The shortlist for this year’s Observer Ethical Awards has been announced, ahead of the award ceremony on thursday. It is the third annual awards, and it is asking the public to vote and make nominations for businesses and individuals who are making a positive impact on environmental and social justice.
Although I’m still boycotting the Observer because of its rubbish women’s magazine supplement, (I did have slight regrets about this last weekend when I glimpsed the food magazine which looked really good) so I thought I’d share my nominations here.
Best Local Retailer – Coopers, Lower Marsh, SE1 7RJ
I have to say in Oxford I have struggled to find a good local retailer that I really like shopping in. The Oxford Covered Market does really well for meat, and as a born-again carnivore it is really important to me that the meat I buy is free-range, organic and ideally local. However recently I fell in love with Coopers on Lower Marsh opposite Iknit London (and relatively close to my office) and so have been carting my wares back to Oxford on public transport. Selling yummy looking food in a nice café at the front, with useful store cupboard stuff at back – it is great. The goatsmilk soap I bought from there smells lovely and is amazing to use.
Best Supermarket - Marks and Spencer’s Plan A
For me this is the obvious winner, ambitious, well-thought out and more than a bit of greenwash. I was highly cynical when I first heard about this (and I still think they use a ridiculous amount of packaging on their vegetables) but it shows a serious commitment to sustainability that really raises the bar for other supermarkets.
Best Online Retailer Initiative – Abel and Cole Brain Food
I have a love-hate relationship with my veg box, on the whole I enjoy it and like being forced to try cooking things I otherwise wouldn’t but sometimes I get a bit jaded by the whole thing (usually in the depths of root vegetables). Anyway I think there Brain food initiative is ingenious – getting offices to buy fruit that’s organic, not air-freighted, seasonal and fairly-traded in bulk. I haven’t yet convinced my employees to take part in it but I’m still working on it.
Campaigner of the Year – Greenpeace Esperanza Crews
Whaling has always completely horrified me - it is just so completely unnecessary. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but allows Japan to continue to kill whales in the name of “scientific research”. Japan’s targets this year were to catch 935 minke and 50 endangered fin whales, they were originally going to target humpback whales but this was pulled because of international pressure. Esperanza managed to substantially disrupt the whaling boats at a crucial time and severely impact the number of whales the Japanese boats could catch. I kept up with the activity on
Grassroots campaigner of the Year – Climate outreach information network
Based in Oxford, COIN are really good at a local level in engaging people in how they can adapt to live a low-carbon lifestyle. Their public meetings have covered really interesting topics and they also run really good courses called Climate Change Condensed.
Fictional Campaigner of the Year – Pat Archer
While obviously not a category, I feel that PA should be recognised as a beacon for sustainable farming in Ambridge. I have loved her letters to the council opposition the Anaerobic Digester and her drive to make Ambridge a transition community. (Not to mention standing up for feminists at Kathy’s rape trial). The women’s a marvel.
Politician of the Year – Ken Livingstone, Ex-Mayor of London
I still don’t want to talk about it. I am still horrified by the fact that Boris was elected as Mayor of London. However Ken can take some comfort that he has made a real difference about creating policies which show how sustainable development can also deliver social and economic sustainability and that will help make London a world leader in sustainability. (If Boris doesn’t muck it all up).
The Big idea award – Unpackaged
This award is for a business which has ‘devised a green initiative that has had, or could have, a large impact on their community’. Organic food, sold packaging free. Such a good simple idea and although many food co-ops have offered elements (such as washing up liquid refills) I think it is quite a breakthrough for a whole shop to be run along these lines. Bring your own packaging…
Ethical Business of the Year Award – River Cottage
I found this the hardest category of all, I really wanted to nominate Bird’s Eye with their new fish finger that isn’t made from cod. This will have a dramatic effect on the rapidly depleting cod stocks and I do spend a lot of time worrying about fish. I have also developed a very rapid no tolerance of “vegetarians” who eat fish (oh, ok, only the actually endangered things then!) But they are part of unilever and it just doesn’t feel right to nominate such a company for an Ethical Business award.
Then I thought about large organisations like BskyB and Google – companies which has done a brilliant job internally of motivating their staff to lower their carbon footprint. Or Aerial for their “Turn to 30” campaign which has created positive behavioural change in their customer base. Or Eurostar for going that extra mile to reduce their carbon footprint, despite they started out 9 times greener than flying or over relying on offsets.
Then I thought about the companies that are usually cited as ethical and who have great green credentials in how they run their businesses – Howies (owned by Timberland and not good for women who have boobs), Innocent (just can’t forgive them for McDonalds) and decided that River Cottage for me is the answer.
The River cottage philosophy about self-sufficiency, food integrity and consumption of local, seasonal food just fits with how I would like to live. I really like the work they have done about trying to reconnect people with the source of their food and I think Hugh is a great campaigner. Recently I have sat through lots of talks about how organic or seasonal produce won’t feed the world but I still feel that agriculture should have low inputs and that while I understand that food miles isn’t the issue in terms of mitigating climate change and that there are development issues if we didn’t buy import food, it just seems more sensible to eat food that is grown locally.
Fashion Product or Accessory of the Year – The Molly Shopping Trolley
Every girl should have one
Who would you nominate?
