Ethical Consumer magazine issue 112

Transcription

£4.25
EC112 May/June 2008
www.ethicalconsumer.org
Getting away with it:
Responsible travel
BUYER’S GUIDES: UK & European travel,
baby clothes, cooking oil, digital radios
FEATURES ON: The promise of sustainable palm oil,
logging Finland’s ancient forests
Skyline ad.137x185
9/3/07
12:21 pm
Page 1
…you find a property to improve and we’ll help you with the finance
www.ecology.co.uk 0845 674 5566
7 Belton Road, Silsden, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD20 0EE
YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE
An early repayment charge is payable if you repay all or part of this mortgage within the first four years
contents
Promoting change by informing and empowering the consumer
ethical consumer magazine
may/june 2008
p20
p30
p25
p19
buyer's guides
features
news pages
regulars
8 travelling in Europe
& the UK
26sustainable palm oil
7 news round-up
4 letters
train, plane, ferry, car or
coach... what’s the most
ethical way to get about?
14digital radios
pick up the best of the
bunch
can the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil deliver
on its promises?
30corporate watch
the companies responsible
for logging the last of
Finland’s ancient forests
20 baby clothes
clothe your kids in the right
togs
22cooking oil
are you a good cook?
who’s who
editors Rob Harrison, Sarah Irving
sub-editing Dan Welch, Jo Southall
writers/researchers Katy Brown, Mary Rayner,
Bryony Moore, Jane Turner, Dan Welch, Hanna Backman
contributors Simon Birch
design and layout Marcus Graham, Adele
Armistead (Moonloft), Jane Turner
cover © Tadija Savic, Bee-nana, Jan Halsteinrud
Brende, Lorelyn Medina | Dreamstime.com
cartoons Sarah Guthrie, Polyp, Marc Roberts, Chris
Madden
ad sales Simon Birch
subscriptions Jo Southall
enquiries Dan Welch
press enquiries Mary Rayner, Dan Welch
research & screening Sarah Irving
consultancy Sarah Irving
internet/web Michael Wignall
marketing Jane Turner
personnel Mary Rayner
Thanks also to: Andrew Maddern, Kathryn
Johnson, Alison Campbell, Alice Lee, Arwa Aburawa
clothing news, action on
Climate Change Bill, battery
eggs in supermarkets,
Hummer ads withdrawn
25boycotts news
3 boycotts succeed, baby
food industry gets it’s way
32money
National Ethical Investment
Week, Triodos renewables
share issue, Standard Life
SRI funds divest from
airlines
20if I can
Rozalina Ivanova, Bulgarian
homeworker
19 people
Leon Rosselson, singer/
songwriter
29 one step at a time, turning up the heat, csr speak
34 ethical sceptic
what’s wrong with the
carbon label?
All material correct one month before cover date and © ECRA Publishing Ltd. Not-for-profit organisations may normally reproduce without charge any of the material appearing
in Ethical Consumer, providing that all such material is credited and providing that written
permission has been sought prior to publication. No part of this publication may be produced by
commercial organisations without written permission from ECRA Publishing Ltd. ISSN 0955 8608
Printed by RAP Spiderweb Ltd, c/o the Commercial Centre, Clowes Centre, Hollinwood, Oldham
OL9 7LY. 0161 947 3700 Paper: The cover is printed on Cyclus 130gsm recycled and the
inside pages on 80gsm Repeat Offset Recycled from 100% post-consumer waste.
Ethical Consumer is a member of INK (independent news collective), an association of
radical and alternative publishers. INK publications cover issues of social, political and
personal change; issues which are often neglected by the mainstream media.
www.ink.uk.com
About the Advertisers
ECRA checks out advertisers before accepting their ads and reserves the right to refuse any advert.
Covered in previous buyers’ guides: Biona (112), Bishopston Trading (98), Co-operative Bank
(106), Cream O’ Galloway (101), Ecology Building Society (84), Equal Exchange (93), ETA (109),
Fair Deal Trading (104), Greenfibres (98), Green Stationery Company (96), Phone Co-op (98),
Solar Twin (95), Suma (107) Vegetarian Shoes (98).
Other advertisers: Centre for Alternative Technology, Community Foods, Ethical Investment Coop, Green Shop, Liberty, Manchester Futon Company, Natural Clothing Store, One Village, Peace
Tax Campaign, Resurgence Magazine, Slade & Cooper Accountants.
ECRA Publishing Ltd Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester M15 5RF. Tel: 0161 226 2929 (12 noon-6pm). Fax: 0161 226 6277.
Email: [email protected]. Ethiscore subscriber code:tp17x go to www.ethiscore.org/offers/ecsubs
LETTERS
Printing letters
editorial
Job Done?
In our first ever editorial in EC1 in 1989 we stated that: “As well as
being a guide to company behaviour, the Ethical Consumer is also
a magazine dedicated to the promotion of the ideas behind ‘ethical
consumption’.... Changing the way that people perceive the shiny
goods on their supermarket shelves is primarily a cultural change and,
though these perceptions are not particularly deep rooted, cultural
change is slow.”
The last six months have brought with them an ever-greater
mainstreaming of ethical consumer issues. National newspapers
now have regular ethical living spots and a greater enthusiasm
than ever for light green consumer issues. Ethical shopping
websites are proliferating nearly as fast as green-washing claims by
manufacturers.
On one level we could claim that the job of cultural change is
now done, and that the time is now right for Ethical Consumer to
pack up and go home. In reality though, as the pages of this issue
112 demonstrate, a huge amount of work remains to be done.
Profit-seeking businesses are only just beginning to grasp the
damage they are doing to people and the environment. Institutions
are still far too slow to adopt an ethical awareness, a whole new
language around comparative product carbon assessment needs
to be developed, and the deep green ‘consume less’ agenda remains
as marginalised as ever. Moreover, the mainstream adoption of
ethical consumer issues is often clumsy and, at worst, trivial.
Regarding your letter from Simon
Nash (EC 111). Yes! I had exactly
the same message come up on
my screen after only a couple of
years use out of my Epson printer.
i.e. “This printer contains parts
which are not serviceable and
must be replaced”. I was outraged!
And determined not to fall into
the trap Epson had laid for me,
i.e. buy another printer (which
cost less than the Epson ink
cartridges, by the way!) I resolved
to do without a computer printer
altogether, which I have since
done.
Swag, Birmingham.
I was reading a friend’s Ethical
Consumer over the last weekend.
There was a letter from a reader
who had a problem with an
Epson inkjet printer: its built-in
software had closed it down.
This cynical ploy can readily be
overcome by downloading some
very effective Russian freeware
- could you please pass this on to
him. The website is: http://www.
ssclg.com/epsone.shtml.
Nick Hope Wilson, Somerset
Moving Ethical Consumer magazine on...
Printing addresses
We have long been tracking this mainsteaming of ethics at ECRA,
which has coincided with increasing structural change in the
publishing industry, particularly around the internet. Over the last
twelve months, we have been developing a new positioning and
‘business model’ for Ethical Consumer that takes account of these
changes. Our next issue of the magazine (113) will bring with it
our biggest overhaul of content since the launch of the ethiscore in
2003, and our websites will be transformed with new material by
June. More will be revealed as the months go by.
Perhaps most significant, though, is our planned change of
business structure at ECRA. In September 2008 we plan to
move from being a workers’ co-operative to a multi-stakeholder
co-operative. Whilst remaining a not-for-profit organisation,
the new structure is designed to help us tap into new sources of
expertise and finance. In practice this will mean that readers of
the magazine or websites can choose to become members of the
‘Ethical Consumer Research Association’. Consumer members
will be able to elect representatives onto the board of ECRA and
attend AGMs.
At the core of all these changes is the idea of of learning much
more from our customers, and of them participating in the project
to drive ethical consumerism forward in a more active way. The
box opposite entitled ‘from the ethiscore forums’ shows the kind
of comments that people are adding weekly to our reports online.
And we’re sure that readers of the magazine will have much to say
about these new developments when they occur. And with luck,
the mechanisms designed to draw on their knowledge, will be
ready and waiting.
Please, please may I again request
that postal addresses are given
out in your magazine in addition
to the always present web and
telephone. It really does not take
up much more than an extra
line of typeface and it would be
invaluable to me and others like
me. Why does the whole world
seem to think that everyone
wants the internet? There really
is nothing like curling up in a
comfy chair and reading a good
book or magazine. Think how
much energy is used to run these
machines? I’m not at all sure they
are any better than the printed
word and 2nd class campaign
postcards or letters.
4 www.ethicalconsumer.org
MAY/JUNE ‘08
Mrs S Doyle, Harrogate
[Addresses for all the best (and
worst) buy companies appear in
the blue Take action section inside
the magazine. But your are right
that many for campaign groups are
not currently included.]
Fair trade is ancient!
I take exception to your assertion
in the news section of the March
/April Issue under the heading
“Fairtrade Fortnight” that” 14
years ago you couldn’t buy a
Fairtrade product in Britain.”
I have been selling fairtrade
products through Traidcraft since
1985 and many others have been
doing so since its launch in 1979.
For several years before becoming
a fair trader with Traidcraft I sold
coffee through Campaign Coffee
Scotland.
Marrion Grant
As the first sentence on your
News page EC111 is untrue,
how can we rely on the rest? I
was buying fairtrade products
from Traidcraft regularly over
20 years ago. Also, at some time
before 1988, I gave a talk at a local
World Women’s Day of Prayer
service at which I encouraged
the congregation to buy fairtrade
products as a way of promoting
world peace.
Alison Tyas, North Yorkshire
[We tend to use the term Fairtrade
(with a capital F) to refer to
the Fairtrade Mark which was
founded in 1992. Sorry for the
misunderstanding.]
Investment aspirations
Your Ethical Investment
Article (EC 112 March/April
2008), like most others on
the subject, presented ethical
investment in terms of negative
screening, positive screening and
engagement. It’s true that this is
how most ethical funds represent
themselves but I feel that any
analysis of ethical funds needs
to focus on content rather than
criteria, since positive criteria are
largely aspirations rather than
requirements. This means that a
fund can claim to seek to invest in
letters
renewable energy, fair trade, etc,
when in reality, only a very small
proportion is invested in this way.
Indeed my own research which
involved reviewing every holding
in the main ethical funds, backs
this up. This means that investors
may invest in a fund on the
assumption that it supports
their desire to invest in socially
beneficial activities, whereas, in
reality, the level of support may
be very low.
To tackle this, I developed
an ethical categorisation
methodology so that it is clear
what proportion of a portfolio
is invested in stocks that may be
regarded as:
• Acceptable – just meets
exclusion criteria but have no
special ethical attributes
• Best of Sector – demonstrate
best social and environmental
practice in a sector
• Standard setter – as ‘best of
sector’ but have set new standards
• Solutions-based – the core
activity of the company involves
providing solutions to social or
environmental challenges.
• Socially directed – the
company’s product or services
have a specially high social or
environmental impact
This categorisation has been
applied to King & Shaxson’s
ethical funds and portfolio
management service so that
investors can see how their funds
are made up in ethical terms. In
addition, descriptions of each
and every holding are made
publicly available on the website,
so that there is a high degree of
ethical clarity and so that the link
between investor and recipient
of capital is strengthened. To my
mind this is the very essence of
ethical investment.
John Fleetwood, Director
the recycling bin? All I’d want is
for you pay the cost of postage.
As a guide, from April one issue
should cost 66p, 1 year’s worth
£2.49.
Contact: Lorraine Jones, 25 Homefield
Close, Copmanthorpe, York YO23 3RU.
Tea and supermarkets
Your report didn’t mention the
Co-operative supermarkets’ ownbrand Tea. Is there any reason for
this? My local shop stocks a wide
range of fairtrade teas - some own
brand.
Wendy Pickess, Worcester
[We currently have a policy of not
including supermarket own-brands
in our short product reports for
reasons of space. However, you
may be surprised in EC113 – see
the editorial opposite.]
Before the Back
Catalogue
We are in the process of clearingout our loft in order to make
space for other things and I feel
the time has come to dispose of
the larger part of my collection
of Ethical Consumers. I have
every issue since Issue No 1
(with the exception, sadly, of
Issue No. 4 - loaned to a “friend”
who eventually admitted after
months/years that it was lost!). I
would probably aim to keep no
more than 2 - 3 years’ worth so
am ready to dispose of all or any
from 1988 to 2005. Is there any
sad person out there who might
want some of these early issues
before they make their way into
We welcome readers’ letters.
Letters may be edited for
reasons of space or clarity. If
you do not want letters that
you send to us to be published,
please mark them “Not for
publication”. Send letters to
the address on the contents
page or email them to: letters@
ethicalconsumer.org
From the ethiscore forums
Hotels Ethiscore Report
Try ditching big brand hotels altogether and opt for B&B’s, guest
houses, renting an apartment or even camping if the weather is nice
enough.
With this you know that your money isn’t going to contribute to fat
cat salaries and you should, hopefully, get a much more personal
service and variety.
Elizabeth Robertshaw
Gas Condensing Boilers Report
The review is rather limited as it focuses heavily on energy efficiency
in rating boilers. A further key issue to consider is the reliability and
durability of the boiler. There are significant differences in boiler
reliability, as well as the time period over which manufacturers are
prepared to provide spares. I think the review would have been
greatly enhanced by taking these questions into account.
Marc Adams
Bottled Water Report
Can I recommend Cotswold water. It’s available in glass bottles, not
available in supermarkets (except a few in the Bristol area), is a small
independent company and, as the boss told me when I phoned him
recently, they’ve just identified a new source on certified organic
land.
As a wholefood retailer I stock Cotswold. I also ordered Thirsty
Planet water but feel disillusioned by it. Despite being 20p more
than Cotswold but not being spring/mineral water (is it tap water?)
only 5p from each bottle goes to charity. The profit on each bottle
must be huge!
Tim Moran
Cantankerous Frank
by Marc Roberts / climatecartoons.org.uk
MAY/JUNE ‘08
www.ethiscore.org 5
NEWS
CLOTHING NEWS
The Climate Change Bill
Campaign victory – One down,
two to go
Campaigners trying to get the Climate Change Bill amended
have been victorious. The Government announced that it
would set an annual target range for emissions reductions
(what campaigners have been calling annual milestones).
Stop Climate Chaos’ demand for annual milestones, was one of
3 key changes they wanted to see made to the Bill. They’ve been
calling for them as a way to ensure that the UK stays on track with
its emissions reductions.
The demand for annual milestones was one of 3 demands. So it’s
1 down, 2 to go. The remaining two are:
• increase the carbon dioxide target from 60%, to at least 80%.
• include the UK’s share from international aviation and shipping in the emissions reduction targets.
Stop Climate Chaos now want supporters to:
• keep on contacting their MPs by email, letter, visiting them
• organise public meetings
• take part in the Week of Action (Sunday 30 March – Saturday 5 April)
until the Government announces that it’s going to make these two
changes to the Bill too.
To find out what events are already planned for the Week of
Action, and to add your own, see: http://icount.org.uk/get_
involved/explore_the_map/default.asp or phone 020 7729 8732.
Cut the carbon
Faith in Nature shampoo, Ethletic
trainers, Good Energy electricity, Phone
Co-op line rental and Juniper Green gin
- these are some of the products that you
will start seeing our ‘butterfly’ Best Buy
logo on.
We have just started licensing the logo to the products that we pick
out as Best Buys in our buyers’ guides so that shoppers can distinguish
genuinely ethical products from those made by companies for whom
ethics is just a niche market.
The ethical products that have signed up to use the Best Buy label are:
Equal Exchange organic rooibos tea; Equigas gas; Escor wooden toys;
Ethletic trainers; Faith in Nature shampoo, shower gel, soap; Clear
Spring washing up liquid, laundry and dishwasher detergent; Good
Energy electricity; Mooncup menstrual cups; Juniper Green organic
gin; UK5 organic vodka; Highland Harvest organic whisky; Utkins
Fairtrade rum; Phone Co-op telephone line rental and calls.
More information on our website at www.ethicalconsumer.org or by
calling Simon Birch on 0161 226 2929.
ASDA and Tesco still say no to cagefree eggs
With two out of the UK’s four top supermarkets reducing their sales
of battery eggs, leading farm animal welfare charity, Compassion in
World Farming (CIWF), is calling on the top two UK supermarkets
to also say no to cruelty and go cage-free.
Tesco and ASDA are falling behind their competitors by refusing to
make a firm commitment to source their eggs more ethically - despite
strong public opposition to keeping hens in cages. Morrisons recently
announced that it will go cage-free in all own-brand shell eggs by 2010
whilst Sainsbury’s is going one step further and will go cage-free on all
the shell eggs it sells, own-brand and branded, before 2012. Waitrose
and M&S are already cage-free on all the eggs that they sell and Co-op
has just joined them.
Tesco in particular is being targeted by CIWF. With over 3.5 million
hens needed to lay the eggs supplied to Tesco each year, a cage-free
pledge would really represent a huge welfare benefit to millions of hens.
CIWF’s advice is simple: only buy eggs that say ‘organic’, ‘free-range’ or
‘barn’ on the box. All eggs sold in the EU should be labelled to tell you
how they’ve been produced. If they’re not don’t buy them (they’re likely
to be from caged hens) and inform the shop manager that they are
breaching EU law by selling unlabelled eggs.
More info from www.ciwf.org.uk or on 01483 521950.
Peter Pomorski/Dreamstime.com
Meanwhile, I Count coalition member Christian Aid is
campaigning for the Climate Change Bill to make it mandatory
for UK companies to declare their carbon emissions.
The government claims Britain’s carbon emissions are 2% of
the global total but when the international activities of UK
companies are taken into account, the national contribution soars
to 12-15%.
Christian Aid are also targeting three companies asking them
to publish a full account of their global carbon footprint, and
commit to reducing this figure by 5% a year. The three companies
are Barclays, International Power and Morrisons. See the
Christian Aid website for profiles of the companies and details
about why they have been chosen.
You can send an email to Gordon Brown and these three
companies from the Christian Aid website at www.christianaid.
org.uk. Contact Christian Aid for more details on 020 7620 4444.
New Ethical Consumer
‘stamp of approval’
Wrong flowers number
The telephone number for Somerset Postal
Flowers who were a best buy in the Fowers
report in the last issue is 01984 618314. Sorry
for the error in the original report.
What life could be like for Tesco and ASDA chickens.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
Jan Brons/Dreamstime.com
news
Camp for Climate Action
to target Kingsnorth
power station this year
E.ON’s Kingsnorth power station in Kent will be the site of this
summer’s Camp for Climate Action, running from 4th to 11th of
August 2008.
The protest will begin with a one-day event at Heathrow, the site
of the previous year’s camp, before marching across London to
Kingsnorth. This is one of eight climate camps targeting coal across
the world this summer. The camp will also challenge businesses set
to profit from false solutions to climate change such as biofuels. A
day of action targeting the biofuel industry will be an integral part of
the week long camp.
Climate change activists will converge on Kingsnorth power station
where owners E.ON plan to build the UK’s first coal fired power
station in 30 years. Kingsnorth will produce twice as many climateharming emissions as a third runway at Heathrow and more CO2
than the whole of Ghana.
Saturday 9th August has been named a day of mass protest and direct
action against Kingsnorth to highlight its impact on climate change.
More info from www.climatecamp.org.uk or by phoning 0777 286
1099.
General Motors, manufacturers of the
controversial Hummer H3 4x4, today
removed any claims of fuel efficiency
from their advertising materials.
This follows a complaint to the
Advertising Standards Agency by Friends of the
Earth Scotland, after the motor giant’s newspaper adverts
claimed the H3 was a fuel efficient vehicle. The Hummer
H3 is one of the least fuel efficient vehicles on the market and has the
lowest energy efficiency rating possible (class G).
Duncan McLaren, Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland,
said: “The notion that a gas-guzzling monster like a Hummer could
be regarded as in any way “fuel-efficient” is laughable. We’re pleased
that GM have responded promptly to the threat of an ASA ruling,
and pulled the claim. However, it remains the case that such climate
trashing vehicles can still be advertised without any environmental or
health warning. This would ensure consumers were properly informed
of the risks such vehicles pose.”
The advert claimed that the vehicle has “Half the calories. All the
flavour” and that is was “Built for UK roads, it’s smaller, fuel efficient...”.
This is the latest in a line of businesses being forced to withdraw adverts
due to misleading environmental claims, including Shell, Ryanair and
the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (see ‘Turning up the heat’).
More info from Friends of the Earth Scotland at www.foe-scotland.
org.uk or on 0131 243 2700.
Who foots the bill?
Most shoe retailers now outsource manufacturing to smaller
companies, who in turn may give out work to workshops and
homeworkers. This ‘invisible’ workforce of mainly women
workers is a vital part of the footwear production chain, but
is rarely covered by company codes of conduct and often
unrecognised by government agencies and regulation.
Homeworkers in the leather footwear industry experience
extremely poor working conditions.
As companies engage in a ‘race to the bottom’ to reduce costs,
homeworkers face health problems, have no access to social
security and not enough money to support their families.
Homeworkers Worldwide and Labour Behind the Label have got
together on a campaign that targets Clarks and Stylo plc (Barratts,
Shellys, Priceless). The campaign
aims to persuade companies to
acknowledge the presence of
homeworkers in their supply
chains, ensuring that they work
in decent conditions and have
access to their rights.
You can send an email from the
Labour Behind the Label website
(www.labourbehindthelabel.org).
See the ‘If I Can’ page in this issue
for an interview with a Bulgarian
homeworker, Rozalin Ivanova.
20 top models support campaign to
end child labour in cotton
The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is leading an
international campaign to clean up cotton production. To
support the campaign renowned designers Luella Bartley,
Christian Lacroix, Betty Jackson and Katharine
Hamnett have designed exclusive prints
for a collection of t-shirts produced on
organic and fairly traded cotton. Now over
20 supermodels have supported EJF’s ‘Pick
Your Cotton Carefully’ campaign by being
photographed in the t-shirts.
The photos are available to see on EJF’s website
www.ejfoundation.org. The t-shirts are
designed around the theme of “childhood,
lost innocence and hope” to represent more
than a million children around the world forced to
labour in cotton production. All proceeds from their sale go to
support EJF’s valuable work. T-shirts are available to buy from £30
www.ejfoundation.org/shop.
EJF has campaigned to clean up cotton since 2005. The charity
aims to eradicate forced child labour and the use of dangerous
pesticides from cotton production, and asks all buyers of cotton
to Pick Your Cotton Carefully, choosing organic and fair trade
cotton. EJF’s latest investigative report: “The Children Behind Our
Cotton” published in December 2007 is available to download for
free from www.ejfoundation.org/reports. Contact EJF on 0207 359
0440 for more info.
See also the Baby Clothes report in this issue.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
www.ethiscore.org 7
Eric Guillemain for Environmental Justice Foundation
Michael Shake/Dreamstime.com
General Motors withdraws
Hummer ad
CLOTHING NEWS
su mer m
e th
on
azine
i c al c
In these climateaware times, the
thorny issue of how
we go on holiday
or travel for work
has become the
ultimate test of
greenness. Then
there are questions
like which airline
ships primates
to vivisection
laboratories, or
which ferry’s owners
hire port facilities to
the US Navy in Iraq?
Sarah Irving tries to
find an ethical way
to travel.
ag
BE
S T BU
Y
© Albert Campbell, Charles Taylor | Dreamstime.com
Travel
T
his report considers
passenger transport options for
journeys of a few hundred miles. We look at
the corporate ethics records of the bus, rail,
ferry and airline companies that offer to get
us from the UK to Paris, and from Scotland
to the South of England - and back again.
We also compare the climate change impacts
of different ways of travelling over this kind
of distance.
In 2007 a series of rulings by the British
Advertising Standards Authority proclaimed
that Easyjet and Ryanair had been stretching
the truth when they claimed that their
budget flights were environmentally friendly
ways to travel. The companies claimed that,
as they used newer aircraft and carried more
passengers per plane than other brands, this
made them a better option.1
So were these claims simply heralding the
death of satire, or did they have a point?
Budget airlines have been vilified for their
contributions to the rapid growth of aviation
and of the resulting climate change emissions.
As well as belching out CO2, aircraft pollution
is especially hazardous to the climate because
it’s delivered straight up into the higher
levels of the atmosphere, where it does more
damage, and because planes also release large
amounts of other greenhouse gases.2 The kind
of short-haul flights offered under brands
such as Easyjet, Ryanair, Jet2 and Flybe are
also, it is argued, more polluting because
aeroplane
emissions are highest when
taking off and landing.
So how do other means of
transport measure up?
Another recent transport scandal broke
in early 2008 when a leaked UN report
announced the scale of emissions from
shipping. Although the report mainly
examined the impacts of cargo shipping, and
their massive growth because of the volume
of consumer goods being freighted around
the world from cheap manufacturing nations
like China, it raised the issue of governmental
complacency about sea travel, and of the
pollution threatening busy waterways like the
English Channel.3
And, as the table on page 10 shows, car
drivers and train passengers cannot be
complacent either. A small, energy-efficient
car with several people on board or a slowmoving local train might lay claim to having
low emissions per passenger per mile. But
high-speed trains, while still preferable to
aeroplanes in emissions terms, have a fairly
hefty climate footprint, and a gas-guzzling
SUV with a small family aboard can be as
polluting as an air journey.
Mass transport – transport
for the masses?
If we’re expecting people to change their travel
For distance travel within the UK: the best buys on both environmental and corporate
responsibility grounds are the train companies EMT, Virgin and National Express East
Coast, and National Express coaches.
Heading to Europe: again our recommendations combine the environmental and corporate
best buys: Eurostar trains and Eurolines coaches. Eurotunnel is also recommended if you’re
using a full, energy-efficient car or a bicycle.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
buyer’s guide
TRAVEL IN THE UK
National Express coaches
National Express trains
Virgin trains
Jet2 flights
EMT trains
Megabus coaches
BMI flights
British Airways flights
Lufthansa flights
Easyjet flights
Flybe flights
TRAVEL TO EUROPE
Eurotunnel foot/car/cycle
Eurolines coaches
Eurostar trains
Jet2 flights
Ryanair flights
Seafrance ferries
Air France flights
BMI flights
KLM flights
British Airways flights
Lufthansa flights
Easyjet flights
Flybe flights
P&O ferries
Norfolk Line ferries
Key
 bottom rating
9.5
9.5
7
6.5
6.5
6.5
6
5.5
5.5
5
4.5
h
h
h
H
h
h
H
10
9.5
8
6.5
6.5
6.5
6
6
6
5.5
5.5
5
4.5
4
2.5
H
h
h
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
h
H
H
H
H
H
h h h
H
h h h
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H h h h
H
H
H H H
H
H H H
H
H
h H
H H
h
H
H
H
H h h
h H
H H
h
H h
H H
H
H
H H
h
H h
H H
H
H H
h
H h h h
H
H
H H
H
H
H H
H
H
H H
H
H h h H H
 middle rating
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Product Sustainability
Company Ethos
+ve
Anti-Social Finance
Political Activity
Boycott Call
Genetic Engineering
Politics
Arms & Military Supply
Irresponsible Marketing
Supply Chain Policy
Workers’ Rights
People
Human Rights
Animal Rights
Factory Farming
Animals
Animal Testing
Habitats & Resources
Pollution & Toxics
Climate Change
Nuclear Power
BRAND
Environmental Reporting
Ethiscore (out of 20)
Environment
COMPANY GROUP
h
H
H
h
National Express Group plc
Virgin Group Ltd
Dart Group plc
Stagecoach Holdings plc
Stagecoach Holdings plc
BBW Partnership Ltd, BMI
British Airways plc
Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Haji-Ioannou Family Holdings
Rosedale Aviation Holdings Ltd
H
H H
h H H h
h
H H
H H
H h
h h H H
H h H
h
H
H H
H h H
h
H H
H
H h
H
H h h
h H
h
H
h H H
h H H H
h h
H H H H H
h H H H
h
h H
Groupe Eurotunnel SA
Eurostar Group Ltd
Dart Group plc
Ryanair Holdings plc
SNCF
Air France-KLM Group
BBW Partnership Ltd
Air France-KLM Group
British Airways plc
Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Haji-Ioannou Family Holdings
Rosedale Aviation Holdings Ltd
Dubai World
AP Moller-Maersk A/S
H H
H H
h H H
h
H
h H H
h H H
H
H
H H
H
H
h
H
h H H
h
H
h h
h h
H
H
h h
H
H
h
h H
h
top rating (no criticisms found) Company Ethos:  full mark
 half mark
Product Sustainability: companies can receive a maximum of five positive marks for this category. Ethiscore: the higher the score, the better the company
across the criticism categories (see www.ethicalconsumer.org/magazine/ratings/ethicalratings.htm or “Introduction to Ethical Consumer” booklet for more details).
How we’ve rated the companies
In this report, we’ve treated transport
providers in the same way as restaurants
or retailers like supermarkets. We’ve asked
them about their wider supply chains for
any food they serve or goods they sell on
board. While, for instance, train companies
like Virgin, EMT and Eurostar have gone a
fair way on serving Fairtrade tea and coffee,
and some even sell organic meals, few of
the airlines had woken up to this issue.
Most of the airlines also picked up negative
marks for in-flight duty free trolleys retailing
animal-tested toiletries and cosmetics, as
well as cigarettes and leather products. And
almost all of the companies on the table
sold meat likely to have come from factory
farmed sources.
habits, we need good quality, affordable public
transport systems. A major survey undertaken
for DEFRA in 2007 found that over half of
drivers said they had tried to cut down on car
use, but couldn’t find practical alternatives.
Of those taking short-haul flights, 58% did so
because “it was quicker,” 28% because it was
cheaper and 27% because it was ‘easier’ than
other forms of transport.4
Moving to more sustainable lifestyles
demands improvements in public transport.
The high prices of intercity rail tickets in the
UK has been the subject of public anger and
environmentalists’ concern, and the fact that
the few low-price tickets available are easiest
to access via the internet means that they are
most likely to be accessible to affluent people
with online know-how and home computers,
which further disenfranchises those on low
incomes.
The positive impacts of putting cheap,
quality public transport in place is also
illustrated by the DEFRA survey, where over
the same 10-year period, bus use in London,
where the Mayor’s office had imposed low
rates and improved services, increased 25%,
while bus use in the rest of the UK declined
by 10%.5
If you’re concerned about the price and
quality of public transport, lobby your local
council for bus improvements, or support
the Campaign for Better Transport (formerly
Transport 2000) – see Links below for contact
details. Passenger Focus, the national rail
passenger watchdog, is at 08453 022 022 or
[email protected].
MAY/JUNE ‘08
www.ethiscore.org 9
Travel
Company profiles
British Airways was fined $300 million by a
US court in April 2007 for colluding with
Virgin Atlantic to fix prices on transatlantic
flights.11 It’s also a member of several
corporate lobby groups, including the
European Round Table of Industrialists
and the Transatlantic Business Dialogue.12
British Airways and Virgin were amongst
several airlines which refused to follow XL
Air’s 2007 lead and refuse to deport failed
asylum seekers, despite criticism of violent
methods used by the UK authorities.13
Major airlines Air France and KLM merged
in 2004. Air France has been accused of
continued operations in Burma (through
business relationships with Burmese
companies), despite the repression of
protests there in 2007. It was also accused
of allowing failed asylum seekers being
deported on its flights to be ill-treated.6,7
AP Moller-Maersk, owner of Norfolk Line
ferries, is a massive global shipping and oil
company. Like many oil companies it’s been
responsible for pollution incidents, and in
2007 was fined $500,000 for keeping false
records about its waste oil storage in San
Francisco.8 In 2008, tensions at a Maerskowned factory in China were said to have
erupted into rioting when a worker was
beaten by security guards.9 And in 2005
Maersk was forced out of the Iraqi port
of Zubair by striking workers demanding
better conditions and an end to foreign
control of Iraqi resources. Maersk had
been accused by Iraqi officials of taking
over the port illegally during confusion
caused by the war, of pocketing 93% of the
fees gathered at the port, and of charging
high fees to the US Navy for use of the port
under an unauthorised contract.10
BMI – formerly British Midland – advertises
itself as offering ‘cheap flights’ to a number
of countries on Ethical Consumer’s current
list of oppressive regimes, including Russia,
Saudi Arabia and Iran.14
Dart Group’s Jet2 airline was criticised by
the Disability Rights Commission in 2003
after an elderly man was charged when
he needed his wheelchair to be pushed
through an airport.15
Dubai World, an investment vehicle of
the government of Dubai, owns P&O
Ferries. It also has worldwide holdings,
including providing oil shipping and
support services, and operating Free Trade
Zones in countries including Dubai and
the Philippines.16 Subsidiary Inchcape was
described as a major supplier of services to
Fuel efficiency
(km per litre)
Means of transport
Bicycle
n/a
0
28-50kpl per passenger
80-45g
Rail (normal suburban)
130-45g
Rail (high speed, few stops)
18-23kpl
130-100g
165-80g
10-16kpl
260-145g
330-210g
5-9kpl
400-250g
460-300g
Average car
Air (long haul)
Large cars, SUVs etc
Air (short haul)
Easyjet is one of the first and best-known
of the budget airlines so reviled by climate
change campaigners. It’s also a member of
the European Low Fares Airline Association,
a lobby group set up to promote the
budget airline agenda to the EU.20 Easyjet
is majority-owned by high-profile
entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou and
members of his family.
Eurostar was criticised in 2006 for paying as
little as £5.50 an hour to cleaners in London,
and for offering an increase of only 20p.
The RMT union demanded that Eurostar’s
cleaning contractor pay its – mainly women
– workers the Mayor of London’s suggested
living wage of £7.05 an hour.21 The crosschannel rail service was also attacked in
December 2007 for its green claims, after
it was revealed that a large proportion of
the electricity used to power its trains came
from nuclear energy, via the nuclear-heavy
French grid and a contract with British
CO2 emissions
per km
Bus (well-used service)
Fuel-efficient car
NATO forces, and a joint venture with Serco
involved building and operating patrol
boats for the Australian navy.17,18 Closer to
home, in 2006 a P&O Ferries employee was
awarded £64,862 after a tribunal found that
she had suffered management-sanctioned
harassment and bullying as a result of
gender reassignment surgery.19
60 second gre
en guide
• Leave the car at
home. Unless it’
sa
very low-carb
on model, on-th
e ground public
transport is bette
r,
be it trains, co
aches or ferries.
• Keep flights to
an absolute min
imum.
• Why are you tra
velling? Consider
what
the UK’s cities
and countryside
have
to offer.
• Don’t forget to
campaign for be
tter
public transpo
rt (see Links).
Source: Aviation Environmental Federation, www.aef.org.uk
Journey
Miles
CO2 emissions in kg
By Car
CO2 emissions in kg
By Train
CO2 emissions in kg
By Plane
London to Edinburgh
413
129
73
339
London to Manchester
200
63
36
166
CO2 emissions for journeys within the UK (approx) (from “Carbon Counter” by Mark Lynas 2007)
Journey
Miles
Kilometres
CO2 emissions in kg
By Plane
CO2 emissions in kg
By Train
London to Paris
426
686
230
75
CO2 emissions for return journeys to Europe (very approximate) (from “Carbon Counter” by Mark Lynas 2007)
Distance (km)
CO2 emitted per
passenger
Bus via Channel Tunnel
1105
44kg
Bus via Dover (ferry)
1059
42kg
Train
1105
44kg
Plane
757
94kg
One way travel to the Alps
MAY/JUNE ‘08
Source: Eurolines/Edinburgh Centre for
Carbon Management
buyer’s guide
Energy, the UK’s leading provider of atomicsourced electricity.22
Eurotunnel picks up comparatively few
negative marks for its train services through
the Channel Tunnel, which carry passenger
cars and bicycles between Folkstone and
Calais. However, the financially troubled
company is largely propped up by financing
from some big international banks with
poor ethical records, including Goldman
Sachs.23
In 2008, Lufthansa’s in-flight sales catalogue
listed goods made from meranti wood,
described by Friends of the Earth as a
generic name for several varieties of
tropical hardwood, most of them classified
as endangered or critically endangered.24
National Express also owns the Eurolines
coach brand and the new National Express
East Coast rail franchise, after GNER’s
demise. A number of National Express
companies, including UK rail franchises and
some of its local bus services in the USA,
have been accused of anti-union tactics.25,26
In 2005, Rosedale Group’s Flybe company
was ordered to pay £25,000 in damages
to a worker who had faced bullying and
discrimination after undergoing gender
reassignment surgery.27 Flybe was also one
of a number of companies listed in 2007
as having employed notorious US unionbusting firm, the Burke Group.28
Ryanair’s outgoing chief exec Michael
O’Leary has been a fierce critic of efforts
to curb aviation emissions, calling on
consumers to email the British government
telling it to ‘keep its hands off low-cost
fares.’ In 2004 the airline was ordered to
pay compensation to a man with cerebral
palsy who was charged for being wheeled
through an airport, and in 2005 it was
criticised by disability charity Scope after
a group of blind and partially sighted
passengers were ordered off a flight
because there were ‘too many’ of them.29,30
Unions have also alleged that bullying and
poor conditions are common in the Ryanair
workforce, and that quick turnarounds of
aircraft risk unsafe flying conditions.31
SNCF, the French state railway company,
owns Seafrance and 40% of Eurostar. SNCF
also has a nuclear materials transport
division.32 It was targeted by protesters in
2006 who claim that it has failed to make
fair payments to former employees dying
due to work-related asbestos exposure.33
Stagecoach runs the Megabus coaches
and the EMT rail franchise, and also owns
49% of the Virgin Trains operation. In 2007
it was said to be using a nanotechnology
additive to improve fuel efficiency on its
buses, despite concerns that the health
and environmental effects of nanotech
particles had not been fully explored.34
In 2005, Stagecoach was cited as one of a
number of companies which had seconded
employees to and from the Scottish
Executive, a practice criticised as allowing
corporate interests to establish themselves
in government.35
Virgin Group, owner of the other 51% of
Virgin Trains, joined BA in 2007 in refusing
to halt deportations of failed asylum
seekers.36 In 2005 a worker at Virgin Trains
was awarded £41,000 compensation after he
wasn’t given an appropriate staged recovery
when returning to work after an injury,
and in 2006 a masseuse working in Virgin
Atlantic’s First Class passenger lounge was
awarded £109,000 after developing RSI as a
result of being forced to work during shortstaffed busy periods.37,38
Multipliers and miles
© Robyn Mackenzie | Dreamstime.com
with
different forms of transport is fraught
Calculating the carbon emissions of
means
rent
diffe
by
n
sions for a single journey take
complexities. At first sight, the emis
ground
than
ct
dire
e
mor
are
neys
argue that plane jour
d
can look similar, and airlines often
calle
g
ethin
el need to include a multiplier for som
that
travel. But the impacts of plane trav
fact
the
from
acts of plane emissions resulting
‘radiative forcing’ – the additional imp
what number
osphere. There’s little agreement on
atm
the
they happen much higher up in
act of
imp
the
ct
refle
truly
to
by
s to be multiplied
the basic amount of emissions need
The figures
4.
as
high
as
go
e
som
ugh
altho
nd 2.7,
flying, but most scientists put it at arou
figures for
use a high multiplier. The Eurolines
osite
opp
k
boo
s’
Lyna
k
Mar
given from
multiplier of 2
r
lowe
a
g
usin
g holiday show that even
one-way travel to the Alps for a skiin
impacts are
the
ct,
dire
e
mor
often
plane journeys are
and taking into account the fact that
double that of surface travel.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
www.ethiscore.org 11
Travel
Trouble in paradise
According to Michelle Thew of the British
Union for the Abolition of Vivisection,
“Every year, tens of thousands of nonhuman primates, many of whom have
been trapped in the wild, are transported
by airlines around the world for the
international research industry. Packed
in small crates, they travel as cargo on
extremely long journeys where they may
have to endure inadequate ventilation, noise
and extreme temperature fluctuations.”
BUAV says that most of these animals are
shipped on passenger aircraft, on journeys
of up to three days. Unsurprisingly, many
die on the way.
BUAV has been publicising the activities
of this gruesome industry for over fifteen
years, and, says Thew, “It is encouraging that
so many airlines now refuse to be involved
in this suffering after listening to the voice of
the travelling public and representations by
the BUAV.”
Airlines which once transported
thousands of monkeys and apes to
miserable fates in vivisection laboratories
now have policies forbidding this. Some,
like BA, explicitly state that they will only
transport live primates for conservation
breeding programmes, while others (mainly
the ‘budget’ airlines) don’t carry live animals
at all.
In fact, of the companies covered, only Air
France still ships live primates for research,
and remains a major player in this market.
Other airlines which BUAV says still ship
primates include El Al, Air China, Amerijet
and Philippine Airlines.
Michelle Thew stresses that “as
consumers, we can all play an important
role in encouraging airlines to change.
The BUAV calls on readers of the Ethical
Consumer Magazine to only fly with those
airlines which don’t transport primates
destined for the research industry.”
More information from www.buav.org
To Travel or Not to
Travel?
According to Paddy Gillett, from anti-aviation
campaign group Plane Stupid, “If we are
going to stop climate change we’re going to
have to reconsider our lifestyles, and a big part
of that is reconsidering our flying habits.”
Environmental groups like Plane Stupid
and Greenpeace insist that the rapid growth
in flights from the UK needs to be halted, and
that the expansion of budget airline flights
beyond Europe to distant destinations like
East Asia and the USA heralds environmental
disaster.
Gillett rejects claims that anti-flying
campaigners are just middle-class killjoys:
“Individuals earning under fifteen grand a
year actually fly less now, as a group, if they
fly at all, than they did in 2000, whereas richer
people are flying more because they can
structure their lives around cheap flights, for
example by buying second homes abroad,” he
argues.
“At supposedly budget airports like
Stansted the average income of customers is
often over £50,000, which shows what a myth
it is that environmentalists are just denying
working-class people their hard-earned
break.”
The British tourist industry has also begged
us to holiday closer to home, especially
after economic blows like foot & mouth
disease, and the decline of many of Britain’s
traditional seaside resorts.
photo courtesy of BUAV
MAY/JUNE ‘08
V
buyer’s guide
Others argue that, if foreign tourism is
In reality, the majority of overseas holidays
managed sensitively, it can be a vital source
are not the kind of ‘eco-tourism’ that
of income for Majority world countries,
sustainability campaigners argue for. In many
attracting foreign currency and promoting
countries, tourist developments have wrecked
development that’s more sustainable than
ecosystems, brought exploitative working
alternatives such as mining or forestry.
conditions and offended local values and
Responsibletravel.com’s Krissy Pentland
customs. Low-impact tourism can do harm
suggests that: “we should be looking to reduce
by attracting the attention of big operators.
our carbon footprint in everyday life and this
Even monster resorts like Benidorm and Ibiza
means flying less. But we need to look at the
were once sleepy little villages, frequented by
whole picture, not just the flight. Tourists
a privileged few who thought they were in on
spend millions of pounds
a secret.
in developing countries
Campaign group
every year, and while,
Tourism Concern,
of course, not all of that
recognising that few
trickles into local people’s
people are actually ready
hands, a lot of it does.
to give up their foreign
Tourism is also one of
holidays, offers tips for
the largest industries in
travellers on how to find
the world, employing 1
a more ethical holiday.
in 8 people directly or
Its ‘Ethical Travel Guide’
indirectly and it’s growing
lists approved tour
fastest in developing
operators around the
countries where poverty
world.
reduction is most needed.
But, Tourism Concern
Unlike most sectors,
stresses, “it will be a
tourism has no export
while before you can
tariffs and is based
purchase a holiday with
around the assets of local
a fair trade mark. There
London Sustainable
people - their culture and
are no internationally
Development
environments.”
recognised accrediting
But even
Commission April 2004. bodies.” And it admits
Responsibletravel’s
that there is no easy
website now includes a
answer to the issue of
section entitled “I do not want to fly,” which
climate change, especially if you’re sceptical
features destinations easily accessible by train
about the value of carbon offsetting schemes
or boat.
as we are at Ethical Consumer.
“Six of the
top ten flight
destinations
from London
could be
reached by high
speed rail.”
Links and further
reading
www.tourismconcern.org.uk – especially its
‘FAQs for Tourists’
www.bettertransport.org.uk – The
Campaign for Better Transport
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/transport – the
original environmental campaigners
www.planestupid.com – “bringing the
aviation industry back down to earth!”
Carbon Offsets product report, Ethical
Consumer issue 106, May/June 2007
Interview with Seat61.com’s Mark Smith,
Ethical Consumer issue 109.
The Ethical Travel Guide: your passport
to alternative holidays. Polly Patullo/Orely
Minelli.Published by Earthscan/Tourism
Concern
Travel beyond Paris
With the improvement of high speed
rail links to destinations like Amsterdam
and between Madrid and Barcelona,
it’s increasingly easy to get beyond the
traditional Eurostar destinations without
flying.
A range of websites can offer advice and
ticket booking for trains throughout
Europe and into Asia, the Middle East and
North Africa. See www.seat61.com, www.
raileurope.com and www.noflights.com.
© Ynamaku | Dreamstime.com
References 1 www.asa.org.uk, viewed March 2008 2 Gossling et al 2007: “Voluntary carbon offsetting schemes for aviation – efficiency, credibility and sustainable
tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 15,3 3 Guardian 13th February 2008: “True scale of CO2 emissions from shipping revealed 4 DEFRA, 2007 Headline
statistical report on attitudes, behaviour and wellbeing 5 DEFRA, 2007 Headline statistical report on attitudes, behaviour and wellbeing 6 www.global-unions.
org October 2006 7 www.statewatch.org April 2003 8 San Jose Mercury News 15/11/2007 9 Radio Free Asia www.rfa.org 17/1/2008 10 Multinational Monitor,
September 2005 11 bbc.co.uk 23/8/2007 12 www.ert.be 2/2008 and www.tabd.com 12/2005 13 Independent 8/10/2007 14 www.flybmi.com 1/2008 15
Craven Herald & Pioneer 30/12/2003 16 www.jafza.ae 1/2008 17 www.iss-shipping.com 2/2008 18 www.serco.com 1/2006 19 bbc.co.uk 9/8/2006 20 www.
elfaa.com 1/2008 21 RMT press release 12/12/2006 22 Sunday Herald 18/12/2007 23 www.eurotunnel.com, viewed 3/2008 24 www.worldshop.eu 1/2008 25
Hazards April 2005 26 Labour Research January 2004 27 ww.personneltoday.com 10/10/2005 28 Guardian 2/10/2007 29 Scotsman 31/1/2004 30 bbc.co.uk
17/10/2005 31 Hazards January 2006 32 SNCF Annual Report 2006 33 l’Humanite 10/2006 34 Nanotechnology: undersized, unregulated and already here.
Corporate Watch 2007 35 Corporate Watch June 2005 36 Independent 8/10/2007 37 Labour Research August 2005 38 Hazards January 2006
MAY/JUNE ‘08
DIGITAL RADIO
DAB - Is it a wind-up?
It boasts crystal
clear sound and
station choice but
is there a downside
to digital radio?
Jane Turner finds
out whether it’s
worth it.
D
igital radios have been one of the
fastest selling consumer products
in the last five years with over a
quarter of UK adults now listening to digital
audio broadcasting (DAB). More than 85%
of people in the UK can get digital radio but
quality can be patchy in some places. You can
check what reception is like in your postcode
area by visiting www.digitalradionow.com.
This report only covers brands of portable
digital radios, not clock radios or micro
systems. All the radios in this report can
receive analogue FM signal as well. Some
digital radios let you record, pause and rewind
live radio and have electronic programme
guides (EPG) that tell you what’s on for the
next seven days.
Turn up the energy use
su mer m
azine
e th
on
ag
i c al c
The rise in use of digital radios is likely
to bring a surge in domestic
energy use. Traditional
analogue radios have
an average power
consumption of two
watts, but digital radios
consume, on average,
more than four times
this amount (8.5
watts).4 The ‘standby’
power used when the
digital radio is switched
off at the unit averages
five watts,4 compared
with less than one
watt for analogue
models. This power
consumption whilst
apparently ‘off’ can only
S T BU
Y
BE
be avoided by switching the radio off at the
wall.
If every household in the country switched
to digital radio and listened for 3 hours a
day and the rest of the time left the radio in
standby, the added burden to energy demand
would be equivalent to the electricity required
to power around 225,000 homes.4
However, ‘best practice’ digital radios, like
PURE’s EcoPlus range (see below), consume
much less energy than the average.
TV hell
According to the Energy Saving Trust, using
a digital radio is much better than listening
to digital radio through your television or
computer, which will use 10-20 times more
energy.4 The millions of Britons that do that
are releasing an extra 190,000 tonnnes of
CO2 a year.3 If your TV has ‘screen blanking’
then the amount of power can be reduced by
75% but only Sony TVs apparently have this
facility.4 Freeview owners can implement a
blank screen whilst listening to BBC stations,
which can cut energy consumption by more
than half.4
Some in the radio industry are predicting
that the future of digital radio is not in DAB
radios but listening via the internet and
mobile phones. One radio executive has called
DAB the “Betamax of radio” because the
technology has already been overtaken by
the web.
At the moment, three times as many of
us listen to radio via DAB rather than TV or
internet. But if TV listening becomes more
prevalent then TV manufacturers will have to
be pressurised to incorporate ‘screen blanking’
in all their TV models.
Considering green credentials as well as corporate performance, the Freeplay Devo with
wind-up facility is the Best Buy closely followed by the PURE Move which bears the Energy
Saving Recommended logo. The Devo costs £79.95 on the Freeplay website but Amazon were
selling them for £54.94 on 7/2/08. The Move has a RRP of £79.99.
However, Which? Described the sound quality of the Freeplay Devo as “poor” and that of
the PURE Move as “very poor”.1
Dualit and Intempo also have good ethiscores. The Dualit DAB Kitchen Radio (£175) was
also a Best Buy in Which?’s online report.1
PURE’s EcoPlus models score relatively well on our table and three models - Evoke-2
(£119), Evoke-3 (£200) and ONE – were Which? Best buys as well.1 The ONE is the cheapest
EcoPlus model and has a RRP of £49.99. It consumes less than 1w in standby and about 3.5w
in active mode.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
buyer’s guide
What about embodied
energy?
Green radios
Only two companies in this report marketed
their radios on their green credentials
– Freeplay and PURE. None of the other
companies made
any mention of the
environmental impact
of their radios or their
energy use.
The Freeplay Devo, is a
wind-up DAB radio with
analogue FM backup. It
can be human powered
and has a rechargeable
battery. When mains
power is not available to
recharge the battery the
analogue FM can be used.
A 60 second wind gives
1 hour of analogue FM
(but only 3-5 minutes of
DAB). A fully recharged
Energy Saving
battery gives 6 hours
Recommended
of DAB or 36 hours of
The PURE Move was
analogue FM. Freeplay’s
recently the first radio
non digital radios can
to be endorsed by The
additionally use solar
Energy Saving Trust
power.
(EST) and will now
PURE has an EcoPlus
carry the Energy Saving
range of 15 digital radios The Ampere Strikes Back,
‘Recommended’ logo.
which are designed to
Energy Saving Trust
The Move is a palm-sized,
have reduced power
DAB and FM
consumption in both
radio consuming less than 1w
standby and active mode. Standby power
power in standby and 1w
consumption for most EcoPlus products is
while active, the lowest of
less than 1w and active power consumption
all the EcoPlus
The trouble with some of these energy
calculations is that they don’t take into
account the energy it takes to manufacture,
ship and package a new DAB radio.
At least with listening via your TV or
computer you don’t have to buy another piece
of kit with all its associated environmental
impacts. We found one energy analysis of
DAB radio which estimated that 66kg of
CO2 were emitted during production and
distribution of each radio.5
According to our calculations, if you’re
listening on a computer with a 50 watt power
consumption (midway between a laptop and
desktop), you could listen to 7 hours a week
of DAB radio for 6 years before you emitted
the same 66kg of CO2 that it took to
manufacture a new radio.
Of course there are a lot of potential
variables here, but it is a calculation worth
making – especially if you’re going to listen on
a computer, not a TV, and you don’t listen to
that many hours a week.
“A typical non
digital radio
has a on-power
consumption
of 2 watts, this
compares to
an average ‘onpower’ rating
of 8.5 watts for
a current digital
variety.”
Freeplay Devo
Dualit DAB
Intempo
PURE Move
PURE EcoPlus models
Alba
Bush
Morphy Richards
Roberts
PURE
Sony
Key
 bottom rating
12.5
12
12
12
11.5
11
11
11
11
10.5
7.5
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Company Ethos
+ve
Anti-Social Finance
Political Activity
Boycott Call
Genetic Engineering
Politics
Supply Chain Policy
Workers’ Rights
People
Human Rights
Animals
Animal Rights
Pollution & Toxics
Climate Change
Nuclear Power
BRAND
Environment
Factory Farming
Switch your digital radio off at the
wall. Don’t leave it on stand-by.
Don’t listen to digital radio through
your TV.
Animal Testing
60 second green guide
•
•
can be as low as 18% of that of its
competitiors.
We couldn’t find energy consumption data
for any of the other brands in this report
(even Freeplay).
The EcoPlus range is
also packaged in recycled
content cardboard and
sold in the smallest boxes
possible instead of large
ones which stand out on
the shelf
As at February 2008,
portable models in the
EcoPlus range were:
DMX-20, Elan DX40,
Elan RV40, Evoke-1S,
Evoke-2XT, Evoke-3,
Move, Oasis, ONE,
PocketDAB.
models (and
thus meeting
the EST criteria of consuming
less than 1w power in standby
and 3.5w while active, and
also reducing landfill by
incorporating rechargeable
batteries).
continued...
COMPANY GROUP
Freeplay Energy Group
Dualit Ltd
Intempo Digital Ltd
Imagination Technologies
Alba plc
Alba plc
Glen Dimplex Group
Glen Dimplex Group
Sony Corp
1
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MAY/JUNE ‘08
DIGITAL RADIO
DAB - Don’t Actually
Bother?
Freeplay Foundation’s
Lifeline radio for
development and
humanitarian projects.
There is no doubt that DAB has reinvigorated
the now rapidly expanding UK radio market.
There are no current plans in the UK to
switch off analogue radio but sales of digital
radios are still predicted to rise.
Obviously the radio set manufacturers
are cock-a-hoop – a huge market of people
replacing their old analogue radios with
digital ones. It’s the CDs replacing cassettes
replacing vinyl scenario all over again. And
there are plans for an even newer way of
broadcasting digitally – DAB+ – which
will mean another raft of models that
we can replace our DAB radios with.
But is it actually worth it?
DAB is supposed to give crystalclear sound without the interference
experienced on analogue but there is
some anecdotal evidence that that’s
not always the case with reports of
‘babbling brook’ syndrome and
difficulties in receiving some stations
consistently. This is especially the case
with portable radios which use an
ordinary aerial rather than a rooftop
one. However, for some people,
sound quality was not the motive
for switching to digital radio. It’s the
greater number of stations and the ease
of switching between them.
All this is bad news for the environment
with a mountain of working analogue
radios discarded in favour of the
Holy Grail of more choice and
clearer reception. Another reason for
listening through your computer.
Company profiles
Sony Consumer electronics make
up two thirds of Japanese Sony’s
sales but it also makes films and
music. It owns the second biggest
record company in the world - Sony
BMG which operates primarily
through its stable of recording
labels, such as Columbia, Epic, and
RCA. It was the only company in
this report to get the best rating
for environmental reporting.
Additionally, Sony scored 7.3 out
of 10 and was ranked 3rd out of 18
in Greenpeace’s ‘Guide to Greener
Electronics’. More products were
free of toxic PVC than in the last
edition of the guide, and Sony had
improved reporting on recycling and
takeback, especially in the US.
Sony supplies the defence industry with
electronics products.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
Imagination Technologies.The company
designs audio and video systems for
consumer electronics gear. Many other
radios in this report will use technology
developed by Imagination: it says it has
a 70% market share in DAB technology,
supplying more than 150 radios with its
technologies. It also claims to be the
UK’s number 1 radio supplier, including
analogue radios.
It is part-owned by two investment
companies which belong to Prudential
and Schroders. It is these companies’
investments which give PURE its ratings in
the Habitats & Resources, Factory Farming
and Anti Social Finance categories.
Glen Dimplex The company makes
appliances and claims to be the world’s
largest electrical heating business. Its
other brands include New World Stoves,
Lec, Halstead and Belling. Founded in
1973, the privately held company remains
today majority-owned by its founder and
chairman, Martin Naughton
Freeplay Energy This company was formed
in 1996 to develop British inventor Trevor
Bayliss’ idea of a ‘clockwork radio’ which
could be used to halt the spread of
Aids through Africa by better education
delivered over the radio. It only makes self
sufficient energy products which are solar
powered or wind-up or can be recharged
from the mains. None of its radios, torches,
mobile phone chargers or foot powered
generators use disposable batteries.
35% of the world’s population still do
not have electricity and batteries can be
very expensive so wind-up products are
a good solution. In 1998 Freeplay set up
the Freeplay Foundation which supplies
wind-up and solar-powered ‘Lifeline’
radios, mainly to African development
and humanitarian projects, to help deliver
information and education. You can
sponsor a Lifeline radio by donating $50.
More information from
www.freeplayfoundation.org.
Links
www.digitalradionow.com – what is DAB,
what’s on DAB, what’s reception like in
your postcode, what digital radio products
are available.
‘The Ampere Strikes Back’ report is
downloadable from The Energy Saving
Trust’s website –
www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
www.which.co.uk
References: 1 Which? February 2008 online report – www.
which.co.uk 2 Imagination Technologies Annual Report 2007
3 ‘How the wrong sort of radio adds to CO2 emissions’ – The
Guardian 13/11/2006 4 The ampere strikes back – The Energy
Saving Trust 5 An ecological footprint and carbon audit of
digital radio – Best Foot Forward Ltd, August 2006
thePhoneCo.op
your voice counts
• co-operative
• ethical
• environmentally
responsible
•
•
•
•
low cost calls
broadband
line rental
mobile calls
Just call us on 0845 458 9000
quoting reference 121/076
and we’ll do the rest.
www.phone.coop/ecra
IF I CAN...
The reason Rozalina is campaigning
in the UK, invited by the Leedsbased organisation HomeWorkers
Worldwide, is that homeworkers are
invisible. They are not recognised by
companies nor the authorities, and
so their rights are very limited, or
non-existent.
“I exist like a number. When I go out
to the workshops to get work to take
back home I state my personal code
and not my name,” says Rozalina.
Rozalina
Ivanova
Rozalina Ivanova is a homeworker
in a small town in Southwestern
Bulgaria, and a fierce campaigner
for workers’ rights. She is calling
on British shoe companies,
the Bulgarian authorities, and
middlemen that benefit, to improve
the situation for homeworkers
in her country. Hanna Backman
talked to Rozalina during her visit
to the UK in March.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
In February 2004, she was involved
in setting up an association called
Kaloian for homeworkers in Bulgaria.
The aim of the association is to work
together to solve homeworkers’
problems. Work is underpaid and
irregular, health insurance is too
expensive for most workers, and there
are no paid holidays or sick leave.
Rozalina is one of approximately
half a million homeworkers out of a
population of 8 million. Employing
home based workers is a lucrative
business for the owners of workshops,
and middlemen who are always keen
to expand their businesses.
A Bulgarian subcontractor might
be offered £5-10 for a pair of shoes
by a British company, however
only a fraction of this goes to the
homeworking children, women and
men sewing the shoes.
“We get paid about 25p for a pair of
shoes, which is very little as we also
have to pay for our own expenses
such as heating and electricity in
the house. The local subcontractors
are the most greedy ones and the
government does nothing to improve
our situation,” says Rozalina.
When Rozalina visited Leeds in 2004
she came across shoes that had been
made in her hometown which were
sold in a shop for £78.
The minimum wage in Bulgaria is
110 euros (£90) a month, while food
prices are not much cheaper than in
the UK supermarkets. A loaf of bread
costs 40p and a kilogramme of oil
£1.50.
As her friends and neighbours are
also homeworkers they all share
stories between them, such as which
labels are sewn onto the shoes.
Rozalina has come across most of the
major shoe brands in the UK.
It’s common that the workshops keep
records of the home-based workers
for a month before the log books
disappear. For this reason Rozalina
was involved with inventing a receipt
system, a small piece of paper that
the labourer and the middleman
sign when the shoes are handed
over. The receipt is then kept by
the homeworker for campaigning
activities.
“We know about the big companies,
but people are afraid of speaking
up. It’s a difficult situation as we
don’t want the work to go from our
hometown,” says Rozalina.
At one point, she went to a Greek
subcontractor to complain about the
lack of workers’ rights in a certain
workshop. However, rather than the
management improving their records
the workshop was gone the next day.
“Owners of the workshops threaten
to withhold the workers’ pay if they
attend information meetings so
when we started to campaign for
labour rights people simply didn’t
turn up. So it is very difficult to unite
homeworkers, and the trade unions
don’t recognise them,” says Rozalina.
“One of the problems now is that
homeworkers in the villages are paid
a lower rate than those in the town
itself, for doing exactly the same
work, on the same model of shoe. So
in one of the villages, where there are
about 400 homeworkers, some of the
women refused to take work from the
intermediary until he raised the rate.
This meant that they had to go to the
town in a van and get the work from
another subcontractor. In the end the
intermediary raised the rate of pay
because he had to meet his deadlines.
“We have been able to work together
in another six villages for the same
aim. Now the women in these seven
villages and the town get paid the
same rate, for the same work,” says
Rozalina.
HomeWorkers Worldwide (HWW)
is a UK-based organisation set up to
support the movement of homebased workers around the world.
www.homeworkersww.org.uk
regulars
PEOPLE
Leon
Rosselson
Singer-songwriter Leon Rosselson has
been writing and recording songs since
the 1960s. On of his best known tracks,
The World Turned Upside Down, hit the
charts in the 1980s in a cover version by
Billy Bragg. Leon has toured throughout
Europe, North America and Australia
and released numerous albums. One of
his 17 children’s books, Rosa’s Singing
Grandfather, was shortlisted for the
Carnegie medal.
Which person (living or dead)
has most influenced your
opinions. Why?
Who would you like to win a
reward for ‘worst corporation
of the year’? Why?
A very early - and therefore profound
- influence was Geoffrey Trease whose
children’s books ‘Bows Against the
Barons’ - Robin Hood as class warrior
- and ‘Missing from Home’, about
two middle class children who run
away
from home and
get involved
in a strike in
Yorkshire,
pointed me in
the right direction.
They don’t write them like that any
more.
An arms company like British
Aerospace or an oil company. Both
do terrible damage to people and to
the environment. Let’s say BP since
it now seems intent on stealing Iraq’s
oil.
Which brands (if any) are you
currently boycotting? Why?
How do you feel about the
future? Are you optimistic?
I won’t buy Israeli goods while Israel
is in occupation of Palestinian lands.
Nestlé for obvious reasons [such as
the Nestlé baby milk boycott]. I don’t
buy designer labels.
Not very. The opposition to
global capitalism looks weak and
fragmented. But I retain a residue of
belief that we will win in the end.
Anarchism/Socialism/
Capitalism or other?
These are labels whose meanings I’d
like to explore before committing
myself. But if I have to choose,
socialism with a libertarian (i.e.
anarchist) face.
What do you currently do to
reduce your impact on the
world?
I’ve given up flying.
Meat eater/Vegetarian/Vegan/
Fruitarian?
Meat eater.
Favourite dish using a local
vegetable?
Potato latkes. I make it once a year for
Chanukah. It reminds me of home.
Who would win ‘best?’ Why?
‘Best corporation’ sounds like an
oxymoron to me.
What might improve the life
of an ethical consumer?
If small ethical companies were not
taken over by large corporations.
What are your own energy
saving tips?
When the cold nights draw in, go to
bed early with your partner. Or a hot
water bottle.
What issues make you want to
get out of your armchair and
onto the streets to protest?
I went on the first Aldermaston
march 50 years ago. I was part of the
year-long blockade of the Faslane
nuclear submarine base which ended
last October. I’ve been on every Stop
the War march and every protest
against Israel’s brutal occupation.
If you had to give up all your
technological and electrical
appliances bar one, which
one would you keep and
why?
Most difficult ethical
purchasing decision?
I could give up all such appliances as
long as I had my guitar.
Buying a car. I suppose the hybrids
are the more ethical choice, but
they’re much more expensive.
In an ideal world, which
product/brand or item would
you like to be ‘ethical’ that
currently isn’t?!
Favourite local destination to
holiday in?
A car. I do need a car to travel to gigs.
The Pembrokeshire coastal path.
Tell us a joke to cheer us up!
If you could come up with
one piece of legislation
(national or international)
that would be implemented
tomorrow, what law would
you pass?
I had to smile when I read that the
Astrological Magazine had stopped
publication ‘due to unforeseen
circumstances’.
Abolish testing in schools. Outlaw
nuclear weapons. Make public
transport free. Take your pick...
MAY/JUNE
Leon’s new album,
A Proper State, is available from
www.leonrosselson.co.uk.
BABY CLOTHES
Made for kids…
by kids?
© Yuris | Dreamstime.com”
With organic and
Fairtrade baby
clothes there’s
an alternative to
the human and
environmental cost
of the cotton trade.
Dan Welch & Mary
Rayner investigate.
I
n November last year activists published
an open letter calling for a boycott of
Uzbek cotton, over the systematic state
use of child labour. The Uzbek government
empties schools in the picking season,
forcing nearly half a million children to
work. According to one school teacher,
“Kindergartens are closed…It’s never been
as hard as this time.” The children, some as
young as seven, inhale dust saturated with
the residues of chemicals, pesticides, and
defoliants used on the cotton crop.
Of the big retailers on our table M&S,
Debenhams and H&M have joined the
boycott. The appalling situation in Uzbekistan
has put a spotlight on what is a global
problem – unsustainable, un-ethical cotton
production. It’s a story of child labour,
environmental degradation and a million
cases of serious pesticide poisoning a year.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The boom
in organic and Fairtrade cotton offers an
alternative, sustainable model. Sales of organic
garments in the UK have doubled in the last
couple of years ; and following the launch of
Fairtrade-marked cotton in 2005 there was a
twelve-fold increase in demand over a single
season.
su mer m
azine
e th
on
S T BU
Y
BE
Things are changing fast on the high street.
M&S has been at the forefront of promoting
Fairtrade cotton in mainstream retailing, and
currently offers
Fairtrade organic
baby-grows.
Debenhams
also now offer
a range of good
value organic
baby basics, while
babyGap have
a new organic
range too. H&M
have baby basics
carrying the EU
Eco-label or Flower
ag
i c al c
High Street Revolution
logo. In order to be certified with the Flower
logo products have to meet strict criteria for
all the main environmental impacts across
their whole life cycle. Credit is also due to
H&M for using a 50% organic cotton blend in
some of their baby garments. It’s a refreshing
antidote to the claim that marketing always
drives corporate responsibility. These blended
items aren’t labelled organic - but they are
part of a drive that’s seen the company
use more organic cotton in its spring 2008
collection than in the whole of 2007.
At the same time there are a growing
number of small ethical labels joining the
pioneers – like Bishopston Trading and
Gossypium – that have shown the way. What
makes our best buys stand out is the depth of
commitment they demonstrate to ensuring
social and environmental standards in their
supply chains. Organic and Fairtrade labelling
are hugely important, but they don’t tell the
whole story.
Frugi’s Lucy Jewson explained that the
company had been working with the same
group of Indian cotton growers for several
years. “They’re working towards Fairtrade
certification,” said Lucy. “But it can take quite
some time, and obviously we want to support
them in that process rather than turn to other
sources that are already Fairtrade certified.”
Similarly, Hannah Evans, founder of
Piccalilly, explained that the company did
sell a small number of garments not yet
accredited as organic. In order to ‘go organic’
small producers stop using pesticides, and as
a result see their crop yields drop for some
time before they can claim the organic label.
Without the financial support of committed
ethical businesses it would be impossible for
small producers in the developing world to
make that difficult transition.
A genuine commitment to conditions in
the supply chain is costly and complicated
for small businesses. According to Hannah,
knowing every step in her supply chain
ensures she can guarantee the ethics behind
her label. But a single chain from grower to
spinner to factory can lead to a stop-start
Pudding Clothing (02084040952), Cut4Cloth\Frugi (01326221930), Gossypium
(08708509953), Little Green Radicals (08451301525), Bishopston Trading (01179245598),
Natural Clothing Co. (0845 345 0498), Organics for Kids (01865 725730), Piccalilly
(01729841088), Green Baby (02072269244), Greenfibres (01803 868001).
MAY/JUNE ‘08
buyer’s guide
covers production by Bishopston, Gossypium,
and Green Baby.
trade unions and NGOs, dealing quickly
and effectively with problems in factories
when they emerge”.5
Paying the price for your
ethics?
Mothercare on the other hand were
notable for their poor level of social and
environmental reporting.
You’d be forgiven for thinking
Fairtrade=People, Organic=Planet. In reality
just as the Fairtrade code has minimum
environmental standards, organic labelling
It may surprise some that Gap gets
can guarantee social standards.
our best rating for supply chain policy.
The Global Organic Textile
Controversies remain, but campaigners
Standards (which include the Soil
‘Labour behind the Label’, while noting
Association), cover manufacturing
“there is still room for improvement” say
as well as agriculture, including
Gap has built “positive relationships with
a commitment to a ‘living
wage’. The Fairtrade
Environment
Animals
People
Politics
Foundation mark applies
to cotton production,
while the International
Fair Trade Organisation’s
logo covers conditions
in production. The code
Brand key
F = Fairtrade, O = Organic
Frugi & Cut4Cloth [O]
Gossypium [F,O]
Little Green Radicals [O,F]
Pudding [O,F]
Bishopston Trading [O,F]
Natural Clothing Co. [O,F]
Organics for Kids [O,F]
Picalilly [O,F]
Green Baby [O,F]
Greenfibres [O]
Katvig Organic [O]
Earth Collection [O]
BabyGap Organics [O]
M&S organic [O,F]
H&M Eco-label
Next
Debenhams organic [O]
Mothercare
Key
 bottom rating
17
17
17
17
16.5
16.5
16.5
16.5
15.5
15
15
12
10.5
9.5
7
6.5
6
6
Political Activity
Boycott Call
Genetic Engineering
Supply Chain Policy
Workers’ Rights
Human Rights
Animal Rights
Factory Farming
Animal Testing
Pollution & Toxics
Climate Change
Nuclear Power
BRAND
Company Profiles
Earth Collection, an international franchise
operation, produces its garments in China,
but claims that long-standing relationships
mean they have significantly improved
conditions in supplier factories.
H&M are subject to a boycott call for
animal testing from BUAV over their own
brand cosmetics. The Boycott Israeli Goods
campaign call for a boycott of Mothercare
and M&S.6
Katvig narrowly missed Best Buys over
supply chain policy. A relatively new
company, they are visiting supplier factories
this year, so may be eligible before long.
Vegans note: Green Baby retails leather
shoes; Bishopston, Natural Clothing and
Greenfibres sell silk, and the latter two wool.
+ve
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Converging Standards
As well as an organic range, all of Katvig’s
collection is Oeko-tex certified – a standard
that guarantees the absence of an extensive
range of harmful substances.
Company Ethos
Comparing Debenhams organic range to its
‘j junior’ non-organics, two organic vests retail
at £8, against £5 for non-organics. Of our best
buys, Natural Clothing Company, Green Baby,
Bishopston Trading compete well with these
high street prices on baby basics. Of course
‘luxury brands’ are expensive whether organic
or not, and our pricier best buys range for
baby grows from Frugi at £6.50 to Gossypium
or Pudding at £15.
New mum Anna Dawton says, “I’ve
not tried all the best buys, but I can really
recommend Cut4Cloth and Organics for Kids
for quality.”
Anti-Social Finance
supply. In a bid to expand her sources she
travelled to India last year to research the
possibilities. Despite visiting five factories
producing organic cotton garments she could
not find one that met her exacting ethical
standards of trace-ability back to the growers.
Bishopston Trading Company, a pioneer
in the field, is a not-for-profit with a longstanding commitment to its Indian supplier
factory, and the community it supports. For
founder Carolyn Whitwell maintaining the
integrity of conditions in the supply chain is
far more important than growth for growth’s
sake. “We really do believe small is beautiful,”
says Carolyn, “We’ve actually turned down
several large orders, because it would mean
sourcing beyond our partner factory.”
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LINKS
Environmental Justice
Foundation
www.ejfoundation.org/
Pesticide Action Network
www.pan-uk.org
‘Sustainable Fashion &
Textiles: Design Journeys’
Kate Fletcher, Earthscan 2008
COMPANY GROUP
Cut4Cloth Ltd
Vericott Ltd
Hug (UK) Ltd
Pudding Clothing
Bishopston Trading Company
Schmidt Natural Clothing
Organics for Kids Ltd
Picalilly Ltd
Green Baby Co. Ltd
Greenfibres Ltd
Katvig ApS
BCC Pacific Ltd
Gap Inc
Marks & Spencer plc
Hennes Mauritz AB
Next plc
Debenhams plc
Mothercare plc
 half mark
References 1 www.rferl.org Uzbekistan: Call For Boycott Over Uzbek Child Labor 21/11/07 2 www.ejfoundation.org/page327.html viewed 3/3/08 3 personal communication, Pesticide Action
Network UK, 29th November 2007 4 Redressing a global imbalance: the case for fairtrade certified cotton. Fair Trade Foundation, November 2005 5 www.cleanupfashion.co.uk viewed 3/3/08
6 www.bigcampaign.org:pdf of boycotted companies viewed 1/3/08
MAY/JUNE ‘08
COOKING OIL
Bubbling away on
the back burner...
azine
S T BU
Y
BE
With the rapidly dwindling supply of fossil
fuels, interest in biofuels has erupted. The
crops used to produce these fuels are the same
ones used to produce our domestic cooking
oil - soya, palm and rape (currently Europe’s
main biofuel crop2). It therefore follows that
many of the companies behind domestic oils
are also involved in, or looking to become
involved in, biofuel production.
Major biofuel players included in this
report are Archer Daniels Midland, which
produces 1.1 billion gallons of the 6.5 billion
gallons of ethanol produced in the USA,3
and Carotino, a member of the J C Chang
Group, who produce 180,000 tonnes of palm
biodiesel a year in Malaysia.4
Also, AarhusKarlshamn (who make Again
& Again
oil and
Midsummer
organic oil)
signed an
agreement
in July last
year with
Lantmännen
Energi to
invest in a
new crushing
plant for
edible
oils and
biodiesel,
which
will have
a capacity
sufficient
to crush
and refine
all Swedish
rapeseed.5
su mer m
e th
on
Biofuels
Supporters of biofuels argue that they can
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because
the crops grown to produce them absorb
carbon dioxide from the air. However,
opinions are divided. Environmental pressure
group Friends of the Earth (FoE) believes
that the potential for the usefulness of
biofuels in reduction of emissions is limited,
and that it would be better to cut them at
source, as biofuel crops may potentially end
up contributing to emissions rather than
reducing them.6
Campaigners also fear that valuable foodgrowing land is being diverted to be used for
biofuel crops.
Deepak Rughani of BiofuelWatch notes
that the price of basic food staples such as
grains and vegetable oils have risen by over
40% in just a year. He is concerned that even
in this country regulations for set-aside land
have been repealed to grow more agrofuels.
“Not only will this further reduce farmland
biodiversity, but the nitrous oxide emissions
associated with rapeseed oil production have
been shown to increase overall
greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70%
when compared with the diesel fuel it replaces.
On April 15th the RTFO (Renewable
Transport Fuel Obligation) legislation
comes into effect. From then on you can’t
simply boycott biofuel; it will be mixed at
2.5% in all petrol and diesel. Each of us will
be contributing to deforestation, species
loss, humanitarian abuses and starvation
irrespective of conscience.”7
Genetic Modification
An article in the Ecologist states that most
corn grown for ethanol production in the
US is GM, and suggests that, since GM
varieties offer no particular advantage over
conventional corn for ethanol production, this
might be a result of the rejection of GM crops
for food use.8 Therefore increased demand
may also mean more demand for GM oilseed
crops, in particular soya beans.
The Archer Daniels Midland company have
no group-wide GM policy9 which may suggest
ag
i c al c
Of all the things
in the cupboard,
cooking oil is
probably one of the
things we think about
the least when it
comes to shopping
ethically. Well, it’s
just the oil squeezed
out of seeds, right?
What’s to think
about? Bryony Moore
delves deeper...
Farming and the
environment
Clearspring’s organic cold-pressed oils (020 8749 1781) and Suma’s (01422 313848) and
Biona’s (020 8547 2775) organic oils are best buys. Also coming out on top are Farrington’s
Mellow Yellow (01933 622809) and Hillfarm Oils rapeseed oil (01986 798660), both of which
are grown and bottled on family farms in the UK.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
buyer’s guide
from Cote D’Ivoire where child labour was
a big problem. According to the article,
around 10,000 children working on cocoa
farms were victims of human trafficking
or enslavement, worked long hours in
the heat and faced frequent exposure to
pesticides.15
Biona oils [O]
Clearspring oil [O]
Mellow Yellow oil
Hillfarm Oils rapeseed oil
Suma sunflower oil [O]
Meridian oil [O]
Carotino oil
Midsummer oil [O]
Soyola soya oil
Again & Again frying oil
KTC oil
Pura oil
Flora oil
Key
 bottom rating
16
15
14
14
14
13.5
12
12
12
11
11
2
0
Links
Online local food finders:
Food Lovers Britain
www.foodloversbritain.com
Local Food Web www.localfoodweb.co.uk
Big Barn www.bigbarn.co.uk
do
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
 middle rating
H
H h
H
h
H
h
H
h
H
h
h
H
h
H h H
H H H H H h H h
H h
H H H H H H H H H h H H h H h
e
Company Ethos
References: 2 www.biofuelstp.eu/crops.html 03/03/2008
3 http://www.forbes.com/ 03/03/2008 4 www.
biodieselinvesting.com 03/03/2008 5 www.flex-news-food.
com 03/03/2008 6 http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/
palm_oil_biofuel_position.pdf 03/03/2008 7 Deepak ____
via email 11/03/08 8 www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.
asp?content_id=831 03/03/2008 9 www.admworld.
com 03/03/2008 10 Shop survey by ECRA 06/02/08 11
www.innvista.com/03/03/2008 12 www.co.thurston.
wa.us/health/ehhm/hazards.html “Hazards
of Household Materials 03/03/2008 13
www.trianglesolvents.co.za/attachments/
+ve
Benzine%20MSDS.pdf 03/03/2008 14
www.innavista.com 03/03/2008 15 www.
corpwatch.org: Green Fuels Dirty Secret (1
June 2006) 16 J.C.Chang Group corporate
communications:JC Chang Group/Carotino
Corporate Environment Policy (27 February
2008) 17 SOMO Reports: Unilever – Ghana
(27 March 2007) 18 PETA – Companies that
test on animals: Companies that do test on
animals (11 January 2007) 19 Ecologist, the:
July/August 2006
e
H
one thing
We have the capacity to grow and bottle
our own domestic cooking oil within the
boundaries of the UK, so buy these
products and help reduce carbon
emissions from non-essential food miles.
Anti-Social Finance
Political Activity
Boycott Call
Genetic Engineering
Politics
People
Supply Chain Policy
Animals
Workers’ Rights
Pollution & Toxics
Climate Change
Nuclear Power
BRAND
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the largest
producer of ethanol in the US, was ranked
as the tenth biggest corporate air polluter
in a report dated 1st June
2006 on www.corpwatch.
Environment
org. It has been charged
with violations of the
Clean Air Act at 52 plants
in 16 states.14 Also, the
Food Magazine reported
in June 2007 that ADM was
one of a large number of
companies sourcing cocoa
Human Rights
Companies Section
to survive extreme cold at the bottom of
the sea, was chemically synthesised and
was added to the ice cream to lower the
temperature at which ice-crystals formed.19
Unilever is a member of the RSPO.
Friends of the Earth www.foe.co.uk
Biofuelwatch www.biofuelwatch.org.uk
Natural Resources Defense Council
www.nrdc.org
According to the SOMO/FNV report
(June 2006) the communities in two of
Unilever’s Ghanian oil palm plantations
had complained that the company
severely contaminated their drinking
water, damaged their roads and made
claims regarding land ownership that may
have been illegitimate.17 Unilever, who
make Flora sunflower oil, is on People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
list of ‘Companies that test on animals’.
The company was on the list because it
manufactured personal care and household
products that were tested on animals, even
thought it was not required by law.18 Also,
according to the July/August 2006 edition
of the Ecologist, Unilever was set to use
a blood protein taken from fish blood to
create the world’s first ice-creams using GM
technology. Unilever claimed this would
allow it to develop low-calorie, low-fat ice
cream for it’s Wall’s brand. The protein,
from the ocean pout fish which used it
Animal Rights
Cooking oils are extracted either mechanically,
or with the use of solvents. With the latter, a
solvent (such as hexane or heptane11, both of
which which are skin and lung irritants12 and
nervous system depressants)13 is mixed with
the cracked seeds to draw out the oil. The oilsolvent mixture is then heated to evaporate
the solvent off.
Doesn’t sound too appetising? There is no
firm regulation of what “cold-pressed” means,
and this varies from country to country, but
these oils will usually have been machine
extracted and not heated above a temperature
of around 27 degrees Celsius in the EU. Also
from a health point of view, look out for other
dodgy additions to cooking oil, like artificial
colours, flavourings (beef flavouring found
in the Harry Ramsden’s cooking oil, which
wasn’t featured in this report) and antifoaming agents (found in Again & Again
and Crisp’n’Dry).
JC Chang Group (Carotino) is a member
of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm
Oil production (RSPO) who are a multistakeholder group working towards the
sustainable production of palm oil.16
Factory Farming
Health
Animal Testing
that the company uses GM ingredients for
it’s biofuels arm. During a shop survey Ethical
Consumer found that KTC’s vegetable oil was
labelled as containing GM soya, although the
company is not involved in biofuels.10
COMPANY GROUP
1
1
Windmill Organics
Clearspring Ltd
Farrington Oils Ltd
Hillfarm Oils
Triangle Wholefoods
Meridian Foods Ltd
J.C. Chang Group
AarhusKarlshamn
Haci Omer Sabanci Holding
AarhusKarlshamn
KTC (Edibles) Ltd
ADM/Mitsubishi
Unilever/Mitsubishi
1
1
1
 half mark
[O] = Organic
MAY/JUNE ‘08
ANIMAL FRIENDLY FOOTWEAR
Send name and address for free colour brochure, range
includes men’s and ladies shoes and boots, leisure shoes,
walking boots, safety boots, jackets, belts etc...
12 Gardner Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1UP
Tel/Fax: 01273 691913
email: [email protected]
ORDER DIRECT ON-LINE
www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk
boycotts news
Please sir, can I have some
more... time?
In February, the baby food industry challenged
the UK Infant Formula and Follow-on Formula
Regulations 2007 in the High Court.
The regulations stipulated new European rules
on the claims that manufacturers could make.
Incredibly, the court gave them an extra 2 years to
comply, despite the fact that the regulations were due to come in to
force on January 11 2008.
Companies will have to comply with all other parts of the
regulations immediately.
Campaign group Baby Milk Action presented evidence to the court
suggesting that as labels on the market are non-compliant with
the 1995 version of the Regulations and companies have already
been warned by Trading Standards they must change these labels,
it would have made far more sense to ask them to comply directly
with the 2007 Regulations.
Now that the ruling has been made, Baby Milk Action is calling
for Trading Standards to act to take illegal labels off the market. Both
1995 and 2007 Regulations only allow a limited range of claims on
labels. Many of those currently in use are not on the list, including:
Winning the Bluefin Battle
WWF praises European supermarkets
who have stopped selling bluefin tuna
* Immunofortis
* Prebiotics and Prebiotic care
* New improved protein balance
* Easily digested
The environmental group WWF has called on supermarket
chains around the world to take bluefin tuna off their shelves,
saying overfishing, driven by the craze for sushi, threatened to
wipe out the species.
The French supermarket giant Auchan, as well as the Italian
subsidiaries of Coop and Carrefour, have already stopped selling
bluefin.
Before retailers started taking matters into their own hands,
WWF had suggested to the International Commission for the
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting in November
that contracting countries agree on a 3-year ban on bluefin tuna
fishing, but this move was rejected.
“WWF applauds Auchan in France, Carrefour in Italy, Coop
in both Italy and Switzerland, and ICA in Norway for their
courageous decisions to stop selling Mediterranean bluefin tuna
– and we urge other retailers to follow suit,” says Dr Sergi Tudela,
Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean. France’s Auchan
group, with a nearly 14 per cent share of the retail fish trade,
declared its boycott on 28 December 2007, noting that scientists
had advised a 15,000 tonne ceiling on annual catches, while the
international tuna management body was allowing a 2008 quota
of 29,500 tonnes.
Both the 1995 and 2007 Regulations also prohibit idealizing text
and images from labels. Trading Standards have already warned
various companies they must change their labels to comply.
To join the campaign and encourage UK supermarkets on board
visit www.wwf.org.uk or call 01483 426333
image from http://news.nationalgeographic.com
For more info visit: www.babymilkaction.org or call: 01223 464420
The Sweet Taste of Success!
© Pavel Losevsky | Dreamstime.com”
Booktrust Can’t Trust Nestlé
It has been announced by the Book Trust that Nestlé are no
longer sponsoring the Children’s Book Prize. According to
it’s website “Booktrust has been reviewing the organisation’s
priorities and how prizes and awards fit in with its strategic
objectives.” This news came after children’s author, Sean Taylor,
who was Gold winner of the Under-5 category last year for
his book When a Monster is Born, refused to accept the prize
money.
In an open letter Mr. Taylor indicated that he would not accept
the prize money for the prize which is sponsored by Nestlé. He
commented:
“Being on the short list for the 2007 Nestlé Children’s book
Prize is a significant honour for me, especially since so many
children around the country have been involved
in choosing the winning books. And I am
delighted to accept the award offered to me.
“However, because of questions surrounding
Nestlé’s marketing of breast-milk substitutes, I
do not feel able to accept the prize money.”
Please visit the Baby Milk Action
website for more info:
www.babymilkaction.org or call:
01223 464420
Shell Wildlife Destroyer
of the Year
After 2 years of campaigning against Shell’s sponsorship of
the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award, environmental
campaigners celebrated another success. Shell’s sponsorship of
the prestigious wildlife competition and award was criticised as
being greenwash, given the oil giant’s appalling environmental
record. The museum confirmed on 26 January that Shell will
play no further part in the competition’s sponsorship.
Nearly 5,000 letters and emails were sent by Friends of the Earth
supporters to Michael Dixon, the director of the Natural History
Museum, calling on him not to renew the sponsorship deal.
MAY/JUNE ‘08
PALM OIL
Sustainable
Palm Oil
Palm oil is in one in ten supermarket products, from
soaps and detergents to cosmetics and foods. The
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was set-up
as a voluntary organisation to promote sustainable practices
in the industry. Dan Welch asks, can the RSPO deliver?
L
ast year the United Nations Environment
Program made the shocking prediction
that if deforestation in Sumatra and
Borneo continues at the current rate, the
orang-utan will be virtually extinct in 15
years or sooner. In February, WWF reported
that carbon emissions from the Indonesian
province of Riau, from forest loss, fires and peat
decomposition were equal to 39% of the UK’s
annual emissions.1 Forest clearance for palm oil
production is the number one cause. In Aceh
province, the Regional Head of Investment
warns that unregulated expansion of palm oil
“is a potential time bomb” threatening to reignite the decades long civil war.2
The RSPO is a multi-stakeholder
organisation dedicated to the development,
implementation and verification of
sustainability standards in the industry. Its
members include NGOs such as WWF, Oxfam
and the Indonesian Sawit Watch, and players
throughout the complex palm oil supply
chain. It includes growers, processors and
traders, consumer goods manufacturers such
as Unilever, retailers, banks and investors,
such as HSBC, and other interested parties
such as BP. Thanks to campaigning by Friends
of the Earth and engagement from activist
investors Co-operative Insurance, all of the
UK’s biggest food retailers have joined up.
Today all but two of the top 15 biggest palm oil
companies in the world are members.3 It is the
first time that such an organisation has been
established to develop sustainability criteria for
an agricultural commodity. The RSPO has the
unenviable task of achieving consensus from
the agendas of stakeholders as diverse as small
farmers, environmental NGOs, multinationals
and governments.
How will it work?
In November 2007, after 18 months of development work, the RSPO
unveiled its certification system – how to actually implement and verify
its standards in the supply chain. RSPO certified products are not on the
supermarket shelves yet, but they are a significant step closer.
The demand for sustainably produced palm oil is largely driven by
European consumers. Globally only about 17% of palm oil goes to
Europe. India and China are huge consumers – but their products must
satisfy a European market too.
The RSPO mechanisms have to govern growing (both by small
holders and giant plantations), palm oil production, refining, processing
and certifying the end product.
Auditing a trail from plantation to product is a hugely complex task.
Most palm oil is produced through processes that see large quantities
from multiple sources mixed to achieve the critical mass practical
for refining, and then again for transportation. To enable a flexible
approach to this complex situation the RSPO has three supply chain
options for ‘certified sustainable palm oil’ (CSPO):
In 2005 the RSPO
published its ‘Principles &
Criteria’ for sustainable palm oil production.
Indigenous peoples in south-east Asia have
often suffered from land grabs, the loss of their
traditional forest resources and exploitation at
the hands of the palm oil industry. Workers,
often migrants, have suffered endemic rights
abuses. At the heart of the RSPO’s ambitious
principles is the notion of “Free, Prior and
Informed Consent” of those effected by the
industry. However, not only corruption, but the
law itself can undermine these principles. In
Indonesia 70% of land is classified ‘state owned
forest’ and indigenous peoples are denied
meaningful land rights. Avoiding deforestation
is usually couched in terms of exploiting
‘wasteland’. But again, in Indonesia, all such
designated land is state-owned, whether
occupied or not.
• Segregated supply chains - 100% CSPO traced from plantation to
product, allowing the claim “This product contains RSPO certified
palm oil”.
• Mass Balance – or controlled mixing of certified and non-certified
palm oil. This option arises because oil from multiple sources tends
to be mixed in a single processing mill and fully segregated supply
chains are currently very expensive. It is seen as a valuable stepping
stone towards 100% CSPO. It will enable a product claim relating to
containing CSPO from mixed sources.
• Book & claim – This is the low cost alternative to physical segregation
and traceability. The grower will be certified. But rather than the
physical palm oil being traced through the supply chain, the grower
is issued with a certificate for the CSPO produced. A consumer
goods company then buys the certificate, supporting the initiative by
rewarding the grower. The company can then claim “This product
supports the trade in sustainable palm oil”. The scheme aims to return
bigger potential income to the growers than segregated supply chains,
directly encouraging more growers to work towards sustainability best
practice.
“© Kitchner Bain | Dreamstime.com”
MAY/JUNE ‘08
feature
Criticism and controversy
In 2006 the International Union of Food
workers (IUF) condemned the RSPO as
“a hollow front for corporate greed and
brutality”.7 The RSPO was embroiled in
controversy over the behaviour of Musim
Mas, a member and major supplier to
Unilever, which chairs the RSPO’s board. In
2005, following a strike over the company’s
long-term refusal to negotiate with the local
union over legally guaranteed minimum
labour standards, six trade union leaders were
jailed for up to two years. A thousand union
members were fired, workers were evicted from
their homes and children from their schools.
Amnesty International declared the six men
“prisoners of conscience... detained purely for
the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom
of association and collective bargaining”.4
The following year the Dutch national trade
union centre FNV called on its government to
withdraw support for the RSPO if it failed to
terminate the membership of Musim Mas.
The IUF accused the RSPO of refusing to
apply their own “Principles & Criteria” to a
member - which include the right to organised
labour and a ban on discrimination on the
basis of union membership.5 The IUF is no
longer in dispute with Musim Mas; but accused
the company of starving the local union into
submission and reaching an accommodation
with workers under duress.
The RSPO in turn stated that although it
could “monitor progress and compliance” it
“cannot pass judgement on the sustainability
of its members”.9 Members are required
to work towards, but are not bound by the
“Principles & Criteria”.
In a recent report Greenpeace accused
the RSPO of taking “few meaningful steps
to end the devastation and injustice linked
to the industry”. While acknowledging that
some RSPO members motives are genuine,
Greenpeace claims “many in the industry are
using the RSPO to cover their backs, putting off
urgent action while the destruction continues”
(naming Unilever, Cargill and Nestlé
specifically) .
However, the report’s conclusions, that
Indonesia should stop felling its forests and that
industry should “support zero deforestation”
and “clean up the trade” rather begs the
question “how?” rather than providing a
solution. Few would argue with the injunction
to the industry “do not trade with those
engaged in deforestation,” but doesn’t that
rather demand an industry-wide mechanism?
Something rather like the RSPO?
Lush and Body Shop
At the consumer goods end of the market, two
major players distinguished by their ethical
credentials have taken different strategies
on the issue. The two approaches embody a
common dilemma: to boycott or engage?
In November last year Lush announced that
it had produced the first ever palm-oil free
soap base suitable for large-scale production.
Lush told Ethical Consumer that the plan
to develop the alternative had arisen out of
disenchantment with the RSPO: “When two
of our buyers went to the RSPO, they came
away thinking that the whole thing…was
dominated by people from within the palm
industry who seemed more interested in
preserving the status quo.”
The Body Shop, on the other hand, which
was one of the first RSPO members, remains
an active participant. It announced its own
initiative in July last year, to source all the
palm oil for its soaps from Daabon, an organic
producer in Colombia. According to Jan
Buckingham, Body Shop’s Director of Values,
the move came at a point when the RSPO
process was “wobbling” and the company
wanted to demonstrate to suppliers in southeast Asia there was a market for sustainable
palm oil. Steve Noble, Head of Global
Sourcing added: “the RSPO wasn’t moving
quickly enough for us, but we remain active
participants. Daabon was already up to RSPO
standards - we can trace from the palm to the
product. And we’re looking for it to be certified
in future. Ultimately we would like multiple
RSPO sources.”
Positive Indications
In July last year Friends of the Earth (FoE)
published a report condemning Wilmar, the
world’s biggest palm oil trader, for illegally
logging and burning rainforests and violating
the rights of local communities in Indonesia.11
Again, Wilmar is a member of the RSPO. But
it is hardly surprising that RSPO members
are accused of unsustainable practices, given
what we know of the industry. The issue is
whether it serves as a forum in which members
can be challenged. FoE lodged a complaint
against Wilmar with the RSPO, and, unlike
the Musim Mas case, it has served a useful
purpose. The company admitted culpability in
three cases raised by FoE over land acquisition,
compensation and environmental impact
assessments, and undertook to change its
practices8.
FoE also lodged a successful complaint with
the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority
against claims to sustainability made by the
Malaysian Palm Oil Council – and used the
RSPO criteria to do so. Rather than greenwash
therefore, in this concrete case, the RSPO
standards are helping to keep false claims in
check.
And if we look to the sharp end of the palm
oil trade the message is clear. In the posttsunami province of Aceh, the end of the civil
war presents an opportunity, and a new threat
– palm oil. The demands of local NGO Eye on
Aceh are unequivocal; all companies applying
for palm oil permits should join the RSPO2.
According to Dr. Samantha Lacey, Executive
Board member of the RSPO for Co-operative
Insurance: “What we set out to create – a
mainstream sustainability standard for the
whole palm oil industry – is a huge task and
we’re still only at the end of the beginning. The
real results will be seen when RSPO members
start to become certified and sustainable palm
oil finds its way into the products on our
tables.”
References 1 “Raui: deforestation, carbon and
species loss” www.panda.org 26/2/08 2 “The
Golden Crop? – Palm Oil in Post-Tsunami
Aceh” www.aceh-eye.org 09/07 3 email,
CIS, 17/3/08 4 http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/
viewed 17/3/8 5 www.fnv.nl/defnv/actueel/
english/indonesia_palm_oil_industry_protest.
asp 6 www.iuf.org 13/6/06 7 IUF Reply to the
RSPO www.iuf.org 20/3/6 8 www.rspo.org/
resource_centre/Wilmar_Reply_25%20Jan_
2008.pdf viewed 17/3/8 9 www.rspo.
org/resource_centre/Letter%20to%20IUF.pdf
30/8/6 10 ‘How the
palm oil industry is
cooking the climate’
Greenpeace, 11/7 11
www.foeeurope.org/
publications/2007/
Wilmar_Palm_Oil_
Environmental_
Social_Impact.pdf
12 www.asa.org.uk
viewed 17/3/8
by Marc Roberts /
climatecartoons.org.uk
MAY/JUNE ‘08
regulars
Turning up the heat
‘Its trees help our planet breathe’
And the Landfill Prize goes to ...
Are you, by any chance, brushing your teeth with the most
resource-wasting, over-complex piece of gadgetry
that’s been witnessed by internet voters in the past
12 months? The £179 Sonicare electric toothbrush,
made by Philips, has been voted the winner of the
first annual Landfill prize, the award for Britain’s
cleverest rubbish.
The Philips Sonicare Flexcare brush comes with it’s
own ultraviolet-light sanitising equipment, as well
as a whole lot of other bells and whistles. But a
survey by Which? in November 2007 found that
it performed only as well as a £4
electric brush. Ordinary manual
brushes can prove just as effective as
high-end electrics if used properly,
adds the survey.
For details of the top 10 nominated
products, visit www.enoughness.co.uk
CSR speak Reading between the lines of the PR machine...
According to the company
Total, the French oil and gas company operating in 130
countries worldwide, refuses to back out of the oppressive
regime Burma. On its website it says:
“Our community programs are designed to remedy the local impact of our
operations. More broadly, they contribute to the human development of local
populations. In particular, we conduct actions in the areas of health care,
education and training.”
Michel Viallard, head of Total Myanmar has said: “In the very first months,
we learnt about the use of forced labor by the army... and we decided
voluntarily to pay the people who had been conscripted.”
According to campaigners
The Burma Campaign UK, campaigning for Total’s
withdrawal from Burma, says:
“The ‘constructive engagement’ that Total claims to have been carrying out in
Burma over the last decade has not resulted in a single democratic reform by
the regime. Total’s project provides significant annual revenue to the regime.
Some sources estimate as much as $450million.”
“Total has become the main supporter of the Burmese military regime.”
Aung San Suu Kyi, Le Monde
The TV ad begins with a man jogging through lush
rainforest - biodiversity scampers through the foliage.
You’re expecting at this point to cut to your standard
pool-and-waterfall scene, complete with semi-nudity
and a “Natural Showergel” bottle clasped in hand.
But no, cut to...palm oil plantation!? The voiceover of one of these ads for the Malaysian Palm Oil
Council (MPOC) ran “Its trees give life and help
our planet breathe”. Er...what about deforestation,
climate change, orangutans? You couldn’t make it
up. In January the Advertising Standards Authority
(ASA) ruled that the ads shouldn’t reappear because
they mislead viewers that palm oil plantations were
as bio-diverse and sustainable as the rainforests they
replaced. The ASA is doing stirling work fighting
greenwash these days, so if you’re outraged by
an ad let them know. You can watch MPOC’s ad
on the excellent Greenwash Index website www.
greenwashingindex.com/ad_single.php?id=1273
Global warming thermometer: we’re all going to die
Calor’s bear-faced
cheek
Either the people
at Calor Gas’ trade
magazine are just
plain stupid, or they’re
really trying to rub this
polar bear’s nose in
it. Surely they must
see the irony here?
Due to the effects of
climate change, our
favourite Arctic furries may not be
around in 100 years time. Certainly not if Calor Gas
has anything to do with it.
Global warming thermometer: extremely freaky
Luxury Shower Head
We try not to make this column
just a pop at people with much
more money than sense,
but sometimes it’s
impossible
not to. Take
this “lounge”
shower head
for example. You
may be thinking that this
is a slick-looking piece of
design, but we’ll let you into a
secret – it’s actually a plonker-magnet in disguise.
Turn it on, and not only do you get a “raining jet”,
but also “chromotherapy” (light therapy to those in
the know), radio, acoustics cases (what?) and digital
keyboard with pressure control. Although we’re not
quite sure what half these things are, we are pretty
certain that it’s one big waste of energy. Don’t know
about you, but we think their target market would
be better off with a quick blast from a power hose.
Global warming thermometer: unseasonable
MAY/JUNE ‘08
STORA ENSO AND METSÄLIITTO
Sad tunes from
Finnish timber land
The last remaining
ancient forests in Europe
are being logged by
Finnish state-owned
enterprise Metsähallitus.
Behind the logging are
two of the largest forestry
companies in the world.
Hanna Backman
investigates.
I
n January 2007, Greenpeace tracked down
wood that had been logged in ancient
Finnish forests to mills that produced
disposable paper products. Less than 5 per
cent of Finland’s ancient forests remain,
crucial for the protection of biodiversity.
Last year Metsähallitus started logging in
intact forest landscapes, the most valuable of
all ancient forests left in Finland and so far
minimally disturbed by human economic
activity.1 Stora Enso, whose majority owners
are the Finnish government and Sweden’s
Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation,
Metsäliitto Group and fellow Finnish
company UPM Kymmene are the only
European companies in the top 10 league of
forestry companies in the world. Their annual
turnovers are between 8 and 12 billion euros.2
Metsäliitto Group is owned by Metsäliitto
Co-operative, the biggest co-operative in
Europe, which has some 131,000 members
who are owners of about half of the private
forests in Finland. The group’s mills process
timber primarily from the members of the
PHOTOMONTAGE: POLYP
30 www.ethiscore.org
MAY/JUNE ‘08
cooperative. The group is also owner of pulp
manufacturer Metsä-Botnia, paper producer
M-real and tissue-manufacturer Metsätissue.3
Stora Enso is currently the biggest producer
of newsprint and sawn softwood timber in
Europe.4 According to Greenpeace, leading
photocopy companies such as OCE, Canon
and Xerox sell Stora Enso paper made from
ancient forests under their own brand names.5
Campaigns against logging
Most of the Sami homeland in Finnish
Lapland, where indigenous Sami people live,
is owned by the state and large areas of it
are supposedly protected under the Finnish
Reindeer Herding Act. Greenpeace, along
with local organisations, are demanding the
end of the timber trade in old-growth forests
mapped out by environmental NGOs and
Sami reindeer herders. In November 2005
the UN Human Rights Committee called for
a ban on logging in a quarter of the 100,000
hectares of disputed reindeer grazing forests
in Sami areas.
South of the Sami area, protests have
occurred for years, the most recent example
being from February 2008 when an area
of 700 square km of intact old-growth
forest in Savukoski in Finnish Lapland
was planned to be clear-cut and used for
pulp and paper production by Stora Enso.
Over 330 occurrences of red-listed species
had been found in the area. By the end of
February 2008, 257 scientists, including all
the professors of Ecology at the University of
Helsinki, had signed an open letter addressed
to the Finnish Ministry of Forestry which
made clear that logging in old-growth forests
in northern Finland was not sustainable. The
scientists claimed that the logging was also in
conflict with international agreements that
Finland had signed to protect biodiversity.6
A separate letter from Greenpeace sent to
stakeholders of Stora Enso states that “even
though all the three biggest paper and pulp
companies in Finland are involved, the
destruction of Finnish High Conservation
Value Forests (HCVFs) is largely fuelled by
demand from Metsähallitus’ biggest customer,
Stora Enso.”7
corporate watch
Stora Enso practices
Stora Enso does not buy from most of the
disputed Sami forests, but as one of the
areas is not covered by Stora Enso’s policy,
the company has been able to buy wood
logged by Metsähallitus in the area. Stora
Enso requested Metsähallitus to provide
an ecological analysis on disputed areas in
Lapland and last year told its customers that
it would make an assessment based on this
analysis but refuses to publish the analysis.
The Finnish state and its logging enterprise
Metsähallitus (Finnish for Administration of
Forests), justify the logging in the Sami area
by saying that forest workers are employed in
a region where unemployment is higher than
in the rest of the country.
“What they do not want to recognise is that
logging also causes unemployment and social
problems when it destroys and harms the
possibilities for reindeer herding. From our
point of view, it is insane to justify harm done
to people’s livelihoods by saying that it creates
jobs for others. Especially so when bearing
in mind that the Sami reindeer herding is a
traditional livelihood which is protected by
human rights agreements and legislation,”
says Matti Liimatainen, a forest campaigner at
Greenpeace.8
In 2005 the Sami Council began to contact
the largest ethical investment organisations
in Europe, informing them about Stora
Enso’s unsustainable logging practices.
Ethical investors have since put pressure on
Stora Enso to respect the Sami population.
In a report published by the University of
Stockholm last year, sociologist Rebecca
Lawrence stated: “Stora Enso has actively
initiated contacts with all groups involved [in
the conflict], but it remains a challenge for the
company to grasp that reindeer herding Samis
have got special rights.” 9
Company policies
Metsäliitto has responded to criticism stating
that it only procures wood from legal sources
and that it respects its own environmental
policy.10 In its latest environmental policy
the company claims to know the origin of
the wood it supplies and to be working to
reduce the adverse environmental impacts
of its activities.11 However, according to
Greenpeace, a major issue is that the Finnish
forest industry does not have independent
procurement policies which would demand
more than legislation does.12 A fact sheet on
HCVFs published on Stora Enso’s website
states that the company ensures that its forest
management does not threaten HCVFs.13
After an instance of logging in a HCVF in
Puolanka in southern Finland in February
2008, however, Stora Enso’s environmental
manager refused to comment on whether the
company is sourcing from that area or not.14
company Woodmark/Soil Association has
done the auditing for Stora Enso,” says Matti
Liimatainen at Greenpeace.18
No sustainable paper
Forestry in other countries
The Finnish forest sector has for many years
been resisting joining the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) and its process of certifying
sustainable timber. Only last year Stora Enso
and the Finnish Forest Industries Federation
joined the Finnish FSC working group and
a Finnish standard is under development.
FSC is currently the only scheme that
guarantees virgin fibre from well managed
forests. In January 2008, JK Rowling, the
author of Harry Potter, decided to stop the
Finnish translation of her latest book from
being printed on local paper as it lacked FSC
certification.15 According to Greenpeace,
there is currently no respected sustainable
forestry logo used on Finnish-logged pulp as
Finnish forestry is unsustainable.
“If Finland has been known for sustainable
logging it might be because of the myth of
economically sustainable forestry, i.e. that
new forest is always planted after logging.
This, however, is different from ecologically
or socially sustainable logging. Research
has shown that majority of threatened
species in Finland are forest species, and
the main reason for extinction is forestry.
According to scientists there are not enough
protected forests in in Finland. These are
strong indicators that Finnish forestry might
not be sustainable,” says campaigner Matti
Liimatainen.
Via Finland, according to the paper industry,
paper is also being sourced from Russia where
it’s estimated that at least half of logging is
illegal.19 The world consumption in paper will
double in the next 25-30 years, but this can’t
be sustained by traditionally managed forests
only.20 Intensely managed planted forests
may therefore play an increasingly important
role for companies such as Stora Enso, which
owns and operates facilities in more than
40 countries worldwide, such as China.
Stora Enso and Metsäliitto are continuously
investing in large-scale tax subsidised and
World Bank-funded eucalyptus plantations
and pulp mills in Uruguay despite allegations
of bribery that caused uproar in 2005 and
2006 and a growing water shortage caused by
eucalyptus plantations.21 22
Investigations into audits
The Finnish FSC working group is currently
trying to agree on a standard for Finnish
forests. This does not yet mean that Stora
Enso’s products from Finland would become
FSC-certified. On its website Stora Enso
claims that Metsähallitus’ deliveries to
Stora Enso meet the requirements of FSC
Controlled Woods, a category aiming to
exclude unwanted sources, such as HCVFs,
from the supply chain of those companies
who are producing FSC labelled products.16
The FSC’s auditing in Finland is outsourced
to a Danish consultancy firm.17
“This has raised serious doubts on the
credibility of the whole FSC controlled wood
system. It is obvious that this is only an
attempt to greenwash the HCVF logging by
Metsähallitus. I don’t know if the problem
is poor auditing, or Stora Enso’s way of
interpreting and advertising the results,
or both. Based on what we know, we are
really unhappy with the way the auditing
What you can do:
Greenpeace urges supporters of its
campaigns to buy only FSC certified
wood products. Support campaigns for
sustainable forestry at www.greenpeace.
org/forests and at www.wwf.org.uk/forests
References: 1 www.intactforests.org viewed
on 27/2/08 2-4 www.hoovers.com accessed
on 27/2/08 5 www.greenpeace.org, published
on 22/3/08 6 www.forestinfo.fi/forestlapland/
researchersletter.htm viewed on 28/2/08
7 Letter received by Ethical Consumer on
22/2/08 8 Email from Greenpeace Forest
Campaigner received on 22/2/08 9 Press
statement, University of Stockholm, www.
su.se published on 24/5/07 10 Email from the
Environmental Vice President of Metsäliitto
sent to Greenpeace on 16/11/07 11 2006
Environmental Policy, www.Metsäliitto.com,
viewed on 27/2/08 12 Email from Greenpeace
Forest Campaigner received on 22/2/08
13 Sustainability facts dated 07/07, www.
storaenso.com viewed on 27/2/08 14 Email
from Greenpeace Forest Campaigner received
on 22/2/08, email from Stora Enso received
on 13/2/08 15 JK Rowling stoppar finska
upplagor, www.svd.se, viewed on 18/02/08
16 www.storaenso.com viewed on 26/2/08
17 National representative – Finland: Danish
consultancy Orbicon www.soilassociation.
org viewed on 28/2/08 18 Email from
Greenpeace Forest Campaigner received on
28/2/08 19 www.greenpeace.org.uk viewed
on 18/2/08 20 Forestry & Paper sector report,
www.eurosif.org, published in 06/07 21
Uruguay: Pulp Factions by Raul Pierri, www.
corpwatch.com published on 16/1/06 22 2006
Environmental Policy, www.metsaliitto.com,
viewed on 27/2/08
MAY/JUNE ‘08
MAY/JUNE ‘08
12/05
1/94
2/95
4/99
0800 333 353
0131 226 6699
Standard Life Investments UK
Ethical Corporate Bond
SVM All Europe SRI
10/06
11/05
3/98
9/05
5/02
02/01
£1K
£500
£500
£1K
£1K
£500
£1K
£1K
£1K
£500
£500
£500
£2K
£2K
£1K
£1K
£1K
£1K
£500
£1K
£500
£1K
£1K
£1K
£1K
£1K
£1K
£1K
£500
£500
£500
£500
£500
Min.
Lump
Sum
£50
£50
£50
£50
£100
£50
£250
£50
£50
£50
£50
£50
£100
£100
£50
£25
£25
£25
£50
£50
£504
£50
£50
£100
£50
£100
£50
£50
£50
£50
£50
£50
£50
Min.
Reg
Sav
-2.66
-6.73
-15.31
-11.97
-9.18
-20.26
-27.76
-11.29
-12.50
-7.02
-18.19
-6.11
-7.94
-14.38
-1.76
-3.60
-16.55
-2.53
-2.28
21.91
-11.62
-15.02
-18.01
-8.86
-13.81
-4.19
-15.42
-23.56
-9.82
-10.14
-12.52
-2.16
1 year
27.44
-4.53
5.28
7.50
21.18
24.14
31.28
19.77
45.71
21.43
19.28
26.14
32.70
19.77
26.04
29.74
13.98
15.84
14.48
24.73
17.71
33.19
5.15
-3.13
39.61
37.97
3 year
104.65
1.06
66.55
75.59
90.56
100.75
104.00
93.92
123.71
62.18
76.45
68.23
79.11
74.43
68.73
75.41
77.67
87.83
92.45
79.28
81.48
105.78
64.50
9.84
131.08
100.30
5 year
Fund Performance £
(percentage growth)
Alcohol production/sale
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Animal testing
H
H
H
H
H
H
10
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Armaments
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Environmental damage
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Gambling services
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Nuclear power
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Opprestive regimes
12
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Pornography
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
5
100
100
100
90
100
100
90
100
100
100
100
n/a
100
Tobacco production/sale
%age investments that
pass negative criteria
H
Community involvement
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Employee welfare/rights
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Environmental Management
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Environmental policy
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Environmental products
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Environmental reporting
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Packaging reduction
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Sustainable forestry
meet positive criteria
n/a
80
71
n/a
100
n/a
n/a
100
100
n/a
100
100
20
n/a
100
100
100
100
20
100
n/a
100
100
90
100
100
100
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
100
H
External ethical research
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
In-house ethical research
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Independent committee
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Dialogue with management
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Undertakes site visits
Research
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
Prom. company improvement
Positive Criteria
(supports where relevant)
Newsletter profiles co’s
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
100
10011
100
n/a
n/a
n/a
5
100
100
25
100
100
2
2
100
100
100
100
n/a
100
100
100
100
n/a
100
2
2
n/a
NF
100
100
NF
50
contacted in last 2yrs
5.5
6
6
4
6
4
3.5
6
6
4
7
7
6.5
6.5
5.5
5.5
5.5
5.5
4.5
2.5
7
8
8
3.5
3.5
5
6.5
3.5
4
4
4
5
5
NOTES 1 = Unable to supply details. 2 = Not contacted as a matter of course, but monitored via in-house or external research. 3 = Friends Provident Stewardship also offers International Trust based on the same criteria. 4 = Minimum contribution £30 when invested through children’s
trust. 5 = All investments are continually monitored by external research team. 6 = £50 pm minimum regular saving, £1K minimum lump sum for ISA only. 7 = Avoids animal testing for cosmetics and toiletries. 8 = Invests in UK shares of FTSE 350 Index that are not excluded by
negative criteria (approx 230 holdings). Excludes Investment Trusts. 9 = Includes following funds: Norwich Sustainable Future: Euro Gth, Global Gth, Absolute Gth, Mgd, Corp Bond. 10 = Animal testing: NU only invest if testing for medical purposes and where the company responds to
engagement on this issue. 11 = Contacted via in-house or external research team. 12 = Will not invest in companies present in Burma. Companies involved with other regimes permitted but subject to additional screening. NF = New Fund. OEIC = Open Ended Investment Company
020 7220 0730
0800 333 353
Skandia Multimanager Ethical Fund
Standard Life OEIC
0800 000 000
020 7399 0399
Prudential Ethical Trust
020 7332 7500
Old Mutual Ethical Fund
Rathbone Ethical Bond Fund
3/98
0845 302 2559
Norwich Sustainable Future UK
Growth9
5/99
10/99
029 2044 8412
0845 302 2559
11/99
Legal & General Ethical Trust8
0500 050098
Jupiter Environ Inc7
4/88
2/90
11/00
7/95
Norwich UK Ethical
0845 850 6050
0500 050098
Insight Investment Evergreen
Jupiter Ecology6
0800 881144
0845 850 6050
Henderson Ind of the Future
0800 881144
Henderson Global
Care Managed
Insight Investment Euro Ethical
3/96
0800 881144
Henderson Global
Care UK Income
8/91
0845 850 3701
0800 881144
Halifax Ethical OEIC
Henderson Global Care Growth
3/82
6/84
6/84
02/02
7/86
0808 100 7654
020 7426 2626
Credit Suisse Fellowship OEIC
11/88
0800 587 3388
020 7556 8800
CF 7IM Ethical
5/90
5/98
Family Charities Ethical Trust
0845 603 9986
CIS Sustainable Leaders Tst
First State Asia Pacific Sus
020 7003 1234
AXA Ethical OEIC
3/07
0870 601 6183
0800 454422
AEGON Eth Caut Mgd OEIC
4/00
4/89
F&C Stewardship Income3
0800 454422
AEGON Eth Corp Bd Fd OEIC
020 7883 0134
0800 454422
AEGON Ethical Eq Fund OEIC
5/06
0870 601 6183
0845 300 2890
Aberdeen Eth Engagement UK
5/99
Credit Suisse Multi Manager
0845 300 2890
Aberdeen Ethical World OEIC
Launch
Date
F&C Stewardship Growth3
Telephone
Fund
Source: moneyfacts.co.uk
The following managed funds publish an ethical and/or green policy and aim to invest only in companies involved in
activities that satisfy the stated criteria of that policy. These are defined accordingly: Positive criteria - activities that the fund
seeks to support; Negative Criteria - activities that the fund seeks to avoid where possible, or to minimise investment in.
Ethical and Green Funds
Negative Criteria
(avoids where possible)
MONEY
All rates and terms subject to change without notice and should be checked before finalising any arrangement.
No liability can be accepted for any direct or consequential loss arising from the use of, or reliance upon, this information.
money news
National Ethical Investment Week
This May (18-24th) sees the first ever National Ethical Investment
Week (NEIW), promoted by the UK Social Investment Forum
(UKSIF), of which Ethical Consumer is a member. The aim of
the week is to raise awareness and take the message of ethical
investing to a wider audience.
According to Penny Shepherd MBE, UKSIF Chief Executive, the
key message of the week is that green and ethical investments
aren’t just for campaigners or activists. They are for any investor
who wants to do their bit. And it’s not all or nothing – an
increasing number of investors are adding an ethical investment
fund to their existing portfolios.
“The support of local champions will be critical in making the
first NEIW a success,” says Penny, “so we have made it as easy
as possible for them to do that, with our new website and Guide
for Participants.“ The Guide includes simple ideas on how to get
involved in the week. If you’re involved in community groups
or NGOs check out how you can help spread the message
– including advice on organising events, template materials and
how to best involve local ethical financial advisers.
See www.neiw.org or call 0207 749 9950
Sustainable investment specialists EIRIS have launched a new
UK Ethical Funds Directory to help consumers find a fund which
matches their ethical interests and concerns. Visit www.eiris.org to
download a free copy.
Triodos doubles lending to
charities and social enterprises
Triodos Bank lent £33 million to charities and social enterprises in
2007, more than doubling the previous year’s figures. The bank,
which lends over £65 million to the ethical sector in the UK, grew by
23% in 2007.
Triodos Renewables, which invests in renewable energy projects,
was our Best Buy for alternative ethical investments in issue 111.
For information on its 2008 share issue, or to find out how Triodos
Renewables could invest in your renewable energy project, email
[email protected] or call 0500 008720
Standard Life has announced that it is excluding airline shares from
its £588.5 million socially responsible investment (SRI) funds. Julie
MacDowell, Head of SRI at Standard Life, explained that the move
followed their annual ethical investor survey. Following a number of
queries from green investors about the issue, a question was included
in the survey framed in the context of the Stern Review’s figure that
airlines were responsible for 1.56% of world carbon emissions. 30%
of respondents said they preferred a complete exclusion of airline
stocks from the funds.
The bold move has been a boon for the campaign against airport
expansion. Robin Oakley of Greenpeace’s climate campaign, said:
“It looks like the investment industry is waking up to the fact that the
airline industry is a massive liability. More flights means more global
warming gases, and that’s not sustainable. Investment funds now
need to pull out of those companies which are attempting to expand
airports and increase runways, like at Heathrow.”
© Stephen Strathdee | Dreamstime.com
Standard Life divests
from airlines
Victory for Sakhalin II
Campaigners
Sakhalin Energy has announced that it has withdrawn applications
for hundreds of millions of pounds in public financing from the
UK Export Credit Guarantee Department and the US Export
Import Bank. Sakhalin II, the world’s largest oil and gas project, is
located on and off-shore in the Russian Far East. It threatens the
breeding grounds of the endangered Western Gray Whales, as well
as damage to wild salmon populations, and negative impacts to
indigenous peoples. The announcement was hailed as a victory by
a coalition of campaign groups, which included WWF-UK, Sakhalin
Environmental Watch, and BankTrack. The coalition had called for a
block on financing due to the chronic environmental impacts of the
Sakhalin II project.
In 2007, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
refused finance for Sakhalin II, in large part because the project could
not demonstrate compliance with environmental policy. Pulling the
plug on public funding greatly increases the political, financial and
reputational risks of banks considering financing for the controversial
project.
In January the campaign coalition called on Sir Fred Goodwin,
CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), to recall a $1 billion loan by
ABN AMRO for the Russian energy giant Gazprom’s purchase of a
controlling share of Sakhalin II. According to the coalition the project
violates the Equator Principles on responsible investing, which RBS
has signed. RBS leads a consortium of banks that purchased ABN
AMRO in 2007.
“This welcome news may inspire banks such as RBS...to reconsider
their continued support for the Sakhalin project; they expose
themselves and their shareholders to an operation that wreaks havoc
on the planet. Responsible institutions should feel obliged to decline
financing,” said Johan Frijns, coordinator of BankTrack.
www.banktrack.org
© Iñaki Antoñana Plaza | Dreamstime.com
MAY/JUNE ‘08
THE ETHICAL SCEPTIC
its shampoos. With another wave
of companies signing up to the
project this February, there are
now 20 companies working out
the carbon footprint of everything
from irons to t-shirts.
“Increasing numbers of companies are reducing their operational
carbon emissions and the next
step to further reduce these emissions is to target end products and
services,” explains Jim Peacock
from the Carbon Trust which is
coordinating the project. “To do
this we need to establish the carbon footprint of the entire supply
chain which will identify where
carbon savings can be made.”
A low carbon diet?
Current UK average per capita carbon emissions = 11 tonnes
Per capita figure if Government adopted 80% cut in carbon emissions as
demanded by Friends Of the Earth = 2.2 tonnes
Sustainable daily allowance of carbon (2.2tonnes/365days) = 6kg
Sustainable daily allowance of carbon from food (currently 13%) = 780g
% of your daily allowance of carbon from one Innocent fruit smoothie +
one packet of Walkers crisps (294 + 75 = 369g) = 47%
It is illuminating to consider that, using current Carbon Trust figures, a sustainable diet would allow you two smoothies and two packets of crisps a day
before virtually all your allowance was used up. Could you live on that?
Carbon
Counting
Is carbon labelling a good thing,
and will it help in the battle against
climate change asks Simon Birch?
Y
ou’ll never look at a packet
of cheese and onion crisps
in the same way again.
Having spent a lifetime being
upstaged by countless pints of
bitter, Walkers Cheese & Onion
crisps are now centre-stage in a
pioneering project which aims to
help industry move to a lowcarbon economy.
Last May, Walkers Cheese &
Onion crisps (the company’s best
selling flavour) became the first
consumer food item anywhere
in the world to carry a label on
its packet detailing its carbon
footprint. Using pioneering techniques and measuring systems,
Walkers have established that the
carbon footprint of each packet of
crisps weighs in at 75g.
At the same time that the
carbon label appeared on crisp
packets, Innocent smoothies
published details online of the
carbon footprint of its mango
and passion fruit smoothie, whilst
Boots began displaying information in 250 of its stores about the
carbon footprint of a number of
MAY/JUNE ’08
Food and drink
impacts
Whilst there’s rightly been great
efforts at trying to reduce the carbon emissions from highly polluting sectors such as transport and
housing, there’s been virtually no
work up until now on cutting the
carbon emissions arising from the
food and drink industry. According to the Carbon Trust, this sector is responsible for around 13%
of the UK’s annual greenhouse
gas emissions, which to put it into
perspective, is almost double the
emissions from aircraft.
But what good does the label
actually do and what does it tell
consumers, if anything?
“The label tells consumers two
things,” replies Steve John, Director of Corporate Affairs at Pepsi,
the transnational which owns the
Walkers brand
“First that we’ve measured the
carbon impact of the crisps and
second that we’re committed to
reducing this figure. Every investment and business decision affecting Walkers is now being looked
at through the lens of carbon and
we take this public commitment
very seriously.”
Cautious
welcome?
So what do the great, the green
and the good make of the carbon
label and what difference will it
make in the campaign against
climate change?
“The fact that carbon labelling
is even being discussed is a sign
that a section of the food industry
acknowledges that its carbon
footprint is enormous and this
is to be welcomed,” concludes
veteran food campaigner Professor Tim Lang of City University
in London.
Kath Dalmeny from Sustain,
which campaigns for better food
and farming, believes that the
process of measuring the carbon
footprint is actually more useful
than the label itself: “As it stands
the label itself doesn’t mean
anything as there’s nothing to
compare it against. What is valuable though is that companies are
committing themselves to reducing their carbon footprint which
is a good thing.”
Climate change campaigner
George Marshall however is more
sceptical about the likely impact
of carbon labels. “Are carbon
labels on crisp packets helpful in
the fight against climate change?
No,” replies Marshall. “A packet of
crisps represents a tiny contribution to an individual’s carbon
footprint. What would make a big
impact though is if we had carbon
footprint labels on really big carbon polluters such as houses and
even flights.”
Paul Monaghan, Head of Ethics
and Sustainability at the Co-operative Group which is currently
researching the carbon footprint
of its strawberries, defends the
concept of carbon footprinting
for food products: “As a business
pioneering the development
and implementation of carbon
footprinting technology, we’ve
found it invaluable in understanding where the carbon hotspots
are in our products’ lifecycle, and
therefore being able to target these
for big reductions.”
However the final word is left
to Dr Kevin Anderson from the
Tyndall Centre in Manchester
which has been spearheading
work into carbon trading for
individuals: “I’m very uncertain about the value of carbon
labelling,” believes Dr Anderson.
“Voluntary measures like this can
only go so far, and they are just a
first move towards a more regulatory framework that’s necessary to
tackle climate change.”
When it comes to ethical
trading, we’ve got our finger
on the pulse...
...and the coffee, shampoo, basmati rice, loo roll, olive
oil, soap, and now even beer.
clear conscience
You want your home to be a place of peace and
relaxation. But not at the expense of the environment.
So how do you find building products that are both
sustainable and comfortable to live with?
There’s a lot more to Suma than beans. With over 3000
fair trade, organic and environmentally friendly products
to choose from, we’re the essential ingredient in forward
thinking households everywhere.
Green Building Store has developed some of the most
energy-efficient and sustainable products available.
From paints and insulation to windows and bathrooms,
Green Building Store products combine natural
materials with rigorous environmental standards.
So you can rest easy...
without it resting on your conscience.
Find out more at [email protected]
or phone 01422 313845
Ethical Consumer 11.06.indd 1
www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
Tel 01484 461705
13/11/06 7:58:14 am
13390 IOS Burma Ad 185x277
27/11/07
16:08
Page 1
Burma. We’re still watching.
In recent weeks the eyes of the world have once again been focused on the
oppressive regime in Burma. At The Co-operative Bank we’ve been critical of
the Burmese dictatorship’s human rights record for a number of years.
Since 2000, we’ve declined to invest in any business that operates in Burma
and supports the regime. We’ve also been a long standing supporter of The
Burma Campaign UK, the pre-eminent campaign group for human rights and
democracy in Burma. Together with our customers, we will continue to stand
against oppression in the country and you can help us by supporting the call
for the EU to impose tougher sanctions against the Burmese military regime.
Take action now, visit burmacampaign.org.uk and help us keep Burma in the spotlight.
The Co-operative Bank p.l.c., P.O. Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester M60 4EP. Registered in England and Wales No 990937.

Ethical Consumer magazine issue 112

Transcription

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