Shoppers who are happy to be the first to try out new products are driving a boom in ethical spending, from electric cars to DIY energy generation, according to a new report.
Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave ., Venice
And that's surely going to prove a hard sell, however much it's helped along by the warm and fuzzy ethical feeling of going electric.
Ethical Consumer has reservations about electric cars, because of the wider behaviour of the manufacturers, their supply chains, and the fact they also produce military vehicles.
And Ridley Scott's adaptation of the Philip K Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? raises philosophical and ethical questions about the differences between humans and "skin-jobs".
Ethical Consumer this week published a shopping guide to electric cars, and gave the Tesla Model S the highest environmental score.
The latest ethical spending report shows a 40% leap in sales of electric, hybrid and other cars in the A-rated tax band to £7bn in 2014.
Stronger sales of solar panels, electric cars and free-range poultry helped to grow the UK's overall "ethical market" by 8% in 2014, a new report claims.
Knotty problems of the same sort arise whenever you add an ethical overlay to what is normally a purely economic decision, like shopping for coffee, paying an electric bill or buying an index fund.
Which innovation or commodity – from a simple veg box or fairtrade product right up to an electric car – has made the biggest difference to your life and deserves to be crowned as the ultimate ethical product?
Which innovation, from a veg box to a fairtrade biscuit or electric car has made the biggest difference to your life and deserves to be crowned as the ultimate ethical product.
