Ethical Christmas?
As Christmas approaches, people (as usual) want to make their loved ones happy by buying the best present they could. This is probably the most powerful thing that makes Christmas a season to celebrate for the kids, the shop owners and the whole business cycle. Buying, consuming cherishes the soul of every single special day in our “green” lives, doesn’t it?
No, not going to write something like “Is taking Christmas only as a day to give and receive gifts, ethical?” No way. Not going to kill the “immaterial part” of this special day for you out there. But as a business ethics blogger, I need to ask some questions and find some answers.
When I first thought about the possible (not possible, actually) topic above, another idea popped into my mind as I changed my way of accessing the subject. “Is there something called an Ethical Christmas Present?” I asked to myself. And as usual, found some answers…
Here is the list which was prepared by the ethicscore.org, Ethical Consumer magazine’s (
1. Escor wooden toys
2. Divine After Dinner mints
3. Green People lipstick
4. Dolma fragrances
5. Highland Harvest organic whisky
6. Archos MP3 player
7. Denon DVD player
8. Ricoh digital cameras
9. Nintendo Wii
10. Sharp mobile phones
The list was constructed on criteria like animal rights, environment, people, politics and product sustainability. And the interesting part is that you can re-order the list by customizing each of the criteria. You may ignore one of them while setting another one’s importance level to a higher degree. That really looks like fun. (You have to be signed-in though.) It would be both pretty nice and ethical to buy a Nintendo Wii for your little son, or to buy a Dolma fragrance for your wife/girlfriend. Sounds great isn’t it? A win-win and ethical situation…
So, another question arises here: By buying those presents to our loved ones, do we truly make Christmas ethical? With all of those trees chopped down, and tones of unrecyclable aluminum foil & plastic packaging used?.. NO, WE DON’T.
And one more question here: Am I “The Grinch”? NO, I AM NOT. I'm not telling you to be a part of one of those "buy nothing" days. Buy, purchase... But with some individual consciousness. I’m only a b-ethics blogger who is trying to create a little bit of an awareness. That’s all… Merry Christmas to you out there!
Related Links:
http://www.ethiscore.org/
http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/
Why should animals be abused when it is not necessary?
