I would like to believe that although there are a million issues that need to be addressed before a companty can be considered ethical, any one issue is a start. For example; It is great that there are so many Fair Trade coffee stores in Dunedin. None of them sell fair trade chocolate yet. There is no awareness of chocolate issues at all in general cafe goers. That doesn’t stop me asking for fair trade coffee, nor does the lack of awarness of cash crop bannana practices from Dole stop me pushing for chocolate.

The other side to finding any more sensible question to ask is to asist the direction of the enthusiasm of yonger generation consumers who have the fervent rampant thing going on. Help them get a little more specific without getting totally overwhelmed.

Love the idea of a NZ specific product / company web site though. Imagine that would be a lot of work to research set up and maintain. Would a wiki style thing work or would it need more direct control to maintain credibility?

Not only that, but
a) there are so many questions to ask that could be missed. Do they dispose of their IT equipment properly? How far do workers travel to the office?
b) there are many many companies, an organised effort would be needed…

Here’s an idea – what about starting a local community-driven website that lists NZ companies matched with key ethical and eco criteria, backed by citations from web or trad media alongside opinion posts, that produce a rating for the company.

Here’s a few Intl- or US-focused sites that could be used for inspiration:
http://dotherightthing.com/
http://www.ethiscore.org/
http://www.corporatecritic.org/

I’d say the best approach is to not buy the plastic novelty item in the first place?!!

Has anyone out there actually tried to take these questions further than just asking the sales assistant?