Ethical Consumer celebrates 20th with survey of loves and hates of eco campaigners

Short-haul-flights, Bluefin tuna, carbon offset companies and throwaway fashion are identified as among the least ethical items of the past 20 years and should be banned according to a survey of leading politicians and environmental campaigners by Ethical Consumer Magazine.

The survey has been run by Ethical Consumer to celebrate its 20 years as a worker co-operative that has led the way in ethical consumerism - scrutinising the activities of business long before ethics became marketable.

In the survey, 20 leading politicians and environmental campaigners were asked which items they would ban on ethical grounds.

In response Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the London Assembly would ban flights to anywhere it’s possible to get to by train, Hilary Benn MP, secretary of state for the environment would ban the sale of Bluefin tuna, Climate Camp activists would ban carbon offset companies and Caroline Higginson from the fashion industry campaign group Labour Behind the Label would ban throwaway fashion.

They were also asked what was their favourite ethical product of the last 20 years. Ben Stewart from Greenpeace chose Eurostar, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London chose electric cars, Hilary Benn MP, secretary of state for the environment, chose Fairtrade, and Mike Gidney of the Fairtrade foundation chose the olive oil produced by Zaytoun, a co-operative that has got Fairtrade status for Palestinian loive oil.

Rob Harrison, editor of Ethical Consumer and a founder member of the worker co-operative that writes and research it, said: “Our survey has identified some of the many products and services that continue to cause unacceptable damage to both people and the environment everyday.”

“The good news, however, is that from Fairtrade bananas to ethical bank accounts, over the past 20 years there’s been a spectacular revolution in the number and range of ethical products and services available to shoppers. No longer hidden away, ethical shopping has burst onto the High Street with dramatic success.”

“By buying items that minimise the impact to both people and the planet, shoppers today have a great opportunity to become checkout campaigners everytime they go shopping.”

To read all 20 responses click here

To read about 20 years of Ethical Consumer and ethical consumerism click here

www.ethicalconsumer.org

Scottish businesses urged to co-operate

Co-operative Development Scotland and Business Gateway are launching a series of events to showcase the consortia business model across Scotland. Consortia businesses allow members to buy, produce and sell more efficiently, whilst retaining their independence.

They are suitable for a wide range of businesses ranging from joiners, hairdressers and musicians through to food producers, manufacturers and professional services firms. Each member business has equal influence and control and can share the rewards of working together.

"Consortia can transform the way smaller enterprises collectively produce and sell their products and services," said Sarah Deas, Chief Executive of CDS (pictured above). "Smaller enterprises may not be able to bid for larger contracts alone. By taking a consortia approach, each business brings its expertise to an overall package, opening up new opportunities to bid and trade with organisations of all sizes."

Existing consortia, such as the Argyll Food Producers Group, will explain how they started, how they are managed and how they make a difference to the individual member businesses. Delegates attending the free events will have access to experts and advice on how to form their own consortia.

For more information about or to attend Collaborating For Growth click here.

www.cdscotland.co.uk

Zaytoun exhibit at Fairtrade Foundation event

Zaytoun, a co-operative that works with Palestinian farmers, distributes their olive oil and was the first enterprise to get the Fairtrade mark for Palestinian olive oil, has been invited to exhibit at Women Behind the Label.

An event organised by the Fairtrade Foundation to celebrate the women who have driven the Fairtrade movement forwards - Women Behind the Label will focus on the women working in the developing world and the women working and campaigning here in the UK.

This is particularly critical given that 70% of the 1.3 billion of the world's poor living on less than $1 a day are women.

The event takes place on 27 August at the Good Housekeeping Institute. The press are invited to come along, meet some of these women, indulge in Fairtrade beauty products, tuck into some Fairtrade food and drink and watch pioneering women from the Fairtrade movement whip up tasty dishes made with Fairtrade ingredients. There’ll be Fairtrade cotton fashion and homeware on display too and a goodie bag stuffed with Fairtrade products to take home.

www.zaytoun.org

Community investment keeps on growing

Co-operatives are a diverse lot. There are over 4,800 co-operative enterprises in the UK and it’s impossible to pick a theme or industry sector that unites them all – they are of very different sizes, different types and work in a whole range of different sectors.

But over the last few months there has been one set of co-operatives that has become increasingly hard to ignore – those doing or have done community share issues, where finance for an enterprise is raised by getting the community to invest in, own and take control of that enterprise.

Through Community Shares (a project Co-operativesUK is doing with the Development Trusts Association) we’ve found more and more communities that already have undertaken community share issue. Research shows there are over 250 now – some, like many village shops, have raised only a small amount of money, but others have raised millions.

We’ve seen frequent mentions of these co-operatives in the media – Busy Bee Toyshop Co-operative and Slaithwaite Co-operative Society were both featured on the BBC and in trade press like Social Enterprise magazine and Regeneration and Renewal. Today there’s coverage of community shares in Third Sector magazine. And in a couple of weeks we’ll be seeing an article on community shares in the Local Government Association’s weekly magazine.

The topic of community investment is also a growing area of discussion at conferences too – the recent Centre for Local Economic Strategies; annual summit, for example, and forthcoming conferences like Good Deals, the Local Government Association’s rural conference and the Development Trusts Association’s annual bash.

Why all this interest? Well, community investment is an exciting and interesting way of raising finance at the best of times, but with lack of trust in finance providers at an all time high, communities are increasingly looking at how they can do things for themselves. More importantly, community investment works – it enables communities to save or even create local services that wouldn’t otherwise be provided.

And it’s not just about money – community investment gives communities ownership and control over the services that affect them, something which is being demanded more and more by the people themselves as well as by Government.

It’s not going to be appropriate for all communities, enterprises or projects. Community share issues can be hard work to bring to fruition and, because you’re dealing with other people’s investments, you need to be careful and follow strict guidelines.

But people are not being put off by this – the potential that community investment offers is massive, hence the interest and number of investments keep growing and growing.

See www.communityshares.org.uk for more information, as well as details of the launch of more support available to enterprises using community investment.

Co-operatives London partners on free workshop

Co-operatives London and Tower Hamlets Co-operative Development Agency are working with Social Enterprise London on an expert led learning and networking event.

The event will explore the principles and structures of co-operative enterprises, focussing particularly on how they achieve commercial success and the ways in which they deliver social and environmental impact. Co-operatives are a key player in the UK economy with an annual turnover of £28.9 billion, 11.3 million members and sustainning 200,000 jobs.

It will feature presentations from the leaders of some of London's leading co-operatives followed by a facilitated networking discussion. The event will focus on providing information about the co-operative business model for network members who may be interested in adopting the principles and also enhancing inter-trading within the sector.

For more details and to register click here.

When two co-operatives go to war - FC United vs Rochdale Hornets

Actually it’s not war. It’s a three mile fun run challenge between new supporters trust rugby league club, Rochdale Hornets, and the other new kids on the block - co-operative football club, FC United of Manchester.

Supporters, members and staff of co-operatives across Greater Manchester are invited to participate and support the team from Rochdale with the oval balls or the Manchester rebels with their round balls. Half the money raised by each co-operative will go to Medequip4kids and half to the clubs battling to establish themselves as model co-operatives.

All those entering for FC United are being offered a free ticket to an FC home fixture whilst the Hornets are offering a free ticket to the their first home game in the new year for their participants.

Key runners for FC United include Looking for Eric film star, Steve Evets, pictured above with said Eric (Cantona).

If you want to enter and support the FC United click here. If you want to run for the Hornets click here.

Blooming Future for Total Coverage

Sustainability and environmental awareness comes naturally to graphic design co-operative Total Coverage, which has just invested in a Tree 100 planting programme for their clients.

Linda Bratcher, a director of the 21 year old worker co-operative, says, "We are all very environmentally aware and have been for years. It is one of our co-operative principles - we have worked very hard over the years to keep our energy use down and not waste resources and we wanted to continue our efforts."

As much or their work is printed it seemed natural to them to help re-establish the resource they deplete by planting some trees.

Because the UK has only 12% wooded land, compared to its European counterparts, where on average 32% of the country is wooded, it is important to keep planting trees to reduce pollution, generate oxygen, maintain wildlife habitats and improve quality of life.

Total Coverage won Micro Business of the Year 2008 and Sustainable Business of the Year 2008 at the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Sustainable Business Awards (pictured above). Now they are
building on that commitment to the environment by participating in the Trees4 Business campaign.

Total Coverage has chosen to plant their trees in the Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Highlands of Scotland, a spectacularly beautiful area, which is being returned to its natural state with the introduction of native trees and other species such as wild boar and European elk. Alladale even has plans to reintroduce wolves, which were hunted to extinction in Scotland in the late 1700s.

Linda Bratcher says: "We are delighted to be supporting the Trees 4 Business Campaign, we believe that trees are vital for our environment and the reforestation project in Alladale Wilderness Reserve is a wonderful initiative."

www.totalcoverage.coop

Minister’s visit shows support for co-operative and community renewables

Energy and Climate Change Minister, Joan Ruddock, this week visited CoRE, a co-operative in Northumberland, and highlighted the importance of community-based approaches to climate change.

Community Renewable Energy (CoRE) is a co-operative that helps voluntary and community groups set up community-owned renewable energy plants that generate a sustainable income.

The project visited by the minister is based in Alnwick, and is exploring ways of generating energy from everyday waste. In this groundbreaking work, CoRE is working in partnership with an NHS Project that supports adults with mental health problems. Together they are researching the viability of untreated recycled vegetable oil for energy generation.

Joan Ruddock was “impressed by the enthusiasm of everyone involved in the CoRE research project in Alnwick. We need local, on-the-ground solutions to engage communities in the challenge of climate change; the work of CoRE is helping to make this a reality.”

Joan Ruddick’s support for co-operative approaches to renewable energy follows on from similar government commitments. DEFRA is to fund Co-operativesUK to work with individual members of co-operatives to help change behaviour in relation to waste, energy use and travel. And last month’s Renewable Energy Strategy commits to “providing new funding to develop an online ‘How to’ guide for community energy”.

Ross Weddle, CoRE’s Manager, described some of the additional work being undertaken by CoRE: “CoRE is a regionally based national pilot project, backed by OneNE. We have projects in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnwick, Coquetdale, Morpeth, Newcastle and Teesdale. And we are exploring possibilities elsewhere in the region and beyond.”

Joan Ruddock added, “CoRE has already had significant success in a number of renewable energy schemes across the North East, which is why DECC and NESTA recently awarded the organisation a £20,000 grant under the Big Green Challenge Plus.

www.core.coop