. But for all the benefits, technological developments have created new threats to our human rights, and privacy is one of the fundamental ones. We raise awareness of these threats and challenge them through public campaigns, media commentary, legal actions, policy interventions and tech projects.
We have a unique combination of expertise and grassroots presence, including many people in the technology industry.
I know you have a campaign on targeted advertising and ‘tracking cookies’ – can you explain how broadband providers are involved, how else tracking cookies could affect people, and if it's possible to avoid them?
Internet advertising companies, such as Google and Facebook, but also a myriad of other smaller players, track pretty much everything we do online. Every time you see an advert on the Internet it is almost certain that has been personalised for you and served through a superfast real-time auction system that would have sounded like science fiction only a few years ago.
Whenever a targeted ad is served to an Internet user in this auction system – called programmatic advertising or real-time bidding (RTB) – their personal data is shared and bidded out to potentially hundreds of companies. That data can include a user’s location, browsing habits
and other intimate details collected through the use of tracking cookies. This ‘bid request’ process involves broadcasting your personal details without proper protections, which is a violation of GDPR rules.
In September 2018, Open Rights Group Executive Director Jim Killock joined Dr. Johnny Ryan of Brave and Michael Veale of University College London to file complaints to European data protection authorities against Google and IAB Europe for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) violations in their RTB AdTech systems.
People can avoid some of the cookies using Ad-blocking software. There is a debate on the ethics of blocking ads when they provide financial support for independent press, but consumers should not be forced to choose between their privacy and access to information. Unfortunately, escaping this surveillance is becoming harder, as companies now use other technologies, such as ‘device fingerprinting’ to identify and track users. Broadband providers are not involved in this kind of tracking in Europe. They are in the US, which lacks the legal protections on the confidentiality of communications we have in the EU.
How worried do you think we should be about targeted political ads?
The UK’s electoral systems are undergoing a stress test of a sort that they have rarely experienced. Political actors are using personal data to make conflicting promises to discrete demographics – with no accountability or consent.
Our Data and Democracy project seeks to mitigate this threat and prevent new technology from eroding public trust in the democratic process. To achieve this, we aim to influence debate, conduct research, mobilise supporters and develop principles to shape the ethical use of these technologies. One way to take action, for instance, is to use the Who Targets Me browser extension to expose
micro-targeted political ads on Facebook.Who Targets Me (WTM) is a citizen-
led, non-partisan monitoring tool. The WTM browser plug-in collects data on the political ads that people see on Facebook, which can then be analysed to explain the strategies parties and campaigns are using to win votes.
Some have questioned just how effective targeted ads, even targeted political ads, are at changing hearts and minds. ORG thinks this point is moot. Political parties may be conducting activities that are at best unethical and at worst unlawful, tramping on data protection law.
More information here: www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/2019/the-missing-piece-from-the-dcms-report-themselves
Are mobile network providers also involved in harvesting and selling data on our online movements?
Mobile providers generally will track your location through the telephony masts your phone connects to, but not the GPS location on your phone. Some will also monitor your Internet usage and sell analytics services. Technically, they are not selling your data, but insights based on your data. We did a report on this issue some years ago: www.openrightsgroup.org/about/reports/mobile-data
We have four smaller alternative email providers in our guide, that are specifically set up to safeguard privacy. Why is this important?
Tech companies are starting to take privacy more seriously, including
© A
lpho
ns N
ieuw
enhu
is.
The Cities for Digital Rights conference was held in Amsterdam in June 2019.
ethicalconsumer.org 27
Facebook planning to bring strong encryption to their Messenger app so not even the company can read what you write. However, in most cases this is still about protecting walled gardens that will perpetuate the oligopoly of Silicon Valley firms.
Diversity of provision is really important for consumers and as we have seen since Cambridge Analytica, digital monopolies impact on democracy. Privacy is important here but not the only criteria.
Finally, I was amazed to see that there were so many campaigns on digital rights. What developments are you encouraged by?
I think that some of the most interesting developments come from within the tech sector itself. People working in tech have typically been seen as white, overpaid and entitled, as holders of arcane knowledge, but we are seeing many voices come up from women, ethnic minorities and many other ‘normal’ people. There is a questioning of the values embedded in technology and the dynamics of power in the sector, from industry and academia to the activists themselves. The recent scandal around connections between the head of the MIT Media Lab and the convicted child abuser Brian Epstein is the latest example.
For now, this debate feels quite internal, but it will be important to see if it leads to more nuanced external advocacy, with more intersectionality of digital rights issues with other social challenges, such as inequality, mass migration and climate change.
The threats to digital rights and the huge power of companies involved can be overwhelming, but there are many examples of people and organisations taking a stand to push things in a better direction. As the 2019 Mozilla Internet Health Report stated, “More people than you imagine are working to make the Internet healthier”.Here are some examples.
Tech employees rebelEmployees at Amazon and Microsoft protest against the company’s contracts with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) due to its inhumane treatment of refugees and immigrants on the US border.
Two thousand Google workers sign a petition criticising the company for appointing the president of a conservative thinktank – with close ties to Trump’s administration – to its artificial intelligence ethics council.
In response to Trump campaign statements about creating a Muslim Registry, and in general solidarity with people most at risk from data collection in the US, over 2500 tech workers signed a ‘Never Again’ pledge in just one week in December 2016.
Cities Coalition for Digital RightsCities around the world are joining this coalition, started by Amsterdam, Barcelona and New York City, to protect, promote and monitor residents’ and visitors’ digital rights. https://citiesfordigitalrights.org/cities
Mayors for Net NeutralityMayors across the US are also signing the Cities Open Internet Pledge, which requires all Internet providers with whom they do business to follow a strong set of net neutrality principles, to keep the Internet open.
Not for profit alternativesGroups like the Small Technology Foundation are working to develop online tools designed to increase human welfare, not corporate profits. They say we not only have to regulate the companies we’ve currently got , but also replace them. They believe we should publicly fund stayups (sustainable organisations that contribute to the common good) instead of startups (temporary companies designed to either fail fast or grow exponentially and get sold).
Founder Aral Balkan says, “Surveillance capitalism cannot be reformed. No amount of regulation will magically transform a factory farm for human beings – which is what Facebook, Google, etc., are – into an animal sanctuary. What effective regulation can do is limit their harms and give ethical alternatives a chance to get off the ground.”
Contract for the webOn the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Web, in 2018, Tim Berners Lee called on governments, companies and citizens to create a Contract for the Web. The first draft was published in July 2019. It states that “The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone has a role to play to ensure the web serves humanity.”
As the 2019 Mozilla Internet Health Report says, “it’s important that we remember the current reality is a human creation, not a technological inevitability”.
A WEB FOR HUMANITY
TIPS AND TOOLS FOR PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACYThere are many changes you can make, or alternatives you can switch to. Here are just a few lists of possibilities:l https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/how-to-leave-google-gmaill https://ssd.eff.orgl https://www.wnyc.org/story/privacy-paradox-tip-sheetl https://epic.org/privacy/tools.html
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202028
TelevisionsSHOPPING GUIDE
A fully referenced version of this Product Guide is on our website
The average Briton spends almost ten years of their life watching TV, and over 95% of households own a television set.
TVs have become more energy efficient with time, so watching them now burns through less electricity. But like all electronics, they require significant resources to manufacture and have a serious impact on the communities involved.
Energy costsWhen making purchasing decisions, we often focus on the amount of energy a product uses once bought. This is especially true for goods like TVs that have energy labels showing efficiency and annual energy consumption through use.
But the most recent research we could find (from 2010) suggests that manufacturing a TV emits 300 kg CO2e. By comparison, watching an average 40” TV emits around 52kg CO2e each year in the UK with our current electricity grid mix. That means it would take almost six years for use to equal manufacturing. Production may have improved
The bigger picture
since 2010, but it is still likely that manufacturing is a substantial proportion of the lifetime carbon emissions of a TV.
This is without even mentioning the other environmental impacts of production: the huge amount of natural resources that are used, including 30 different minerals and lots of petrochemical based plastics, the reliance on toxic chemicals, and the many issues with disposal…
Energy efficiencyTelevisions are responsible for 4% of total electricity use in the home, and electricity use is itself only a fraction of home energy consumption overall, much more of which is heating. Still, energy
CLARE CARLILE looks at the ethical issues behind your TV screen.
ethicalconsumer.org 29
efficiency is always worth considering if you are going to buy a TV (whether second-hand or new).
Televisions are becoming more energy efficient, helped in part by the introduction of the EU energy labelling scheme for televisions in 2010. TVs are rated A+++ to D.
With energy labels, it is tempting to read the headline energy efficiency class, the A or A+ rating, and then look no further. But the rating does not always correlate to how much energy your TV will actually use.
The overall energy use is affected by the size and features of the TV as well as its energy efficiency. As you might expect, the larger the screen the more energy required to power it.
Usefully, the EU energy label also shows the in-use power consumption in watts and the annual power consumption in kWh based on 4 hours’ usage per day. It is this that is the important figure. The label also tells consumers whether the TV has a power button, enabling you to switch off the TV completely rather than leave it in ‘standby’ mode, which continues to use a small amount of energy.
If you want to make a choice based on energy consumption, the independent energy efficiency website www.sust-it.net lists over 300 televisions in terms of their in-use and standby running costs per day and per year, and users can sort by screen size and type. The Energy Saving Trust’s comparison site, www.toptenuk.org, shows the best performers for energy efficiency within different size brackets only.
The resolution raceAs TVs become more energy efficient, manufacturers are also racing to make them higher res – undoing some of the good work when it comes to in-use energy consumption.
In recent years, manufacturers have moved from HD to Ultra-HD models. As
IS IT EVER WORTH REPLACING YOUR TV FOR A MORE ENERGY-EFFICIENT MODEL?Even just from a carbon perspective, the answer is no. Televisions have become more energy efficient over time. But you’d have to wait 135 years if you replaced an average efficiency 40” TV from 2016 with an average efficiency 40” TV from 2019 before the energy saving in use was more than the manufacturing carbon cost. (300 kg CO2e), based on the current carbon footprint of UK electricity (0.28307 kg CO2e per kWh).
Screen size
Power Consumption watts/hour
LED LCD Plasma
30 inches 50 60 150
50 inches 100 150 300
Second-handSecond-hand is by far the best option you can go for if buying a replacement. There are lots of second-hand TVs for sale that are only a year or so old, so you might be able to make an in-use energy saving and avoid the impacts of a new TV.
We have a guide to buying second-hand technology on our website. www.ethicalconsumer.org/technology/buying-second-hand-tech
E-waste and disposalEach year, discarded TVs add to the huge amount of e-waste we generate: 50 million tonnes annually. The complexity of electronic equipment makes disposal complicated. Yet, only 20% of this mountain is reported as properly collected and recycled.
If not recycled properly, TVs join other electronic equipment often shipped to the global south, particularly Africa and Asia. There, they will be sold on or sorted in informal recycling sites, where they are smashed and casings burnt, releasing toxic chemicals, before precious parts are sorted by hand. Workers on these sites face serious health issues as a result.
Some local authorities collect small electrical items as part of their kerbside collection. Otherwise you can recycle at some retailers and at Household Waste Recycling Centres. The Recycle Now (www.recyclenow.com) website can be used to find your local recycling spots accepting TVs.
Greenpeace/Kate Davison
A bundle of electronic cables and other electrical components from second-hand electrical goods that are imported to Ghana to be ‘recycled’. They are burned to melt off the plastic and reclaim the copper wiring.
a general rule, the higher resolution the TV (the more pixels used), the greater the energy consumption. 4K TVs – which have images 4000 pixels wide – consumed an average of 33% more energy than their HD predecessors at the point at which they were launched.
This year, manufacturers started offering 8K models – meaning they have again doubled the number of pixels on offer and again hiked the energy required.
Which screen?There are several different screen types. LEDs are the most energy efficient screen, using roughly 20-30% less energy on average than an LCD of the same size. Plasmas are by far the least efficient, using almost twice as much power as an LCD and almost 3 times as much as an LED of the same size. For example:
RepairGiven the substantial energy and resource costs, as well as labour rights issues, involved in producing a new television, repair is a good thing to consider if your TV seems to be on its last legs. Lots of small businesses offer repairs, as well as Currys, which give a 12-month repair guarantee for the fault repaired on your television.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202030
SHOPPING GUIDE
Televisions
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and
Recommended section to acknowledge this.
All the research behind these ratings is on www.ethicalconsumer.org Category definitions are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings.
ethic
alco
nsumer.orgBES T BUY
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUPCello 9 H H H H H Cello Holdings LtdLogik 8 h H H h H H H Dixons Carphone PlcHisense 7.5 H H H H H h H Hisense Import and Export CoLG 7.5 h H h h H h h H H LG CorpPhilips 7.5 h h h H H h h H H TPV Technology/PhilipsSharp 6.5 h H H H H H h h H Hon Hai Precision Industry/SharpHitachi 5.5 h H h H H h h h H H H Hitachi LtdSony 5.5 H h h H H H H h H H Sony CorporationPanasonic 4.5 h h H H h H H h H h H H Panasonic CorporationToshiba 4 h H H H h H H h h H H H Toshiba CorpBush 2.5 h H H H h h H H H H h H h H J Sainsbury plcSamsung 2.5 H h H H h H H H h H H H H Samsung Group
Ethi
scor
e (o
ut o
f 14
+ 6
extr
as)
Envi
ronm
enta
l Rep
ortin
gCl
imat
e Ch
ange
Pollu
tion
& T
oxic
sH
abita
ts &
Res
ourc
esPa
lm O
ilAn
imal
Tes
ting
Fact
ory
Farm
ing
Anim
al R
ight
sH
uman
Rig
hts
Wor
kers
’ Rig
hts
Supp
ly C
hain
Man
agem
ent
Irre
spon
sibl
e M
arke
ting
Arm
s &
Mili
tary
Sup
ply
Cont
rove
rsia
l Tec
hnol
ogie
sBo
ycot
t Cal
lPo
litic
al A
ctiv
ityAn
ti-So
cial
Fin
ance
Com
pany
Eth
osPr
oduc
t Sus
tain
abili
ty
USING THE TABLESEthiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability.Green (good) = 12+Amber (average) = 11.5–5Red (poor) = 4.5–0H = worst ratingh = middle rating = best rating/no
criticisms found
USING THE TABLESPositive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
Table highlightsToxic chemicalsMany of the elements and compounds used in electronic devices are known to be toxic both to human health and the natural environment. These include polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants, used in plastic parts, and phthalates, which are often used as a softener for PVC. These can release harmful by-products, including some carcinogens, particularly during disposal when burning releases chemicals directly into the air.
Ethical Consumer rates electronics companies on their commitments to phasing out these chemicals. No company in this guide received our best rating for toxic chemicals:Worst: Cello, LG, Hisense, Dixons Carphone (Logik), Hitachi, Sharp, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sainsbury (Bush)Middle: Philips, Sony, Samsung
Tax avoidanceThe companies in this guide also did not do well in terms of likely use of tax avoidance strategies. In fact, all but one received our worst rating. Cello received a best.
Companies behind the brands
Cello is an LCD TV manufacturer, which assembles its televisions in the UK. Unfortunately, the company has few policies to cover problems in its supply chain, where the manufacture of components takes place: no information could be found about its supply chain management, use of toxic chemicals or approach to conflict minerals.
Toshiba has grown from a factory making telegraphic equipment in the 1880s to a huge multinational
conglomerate with a turnover of £25 billion. As well as consumer goods, the company is now involved in producing industrial equipment for the military and nuclear industries as well as for new coal-fired power plants. It is also 10% owned by Goldman Sachs, which has been criticised for its investments in everything from extreme fossil fuels to cluster munitions.
Samsung is a South Korean multinational conglomerate. It has repeatedly faced allegations of labour rights abuses, including the use of child labour and serious health and safety issues in its supply chains. In 2017, a report found that in two Vietnamese Samsung factories female workers were forced to stand throughout their shifts while pregnant and commonly faced miscarriages. Samsung also invests in companies involved in the manufacture and sale of cluster munitions.
ethicalconsumer.org 31
None of the companies in this guide scored well. Our best buy is a low-energy second-hand model.
Cello was the highest scoring. However, it didn’t have any policies on Supply Chain Management, conflict minerals or toxic chemicals. It also scored our worst rating for Environmental Reporting.
RECOMMENDED
BEST BUYS eth
ical
consumer.org
BES T BUY
We would recommend avoiding Samsung and Toshiba TVs. They both receive amongst our lowest scores in this guide. Samsung Group has invested USD$26.4 million in companies producing cluster munitions from June 2015 – June 2018.And Toshiba Corporation is involved in the construction of new coal-fired power stations in Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam.
BRANDS TO AVOID
Despite more and more of us also watching on our laptops, smartphones and other devices, TV ownership is again on the rise. Considering the costs of a new television, living TV-less is an option well worth considering.
In recent years, linking a laptop, tablet, smartphone or desktop to a monitor or projector and using a streaming service such as BBC iPlayer or Netflix has become a popular option. If this means forgoing yet another device, then it is a good way to reduce ecological impact. (If it means every family member owning several alternative devices, however, this obviously will not be the case.)
LIVING TV-LESS
Cello
9
Human rightsThe electronics industry is notorious for its poor treatment of the communities and workers in its supply chains, from the minerals funding armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the sweatshops relying on exploitative student labour.
Television manufacturers have faced much less scrutiny over their practices than some other electronics like computers and mobile phones. However, they are linked to many of the same exploitative conditions.
The conflicts in your TVAlmost 30 different minerals are used in a TV. The extraction of these damages the land. Industrial mining permanently scars the Earth’s surface, leaving behind toxic wastewater and soil. Mining areas are rarely rehabilitated.
Five minerals in particular have been linked to serious human rights violations: cobalt (see page 15), and what are known as the four conflict minerals: tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (known as 3TG).
For years, paramilitary groups have fought for control of small-scale artisan mines in the DRC, where extraction of ‘3TG’ minerals takes place. Forced and child labour are common, and the money raised funds further violence, exploitation and corruption.
Workers in the DRC have, however, urged companies not to simply leave the region, as many depend on mining for their income. Instead, companies should work to ensure that the minerals aren’t coming from mines controlled by armed groups.
We rate all electronics manufacturers on their conflict mineral policies, and they scored as follows:
Best: LG, Philips, SonyMiddle: Hitachi, ToshibaWorst: Cello, Dixons Carphone (Logik), Hisense, Sharp, Panasonic, Samsung, Sainsbury’s (Bush)
Cello, Hisense, Dixons Carphone (Logik) and Sainsbury’s (Bush) didn’t appear to have a conflict mineral policy at all.
Artisan miners in the DRC.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202032
SHOPPING GUIDE
Televisions
Rosa Moreno was a factory worker in a Maquiladora, a plant in Reynosa, Mexico. Her hands were cut off by a metal stamping press while making backs for LG TVs. Mexican Labor Law limits LG’s liability to two years of back wages or $4500 US for her permanent disability. But she refused this payment. Even though it is not clear that there is a way to obtain a better settlement through the court system under NAFTA, she holds out. She gets by on the Mexican government’s equivalent of Social Security disability, about $230 dollars a month. There was no union. Some church groups help her out a bit with food and some money.
In 1994, the USA, Canada and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) trade deal. This ensured a huge growth in ‘maquilas’ – factories, often located on the Mexican border, that are largely duty- and tariff-free to allow cheap imports and exports between the countries.
US and Canadian companies turned to these to cut labour costs: Mexican workers are paid a fraction of the wage and until recently have held no union rights. Maquilas grew to employ 30% of Mexico’s labour force over the next decade and a half.
Real wages have fallen in Mexico since NAFTA was introduced, despite its supporters promising improved working conditions. Nowadays they are 40% lower in real terms than manufacturing wages in China.
Defendants of NAFTA pointed to its labour dispute process, and in the first decade after it was introduced about two-dozen complaints of workers’ rights violations were filed. The vast majority were in Mexico, and included allegations of retaliation against workers who tried to unionise, denial of collective bargaining rights, forced pregnancy testing, mistreatment of migrant workers, and life-threatening health and safety conditions. However, none led to any sanctions.
USMCA – the new NAFTA being negotiated between the US, Canada and Mexico – may be an improvement. Mexico has introduced protections for unions and extended rights to migrant workers. It also, theoretically, includes a stronger system for filing labour complaints. Under USMCA, the United States could file labour complaints through the regular dispute resolution system – but only if it involves labour violations that are harming US trade.
NAFTA TRADE DEAL SUPPRESSED MEXICAN WORKERS
Sweatshop labourElectronics companies have also long been known to rely on sweatshops, often located in countries such as China and Mexico.
ChinaElectronics factories in China have been linked to low wages, excessive working hours, forced overtime and insufficient breaks, whilst even the limited labour laws that do exist are frequently violated.
Workers’ rights organisations have repeatedly raised concerns about the use of student ‘interns’, some as young as 16. The practice is commonplace and legal in China, but companies often break laws preventing students from working overtime or over night. Universities and teachers are often paid by companies to recruit students – who are sometimes told that they will be unable to graduate if the internship is not completed.
MexicoWorkers in factories on Mexico’s border with the USA, where televisions are often assembled, have also faced decades of poor conditions. They face extremely low
wages and unsafe working. The average wage is just 50 cents to 1 dollar an hour.
But until recently, the workers were unable to strike or negotiate better agreements: companies often selected the unions that would represent their workers, which received ‘protection money’ from management rather than negotiating for labourers. Nine out of ten collective-bargaining contracts for the factories were agreed without the
consent and sometimes even without the knowledge of the company’s workers.
In April, they won the legal right for the first time to bargain collectively with employers through independent labour unions, without fear of retaliation or harassment. A former senator from Mexico City tweeted about the change in law: “Decades of struggles, murders, harassment, and jailings are the precedent for this historic conquest.”
Most of these Mexican-manufactured TVs are destined for the American
Decade of struggles, murders, harassment, and jailings are the precedent for this historic conquest.
market but they are sold by the same companies supplying our own. None of the companies included in this guide received our Best rating for Supply Chain Management. Cello, Hisense, Dixons Carphone (Logik), Philips, Sharp, Sony and Samsung all received our worst.
Imag
e so
urce
: dem
ocra
ticun
derg
roun
d.co
m
ethicalconsumer.org 33
SHOPPING GUIDE
Subscription TV
All the research behind these ratings is on www.ethicalconsumer.org Category definitions are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings.
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUPBT 7.5 h H h H h H H H BT Group plcTalkTalk 7 H H H H h H h H TalkTalk Telecom Group plcVirgin Media 7 h H H H H h H H Liberty Global plcSky 6 H H H H H H H H Comcast Corporation
Ethi
scor
e (o
ut o
f 14
+ 6
extr
as)
Envi
ronm
enta
l Rep
ortin
gCl
imat
e Ch
ange
Pollu
tion
& T
oxic
sH
abita
ts &
Res
ourc
esPa
lm O
ilAn
imal
Tes
ting
Fact
ory
Farm
ing
Anim
al R
ight
sH
uman
Rig
hts
Wor
kers
’ Rig
hts
Supp
ly C
hain
Man
agem
ent
Irre
spon
sibl
e M
arke
ting
Arm
s &
Mili
tary
Sup
ply
Cont
rove
rsia
l Tec
hnol
ogie
sBo
ycot
t Cal
lPo
litic
al A
ctiv
ityAn
ti-So
cial
Fin
ance
Com
pany
Eth
osPr
oduc
t Sus
tain
abili
ty
USING THE TABLESEthiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability.Green (good) = 12+Amber (average) = 11.5–5Red (poor) = 4.5–0H = worst ratingh = middle rating = best rating/no
criticisms found
USING THE TABLESPositive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
Watching what you watchThe digital revolution has changed the way we watch TV. Pay-as-you-view TV packages allow consumers to have access to a vast array of channels and on-demand services.
The four most dominant packages are provided by the same companies that dominate UK broadband (see page 22):l Virginl Skyl TalkTalkl BT
All four services offer various bundles. You can only get BT TV or TalkTalk TV if you get their broadband too. Virgin Media TV is available in the 70% of the UK which is covered by its cable network, while Sky TV uses satellites.
However, with the growing popularity of simple streaming from the likes of Netflix, and new offers such as Apple TV+ and Disney+, its unclear how much longer these packaged services can last. Streaming services are provided directly over the Internet with no need for additional equipment, while subscription
TV requires you to have a branded set-top box, or satellite (for Sky) which can receive and translate the providers’ encrypted signals. According to Ofcom, streaming subscriptions exceeded pay-TV subscriptions in the first quarter of 2019.
Table highlightsTax avoidanceDisappointingly all but one company (TalkTalk) score a worst rating for the likely use of tax avoidance strategies.
Environmental reportingNone of the companies score a best rating for their environmental reporting. Virgin Media and BT score a middle rating while TalkTalk and Sky receive a worst rating.
Supply chainNo companies score a best on supply chain management. BT gets a middle rating. The rest score a worst rating.
Conflict mineralsCompanies were also rated on their policies regarding minerals used in their equipment. BT scored a middle rating. TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky all scored a worst rating.For profiles of Sky, BT and Virgin see page 23.
TV and broadband packages are falling behind streaming services, and don’t score too well either, finds RUTH STRANGE.
We recommend sticking with freeview, or see our Streaming Services guide on our website.
RECOMMENDED
BT, Sky and Virgin are three of the very biggest providers but all score worst for likely tax avoidance.
BRANDS TO AVOID
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202034
CamerasSHOPPING GUIDE
A fully referenced version of this Product Guide is on our website
Digital cameras
TOM BRYSON focuses in on the ethics of the photography industry.
LENS OF THE RISING SUNDigital camera sales are in steep
decline, with the market size having dropped by 84% between 2010 and 2018. The switch
to smartphone cameras has meant that producers of standalone cameras have focused more and more on high-end models aimed at professional photographers and amateur enthusiasts (the blurring of the distinction has led to
the portmanteau ‘prosumer’ – between professional and
consumer).In recent years,
however, even sales of premium cameras have declined. The
rate of innovation has plateaued, with new features more abstruse and less groundbreaking, and many photographers are happy to buy second hand or to keep using the camera they have already. The ongoing trade dispute between China and the US has also impacted sales due to additional tariffs applied to Chinese manufactured devices.
Nevertheless, while some of the more niche brands have fallen away, many of the major players are going strong; not least because they are active in many other sectors. As always, the camera industry is heavily dominated by Japan, with eight of the eleven companies rated in this guide headquartered there.
Japanese dominance in the camera industry dates back to World War II, when the country’s military relied on optical apparatus and great advances were made in optical glass manufacturing. After the war, Japan’s economy recovered quicker than Germany’s allowing Japanese camera companies to gain the upper hand over the German manufacturers who had dominated the camera market before the war.
ethicalconsumer.org 35
Wildlife shootingIn 2018, Ethical Consumer explored the strong links between optics manufacturers and the trophy hunting market in our in-depth ‘Shooting Wildlife II’ report. In the UK, a 2019 poll found that 75% of the public supported a ban on trophy hunting.
Of the companies rated in this guide, Nikon, Leica and Fujifilm were all listed in the reports producing specialist hunting equipment, including rifle scopes, and glorifying trophy hunting in their marketing campaigns. Pentax was also found to promote hunting in its marketing, although it did not make specialist equipment.
They all still do this. Zeiss, a major manufacturer of interchangeable camera lenses, also produces and promotes hunting equipment.
Nikon has received the most attention for this, as it is one of the most recognisable names in cameras, and it has been widely denounced by animal rights campaigners and wildlife photographers.
Links to state surveillanceAs sales in personal cameras have plummeted, many of the larger photography companies have found a lifeline through applying their imaging expertise in other areas. One such area has been the medical imaging industry, but another is the rapidly growing market for video surveillance – part of the global expansion of mass surveillance which threatens civil liberties and human rights around the world.
Seven out of the eleven companies rated in this guide manufacture CCTV cameras and other surveillance equipment.
CCTV manufacturersl Canon/Axisl Fujifilml Ricohl Nikonl Samsungl Panasonicl Sony
The latest to enter this market is Fujifilm, which released its first surveillance camera in early 2019 with the boast of being capable of reading a car’s licence plate at a distance of 1km. Canon’s subsidiary Axis Communications is one of the global market leaders in CCTV, and supplies governments around the world.
Is the camera you use to shoot wildlife made by a company that is linked to wildlife shooting?
COMPACT, MIRRORLESS OR DSLR?Compact or ‘point-and-shoot’ cameras have typically been the most popular type for consumers; cheaper and small with an in-built lens, but the rise of the camera phone has diminished their usefulness.
Digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) and mirrorless are two types of interchangeable lens camera, meaning a range of different lenses can be fitted. DSLRs are typically bulkier, which makes them more cumbersome but allows them to fit more batteries in and last longer. They were once the only choice for professional photographers, but mirrorless cameras now offer similar levels of quality.
The digital camera industry is subject to the same ethical problems as the electronics industry as a whole, including exploitative labour practices, use of conflict minerals and resource consumption. In addition, there are also links to the hunting and surveillance industries.
Produces rifle scopes
Shooting Wildlife report links brand to trophy hunting
NikonLeicaFujifilm
NikonLeicaFujifilmPentax
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202036
SHOPPING GUIDE
Cameras
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and Recommended section to acknowledge this.
All the research behind these ratings is on www.ethicalconsumer.org Category definitions are at www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings.
ethic
alco
nsumer.org
BES T BUY
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUPSigma 8.5 H H H H H h Sigma CorporationHasselblad 7.5 H H H h H h H h Hasselblad GroupGoPro 7 H H H H H H H GoPro, Inc.Leica 7 H H H h H h H h h Socrates PrivatstiftungPentax, Ricoh 7 h H H H H h H H Ricoh Co. Ltd.Nikon 5.5 h H H h H H H h H H Nikon CorporationOlympus 5.5 H H H h H h H H h H Olympus CorporationSony 5.5 H h h H H H H h H H Sony CorporationCanon 4.5 h H H H h H H H h H H Canon IncFujifilm 4.5 h H H H h H h H h h H H Fujifilm CorporationPanasonic, Lumix 4.5 h h H H h H H h H h H H Panasonic CorporationSamsung 2.5 H h H H h H H H h H H H H Samsung Group
USING THE TABLESEthiscore: the higher the score, the better the company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability.Green (good) = 12+Amber (average) = 11.5–5Red (poor) = 4.5–0H = worst ratingh = middle rating = best rating/no
criticisms found
USING THE TABLESPositive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
In recent decades, the huge growth in video surveillance in both public and private spaces has started to be combined with smart technologies such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence systems.
In the UK, law enforcement and private corporations have come under criticism for rolling them out, which campaigners
say constitute “a threat to our privacy, freedom of expression, and right of association”. In September 2019, a UK high court found that South Wales Police’s use of automated facial recognition (AFR) was ‘consistent with the requirements of the Human Rights Act’ following a legal challenge supported by the campaign group Liberty.
The use of facial recognition is similarly expanding in the US, where it has been used to identify protesters in the city of Baltimore.
China’s ‘homeland security’In China, a massive camera network known as ‘Skynet Project’, deploying more than 170 million cameras across the country, forms part of an aggressive policy of mass surveillance over the entire population.
Facial recognition technology has been used as part of an oppressive crackdown on ethnic Uyghurs, a Muslim minority, in the Xinjiang region, where an estimated 1 million Uyghurs have been held in internment camps and subject to a program of ‘re-education’ that includes mandatory recitals of Communist Party political songs and speeches. This has been facilitated by a sophisticated surveillance network used by the government to identify and track any individual they believe to be a threat.
Hikvision, a Chinese CCTV company with close ties to the government, has profited
Phot
o by
Am
nest
y
Uyghur women displaying pictures of their missing loved ones.
Ethi
scor
e (o
ut o
f 14
+ 6
extr
as)
Envi
ronm
enta
l Rep
ortin
gCl
imat
e Ch
ange
Pollu
tion
& T
oxic
sH
abita
ts &
Res
ourc
esPa
lm O
ilAn
imal
Tes
ting
Fact
ory
Farm
ing
Anim
al R
ight
sH
uman
Rig
hts
Wor
kers
’ Rig
hts
Supp
ly C
hain
Man
agem
ent
Irre
spon
sibl
e M
arke
ting
Arm
s &
Mili
tary
Sup
ply
Cont
rove
rsia
l Tec
hnol
ogie
sBo
ycot
t Cal
lPo
litic
al A
ctiv
ityAn
ti-So
cial
Fin
ance
Com
pany
Eth
osPr
oduc
t Sus
tain
abili
ty
ethicalconsumer.org 37
Samsung has been the subject of criticisms over worker’s rights from multiple campaign groups, including accusations of blocking trade unions, poor pay and unsafe conditions by the International Trade Union Confederation.
Nikon and Leica both actively promote trophy hunting through the manufacture and sale of equipment and through their marketing and sponsorship programmes.
Overall, no company was eligible for the Best Buy label, and no camera stood out clearly as an ethical option. Our best buy is a second-hand camera.
To avoid companies with links to either surveillance or trophy hunting, we would recommend buying from Sigma, Hasselblad or Olympus (some cheaper options) for DSLR and mirrorless cameras, or GoPro for compact ‘action’ cameras.
RECOMMENDED
BRANDS TO AVOID
BEST BUYS eth
ical
consumer.org
BES T BUY
Sigma
8.5
GoPro
7
Hasselblad
7.5Olympus
5.5
through the design and implementation of this system of repression, and has even marketed a facial recognition camera that automatically identified individuals of the Uyghur ethnicity.
Hikvision does not feature in this guide since it does not sell cameras for photography, but it does sell CCTV cameras in the UK and US. The presence of Hikvison cameras in US government buildings has been called a threat to national security due to the US-China trade dispute.
Panasonic, Samsung and Sony were also listed as foreign-based suppliers to the Chinese ‘Homeland Security and Public Safety’ market in a recent market research report.
Table highlightsWorkers’ rights in the supply chainWorkers’ rights violations are endemic in electronics supply chains, where intensive manufacturing in countries with little protection leads to exploitative practices.
Compared with some other mass-produced electronic devices such as smartphones, digital camera producers typically carry out more of the manufacturing and final assembly ‘in-house’ rather than outsourcing to other companies, although many companies do own manufacturing plants in countries known for cheap labour such as China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Complex electronic devices require a myriad of materials and components and this necessitates a large supply chain. The companies assessed in this guide were found to be behind the curve on
Supply Chain Management, with every company receiving our worst rating except Panasonic, which received a middle rating.
Conflict mineralsAs with all manufacturers of electronic devices, Ethical Consumer expected camera companies to have a strong policy on the sourcing of conflict minerals. Again, many of the companies assessed were found to be lacking in this area –Sony received our best rating; every other company was rated worst.
ToxicsAs discussed in our guide to TVs on page 28 electronic devces typically contain a number of chemicals known to be toxic to humans and the environment. Only Samsung and Sony in this guide received our middle rating for toxics, every other company was rated worst.
Companies behind the brands
GoPro is an American company known for minature ‘action’ cams that can be mounted in various ways to record video and photos from all types of unusual angles. The company has suffered losses in recent years after its attempted drone manufacturing business failed to take off. The company received our worst rating for the likely use of tax avoidance strategies (as did many of the other companies), and was incorporated in the state of Delaware (considered a tax haven by Ethical Consumer) despite having its headquarters in California.
Nikon is a Japanese optics and imaging specialist company founded in 1917. It is also a producer of semiconductor lithography systems which are essential for the production of computer chips. The company has come under criticism for its support of trophy hunting, and is a member of the Mitsubishi Group of Companies, which includes companies involved in the fossil fuels and armaments industries.
Leica is a German company founded in 1917 associated with luxury brand cameras, and credited with a number of important innovations in photography. Following the election of Hitler in 1933, the company helped Jews to leave Germany by ‘assigning’ hundreds to their overseas sales offices. The company has been marked down in our guide for its strong ties to hunting industries.
Ethical Consumer Nov/Dec 201938
COLUMNIST
Ethical novice
We’re living in a golden age of television, the critics keep saying – and not just because of all the fake tans on ‘Love
Island’.Unfortunately, I seem to be missing the
finer details of these great shows because my TV is a tad small. When I was single, watching a tiny set wasn’t a problem as I would just move closer to the screen if anything good was on, but now I have a family I can no longer do this as I’m surprisingly sensitive to my daughter shouting out “Oi, move your fat pumpkin-head out the way!”
Now, I know I shouldn’t covet a larger, modern TV, as I don’t want to be a slave to consumerism. Unfortunately, I am a slave to well-made box-set dramas, so if I’m going to watch them it might as well be on a set where I can follow the action if not some of the madder plots.
One thing I’ve discovered while researching ethical TVs is that they’re more eco-friendly than they used to be, at least while you’re using them. Yes, they still contain harmful chemicals, but then, so do most of the people working
COLIN BIRCH with a light-hearted guide to trying, and sometimes failing, to be ethical.
in television, so that’s appropriate. However, there are still issues with them, so I need to choose carefully, as I would like to marvel at David Attenborough’s shows without thinking my purchase might be indirectly responsible for wiping out most of the animals in them.
Since the introduction of energy ratings, TVs have got more efficient. Well, I think they have, but, to be honest those energy rating stickers on the back of household goods still confuse me. They look like club badges for an Albanian football team and are just as indecipherable. Also, I don’t trust anything with an ‘A+++’ rating, as life has taught me that, with the possible exception of a freshly fried doughnut, nothing can be that good.
Having praised these modern sets, it’s still the case, however, of the larger the screen, the more power it uses and the more gumpf went into making it, so I don’t want anything too big. If I buy
a TV that requires an extension, that
should mean the electrical kind not building work so
there’s room for it. And there’s other downsides to large TVs too. For every classy show I might see there’s also a chance of catching an episode of ‘Naked Attraction’ on Channel 4, and, believe me, there are some things you really don’t want to see on a 43-inch screen!
Add in the bewildering choice of features and picture resolutions available and deciding what to buy becomes even more complicated. How am I supposed to know if I want a curved 3D smart screen in Ultra HD when I can’t even choose between ‘Pointless’ and ‘The Chase’ at teatime?
All this begs several questions: do I really need a new high definition TV set when all I’m likely to do is watch dimly-lit dramas in smog-filled cities on it? (Yes, Peaky Blinders, I mean you). And what’s the point of a large clear screen when a lot of the shows I view are so full of suspense or emotion that I end up watching them through my fingers or tear-stained eyes? On reflection, I think I’ll just stick with what I’ve got as that’s the best ethical choice – and if it means being called “Pumpkin-head” for the next few years I’ll just have to live with that.
© R
acob
ovt |
Dre
amst
ime.
com
Do I really need a new high definition TV set when all I’m likely to do is watch dimly-lit dramas in smog-filled cities?
ethicalconsumer.org 39
NEWS
Ethical Consumer campaigns
Every year, the polytunnels of Almeria in Southern Spain provide €283 million worth of produce to the UK, much of which goes to the largest supermarkets.
Serious workers’ rights issues in Almeria have been known about since 2011, and we have been reporting on them since 2018: there have been repeated reports of shanty towns, illegally low pay, and even the deaths of several local workers from exposure to dangerous chemicals.1
All the major supermarkets claim that they are making efforts to address this and have policies to protect those in their supply chains, which include the right for workers to join trade unions.
However, over recent months, SOC-SAT, the local agricultural union, has reported serious ongoing issues: from retaliations against union members2 to the refusal of wages and the attempted eviction of laid-off workers.3
Ethical initiatives by the supermarketsAldi, Asda, Co-op, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose all sponsor Ethical Trade Forums in Spain.5 The aim of the forums, which include meetings held in Almeria every year, is
References: 1. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/agricultural-workers-rights-abuses-spain 2. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/supermarkets-certifications-failing-protect-spanish-workers 3. http://socsatalmeria.org/marcha-de-los-trabajadores-de-campoverde 5. https://www.foroscomercioetico.com/en/sponsors-2 6. https://www.foroscomercioetico.com/en/ethical-trade-forums 7. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/agricultural-workers-rights-abuses-spain 8. https://www.ethicaltrade.org/blog/eti-responds-to-story-vegetable-and-salad-pickers-spain 9. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/supermarkets-certifications-failing-protect-spanish-workers
to “improve understanding of human rights abuses and to raise standards”. But since the initiative was launched in 2012, just eight union members have attended the forums – far outweighed by the over 500 producing, packaging and exporting companies and the 57 importers and supermarkets that have participated.6
Asda, Lidl, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose also explain that they work with Global GAP – an international standard for ‘good agricultural practice’ that often involves auditing by independent third parties – as well as other initiatives. Both Lidl and Sainsbury’s mention use of Global GAP’s GRASP social risk assessment, which is a voluntary audit “addressing specific aspects of workers’ health, safety and welfare”, including “the payment of wages according to legal requirements”, according to the initiative.
But José, from Spanish trade union SOC-SAT, describes the use of Global
GAP’s GRASP risk assessment as “whitewashing the exploitation in Almeria”. He says that companies provide auditors with “false information showing the payment of national insurance for workers and, in this way, avoid paying the minimum wage”.7
Several companies also cite involvement with the UK-based Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), of which Aldi, Asda, Co-op, M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose are all listed as members. In 2015, when Channel 4 reported on abuses of salad pickers in the region, the ETI responded that its members were taking urgent action.8
But still abuses re-emerge.
Where will change come from?If supermarkets were more transparent about where their produce came from, they would create a feedback mechanism that would make it easier for problems to be identified and corrected.
An ethical company should, after all, be proud of its suppliers.
Co-op is among those leading the way, committing to sharing its sourcing sites and their human rights risks by 2020. M&S and Waitrose have also made important initial steps, publishing full lists of their direct ‘tier one’ suppliers. But others must follow suit.
The supermarkets and the forums they belong to should also do more to actively engage with the unions and social organisations working in the area. This will help them to respond to abuses as and when they arise, rather than at the point at which they hit the news.
More detailed comments on this article from Global GAP, ETI and Ethical Trade Forums are available on our website. www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/supermarkets-certifications-failing-protect-spanish-workers
Supermarkets and certifications failing to protect Spanish workers
It’s like being in a circus. I have nothing to protect me, no helmet, no safety harness, no special shoes.9
© J
uan
Moy
ano
| Dre
amst
ime.
com
© N
ASA/
GSF
C/M
ETI/
ERSD
AC/J
ARO
S,
and
U.S.
/Jap
an A
STER
Sci
ence
Tea
m
The polytunnels of Almeria, and left, seen from space.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202040
FEATURE
Gifting Trees For Life
For many years Ethical Consumer’s gift subscriptions have included sponsorship of an organic olive tree sapling in Palestine which
is then distributed by the Palestinian Fair-Trade Association (PFTA) as part of their Trees for Life programme. During the 2017-18 planting season our gift subscriptions resulted in 223 organic saplings being distributed throughout the West Bank.
ANNA: Tell us about the Trees for Life programme and what motivated it?MOHAMMED: “Trees for Life started in 2006. The motivation? To increase the cultivated area of olives of a specific variety – it’s the most important thing.
“Many of the farmers are registered with the PFTA (whose olive oil is exported via Canaan Fairtrade and sold under the Zaytoun brand). Part of their production – a small part, of course – comes from trees that were distributed by us.”
ANNA: Why is it so important to increase the number of olives being cultivated?MOHAMMED: “We Palestinians consider olive trees to be our identity [and] the story of Palestine links us with the land.
Our conflict is about the land [and our work connects us to the land]. Simply, this small quantity of olive oil for us is a powerful weapon to bring our story worldwide. It’s a kind of ... non-violent resistance.
“When you, as a European customer, enter the market and you discover there is an olive oil labelled as Palestinian olive oil. Maybe you do not know anything about Palestine, but you will start searching about and start reading about our story.
“So yes, everything here in Palestine is linked to politics. Everything, even fair trade.”
Every year in October and November applications for the Trees for Life programme open. Any Palestinian farmers interested in planting trees can apply – they do not have to be registered with the PFTA.
At the end of November, a special committee (elected during the PFTA General Assembly) reviews all the applications to agree on the number of trees that will be distributed to each applicant. In making its decisions, the committee considers the situation of the applicant, their location and the type of land they are working with.
In addition to organic Baladi olive saplings (for which farmers pay a symbolic two shekels per sapling), organic almond and carob trees are also distributed for free to increase the tree diversity on farms.MOHAMMED: “At the end of January we start distributing. Some farmers ... go to the nursery and they receive their trees. And [for] some villages we bring the trees in a ... truck. Until now, more than 175,000 trees have been distributed by us. Not all 175,000 trees succeed but at least ... more than 80% succeed.”
ANNA: Where do you source your organic saplings from?MOHAMMED: “The PFTA created a tree nursery to raise organic saplings. The nursery is private [and is] under our supervision [to ensure that it complies with organic standards]. But in the end, when we take 20,000 trees from [them], we pay [the nursery] for the trees.”
ANNA: What sort of farms receive the saplings?MOHAMMED: “Targeted farmers, or targeted beneficiaries are farmers that are poor; farmers who have land located near settlements and farmers who have had their land taken after the building of
Mohammed Ruzi (PFTA office manager), Adnan Hassad (PFTA farmer and Trees For Life participant) and Ahmed Taharieh (PFTA Field Officer).
ANNA CLAYTON met up with Mohammed Ruzzi, the Palestinian Fair Trade Association’s office manager, to learn more about the Trees for Life programme.
ethicalconsumer.org 41
the separation wall. So, in order to link them to their land, we give them trees.
“Planting trees links you to your land because when you plant trees you need to visit your land always. So, these lands which are located inside the separation wall, these need a special permit from the Israeli authorities. When you plant the trees, you will always go to the Israeli Authorities to ask for a permit because you have land and you have to work to serve this land. Sometimes these trees are destroyed or uprooted by the Israelis. We know. We give [the farmers more trees] the next year … In the end they will stop uprooting these trees.
“We also target young couples, starter farmers, single women and women who are interested in working in the agriculture sector.”
Trees are also occasionally distributed for free to schools and mosques.
ANNA: When Ethical Consumer gives our tiny donation to the Trees for Life programme, what does our money go towards?MOHAMMED: “All the money goes to fund the trees.”
However, some of the wider Trees for Life programme funding also supports a fairly new regenerative farming and land race seeds programme. To learn more, see: palestinefairtrade.org and www.canaanpalestine.com and read the 2018 impact report. An old olive tree in Marda Village, West Bank, Palestine.
Olives ripening at Marda Permaculture Farm, West Bank, Palestine.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202042
FEATURE
Russia
United States of America
Greenland
China
Canada
Brazil
Australia
Kazakhstan
India
Argentina
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Indonesia
Mongolia
MexicoLibya
Iran
DemocraticRepublic
of the Congo
Algeria
SouthAfrica
Peru
Pakistan
NigerMauritania
Mali
Ethiopia
Egypt
Colombia
Chad
Bolivia
Angola
Venezuela
Tanzania
Ukraine
Turkey
Sweden
Spain
Norway
Nigeria
Namibia
Myanmar(Burma)
Mozambique
France
Finland
Chile
Zambia
Afghanistan
Uzbekistan
UnitedKingdom
Turkmenistan
Thailand
Somalia
Poland
Paraguay
PapuaNewGuinea
Morocco
Madagascar
Kenya
JapanIraq
Germany
CentralAfrican Republic
Cameroon
Botswana
YemenVietnam
Uganda
Syria
Svalbard andJan MayenIslands
Romania
Philippines
Oman
New Zealand
Malaysia
Laos
Kyrgyzstan
Italy
Iceland
Guinea
Ghana
Gabon
Zimbabwe
Ecuador
Coted'Ivoire
Congo
BurkinaFaso
Belarus
WesternSahara
Uruguay
Tunisia
Tajikistan
Suriname
Senegal
South Korea
Portugal
Nicaragua
Serbia
Nepal
Malawi
LithuaniaLatvia
Jordan
Ireland
Hungary
Guyana
Guatemala
Greece
Eritrea
Burundi
Rwanda
North Korea
Czech Republic
Cambodia
Bulgaria
Benin
Bangladesh
Azerbaijan
Austria
UAE
Macedonia
Taiwan
Switzerland
Sri Lanka
Slovenia
Slovakia
SierraLeone
Panama
Netherlands
Moldova
Liberia
Georgia
FrenchGuiana
Estonia
Denmark
Croatia
CostaRica
Bosnia
Bhutan
Belgium
ArmeniaAlbania
Montenegro
East Timor
Vanuatu
Swaziland
Solomon Islands
Singapore
SaintPierre and Miquelon
New Caledonia
Luxembourg
Lebanon
Kuwait
Israel
Gibraltar
Fiji
FaroeIslands
Falkland Islands(Malvinas)
U.K.
EquatorialGuinea
El Salvador
Cyprus
Bahrain
Cuba
Honduras
Updated: our list of oppressive regimes
JOSIE WEXLER reports on our new list of the countries we mark down for operating in oppressive regimes.
l Bangladeshl Burundil Cambodial Central African Republicl Chinal Eritreal Ethiopia
The countries on our updated oppressive regimes list
Ethical Consumer was founded in the days of South African apartheid, when the boycott of South African goods was in full swing. Ever since we have marked companies down for operating in countries that we view
as governed by oppressive regimes, on the basis that it gives the regime funds and legitimacy.
We have just updated the list of oppressive regimes and the methodology used to create it. Companies receive a rating in the Human Rights column on the score tables if they have operations in two or more countries on the list below. For example, in our Batteries guide on page 12, Berkshire Hathaway (Duracell brand) loses a whole mark for having operations in seven of these countries.
l Egyptl Iranl Iraql Israell Libyal Mexicol Myanmarl Nigeria
l North Koreal Pakistanl Philippinesl Russial Saudi Arabial Somalia l Sudanl Turkey
ethicalconsumer.org 43
Russia
United States of America
Greenland
China
Canada
Brazil
Australia
Kazakhstan
India
Argentina
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Indonesia
Mongolia
MexicoLibya
Iran
DemocraticRepublic
of the Congo
Algeria
SouthAfrica
Peru
Pakistan
NigerMauritania
Mali
Ethiopia
Egypt
Colombia
Chad
Bolivia
Angola
Venezuela
Tanzania
Ukraine
Turkey
Sweden
Spain
Norway
Nigeria
Namibia
Myanmar(Burma)
Mozambique
France
Finland
Chile
Zambia
Afghanistan
Uzbekistan
UnitedKingdom
Turkmenistan
Thailand
Somalia
Poland
Paraguay
PapuaNewGuinea
Morocco
Madagascar
Kenya
JapanIraq
Germany
CentralAfrican Republic
Cameroon
Botswana
YemenVietnam
Uganda
Syria
Svalbard andJan MayenIslands
Romania
Philippines
Oman
New Zealand
Malaysia
Laos
Kyrgyzstan
Italy
Iceland
Guinea
Ghana
Gabon
Zimbabwe
Ecuador
Coted'Ivoire
Congo
BurkinaFaso
Belarus
WesternSahara
Uruguay
Tunisia
Tajikistan
Suriname
Senegal
South Korea
Portugal
Nicaragua
Serbia
Nepal
Malawi
LithuaniaLatvia
Jordan
Ireland
Hungary
Guyana
Guatemala
Greece
Eritrea
Burundi
Rwanda
North Korea
Czech Republic
Cambodia
Bulgaria
Benin
Bangladesh
Azerbaijan
Austria
UAE
Macedonia
Taiwan
Switzerland
Sri Lanka
Slovenia
Slovakia
SierraLeone
Panama
Netherlands
Moldova
Liberia
Georgia
FrenchGuiana
Estonia
Denmark
Croatia
CostaRica
Bosnia
Bhutan
Belgium
ArmeniaAlbania
Montenegro
East Timor
Vanuatu
Swaziland
Solomon Islands
Singapore
SaintPierre and Miquelon
New Caledonia
Luxembourg
Lebanon
Kuwait
Israel
Gibraltar
Fiji
FaroeIslands
Falkland Islands(Malvinas)
U.K.
EquatorialGuinea
El Salvador
Cyprus
Bahrain
Cuba
Honduras
Updated: our list of oppressive regimes
Rating countries is obviously going to be politically fraught, and it’s impossible to avoid political bias altogether. Many “human rights” indexes aren’t subtle about it – the Freedom of the World index, for example, produced by the US think tank Freedom House, asks
the question below as one of many that determine the level of “freedom” in a country: “does the government exert tight control over the economy, including through state ownership and the setting of prices and production quotas?”
To them the democratically controlled
NHS and set prescription prices indicate a tendency towards an oppressive regime. You, like us, may disagree with this analysis.
We were therefore careful to examine the methodology of each indicator we used, and to avoid any that included things like this. Those we used are shown in the box overleaf.
Indexes and indicators used
Ethical decisions about investment inevitably involve weighing up risks – it is not clear whether a company exiting a country with a repressive government is always going to make things better and not worse.
Neoliberals idolise foreign investment across the board, claim that it tackles poverty, and demand that countries grovel at the feet of multinational companies to attract it.
Critics, however, point out that this can be like selling your hair to buy a comb – the things that countries do to attract
investment can make it impossible to get the promised benefit. One academic paper put it like this:
“The empirical evidence available provides mixed results and suggests that spillovers [benefits like poverty reduction] do not come automatically or ‘for free’, but instead suggest that what is needed is active government intervention to ‘capture’ the benefits”.1
Others – for example Cambridge economist Ha Joon Chang, go further and argue that foreign companies can actually be economically harmful,2 particularly in
the case of the poorest, weakest countries, which can easily be bullied by big corporations.3 One notorious example of such bullying is Shell’s infamous actions in Nigeria.
On the other hand, there is a huge literature on the effects of country-level economic sanctions, with most agreeing that they generally do harm vulnerable people. The sanctions on Iran, for example, have been found to have particularly harmed the poor, affecting their ability to access nutritious food and healthcare.4 But again, it depends
The political arguments about investment and poverty reduction
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202044
FEATURE
l Political Terror Scale – this is an academic index which analyses words used in Amnesty International, US State department and Human Rights Watch reports (like “occasional” or “frequently”) in order to give an overall score on levels of state-perpetrated violence within each country’s borders, such as torture and extra-judicial killings. l Press Freedom Index – this is produced by Reporters without Borders. It is based on a mixture of numbers of journalists imprisoned and killed, and journalists’ responses to a questionnaire, which contains questions like “In your country, how easy is it for authorities to force the firing of a public radio or TV journalist?” l Modern Slavery Index – this is published by the Australian Minderoo Foundation, and estimates the prevalence of forced labour in a country based on questionnaires and on-the-ground research.l The International Trade Union Confederation Global Rights (ITUC) Index, and the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR) Index – the ITUC rating is based on its own analysis, using facts like whether workers are allowed to join trade unions and whether strikes have been repressed. The ICTUR is based on figures for numbers of trade unionists arrested and killed, and whether the country has ratified ILO conventions on trade union rights. We had to use both indexes because neither covers all countries. They were combined into one score. l The SERF (Social and Economic Rights Fulfilment) Index – this is an academic index which takes hard indicators for health, education, housing, food & decent work (e.g. infant mortality numbers), and uses a statistical analysis to adjust them for GDP in order to show how efficiently each country is translating wealth into meaningful social welfare. l Presence of an organised boycott – this currently just covers Israel, although it previously covered South Africa. It is included because there is a much stronger reason to boycott a country when it is part of an organised campaign with explicit, public goals, requested by the local population.
As the Political Terror Scale is the most comprehensive human rights score, it was weighted more heavily, and was scored out of eight. Each other indicator was scored out of two, although the trade union rights indicator and SERF index scored negatively (see ‘Weighing the risks’, left).
INDEXES AND INDICATORS WE USED
on the type of sanctions applied. And the shocking claim that is probably the most famous – that pre-war Iraqi sanctions caused half a million child deaths – turns out to have been false. More recent research has unanimously found that "there was no major rise in child mortality in Iraq after 1990 and during the period of the sanctions".5
Weighing the risks It seems that the overall answer to whether foreign investment is likely to harm or help may be – it depends. There may be some truth to the (left wing) economist Joan Robinson’s claim that “the only thing worse than being exploited by global capital is not being exploited by global capital”. But only in the right circumstances.
As a result, we used the following method to try to weigh up the risks:l If the country’s per capita GPD (adjusted for different price levels in different countries) is over the global average ($17,300), we used only the Political Terror Scale, Press Freedom Index and Modern Slavery Index to determine whether a country went on the list. l If the country’s per capita GDP was under the global average, we used the SERF score and the Trade Union Rights score to give them an additional adjusted score, and then used both scores to decide if they went on the list.
This means that if a poorer country has a good record on translating money into social goods, and good trade union rights, they are less likely to go on the list. The thinking was that that makes it more likely that operating in the country will do some good.
Exempting countries in a state of humanitarian crisis We also decided to exempt any country listed by the ACAPS (an independent Norwegian analyst research centre) as being in a state of severe humanitarian crisis. This is currently Afghanistan,
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
This was done for reasons of caution – because of the seriousness of the situation, we felt that we shouldn’t issue blanket pronouncements telling companies to get out.
We do something similar on conflict minerals. We ask companies not to simply leave the DRC, but to commit to stay and to work to ensure that their minerals are not funding conflict. This is partly in response to pleas from the DRC, where workers depend on mining for income.
There is some empirical evidence that more foreign investment tends to be associated with less war, and that war, on average, tends to lead to a reduction in investment, as companies don’t want to deal with the risks of operating in a war zone.6 But again, it all depends on the details. Violence can lead to increased investment if the violence is to the benefit of the corporations, as happened in Colombia.7
Changes to the listMany of the countries on the list have not changed. However, some countries have been removed – for example India and Vietnam did not make the list this time, although since our methodology has changed, that may not reflect a change in the underlying reality.
There are also some notable additions – Mexico is one. This is greatly due to the Mexican drug war, estimated to have claimed more than 100,000 lives to date, which – astonishingly – puts it amongst the most bloody conflicts currently going on in the world.8
Egypt is another, as the human rights situation has collapsed there since the briefly hopeful ‘Arab Spring’ uprising at the start of the decade.
While there are no clear answers in this area, we hope that our new list goes some way towards balancing the risk of aiding an unpleasant regime and harming the people who live under it.
References: 1. SOMO, 2008, Is Foreign Investment Good for Development? A literature review 2. Ha Joon Chang, 2007, Bad Samaritans 3. Andrew Mold, 2004, FDI and poverty reduction: a critical reappraisal of the arguments 4. Kokabisaghi, 2018,Assessment of the Effects of Economic Sanctions on Iranians' Right to Health by Using Human Rights Impact Assessment Tool: A Systematic Review 5. Tim Dyson et al, 2017-07-01, Changing views on child mortality and economic sanctions in Iraq: a history of lies, damned lies and statistics BMJ Global Health 6. Bussmann, 2007, Foreign Direct Investment and Militarized International Conflict 7. Maher, DJ, 2015, The fatal attraction of civil war economies: foreign direct investment and political violence. A case study of Colombia 8. www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-staggering-death-toll-of-mexicos-drug-war/; www.independent.co.uk/news/world/mexico-deaths-conflict-zone-war-syria-gangs-study-a7759936.html
ethicalconsumer.org 45
ETHICAL CONSUMER
Christmas gift subscriptions
Next issue
Baked beans
Vegan milk
Bananas
Milk
Honey
Vegan cheese
Coming soonMake-up
Current accounts
Toothpaste
Sunscreens
Shampoo
ISAs
Savings accounts
Shoes
Compost
Laundry liquid
Next issue published mid-Feb
It’s not too late to give a gift subscription and an olive tree to Palestine
Overseas SubscriptionsPrint magazine £39.95Digital magazine (pdf or flip book) £29.95
ONLY £29.95
PER YEAR_____
SIGN UP NOW · www.ethicalconsumer.org/subscriptions · 0161 226 2929
Your gift recipient will receive access to all our print and web products:l A copy of the magazine delivered by post to arrive by Christmasl A limited edition Ethical Consumer Christmas cardl A welcome letter saying who the gift is from and log in details so they
can access our subscriber-only website We will need your order by Tuesday 17th December to guarantee delivery of the print magazine by Christmas.l PLUS:AcertificateofsponsorshipofanorganicolivesaplinginPalestine, where olive trees and their harvest provide the livelihood for entire communities. See page 40 for more on Trees for Life.One year’s gift subscription to Ethical Consumer includes six print issues of the magazine plus access to all our 130+ Shopping Guides online with daily updated company scores, the stories behind the scores, customisable ratings, and digital back issues.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202046
NEWS
Money
Co-op Bank teams up with Customer Union In November, the Co-op Bank signed a recognition agreement with the Customer Union for Ethical Banking, in a move which represents the first time a UK business has formally recognised a union of its customers.
Ethical Consumer was involved in setting up the Customer Union in 2016 as an independent union of Co-operative Bank customers. Since then, it has been engaging directly with the bank to represent members’ interests and hold the bank to account on its Ethical Policy – just like a regular trades union. The agreement establishes guidelines for regular meetings, consultation and collaboration.
Ryan Brightwell of the Customer Union said, “Importantly, this agreement doesn’t compromise our independence. It is an agreement that we will negotiate to represent our members’ interests. We don’t expect to agree all the time, but this agreement means we commit to work constructively for a good outcome.”
For more information see: https://saveourbank.coop
Carbon divested fund 5-year cumulative growth to 12/8/2019
Ethiscore as of 06/2018
Janus Henderson Global Sustainable Equity Fund 85.4 6
Aviva Liontrust Sustainable Future European Growth 62.9 7
WHEB Sustainability 65.2 16
Triodos Sustainable Pioneer 57.7 15.5
Jupiter Ecology 57.1 6.5
Sarasin Sustainable Equity Real Estate 44.8 7.5
Castlefield BEST Sustainable Income Inst Inc 19.6 15
Quilter Cheviot Climate Assets Data unavailable 4
Standard Life Equity Impact Global (less than 5 years old) 3.5
IA Global (for comparison) 63.4 -
Carbon divested funds: financial performanceDa
ta fr
om tr
ustn
et.c
om
The Equator Banks revised principles have let down civil society. In November 2019, Ethical Consumer joined over 300 organisations, from Transition Edinburgh to Friends of the Earth Australia, in signing a letter to the association of Equator Banks asking them to stop financing climate change and to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
The Equator Principles are a set of rules for banks on how to finance big infrastructure projects in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. However, as just one example of their failure, in 2016, 14 signatory banks were involved in financing the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline.
This pipeline was fiercely opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and allies because of the threat it posed to their water sources. Civil society groups then mobilised as the ‘Equator Banks Act!’ coalition, and petitioned the banks, which promised to strengthen their
Referennces: 1. https://350.org/press-release/commercial-banks-ignore-the-climate-crisis-as-equator-principles-revision-fails-to-limit-finance-for-fossil-fuels 2. https://www.colorado.edu/program/fpw/2019/11/19/first-peoples-response-ep4-critically-weak-equator-principles-put-global-development
Indigenous Peoples care for 50% of the earth’s surface and steward 80% of its biodiversity. But they are overrepresented in the number of human rights defenders murdered protecting their lands and resources. The Equator Principles fail as a protective shield for Indigenous Peoples.
SHAREHOLDER DEMOCRACY WITH TUMELOLast year, Exxon Mobil invested £5 billion in new fossil fuel exploration. Do you own shares in Exxon Mobil? You probably don’t think so, but millions of people have no idea which companies they part-own through their pension or personal investments, or that with those shares you could influence company behaviour through mass shareholder voting.
Tumelo, a social enterprise, has developed tech that plugs into existing investment platforms and pension providers, meaning millions of ordinary investors could get instant visibility and a voice at companies like Exxon Mobil, Unilever and Tesla. To be part of this change, please email your asset manager, investment platform or pension provider asking them for access to Tumelo or email Tumelo direct at [email protected]
commitments. As the two-year revision of the principles came to a close, civil society again called on the banks to act.
But the new principles fail to take the climate crisis seriously, merely noting that banks “have a role to play in improving the availability of climate-related information”. There is no requirement for alignment with Paris Agreement objectives, or clarity on what measures should be taken if projects do not align with emissions reductions goals.1
Regarding Indigenous Peoples Rights, the new principles have been said to amount to “a steamroller process designed to move a project forward with knowledge of – but regardless of – impacts on Indigenous Peoples.”2
Equator Banks ignore civil society
© F
racT
rack
er
ethicalconsumer.org 47
NEWS
Tax justiceManifesto for Tax JusticeIn November 2019, Tax Justice UK launched its Manifesto for Tax Justice, calling for politicians to deal with tax inequality, to curb tax avoidance and evasion, and to make the tax system and enforcement more accountable.
The manifesto was put together with TaxWatch UK and is endorsed by the Equality Trust, Tax Research UK, the Women’s Budget Group, Church Action on Tax Justice, and Jolyon Maugham QC. Input was also received from leading academics, researchers and campaigners to develop the set of costed policies that could raise at least £69 billion.
At the launch, George Turner of TaxWatch UK said: “After ten years of cuts to public spending, there is now widespread consensus that more investment in public services is required. In this election, all of the main political parties are committing to major increases in public spending.”
Robert Palmer of Tax Justice UK added “We're calling on politicians to address tax inequality, curb tax avoidance and improve the administration of the tax system. We want to restore people’s sense of having a stake in the system.”
Deal with tax inequalityl Raise the corporation tax rate to a minimum of 24%.l Tax different types of income in the same way.l Limit the amounts which can be held in an ISA.l Limit the tax-free pension lump sum amount.l Turn inheritance tax into a progressive tax on lifetime gifts and limit inheritance tax reliefs.l Expand the financial transaction tax to include financial derivatives.
Curb tax avoidance and evasionl Tax the offshore structures used by global tech giants.l End tax breaks for private equity firms that bury companies in debt.l Support proposals for a global minimum tax rate.l Move towards a unitary system of taxing multinational corporations.l Compel larger companies to publish reports on a country-by-country basis.l Ensure that the UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies publish registers of beneficial ownership of companies and trusts.
Make tax accountablel Properly resource HMRC and Companies House.l Greater transparency of HMRC tax avoidance settlements.l Carry out full equality impact assessments for all tax policy changes to ensure they are progressive and fair.l Regular publication of appropriate information about the tax system, including a better estimate of the tax gap.l Ensure that whistleblowers are properly rewarded and protected.l Ensure that tax advisors and accountants are regulated.
Download the full manifesto from www.taxjustice.uk
MANIFESTO FOR TAX JUSTICE HIGHLIGHTS
Fair Tax Mark NewsSumaIn October, Suma Wholefoods became the latest company to become accredited by the Fair Tax Mark. Suma is the largest equal pay worker co-op in Europe and has been operating from its base in Elland, West Yorkshire, for over 40 years.
Suma joins a growing hub of Fair Tax Mark businesses that are headquartered in West Yorkshire, including FTSE-listed Marshalls Plc., Leeds Building Society, Winder Power and the Ecology Building Society.
Greenwich Council approves Fair Tax DeclarationThe Royal Borough of Greenwich is the first in London to commit to the Councils for Fair Tax Declaration, joining Oxford, Oldham, Peterborough, Cannock Chase and Bingley.
By approving the Declaration, councils demand greater transparency from suppliers, call for more meaningful powers to tackle suppliers’ tax avoidance, and demonstrate that they are leading by example on their own tax conduct.
The Declaration was launched by the Fair Tax Mark in July 2019 at the request of councillors wanting to do more to address tax avoidance. More information including a copy of the Declaration and a Sample Motion is available online.
https://fairtaxmark.net/councilsCllr Danny Thorpe and Cllr Christine Grice – Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202048
ETHICAL CONSUMER
LettersThe extreme vegan agendaI used to be a subscriber and with a very heavy heart had to make the decision not to continue. I am now married to a farmer and involved in their business and with the benefit of insider knowledge have found the bias against farmers has become intolerable as well as unfair.
Then I saw a picture of your March/April issue front cover when I clicked a link and despair at the simplistic arguments that are being spread. The idea that animals benefit is correct if you assume they don’t mind not existing!
I live in Cornwall and what we do really well is grow grass – not something I would encourage in our diet. The lack of animals in a farming system would be detrimental to biodiversity of wildlife, carbon holding capacity of soil, would increase use of fossil fuels, loss of soil … and I could continue.
Not to mention the huge reduction of life enjoyment when we are in a world with no interaction with animals. Anyone who accuses farmers of keeping animals out of their natural environment, feeding unnatural food and not allowing natural behaviours must – by ideology – be against keeping pets and touching animals.
Any animal system, if managed well, has high welfare standards and the narrow-minded, generalised criticism is detrimental to our food quality as well as production standards as some of the best are now leaving the industry wondering why they should bother – their beautiful grass fields now ploughed up and hedges not maintained as their usefulness as animal boundaries is now redundant.
People eat food, and whether it comes from the non-biodiverse almond orchards that have been stripped of wildlife, or GM soya which is shipped in using fossil fuels there are no options that don’t engage people in causing so-called damage to the environment.
Unless we reduce the population density then we have to have intensive farming. I am as concerned as most about the future and there are huge efforts going in to finding solutions but the farmer bashing, meat-hating agenda is counter-productive to the aims of humanity.Bridget
Ed We are going to do a feature next issue on the environmental impact of meat, which will address and critique some of the points in this letter.
£4·25 181 Nov/Dec 2019www.ethicalconsumer.org
How PC is
your IT?
Which brands are linked to the Amazon fires?
SHOPPING GUIDES TO l Laptops l Desktopsl Mobile Phones l Mobile Phone Networks
Plastic toys at TescoI’d like to tell you about a shocking thing that came through my letterbox yesterday: an A4 booklet of toys at Tesco, all half price and angled at Christmas shoppers.
I hardly ever go in to Tesco and I was shocked at what I saw in this ‘catalogue’. It reminded me that we are living in two separate, parallel worlds at the moment. While XR grows apace, corporations are peddling the same old rubbish, as if there wasn’t an ecological, fossil fuel-driven climate crisis.
So, I looked through the bright booklet and wrote down my findings:l 100% of the toys are plasticl There are 128 toys comprised of 3497 individual pieces of plastic.
This is based directly on what I could see in the pictures or read in the description. This does not include any packaging.
It is full of outdated gender stereotypes. There are 10 (real life) girls featured and 16 boys:Girls are playing with:l pink mummy bunny and baby bunnies, coffee making set, beauty make up set, pink chemistry (glitter dough, bath bombs etc), vanity table beauty studio, Rock A Bye doll, Rapunzel hair styling head ...Boys are playing with:l action figures, jungle terrain vehicles, trains, ball pit, fire trucks, JCB crane, Hot Wheels track, Nerf gun and shootout pack, activity learning table, mega car transporter, Toy Story figures, Superman, scooter ...
What is so sad is that this pretends to be about children. In the real world, what we know is that children want and need, for their health, wellbeing and happiness, a healthy planet, rich in wildlife, clean air to breathe, and to spend time in nature. Tesco should be prosecuted for being complicit in Ecocide.
This is a clear demonstration of Tesco’s decision to continue to promote pollution and destruction of the planet, profits over children. And taking advantage of those who don’t yet know better, to make profits at the expense of their customers.
I cannot imagine that Tesco as a company are blissfully unaware there is a climate and ecological crisis. Their website implies that they are ‘working on it’.
What is the best way to make this hypocrisy and destruction better known? Maddy
ethicalconsumer.org 49
ETHICAL CONSUMER
Letterscarbon footprint as everyone else’s in the UK. The best renewable energy suppliers use some of your money to invest in building new renewables.The national grid will hopefully decarbonise over the next decade or so, but it isn’t decarbonised yet.Given this, I doubt that switching to a conventional electric boiler would be a good idea in climate terms – electricity creates more carbon dioxide per watt of energy than gas at this stage.An option for domestic water heating that is good in climate terms is solar water heating, if that is plausible for you.Another option is a heat pump, especially if you intend to use it for space heating as well. Heat pumps run on electricity but are far more efficient than conventional forms of electric heating. However, they aren’t cheap.If you want more information I recommend getting in touch with the information service at the Centre for Alternative Technologyhttps://www.cat.org.uk/info-resources/free-information-service.
We welcome readers’ letters. Letters may be edited for reasons of space or clarity. If you do not want letters or emails to be published, please mark them ‘Not for publication’. Our address is on page 3, or email us at [email protected]
Petition for ethical mobilesIt’s great that you covered mobiles in edition 181. I’ve got a petition that draws on the themes you address: exploitation of the miners who provide some of the raw materials through to the workers who make the phones and the toxicity angle when phones are ditched. Please consider signing/sharing: www.change.org/p/mobile-phone-customers-make-mobiles-more-ethical
Thanks for covering this and other crucial issues.Mary
The Ethical Consumer party?One of the thoughts I went away with from your conference is that you guys have a much better grasp of a healthy, happy, functional society than the current government. Much of what was discussed may be the makings of a new political party.
With an election in view, I have no real desire to vote for any of the main parties and fresh blood in the running would be welcome.
Whilst Brexit negotiations might not be in your skill set, it’s still a new and developing skill for most involved, so that is no weakness. There is parliamentary experience within the Panels from Friday and huge knowledge on a breadth of topics.
I might be naive and optimistic but although time is tight, it may be possible to mobilise in time and I wanted to moot the idea regardless. Whether there is
the will within those who were present last week and amongst your colleagues remains to be seen! Anonymous, by Conference feedback form
Ed In a First Past the Post voting system we all have to hold our noses a little bit when we vote. We agree that the current government lacks a grasp of how to create a healthy, happy, functional society, but don’t believe that that is equally true of all existing parties. We encourage readers to vote in a government that has a better grasp of these issues.
The green energy problemI have a fairly new (2+ years old) gas water boiler in my house. My electricity supplier is 100% renewable. I understand switching to an electric boiler would reduce my carbon footprint.
But is it best to change now – incurring the manufacturing footprint of the new boiler but reducing gas consumption – or better to get more wear out of the current boiler?
Can you help with this question, or do you know who can help?Peter
Ed Although some renewable energy suppliers talk about their electricity being 100% renewable, that isn’t how it works . Unless you have your own solar panels, your electricity comes from the national grid and basically has the same
Ethical Consumer Jan/Feb 202050
INSIDE VIEW
Investing in ethical housing
A pioneering housing development being planned for Merseyside is aiming
to tackle two of the biggest issues now facing the UK: the crippling housing crisis and the deepening climate emergency.
We previously mentioned Liverpool Community Homes in EC180, a project being funded by Abundance, the ethical investment platform. It is looking for private investors to help it raise almost £7 million to get the development up and running.
The development consists of 37 badly-needed affordable-rental homes that will be offered to households on local authority waiting lists.
Abundance more commonly works on renewable energy projects, but the current desperate shortage of affordable housing right across the UK has prompted it to move into the social housing sector.
According to the housing charity Shelter, over one million households are on the waiting list for new social housing, homes which haven’t even been built yet, with the result that invariably people are being forced to turn to the notoriously dodgy private rental market.
Green homes Whilst the Liverpool development will provide much-needed affordable rental homes, what makes this project so interesting is that by working with Octevo, a specialist affordable housing developer, Abundance have come up with a revolutionary new financial model that allows the latest green technologies to be incorporated into affordable homes.
By including everything from ground source heat pumps and solar panels to energy efficiency improvements, each home’s energy use will be cut by up to 93 percent compared with the UK’s average. This will slash both the homes’ carbon emissions and energy bills, thereby saving low-income households around £1,200 a year.
Ethical investment is increasingly being used to help solve the housing crisis as SIMON BIRCH discovers.
“It’s Octevo’s strategy of building homes specifically for the long-term rental market that makes this development possible,” explains says Bruce Davis, joint Managing Director of Abundance which has already raised finance for two previous social housing developments in the Liverpool area.
“Rather than focussing on the short-term gains typical of other housing developers, the social rental model provides secure long-term cash flows which also allows investment in low-carbon measures by spreading the up-front costs over a longer period of time.”
“This approach,” says Davis, “combined with the funding provided by Abundance investors, creates a unique, sustainable model for building the greener, affordable homes the UK needs for the future.”
©Ti
odos
Yohanna outside her home in Leeds, a former derelict property which was renovated by the Latch Homes charity with the help of a loan from Triodos – one of the UK’s leading ethical banks.
Other modelsThe Abundance social housing project isn’t the first time that ethical investments have been used to support housing initiatives.
Charity Bank, for example, has a long history of providing loans to charitable organisations that offer housing solutions, often for vulnerable members of the community.
Plus the Ecology Building Society has been arranging finance for sustainable housing projects for almost 40 years.
Another radical alternative that’s increasingly being viewed as one solution to the housing crisis are Community Land Trusts (CLTs).
These are local community-controlled organisations that are set up to own and manage land and other assets in perpetuity for the benefit of the community. They are being championed by Ethex, another ethical investment platform.
“CLTs create permanently affordable housing for local residents as well as vital community-owned and run amenities, such as shops and cafes, which in many areas have been in decline following ten years of austerity,” explains Rachel Mountain from Ethex.
“The community owns and manages the properties, ensuring that they are permanently affordable and not susceptible to hikes in house prices, as well as being available for local people who need them.”
CLTs are now popping up right across the UK, and Ethex is currently
looking for investment for two CLT housing projects that will help build long-term affordable homes for 19 families in York and six in St Ives.
“There are now over 320 CLTs operating in England and
Wales,” says Mountain, adding that: “there are plans for a further 5,800
affordable homes to be created in the next few years
which is great news for communities.”
ethicalconsumer.org 51
Invest in community solar power
Generate Clean Energy
Tackle Climate Change
4% return
INVEST FROM £50
www.egni.coop · [email protected] · 01639 830870 · egni co-op
From the award-winning Awel Co-op team
SHARE OFFER now OPEN
Explore our meat substitutes range and use the code VEGANUARY20 to receive 20% off our tinned Organic Jackfruit and Banana Blossom!
20%OFF
Try something new...Try Vegan
Shop now at www.biona.co.uk
@bionaorganic
