Looking for definitions of some of the main terms surrounding ethical investing, ethical consumerism and fair trade?

Please find below answers to Frequently Asked Questions such as What Is Fair Trade? What Is Carbon Offsetting? What Are Ethical Funds?

Key Terms Glossary covering the subject of Ethical Investing

Ethical Consumer – Someone who makes a conscious effort to make fair and ethical purchases, based on reliable information about the ethical policies of the company providing the product.

Fair Trade – Refers to the Fair Trade movement as a whole and describes labelled and unlabelled goods from the Fair Trade Federation and other Fair Trade organisations.

Ethical Product – Ethical products are products that are produced with respect to fair trade, including fair wages and working conditions; and respect to other issues such as animal rights, sustainable development and the environment. Ethical products could also be called Fair Trade products.

Fairtrade Mark – The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent guarantee of fair traded products for Third World producers, originates from the Fair Trade Federation.

Ethical Trade – According to the UK Ethical Trading Initiative it means the assumption of responsibility by a company for the labour and human rights practices within its supply chain.

Ethical Sourcing – A form of ethical consumerism; i.e. ethical purchasing; but also relates to business practice and the sourcing of fair traded or ethical goods and services to be sold on as part of a supply chain.

Ethical Consumerism – The practice of buying ethical products and favouring ethical products over unethical ones. Alternative terms for ethical consumerism include green shopping, ethical shopping, ethical purchasing, moral shopping, ethical sourcing or green consumerism.

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) – Corporate investment policy that practices ethical responsibility for the environment, human rights, worker rights, consumer protection: while considering financial investments such as loans and stock market investment.

Carbon Offsetting – Carbon offsetting is the practice of offsetting carbon footprints, i.e. the emissions of Co2 associated with things like air flights, the consumption of natural materials; by replacing them with projects designed to counterbalance that damage, such as tree planting and other sustainability schemes.

Ethical Banking – Investing money in banks with a good record on ethical issues, particularly the social, moral and environmental impact of its investments and loans.

Ethical Funds – Ethically screened investment funds which exclude products and companies deemed unethical; including companies with a bad record on sweat shops, supporting oppressive regimes or damaging the environment.

Cooperative Movement – Co-ops are jointly owned and democratically controlled organisations who share in the proceeds of their labour, usually worker members, often with strong ethical priorities such as ethical investment policies and emphasis on local, environmental and fair traded products.

Shareholder Activism – Attempts to positively influence corporate behaviour by shareholders through lobbying; also related to the idea of positive engagement, whereby investment fund managers and ethical investors attempt to influence a company’s ethical policy.

Boycotting – The practice of negative screening of goods and services. Ethical boycotting is the practice of avoiding products which a consumer believes to be associated with unethical behaviour.

Ethical Investment – Investment philosophy which attempts to consider the business proposition in terms of morality and ethics: as well as the financial return on investment.

Ethical Investors – Those seeking to invest sums of money usually through mutual funds or unit trusts in firms which make a positive contribution to the environment, fair trade and quality of life for others.

Ethical Shopper – Individual consumer who makes day to day shopping purchases based on ethical ratings of products and companies.

se being one of the main contributors to climate change; with flying especially damaging as a producer of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.

Climatesure offers unique insurance package dedicated to environmental ethical policy. When you buy a policy, Climatesure will calculate the CO2 you produce by flying overseas and pay for it to be ‘offset’ by Climate Care, a leading carbon offset company. This payment is part of the price, and does not cost you any extra. The insurance offsets your CO2 emissions through funding sustainable energy projects, which then will reduce CO2 emissions by the same amount as your activities produce.

Climate Care fund carbon offset projects around the world, including:

• Renewable Energy – Replaces non-renewable fuel such as coal.
• Energy Efficiency – Reduces the amount of fuel needed.
• Forest Restoration – Absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere as the trees grow.

One of Climatesure’s flagship programmes includes funding a project in India to introduce stoves into schools that run off a renewable fuel source, replacing stoves that use fossil fuels. Crop waste is being used to make biomass briquettes for the stoves, providing extra income to farmers but a much cheaper and new renewable fuel for the schools. This project is expected to save 11,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.