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The prize is a subscription to Ethical Consumer, UK, for one year. The winner for this month’s competition is George from Northern Ireland – congrats!

Join the grassroots "Green Stars" movement and you can also win a subscription to Ethical Consumer for one year! The challenge is simply to include an ethical rating in an online review of any product or local business. More details in the post.

Green Search Engine – Ecosia

Ecosia is a green internet search engine that uses revenue from advertising to fund tree-planting projects. In the last post I looked at deforestation in the Amazonand some simple actions that we can take to help ensure their safety. Switching to Ecosia appears to be one of the easiest ways to immediately start supporting reforestation projects. So, let’s take a look at the ethics and utility of…

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#carbon footprint of web search #ecosia fake or legit #Ecosia search #Ecosia vs Google #ethical search engine #green Google #green internet search #green web search #how to reduce your digital footprint #internet search footprint #is ecosia legit #tree planting

Amazon deforestation and ethical consumerism: This is WWIII

I’ll get to the main topic of how to save the Amazon rainforest in a moment. First, (bear with me!) I often wondered what life would feel like to live during WWII. Over the last few years I’ve had this growing feeling that we are entering a conflict that’s as close as we are going to get to World War III. Although it has roots in Bush/Cheney and their reactions to 9/11 and climate change, it…

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#deforestation solutions list #ethical consumption #how to protect tropical rainforest #how to save the amazon rainforest #how to stop deforestation in the amazon #What’s driving Amazon deforestation?#World War III #WWIII climate change

Daily Footprint, #35 – Tofurky

Tofurky (made by the charmingly-named Turtle Island Foods, based in Portland, Oregon) has been around since the 1980s and is still a family-owned company. Founder, Seth Tibbot had this to say about the journey:

Armed with my life savings of $2500 and a passionate love for soybeans, I rented a small space in the back of the Hope Coop Café in Forest Grove, Oregon, and started making 100 pound…

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#ethical meat substitutes #is Tofurky vegan?#Tofurky environmental impact #Tofurky ethics #Tofurky review #Tofurky roast #Tofurky slices #Tofurky sustainable #what is Tofurky?

Daily Footprint, #34 – Tofu

Daily Footprint, #34 – Tofu. How sustainable is soy? How to avoid make sure your soy is ethical. Key issues of forests and bees are discussed.

I was going to cover a specific soy-based product for this fourth post on meat-alternatives. However, I think it’s best to cover soy in general as the topic requires a post to itself. So, as a proxy for soy, I’m going to cover the most common meat-substitute in the world: tofu! A note about terminology: in Europe they are generally called soya beans and in the US they are known as soybeans.…

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#ethical soy #is soy bad for the environment #is soy worse for the environment than meat #Is tofu sustainable?#neonics #organic versus conventional #Soy and deforestation #sustainability of tofu #sustainable tofu brands #tofu and deforestation #tofu versus whole soybeans #Where are soybeans grown?

Daily Footprint, #33 – No Evil

Continuing on the theme on meat alternatives, I’m going to take a look at No Evil Foods, which began in 2014 by selling homemade products in farmers’ markets in North Carolina and has grown since then, recently expanding to Whole Foods markets across the US. They make a range of high-protein products to cook with and in this post I’ll focus mainly on their sausages, named The Stallion(Odd name; I…

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#ethical meat substitutes #how is gluten made?#is gluten sustainable?#No Evil Foods #seitan and gluten #The Stallion sausages review #vegan sausages

Daily Footprint, #32 – Quorn

Hey folks! I’m continuing to look at the social and environmental impact of meat-alternatives; last time it was a newcomer, Beyond Meat, and now I’m going to take a look at one of the originals: Quorn. Since the 1960’s there has been a lot of interest in the idea of reducing our dependence on meat by exploring the option of eating microbes instead – single cell protein, as it came to be known.…

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#eggs in Quorn #Fusarium venenatum #Life Cycle Assessment #Quorn ingredients #Quorn LCA #Quorn mycoprotein #Quorn packaging #Quorn versus Beyond Meat #single-cell protein #vegan Quorn #what is Quorn made of?

Green Stars ethical review competition for Earth Day

I’m happy to announce the winner of the latest Green Stars ethical review competition.

Congrats to Willow Croft!

Willow wrote a review of Milagro Herbs, a small company that sells organic herbs and skin care products in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can read her full review on her blog.

Willow – you win a prize from the WWF (and a donation made to them by me, on your behalf).

Earth Day and Ethical…

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#conscious consumption #ethical business review #ethical consumption review #ethical product review #ethical rating of companies #ethical review #ethical review of a local business #social and environmental impact #write an ethical review

Daily Footprint, #31 – Beyond Meat

Hi Folks! In a return to the Daily Footprint posts, I’m going to spend some time looking at plant-based meat substitutes. They are definitely catching on: last year, in the US, sales of meat rose by 2% while sales of plant-based meat-substitutes rose by 24% (and sales rose even faster than that in Europe). Over the course of just this one day, around 150 million land animals are being killed for…

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#Beyond Meat ingredients #Beyond Meat LCA #Beyond Meat packaging #environmental impact #Life Cycle Assessment #pea protein #plant-based #sustainability #vegan sausage #what’s in Beyond Meat?

A common issue that people raise is that they are not sure where to start when it comes to writing an ethical review. Perhaps you would like to join in, but the process of deciding on an ethical rating seems overwhelming? Well, look no further, because informing this process is one of the main priorities of the Green Stars Project!

When I’m trying to decide on an ethical rating (1-5 Green Stars) I often find it useful to break it down into smaller categories. In this post I’m going list some individual ethical factors to create a scorecard that can be used to calculate a Green Stars rating. For this, I’m going take the example of writing a review of a local café.

Ethical scorecard for a café.

The table below shows some of the factors that I usually consider, and I’ve assigned a possible score to each of them. The maximum possible score is 25, and this is easily translated into a rating of 1-5 Green Stars.

Suggested breakdown of Green Stars score for a café. Overall score of 21-25 = 5 Green Stars; 16-20 = 4 Green Stars, 11-15 = 3 Green Stars, 6-10 = 2 Green Stars; 0-5 = 1 Green Star.

Of course you can adjust this to suit your own feelings about what’s ethically most important – either by adding or removing categories or by adjusting the maximum possible score for any one of them. Some might put more weight on plastic waste, others on coffee origin, and others on availability of vegan food, etc. Check out these posts on coffee if you’d like to learn more about the two categories I ranked highest: farming and trade practices. My ranking is based on what I consider the most important ethical consumerism issues:

Climate (carbon footprint, sustainability)

Habitats (land and water use, pollution, farming methods)

Inequality (wealth distribution, corporate hegemony, animal rights)

Population Growth (community development, trade practices)

Let’s look at some examples!

Example 1: Temple Coffee Roasters

One of the best cappuccinos I’ve ever had

Vegan donut and muffin (this was basically my dinner)

Temple Coffee Roasters, Davis, CA

In this post on food options in Davis, California, I reviewed Temple Coffee Roasters. Although I didn’t do it at the time, here’s how I would have scored the individual features:

Temple Coffee Roasters, Davis, California

Temple Coffee Roasters receive an almost perfect score of 24/25, which translates to 5/5 Green Stars. It’s encouraging that they are also very popular, suggesting that customers are starting to really appreciate and support businesses that make ethics a high priority.

Example 2: Starbucks

Take a look at this post on the social and environmental impact of Starbucks for more details on the scores below.

Starbucks, Berkeley, California

Starbucks scores 12 / 25, which translates to 2/5 Green Stars. To be more precise, 12/25 translates to 2.4 Green Stars, which is very close to the average score (2.3) from our user-poll on Starbucks social and environmental impact.

Example 3: Esquires

Not all coffee chains are equal. Some are worse than Starbucks and some better. One example of a chain that I awarded a higher Green Stars rating than Starbucks is Esquires, which originated in Canada and expanded to the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Here’s my breakdown of the score in a branch of Esquires.

Esquires, Dublin, Ireland.

I didn’t look into the last three features so I’m leaving them blank. Leaving them out, Esquires scores 14 / 19 = 74%, which translates to 4/5 Green Stars. When I wrote the review originally, I wasn’t breaking down the score as I did above, and actually awarded 5/5 Green Stars. I think they are on the border between these two scores but perhaps breaking it down helps to come up with a more accurate score.

If some categories are N/A (in that you didn’t find out one way or another) then it would be best to leave them out and adjust the total score. If however, you made an attempt to look into, for example coffee trade or food sustainability, and there was no information anywhere (in-store or online) then it’s usually more appropriate to give a low score rather than to consider it not applicable. No information on something like coffee sourcing usually indicates that there’s nothing good to say; otherwise the business would make a point of making it known. In the case of Esquires, I just didn’t happen to look into the last three categories on the scorecard.

A cappuccino and cookie at Esquires cafe in Dublin.

So there you have it. As far as chains go, Esquires scores higher than Starbucks and is one of the more ethical coffee chains. Of course, there are often smaller operations (like Temple Coffee Roasters) that go above and beyond.

I hope that breaking down the score into sub-categories proves helpful if you are trying to decide on an ethical Green Stars rating. Often I just compile something in my head, and award a score after I’ve written a review that touches on the relevant facts. But I figured that a scorecard / scoresheet might be helpful for someone who isn’t sure where to start.

The good news is that people who have written a few ethical reviews tell me that it gets easier after the first one or two. I’ve also found this to be true – it just requires some energy to get over that initial hump.

Please consider writing one, and don’t forget that you can win a gift from the World Wildlife Fund by entering the GSP contest, supporting their conservation work in the process. I’m going to run the contest on a recurring basis now, with winners announced regularly – see here for details and links to more helpful resources.

How to decide on an ethical rating: Cafés A common issue that people raise is that they are not sure where to start when it comes to writing an ethical review.

#Esquires ethical rating #ethical cafés #ethical decision making approaches #ethical decision making examples #ethical rating criteria #ethical rating of companies #ethical rating scorecard #ethical rating scoresheet #ethical scorecard #making ethical decisions #starbucks ethical rating #Temple Coffee Roasters

Green Stars Ethical Review Competition: Results and Reboot

You probably know that I run recurring competitions to encourage you to write ethical consumerism reviews online. I’m happy to announce the winners for this month and also to start the clock on a new round (winners will be announced in mid-April). Please consider entering!

Congrats to this month’s two winners: Amanda and Nicole! You will receive a gift from the World Wildlife Fund and a $55…

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#Avalon Organics #Beyers Craft Gin Truffles #Beyers South Africa #Brilliant Brilliance night cream #ethical business rating #ethical business review #ethical consumerism review #ethical product rating #ethical product review #Green Stars

The Problem with Loop

Tom Szaky, founder of Terracycle, is about to launch a new enterprise called Loop that aims to tackle the problem of packaging waste by delivering products in reusable containers.

Overview of Loop. Product containers are designed to be reused several times and are shipped in a reusable box. How important is packaging in ethics?

Packaging is usually one of the factors to consider when deciding on…

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#ethical brands #loop brands #loop company #Loop P&G #loop recycling #loop reusable #loop teracycle #Loop Unilever #loopstore #Nestlé #packaging waste #reusable packaging

Competition: write an ethical review online

The primary mission of the Green Stars Project is to encourage you, dear reader, to consider the ethical impact of your purchases. The best way to do this, and to have an impact on others at the same time, is to rate the product or business with a score for social and environmental impact. Reviews can be posted anywhere online, and I’m proposing a universal ethical rating scale of 1 to 5 Green…

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#Amazon #ethical business rating #ethical business review #ethical consumerism review #ethical product rating #ethical product review #ethical rating online #Green Stars #online ethical review #write an ethical review #yelp

Ethical Consumerism, Part 10 – Green Stars rating criteria

Greetings! In the next post, I’ll run another competition to encourage you, dear readers, to write a Green Stars review, so please stay tuned for that. In the meantime, I want to take another look at the ethical consumerism criteria that can go into a Green Stars rating. Evaluating the ethics of a product or business is sometimes daunting, but it becomes more manageable when you break it down…

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#ethical consumer ratings #ethical consumerism criteria #ethical consumption criteria #ethical rating criteria #ethical rating of companies #ethical rating scale #Green Star Rating Scale #Green Star Score #Green Stars Rating Scale #Green Stars Score

A New Beginning

The world has changed.

I see it in the water.

I feel it in the Earth.

I smell it in the air.

J. R. R. Tolkien’s words could well describe our current situation. A darkness grows, the divide between light and dark is more apparent than ever, and there is a call to action for us (like Frodo Baggins) to forgo our normal routine and set out on an adventure to change the world. We are at the point…

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#climate change #Eckhart Tolle #environment #liminal space #mindset #personal transformation #The Dalai Lama #Tolkien

Ethical Consumerism, Part 9 – How to reduce your carbon footprint

Ethical Consumerism, Part 9 – How to reduce your carbon footprint.

I had always intended to write a post on the top things you can do to reduce your footprint. But I procrastinated, partly because I never felt that I’d done enough research and partly because the topic has been covered pretty widely. However, many of the lists that you’ll find online don’t really hit on the top priorities. Going back decades, we’ve had mantras like: Use energy-efficient…

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#ethical consumerism #how to lessen your impact on the environment #How to reduce global warming #How to reduce your carbon footprint #How to reduce your environmental impact #minimize your ecological footprint #Minimize Your Impact #Project Drawdown #reduce impact #The most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint.#top ways to reduce your carbon footprint #ways to reduce carbon emissions globally

Daily Footprint, #30 – Sustainable and Ethical Cat Litter

Hi folks! I’m going to take a look at the social and environmental impact of cat litter, which provides a good example of why we need user-generated reviews. I think that most people want to make ethical choices, but researching the sustainability of something like kitty litter never quite becomes a priority. Green stars reviews on public sites make information that a fewpeople have time to find…

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#animal testing cat litter brands #bentonite clay environmental impact #Clorox corporate social responsibility #eco friendly cat litter disposal #eco-friendly cat litter #environmental impact of cat litter #Ever Clean cat litter #Naturally Fresh cat litter #renewable cat litter #strip-mining for cat litter #walnut shells cat litter #What is cat litter made from?

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