Give yourselves a big pat on the back because, according to the
Co-operative Bank and
The Future Foundation's annual Ethical Consumerism Report published today, the value of ethical consumerism in the UK was worth more than sales of cigarettes and alcohol.
Using stats published by the Office for National Statistics, the report calculated that the ethical consumer market in 2005 was worth a whopping £29.3 billion in the UK, compared with the retail market for beer and fags of £28 billion. Even more impressively, ethical consumerism was worth 11 per cent more than in 2004, when overall household spending only rose by 1.4 per cent.
But before we go and get all smug, the Co-op's impressively job-titled Executive of Business Management Craig Shannon said we shouldn't get complacent as
"total ethical spending is spread over a wide range of products and services, and in very few markets has it become the market norm. Overall, spend on ethical foods still only accounts for 5% of the typical shopping basket."Infuriatingly for disciples of the unfettered free market, the Co-op's man advocated more intervention to help eco-friendly and ethical stuff gain the market lead, citing the example of A-rated fridges being helped by initiatives like EU labelling, removing energy-wasting products from sale and well-targeted subsidies. Using horrible management-ese he said,
"The efforts of far-sighted, highly motivated consumers need to be leveraged and supported with business innovation and government intervention."
Photo credit: 'Free Range Pickled Eggs' taken from Haversack's Flickr photostream under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licence.
