'Ethical Consumerism'-[MERGED] With - Green Board for environmentally friendly stuff.

jimamberdog_2

Think an ethical board would be an ace idea!
Money saving and ethical shopping do seem to be at odds with each other, as organic and fair trade goods are by their very nature more expensive than other goods. We still use our supermarket for some things, but eggs, meat and cheese we buy from our local farmer's market. We've also recently joined our local organic box scheme, which seems to be working out cheaper than getting veg from the supermarket (plus it tastes much better too, and less 'food miles'). We find that since we've started to do this, we're planning our food shops more carefully and as a result waste very little.

Don't forget that you can get some terrific bargains from charity shops (money saving and ethical!).

jimamberdog_2

Forgot to say...... Green and Blacks organic choccy on offer at Waitrose and Tescos. Stock up now!

Also, lots of health food shops will refill bottles (our local one refills ecover goods and Faith in Nature). Cheaper and more environmentally friendly. If your local shop doesn't offer this service, it might be worth asking them if they'd consider it).
One other thing, I emailed those lovely people at ecover the other day asking if they had sample sizes of washing powder. They don't, but sent me a sample bottle of washing up liquid and a 25p voucher instead. Wahey!

MSE_Martin

I think this is a good idea. And I don't think there is any conflict between MoneySaving and ethical consuming. For me when you commoditise something you say 'what are the characteristics i am looking for' if 'an ethical approach' is one. You include this in the search and then use the MoneySaving precepts to find it.

At this point however I'm not going to start a new board - simply as we've had sooooooooooooo many so far. Can you remind me in a few weeks.

Also I'm tempted to make it a sub-board of Old-Style - any thoughts on that?

Pat__3

MSE_Martin wrote:

I think this is a good idea. And I don't think there is any conflict between MoneySaving and ethical consuming. For me when you commoditise something you say 'what are the characteristics i am looking for' if 'an ethical approach' is one. You include this in the search and then use the MoneySaving precepts to find it.

At this point however I'm not going to start a new board - simply as we've had sooooooooooooo many so far. Can you remind me in a few weeks.

Also I'm tempted to make it a sub-board of Old-Style - any thoughts on that?

It could be a test to see if it gets the response needed to make a go of it.
And hopefully if the demand is there, you have another subject/ board.:)

divadee

I agree with pat make it a sub board of moneysaving old style and see the response

one-non-blonde

Yay! Thanks for the support Martin. I'm thrilled this subject is being given its own forum, not sure Money Saving Old Style is quite the right place but better than nowhere for the time being!

Re. the conflict between ethical shopping and money-saving, I must say I do often feel guilty on here when I read about what some people are trying (or having) to live on (and am so full of admiration, being an absolute spendthrift in comparison!). I don't have very much, but I sacrifice certain things in order to have more ethical choices in other areas. However, I don't want to be ripped off or pay more than I have to in the process. Similarly, I want to know that my savings (not that I have any!) and pension are being invested in companies that aren't causing environmental or socio-economic damage but still receive a competitive service. I accept that my personal beliefs cost me a lot financially but I hope that in the long run I'm helping to save something far more important. Also, the more people who make these choices the cheaper and more 'normal' it will become.

jimamberdog wrote:

Forgot to say...... Green and Blacks organic choccy on offer at Waitrose and Tescos. Stock up now!

Also, lots of health food shops will refill bottles (our local one refills ecover goods and Faith in Nature). Cheaper and more environmentally friendly. If your local shop doesn't offer this service, it might be worth asking them if they'd consider it).

Meant to mention the Green & Blacks offer myself (30p off at Tesco) but only after I'd removed all stocks of Maya Gold and vanilla from the shelves...

Refilling the detergent bottles sounds fab, am going to look into that one as soon as possible. Thanks for the tip!

Not had a chance to look too hard at the rivercottage forum but at first glance it looks pretty interesting, thanks to whoever posted that.

duncanc

sounds like a good idea for a forum. I'd like to see lists of Good and Bad companies, with reasons.

Oxfam, Greenpeace etc have some good information:
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.htm
http://www.oxfam.co.uk/what_we_do/fairtrade/index.htm
http://weblog.greenpeace.org/ge/action.html

This site has a good list of companies to avoid as an ethical consumer:
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/profiles/company_profiles.htm


Also, in regards to organic being more expensive than normal. I heard that their is a glut in the organic milk market (i.e. overproduction) which has resulted in a lot of Organic milk being packaged as normal milk, just so the dairies can get it sold.

Do_Gooder_2

MSE_Martin wrote:

I think this is a good idea.

..................

Also I'm tempted to make it a sub-board of Old-Style - any thoughts on that?

Surely that implies that ethics is old fashioned and that would alienate the young.

Addy

I appreciate this isn't really the most appropriate place for this....but until Ethical gets it's own board or subboard...............

Tesco are selling Nouvelle recycled bum-fodder £3.51 for 9 roll pack BOGOF.

AFAIK this is the ONLY recycled loo roll that Tesco sell (couldn't see any other, although I'm sure they used to do their own).

Testee

How about a Green Board to post suggestions on how to be "green" (no Incredible Hulk jokes please) and places to buy stuff that's environmentally friendly / ecologically sound. Be great to get all this stuff together - like the thread about free longlife bulbs, cheapest place to buy Savaplugs. Where to recycle stuff? etc......