Abstract
Labelling schemes are practical arrangements aimed at making ‘ethical’ products widely available and visible. They are crucial to expanded development of ethical markets and hence to the addition of moral dimensions to the normally amoral behaviour linking consumers and retail and production businesses. The study reported here attempts to assess the contribution of UK ethical, social and environmental certification and labelling initiatives to ‘sustainable’ consumption and production. The research sought to assess the overall potential of initiatives to inject human values into the supply-distribution chains, through a qualitative survey of 15 of the 26 main UK initiatives: in social justice, animal welfare and environmental sustainability from the agriculture, food processing, timber, aquaculture, textiles and personal care sectors. By analysing the basic characteristics and concepts of these labels and investigating the emergence of labelling initiatives, we assess whether labels help add an ethical dimension, or whether, in some respects, they also reduce such missions to the technical management of adding only another ‘utility’ to a product. The analysis assesses whether the gradual ‘mainstreaming’ of ethical initiatives such as ‘Fairtrade’ risks subsuming ethical goals within business participants’ competitive and profit-oriented logics. However, the contrasting perspectives revealed between rival labelling initiatives show that the scope and functions of labelling projects go beyond the manifest ones of information communication between consumers and producer and actually introduce elements of socio-political regulation. These are essential for more sustainable and ethical business practices and are an integral part of any humanisation of business involvement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bartley, T.: 2003, ‘Certifying Forests and Factories: States, Social Movements, and the Rise of Private Regulation in the Apparel and Forest Product Fields’, Politics and Society 31(3), 433-464.
Bendell, J.: 2004, Barricades and Boardrooms - A Contemporary History of the Corporate Accountability Movement (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva).
Bougherara, D. and G. Grolleau: 2002, ‘Could Ecolabeling Mitigate Market Failures?’, Conference on Ecolabels and the Greening of Food Markets, 7–9 November, Tufts University, Boston, MA
Crespi, J. and Marette S.: 2003, ‘Some economic implications of public labeling’, Journal of Food Distribution Research 34(3), 83-94.
De Boer, J.: 2003, ‘Sustainability Labelling Schemes: The logic of their claims and their function for stakeholders’, Business Strategy and the Environment 12, 254-264.
DEFRA: 2007, ‘An index of Green Labels’, London, http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/consumerprod/shopguide/index.htm. Accessed 15 July 2007
Etzioni, A.: 1988, The Moral Dimension: Toward A New Economics (Macmillan, New York).
Fairtrade Foundation: 2008, ‘Fairtrade Sales Reach Half a Billion Pounds’, http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/press_office/press_releases_and_statements/feb_2008/fairtrade_fortnight_launch.aspx. Accessed 14 Oct 2008
Follesdal, A., Micheletti M. and Stolle D.: 2003, ‘Conclusion’, in M. Micheletti, Follesdal A. and Stolle D. (eds), Politics, Products and Markets: Exploring Political Consumerism Past and Present (Transaction Press, New Brunswick, N.J.), 289-300.
Granovetter, M.: 1985, ‘Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology 91(3), 481-510.
Hansen, U. and Schrader, U.: 1997, ‘A Modern Model of Consumption for a Sustainable Society’, Journal of Consumer Policy 20, 443-468.
Haufler, V.: 2003, ‘New forms of governance: certification regimes as social regulations of the global market’, in E. Meidinger, Elliott, C. and Oesten, G. Remagen-Oberwinter (eds), Social and Political Dimensions of Forest Certification (Forstbuch, Remagen-Oberwinter), 237-47.
Hirschman, A.: 1970, ‘Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.).
Holzer, B.: 2006, ‘Political consumerism between individual choice and collective action: social movements, role mobilization and signalling’, International Journal of Consumer Studies 30(5), 405-415.
Kennedy, P.: 2003, ‘Selling virtue: the political and economic contradictions of Green/Ethical Marketing in the United Kingdom’, in Micheletti et al. (eds), Politics, Products, and Markets (Transaction Press, New Brunswick, N.J.), pp. 21-44.
Klein, N.: 1999, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (Picador, New York).
Klintman, M.: 2006, ‘Ambiguous framings of political consumerism: means or end, product or process orientation?’, International Journal of Consumer Studies 30(5), 427-438.
Micheletti, M., Follesdal, A. and Stolle, D. (eds).: 2003, Politics, Products, and Markets: Exploring Political Consumerism Past and Present (Transaction Press, New Brunswick, N.J).
Mintel: 2006, Attitudes towards ethical foods - UK, Market Intelligence, August 2006 (Mintel Information Services, London).
Murphy, D. and Bendell, J.: 1997, In the company of partners: Business, environmental groups and sustainable development post-Rio (Policy Press, Bristol).
Newell, P.: 2000, ‘Globalisation and the new politics of sustainable development’, in J. Bendell (ed.), Terms of endearment (Greenleaf, Sheffield), pp. 31-39.
O’Rourke, D.: 2003, ‘Outsourcing Regulation: Analyzing Nongovernmental Systems of Labour Standards and Monitoring’, Policy Studies Journal 31(1), 1-29.
O’Rourke, D.: 2005, ‘Market Movements - Nongovernmental Organizations Strategies to Influence Global Production and Consumption’, Journal of Industrial Ecology 9(1-2), 115-128.
Raynolds, L., Murray, D. and Heller, A.: 2007, ‘Regulating sustainability in the coffee sector: A comparative analysis of third-party environmental and social certification initiatives’, Agriculture and Human Values 24,147-163.
Renard, M.C.: 2003, ‘Fair Trade: quality, market, and conventions’, Journal of Rural Studies 19, 87-96.
Schoenheit, I.: 2004, `Die Volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung der Verbraucherinformation', in Landeszentrale fur politische Bildung (Politikfeld Verbraucherschutz, Potsdam), pp. 47–65
Schoenheit, I.: 2007‘ Politischer Konsum: Ein Beitrag zum faustischen Konsumentenverhalten’, in M. Jaeckel (ed.), Ambivalenzen des Konsums und der werblichen Kommunikation (VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden).
Scholte, J.A.: 2000, Globalization: a critical introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, London).
Sto, E., Strandbakken, P. Scheer, D. and Rubik, F.: 2005, ‘Background: theoretical contributions, eco-labels and environmental policy’, in F. Rubik and P. Frankl (eds.), The Future of Eco-labelling (Greenleaf, Sheffield), pp. 16-45.
Strange, S.: 1996, The Retreat of the State (C.U.P, Cambridge).
Taylor, P.: 2005, ‘In the Market But Not of It: Fair Trade Coffee and Forest Stewardship Council Certification as Market-Based Social Change’, World Development 33(1), 129-147.
The Co-operative Bank: 2006, ‘Ethical Consumerism Report 2006’, Manchester, http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1170748475331&pagename=CB%2FPage%2FtplStandard&loc=l. Accessed 15 July 2007
The Co-operative Bank: 2007, ‘Ethical Consumerism Report 2007’, Manchester. http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/images/pdf/ethical_consumer_report_2007.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2007
Utting, P.: 2005, Rethinking Business Regulation (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva).
Zadek, S., Lingayah S. and Forstater, M.: 1998, Social labels: tools for ethical trade (European Commission, Luxembourg).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hartlieb, S., Jones, B. Humanising Business Through Ethical Labelling: Progress and Paradoxes in the UK. J Bus Ethics 88, 583–600 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0125-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0125-x