An ethical guide to your home: from mobile phones to sofas
Are you sitting comfortably Really On a sofa that is helped destroy the rainforest In jeans whose production causes silicosis Find out what lies behind many of the items in modern homes.
Bank of America Increases Fees Despite Ongoing Occupation
While some companies are embracing the Occupy demonstrations popping up across the United States, others like Bank of America have made the decision to ignore the impact that these demonstrations can have on consumer sentiment.
Ben & Jerry\'s Mooved by Occupy Wall Street Protests
We wanted to act quickly to demonstrate our support. As a board & as a company we have actively been involved with these issues for years but your efforts have put them out front in a way we have not been able to.
Bitter harvest: migrant workers on UK farms still exploited
Allegations of poor conditions and abuse in the horticulture sector persist. There is no justice, there is discrimination... people are treated like cattle, not human beings, I never expected it could be like this.
9 ETHICAL SMALL BRANDS THAT ARE ACTUALLY OWNED BY MAJOR COMPANIES
Brands like Burts Bees and Ben & Jerrys attract a growing market described as environmentally-conscious consumers. They rely on being marketed as local and natural, but many consumers are unaware that these brands now belong to major corporations.
Common Threads isnt the only initiative that Patagonia is bringing to the UK either. Part of the proceeds from the companys Earth Tax will be directed to British environmental projects, with a big focus on the small scale and front line.
Britains bosses are prioritising profits over principles, according to a report. It found that less than a third of chief executives of large companies were seen by their staff to put ethics at the heart of business decisions.
Corporations Can Fight Human Trafficking, Say Business Leaders
Not only is slavery still here, globalization has increased it, according to a group of business leaders. Human trafficking is globalizations worst secret, yet global businesses have the power to end it, was the consensus.
In the run up to Rio, countries and companies are revving up their green transition. Key issues in all these shifts are defining the green economy focus: on poverty reduction, developing countries and environmental sustainability.
Canada is trying to re-brand some of the worlds dirtiest and most dangerous oil as ethical. If an ethical brand make-over can make our tar sands smell sweet, just imagine how many other profitable, but deadly, industries it can pry open for us.
Kelly Elkin decries sweatshops in favour of ethical fashion. In Australia, hundreds of thousands of people, many of them recent arrivals with poor English and little knowledge of workplace law, are assembling those garments and are being exploited.
Guide claims designers\' ethical concerns are only skin deep
McCartney and Westwood are held up as ethical heroes. While they might be talking the talk, theye failing to walk the walk. They are far from the only brands performing badly. Most make no mention of their environmental and social impacts.
Ed Miliband\s speech on how we need a more just society for all. An economy in which more people share in the proceeds. Overpaid corporate bosses, socially useless bankers, property speculators & private-equity predators to be held to account.
Clear corrugated sections in the ceiling allow in natural light to reduce use of electricity, floor is covered in real linoleum or carbon-neutral carpets, toilets are low water usage & runs on green energy & use ethical phone services.
The Power of Hiring Right: A Value Proposition that Most Recruiters Continue to Ignore
his is where your organizations culture, values, and social and environmental commitments can emerge as key differentiators for a generation that is demanding fairness, ethical behavior and responsibility from business.
Shot, face hacked off, tusks stolen... horror of the elephants butchered for their ivory
More than 3000 elephants may have been slaughtered in 2011 so far - and that\s just those we know about. In Kenya, Mary Rice from the Environmental Investigation Agency witnesses the bloody reality of the global ivory trade.
Discussion round up: sustainability in the fashion business
Brands & retailers need to work with suppliers to understand what the problems are & how they can be improved. Many suppliers are based in the developing world so most factories do not have good environmental or social management systems in place.
Making sure the materials and services used for manufacturing and distributing Fuji Xerox products are responsibly sourced, a practice known as ethical procurement. The firm also holds CSR seminars for its new suppliers.
Business leaders who make real change place impact above ego. What if your thought leadership got you very little recognition today but contributed to an incredibly significant cultural shift that made a positive difference for generations to come
The MD of Mars Chocolate in the UK, insisted the company wasn\t greenwashing. She said: Consumers have been saying for many years that they want and expect big brands to do the right thing. They care deeply about where their food comes from.
Environmental, social & governance (ESG) principles in investment are no longer seen as an issue raised by vocal minority groups but as an important factor in giving you long-term, sound returns on your investments.
ollowing the Greenpeace campaign against the use of the toxin NPE in leading clothing brands, H&M have agreed to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals from all production processes associated with its products by 2020.
The beauty industrys arsenal of additives has been a hot topic. Not only are harmless organic compounds such as linalool written off as a possible danger, others such as benzyl - a genuinely nasty additive -slip through the net.
According to Malt-O-Meal, their bags created less environmental impact than the competitions boxes. From a strictly green perspective, this was a head scratcher. Digging deeper, I discovered Malt-O-Meal actually had a very credible green policy.
Courage may hold the most hope for mankind as we face a future wrought with complex problems. Over 1,200 global leaders and concerned citizens from government, business, communities & not-for-profits, gathered at CGI 2011.
Chemical warfare: the horrific birth defects linked to tomato pesticides
Babies born with severe deformities after their mothers were each exposed to pesticides whilst harvesting tomatoes. They all worked for the same company, Ag-Mart Produce Inc. Kids love to snack on this nutritious treat, says the companys advertising.
News investigation Scandal of the ′tomato slaves′ harvesting crop exported to UK
Across Italy an invisible army of migrant workers harvests tomatoes destined for our dinner plates. Paid poverty wages and living in squalor, medical charities have described conditions as hell.
Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging
America′s CEOs are reaping awesomely lavish rewards for the tax dodging they have their corporations do. Corporate outlays for CEO compensation despite the lingering Great Recession are rising.
Steve Jobs′s Apple legacy may not be so sweet at the core
Jobs cut the company′s philanthropic donations shortly after returning. In spite of all the facts - that Apple is a ruthless corporate machine that exploits consumers at will and gives little back - we love this brand.
PepsiCo to launch global ethical-farming standards
PepsiCo is preparing to launch a new global initiative to promote sustainable agriculture, as part of an attempt to help businesses put an economic value on the environmental and social impacts of their supply chains.
The ethical brand initiative was originally conceived by internet entrepreneur William (Bill) Smith in 1997 and founded in the UK as a research and development project in late 2003. Market testing commenced in 2007 and we came to rest on a commercially sustainable business model in late 2010. The Foundation was formally registered in January 2011 in anticipation of the worldwide launch in June 2011 - targeting 1 million ethical brands in 52 countries.
The Foundation is registered in the UK as a Company Limited by Guarantee, meaning we have a board of directors, but no shareholders and under the terms of our Articles of Association (or Constitution) our purpose is to benefit society through a) licensing activities; b) to maintain the neutrality and integrity of our proprietary licensing methodology; c) to hold and maintain a register of qualified licensed ethical brands. The Foundation does not trade, but has a controlling interest in commercial operating company called Ethical Brand Ltd, which is also registered in the UK. Ethical Brand Ltd has the exclusive worldwide mandate to promote and distribute the eb license proposition worldwide, from which the foundation will earn income for reinvestment in socially beneficial grass–roots initiatives. Ethical Brand has been funded entirely by the Smith Family – Mr W and Mrs L Smith are presently the sole directors of both the Ethical Brand Foundation and Ethical Brand Ltd and looking to expand membership of both boards.
No. The Ethical Brand Foundation is a registered not-for-profit organisation with a charitable purpose. Our mandate is to benefit society by helping everyone to easily identify genuine ethical brands. We are committed to re-investing profits from the commercialisation of the ethical brand concept in socially beneficial grass roots initiatives in developing economies.
Our approach is non-prescriptive. In other words we don't impose our own personal and subjective interpretations of what is right or wrong onto our licensees. Each organisation is or at least should be reasonably well aware of the social, environmental and commercial footprint. It's not rocket science. Being an ethical brand is not about being perfect, but about recognising that ultimately every business is accountable not only to its shareholders, but all of its stakeholder communities (customers, shareholders, employees and suppliers as well as the communities in which they produce and trade their products and services). Their environmental, social and commercial policies and practices of genuine ethical brands merely reflect the needs, interests and concerns of their stakeholders. It is therefore up to each registered ethical brand to align their policies and practices with the needs, interests and concerns of their stakeholders. Feedback from their stakeholders is used to assess, measure and analyse how well they are actually doing that. These gaps exist in every organisation, but its the manner in which an organisation responds to these gaps that ultimately determines jwhether or not it is an authentic ethical brand.
There is no prescription. We do not tell anyone how to run their organisation or what they should or should not do. We are observers. There are plenty of prescriptive models out there and none of them, in and of themselves, provide sufficient evidence to qualify or distinguish a genuine ethical brand from others. We chose to approach this market problem from a different perspective. Our approach is evidence–based and scientific. We don't live in a world full of anwers, but questions. Being an authentic ethical brand is not about being perfect, but about being human; treating people with dignity and respect and constantly striving to achieve the right balance between our social, environmental and commercial responsibilities.
As a general rule, no. All feedback is treated in strict confidence. However, there is an account setup option which enables you to publish selected items of feedback in your eb Profile.
We do not respond to licensee feedback. That is up to each licensee. Our role is to a) facilitate the delivery of feedback to the right person (the Sponsor – who is generally the owner or a senior executive) or people nominated by the Sponsor within the organisation, and b) where appropriate, we monitor the outcome of these feedback events to a reasonable conclusion. And it is these outcomes that clearly distinguish and authenticate genuine ethical brands.
If you consider the democratisation of globalised commerce - that is, moving the prevailing model of capitalism towards one that is more transparent and socially accountable - to be a political agenda then the answer is yes. Otherwise no.
The Ethical Brand initiative has been funded since 2003 by the founder Mr William (Bill) Smith – an internet entrepreneur who founded one of the first internet service providers in the UK in 1994. The Ethical Brand Foundation has a controlling shareholding in a commercial operating company called Ethical Brand Ltd, which has the exclusive rights to commercialise and distribute the licensing proposition worldwide and it is through this interest in Ethical Brand Ltd that the Foundation will earn income, which is being developed in a number of stages. We have recently unveiled a variety of paid account setup options that add value to any existing account and these revenues help fund our activities. You can learn more about these under ′Account Options′.Our long terms strategy however is to assemble a global network of Associate and Associate Territory Partners, which will establish our global support and distribution network of around 300 partners. We work with our partners to develop the ethical brand franchise in regional and national vertical markets.
Yes. We will license genuine ethical brands operating in over 170 countries. There are a very small number of countries where we will not establish a formal presence, such as Associate, or Territory Partnership, but where we will still grant licenses to non state sponsored entities.
A Limited License is the name of a license that we scrapped in the late stages of market testing in 2010 in favour of the Standard License we offer today. The old Full License again was scrapped in favour of the Extended License we offer today. If you had a Standard License that is now a Standard License. Similarly, if you had a Full License this is now an Extended License.
A Standard License allows you to display the eb logo on your website, stationery, signage, advertising and marketing collateral in fact anywhere except on a product. Product labelling and identification using the eb logo requires an Extended License.
No. Ethical Brand Licenses are not graded, ie: gold, silver, etc.. Every license simply reflects the fact that our data-driven methodology recognises the licensed entity as a de-facto ethical brand. Our methodology functions like a switch. A valid license reflects the fact that the switch is on.
Our independent oversight of the feedback system that is built into every eb Profile represents the primary means by which the de-facto ethical brand status of each licensed entity is formalised and maintained. Publishing and maintaining a visible link from the home page of the licensed entity, to its eb Profile of is therefore a key condition of each and every license to display the ethical brand logo in any context, anywhere. If the eb Profile of a licensed entity is not visible and accessible to its stakeholder community then its license becomes invalid and will be withdrawn. If you do not have a website then you may use your eb Profile page as your website - provided the link to your eb Profile is published in at least 3 different online locations. See ′What if I do not have a website?′.
If you do not have a website then you may use your eb Profile page as your main website - provided the link to your eb Profile is published alongside or within a personal bio, or profile of you and or your activities - in at least 3 different online locations. This would ordinarily be on social and or professional networks you participate in such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Xing, etc.. but may also be your bio on a professional association or employer website. Bear in mind these profiles must be publicly accessible.
We aim to do three things: 1) Inform consumer choice; 2) Help genuine ethical brands enhance their visibility and secure competitive advantage; 3) Encourage and support sustainable social, environmental and grass–roots commercial initiatives. Our goal is to register at least 1 million busineses worlwide.
An business owner, partner or senior executive of any type of organisation operating anywhere and in any industry (that is not excluded by our non-starter policy) and who believes that his or her enterprise is an ethical brand is welcome to register their ethical brand. It's free, easy and only takes a few moments.
We do not practice "blacklisting". We believe that our resources are best concentrated on positively focused activities that encourage, promote and enhance the visibility and competitiveness of genuine ethical brands. If a license has been withdrawn it is for very good reasons, but in any event there is no blacklist of 'unethical brands'.
We have an extensive online monitoring capability, which was developed around our own internal needs. However, we recently launched a subscription service called ′eb Insight Monitor′ which you can activate via your account. We monitor the online world and send you alerts as well as a weekly roundup of local and international news, blogging and social noise, events, book reviews, PR, research and reports ifrom around your industry according to your ethical brand profile and insight account setup preferences. If you need bespoke primary research you should contact an eb Associate Partner or email our CEO.
Yes. We have two. You can access the first one at www.ethicalbrand.net. The other is called Google. Search 'ethical brand' and see one of the obvious benefits of registering with us.
At the moment we offer Executive Coaching as well as Workshops to leadership teams and of course we train all of our professional Associate / Territory Partners. They offer a complete support service to organisations that need or want help to ensure that their ethical brand is both commercially focused and authentic.
When you register we grant you a Standard License, which allows you to display the eb logo anywhere except on products or name or characterise outsourced services. To do this you need an Extended License. You must complete the initial 30 day activation period when your Standard License is formally released to you before requesting an upgraded license. In simple terms, everyone in your product supply chain needs to also be eb registered in order for a product to qualify for an Extended License and your application requires the endorsement of an eb Associate Partner.
