Ethical Shopping

I’ve started looking into ethical shopping. How can I best use the resources that I have to make the world a better place, or at least to minimise my negative impact?

My current thinking comes under several headings. I don’t know much about any of this yet, but I’m going to feel my way:

1. Good treatment of workers – do the companies pay well? Are the conditions safe? What are the impacts on the community?

2. Minimal ecological impact -is the product or service safe? Renewable? Clean?

3. Packaging – can it be recycled? Is it excess packaging?

Sometimes there is a trade-off – for example, biofuels have low ecological impact but high impact upon communities, as they come to replace food crops.

As a starting point, I’m approaching it like this:

1. Do I really need it?

2. I should buy quality items that last rather than disposable items

3. Buying clothes? Charity shops FTW

Apparently, guides to ethical shopping are available in book form – perhaps I can pick one up from Oxfam?

Time to drag my head out of the sand…