The Ethical Award and Ethical Company logos

The Ethical Award and Ethical Company logos are a consumer guarantee of a company's good ethical standards.  A company displaying either of these logos has been through an in-depth research audit in order to gain Ethical Accreditation, which enables them to use the logos as independent verification of their good ethical standing.  As part of the research audit, companies are thoroughly screened by The Ethical Company Organisation's dedicated team of researchers across a wide range of ethical criteria, which fall into the main categories of The Environment; Animal Welfare and Human Rights.  A full list of criteria (tailored to specific product categories) can be found below.

The research includes looking into a company's ethical credentials (eg. determining if their Environmental Report/Policy reaches a high enough standard for a top rating) plus we search for criticisms within several thousand documents from NGO’S, Campaign Groups and Court Reports.  Ethical Accreditation screening includes the applicant company and its ultimate holding company.

The research is updated every 12 months to ensure member companies keep to the ethical standards necessary for attaining Ethical Accreditation.  However, because some of our research relies on external information, we greatly appreciate any feedback or information on companies who appear not to be behaving in an ethical manner.

The Ethical Company Organisation has established itself as a leading research body for determining the ethicality of hundreds of companies over the last decade.  Our research is published annually in The Good Shopping Guide book and through our new Ethical Shopping iPhone App of the same name.

Below is a full list of ethical criteria used in the research process:

Environment

• environmental reporting
• nuclear power
• genetic modification
• organic
• membership of environmental/ECO schemes
• rainforest timber
• environmental destruction
• renewables (energy only)
• carbon performance
• other environmental issues

Animals

• animal welfare/testing
• vegetarian
• other animal rights

People

• human/workers rights
• code of conduct
• ethical trading schemes
• armaments
• political donations
• fair trade
• irresponsible marketing
• oppressive regimes

Other

• third world debt
• irresponsible lending (financial only)
• boycott call
• alerts
• ethical accreditation
• other ethical criticisms