Ethical Consumer, Issue 189, March/April 2021£4·25 188 Jan/Feb 2021
www.ethicalconsumer.org £4·25 189 Mar/Apr 2021
www.ethicalconsumer.org
Heat and power your home
without fossil fuels Electricity & Gas suppliers Heat pumps
Solar PV Solar thermal
SHOPPING GUIDES TO
CO-FOUNDED BY
Capital at risk. The value of your fund can go down as well
as up. Tax treatment depends on an individual’s circumstances
and may be subject to change.
Looking after No.1 now includes everyone else.
The new ISA. Fair on fees. Big on the issues that count.
Search The Big Exchange ISA
Quality
Over 200 mens &
Tel: 01273 691913 |
[email protected]
A treat for your feet if you don’t eat meat!
Quality ‘breathable’
VEGANBOOTS
call: 01273 691913 vegshoes.com
[email protected]
Airseal Twin Buckle Stitched (Black)
Caribou 2 Boot (Brown)
Over 200 womens
and mens styles!
30 YEARS
of
Ethical Consumer 1/4 page ad 0121.indd 1Ethical Consumer 1/4 page
ad 0121.indd 1 13/01/2021 16:3713/01/2021 16:37
www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk t : 0 14 8 4 4 6 17 0 5
Enjoy the comfort and energy efficiency of triple glazed timber
windows and doors
®
feelgood windows
g b s windows ad 91x137mm Ethical C dec 2018 FINAL.indd 1
14/12/2018 10:42
JOSIE WEXLER EDITOR
WHO’S WHO THIS ISSUE’S EDITORS Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange,
Rob Harrison PROOFING Ciara Maginness (Little Blue Pencil)
WRITERS/RESEARCHERS Jane Turner, Tim Hunt,
Rob Harrison, Anna Clayton, Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange, Mackenzie
Denyer, Clare Carlile, Francesca de la Torre, Alex Crumbie, Tom
Bryson, Billy Saundry, Jasmine Owens
REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Simon Birch, Colin Birch DESIGN Tom Lynton
LAYOUT Adele Armistead (Moonloft), Jane Turner COVER Tom Lynton
CARTOONS Marc Roberts, Mike Bryson, Andy Vine AD SALES Simon Birch
SUBSCRIPTIONS Elizabeth Chater,
Francesca Thomas, Nadine Oliver PRESS ENQUIRIES Simon Birch, Tim
Hunt ENQUIRIES Francesca Thomas WEB EDITOR Sophie Billington THANKS
ALSO TO Marlous Veldt, Merle Büter, Emma
Kerrison, Katy Davies, Alyson Tyler, Joel David Taylor, Katie
Percival, Charu Mittal, Fiona Hobson
All material correct one month before cover date and © Ethical
Consumer Research Association Ltd. ISSN 0955 8608
Printed with vegetable ink by RAP Spiderweb Ltd, c/o the Commercial
Centre, Clowes Centre, Hollinwood, Oldham OL9 7LY. 0161 947 3700
PAPER 100% post-consumer waste, chlorine-free
and sourced from the only UK paper merchant supplying only recycled
papers – Paperback (www.paperbackpaper.co.uk)
RETAIL DISTRIBUTION is handled by Central Books on 0845 458 9911.
Ethical Consumer is a member of INK (independent news collective),
an association of radical and alternative publishers.
www.ink.uk.com
We are a Living Wage employer, a multi-stakeholder co-op, and Fair
Tax Mark accredited.
ABOUT THE ADVERTISERS ECRA checks out advertisers before accepting
their ads and reserves the right to refuse any advert. COVERED IN
PREVIOUS PRODUCT GUIDES
Ecotricity (189), Green Stationery (185), Infinity Wholefoods
(178), Kingfisher Toothpaste (184), Pacari Chocolates (188),
Vegetarian Shoes (185).
OTHER ADVERTISERS Big Exchange, Green Building Store, Investing
Ethically, Practical Action, The Gorilla Organisation, The Path,
Womankind.
We are an independent, not-for-profit, multi- stakeholder
co-operative founded in 1989 and based in Manchester. Our primary
goal is making global businesses more sustainable through consumer
pressure. Our mission is to:
1 Help consumers to challenge corporate power by using their
economic vote every
time they go shopping.
2Democratise the market by enabling consumers to assert their own
ethical
values by using our shopping guides.
3Have a fully transparent ranking system. All our data is available
to subscribers.
4Engage with companies by telling them why we are buying or not
buying their products.
We also send them detailed questions about their policy and
practice on ethical issues.
5Push for wider political action and legislative change. Ethical
consumerism is
not a replacement for other forms of political action. But it is an
important additional way for people to exert their influence.
HOW TO CONTACT US Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester, M15
5RF
0161 226 2929 — 10-5pm
[email protected] — general
[email protected] — subscriptions
WHAT IS ETHICAL CONSUMER?
This issue is focused on decarbonising your home, with guides to
heat pumps, solar panels, solar thermal and electricity and gas
suppliers.
The biggest priority for consumers is really heating. You can help
a little bit, but UK energy generation will mostly have to be
decarbonised at the national level, as our big renewable resource
lies off the coast. And it is largely being done through
regulation. In this area, voting with your vote is more important
than voting with your wallet.
However, there is only one place where you can have a warm home,
and that is at home. Heating is not very sexy – it’s hard to feel
awe at the austere beauty of a heat pump or some cavity wall
insulation. Surveys always show a general lack of knowledge or
interest on decarbonising heating compared to other areas. But we
hope to generate some more sparks of interest with this issue of
the magazine, and to let you know more about what your options
are.
We have decided to stop covering gas boilers, in recognition of the
fact that we all need to be getting off them soon if we are to
tackle climate change.
Taking it to the courts Climate change is also, increasingly, being
fought through the courts. By July 2020, there had been 1,587
worldwide cases of climate litigation.1 Courts have even begun
ordering governments to cut emissions: in 2019 the Dutch government
lost an appeal in its supreme court and was thus obliged to cut the
Netherlands’ greenhouse gas emissions by 25% on 1990 levels by the
end of 2020.
We report in the electricity guide on page 16 on another case that
is ongoing in the Netherlands, which could have important
implications for ethical consumers.
It is being fought by the same lawyer who won the 25% cut, who is
looking to repeat the success with a corporation. Royal Dutch Shell
is being prosecuted for its role in climate change, with activists
demanding not financial compensation, but that it cut emissions by
45% by 2030 from 2019 levels.
If Shell loses it could have widespread ramifications for how we
can force companies to act. Sara Shaw, Climate Justice and Energy
program coordinator at Friends of the Earth International, one of
the NGOs bringing the case, said: “Our hope is that this case
sparks a wave of climate litigation that can hold other
corporations to account and bring on the end of the fossil fuel
age.”
The verdict on the case is expected in May.
The growth in the Ethical Markets We also report in this magazine
on our latest Ethical Markets report, which shows continued rapid
growth in ethical-focused buying. And the figures that are
available since the start of the pandemic seem to suggest that
Covid is only increasing interest in ethical consumption.
Like this one, our next magazine will also be mostly covering quite
large
purchases – we’re going to look at washing machines,
dishwashers,
fridges and cookers. But so everyone doesn’t drown in white goods,
we’re going to cover vacuum cleaners and
beer as well. See you then.
Ref: 1 London School of Economics, 2020 Global trends in climate
change litigation
0161 226 2929
[email protected]
0161 226 2929
[email protected]
Ethical Consumer offers quick and cost effective screenings to help
you to ensure that partners, suppliers, sponsors or potential
investments will not pose a reputational risk, or clash with your
own ethics, values and mission.
Past and present clients include:
Subscribe to Ethical Consumer’s Corporate Research Database for
information on over 25,000 companies and brands. Access in-depth,
independent analysis of corporate ethical policies, reporting and
performance across 18 social, environmental and animal welfare
categories. Easily search the ethical and environmental records of
suppliers, sponsors, contractors and competitors.
Moonloft ethical web & graphic design
design for print
British Sugar and neonicotinoids, supermarket plastic, brands
supporting Burma military
08 Climate No to coal in Cumbria, Barclays and HSBC risk losing
customers
09 Clothes Viscose update, stop genocidal trade, Boohoo buys
Debenhams
31 Ethical Novice Heating
37 Money Action against war on Yemen
38 Boycotts Stop Hate for Profit victory, boycott Beijing
Olympics
39 Almeria campaign News from Spain
44 Lush Spring Prize Apply for the 2021 Prize.
45 Beyond consumerism From advertising to a craft economy?
Green Home Energy 10 Introduction 20 Grants for heat pumps
and
solar thermal
Gas and electricity 12 Introduction 14 Score Table & Best Buys
16 Lawsuits over climate
culpability 17 Energy companies’ global
exploits
Solar PV 21 Introduction 22 Score Table & Best Buys 24 Act to
support community
schemes
43 Gift subscriptions Give a gift subscription to Ethical
Consumer
48 Letters A regular forum for readers’ views
50 Inside view The great Brexit fiasco
NEWS SHOPPING GUIDESFEATURES
24
17
50
44
08
46 Ethical Consumer Markets report The state of the UK ethical
market in 2019
Ethical Consumer March/April 20216
NEWS
Food & Home Supermarkets treading water in ocean of plastic
packaging The third annual plastics survey conducted by the
Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace UK showed that
the 10 leading supermarkets collectively put almost 900,000 tonnes
of plastic packaging on the market in 2019 – that’s the equivalent
weight of almost 90 Eiffel Towers.
EIA Senior Campaigner Christina Dixon said: “We had hoped to see a
much sharper downwards trajectory as strategies and targets bear
fruit. Instead, we are looking at a relatively static picture which
represents a drop in the ocean of tackling plastic pollution. The
sector urgently needs to pick up the pace of plastic
reduction.”
The survey also found that more than 1.58 billion plastic ‘bags for
life’ (which contain more plastic than thinner single-use bags)
were issued in 2019, a 4.5 per cent increase over 2018. This
represents almost 57 bags per UK household during the year.
A key recommendation of Checking Out on Plastics III is for
supermarkets to devise strategies which include specific targets
for increasing reusable and refillable packaging and delivery
systems, both in- store and online, as a way to reduce unnecessary
plastic packaging.
Nina Schrank, Senior Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said:
“All supermarkets should follow Sainsbury’s, and now Aldi, in
committing to reduce plastic packaging by 50 per cent by 2025, at
the very least. How these commitments are met is also crucial. Half
of that reduction should come from reuse and refill systems, so we
can ensure that packaging stays in those systems and out of the
environment.”
Greenpeace is calling for 25% of packaging to be reusable by 2025,
and 50% reusable by 2030.
Silver Spoon sugar linked to bee-harming pesticide The UK
government has authorised the use of a pesticide believed to kill
bees, despite an EU ban, following lobbying from British Sugar
(Silver Spoon brand) and the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). The EU
banned use of most neonicotinoids on outdoor crops in 2018 after
widespread campaigning highlighted the danger to declining bee
populations.
Greenpeace has called the decision “short-sighted and dangerous”. A
third of all bee populations – which help in the pollination of
apples, beans, squashes and other crops grown in the UK – are in
decline, according to the campaign organisation. Studies have found
that significant declines in some British bee populations coincided
with the introduction of the pesticide, which was widely used
before the 2018 ban.
British Sugar is part of the Associated British Foods group, which
also owns the consumer brands: Twinings, Kingsmill, Allinson,
Patak’s, Jordans, Sunblest, Burgen, Jacksons of Piccadilly, Dorset
Cereals, Primark and Meena. The group receives an ethical score of
just 3.5.
The high profile of its Silver Spoon brand, coupled with the
product’s clear link to the pesticide in question, and with a
widespread opposition to bee- harming pesticides among consumers,
may make this a decision the company comes to regret.
TAKE ACTION l Avoid the Silver Spoon brand and tell the company
why. Silver Spoon have a contact form on their website:
www.silverspoon.co.uk/get-in-touch as well as a twitter account:
@BritishSugar. l Sign the Greenpeace petition asking the
Environment Secretary to enforce a total ban on neonicotinoids –
https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/ bees-share-friends
2018 2019
References: 1 Changing Markets Foundation, 2020. Talking Trash: the
corporate playbook of false solutions to the plastic crisis -
https://talking-trash.com
Fairtrade Fortnight This year the fortnight runs between 22
February and 7 March. It will highlight the growing challenges
that climate change brings to farmers and workers in the
communities Fairtrade works with such as those in Kenya,
Ethiopia
and Honduras. Fairtrade Foundation will be hosting an online
festival bringing together schools, universities, businesses,
supporters, campaigners and farmers from across the world to
“choose the world they want”. l Go to
www.fairtrade.org.uk/get-involved/current-
campaigns/fairtrade-fortnight/ to find out more. l Check out our
shopping guides on our website which feature Fairtrade products –
chocolate, coffee, tea and bananas.
NEWS
Food & Home Are your products linked to the military behind
Burma’s coup?
N E W S I N B R I E F
On 1st February, the Burmese military staged another coup. They
seized control of the country detaining Aung San Suu Kyi (who won a
70% majority in the recent election) and handing power over to
their commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing. Despite multiple
warnings and decades of human rights abuses, the owners of Tetley
tea and Fourpure, Little Creatures and Kirin Ichiban breweries
remain involved with the military behind the coup.
“It is an absolute no brainer that companies should not be doing
business with a military that is committing genocide and holding
coups,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK said.
Civilians in the country, which is also known as Myanmar, face
curfews, internet blackouts and ongoing refusal of their democratic
and civil rights.
The coup follows a long history of violence and suppression by the
Burmese military, which ruled the country as a dictatorship from
1962 – 2010, and has remained powerful in the decade since. It has
been the perpetrator of genocide against the Rohingya Muslim
population of Rakhine state – causing over 700,000 people to flee
to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Despite this, Tata (part owner of Tetley tea and Jaguar Land Rover
cars) and Kirin (owner of Kirin Ichiban, Fourpure and Little
Creatures beers, and part owner of Brooklyn Brewery)
French vegan restaurant gets Michelin star A vegan restaurant in
Ares, near Bordeaux has become the first in the country to get a
Michelin star. Claire Vallée runs the restaurant ONA – which stands
for Origine Non Animale – which she launched in 2016 thanks to
crowdfunding from supporters and a loan from a green bank after
having trouble getting funding from a traditional bank.
There aren’t any vegan restaurants with a Michelin star in the UK
though some Michelin-starred restaurants now offer vegan
menus.
have continued to do business with the military, according to Burma
Campaign UK.
Tata manufactures military equipment, which it sells to the Burmese
military. It provides personnel carriers, as well as SUVs, that are
used by some of the country’s top generals.1
TAKE ACTION l In our next issue, we are updating our shopping guide
to beer so you can check out some alternatives to Kirin brands l
There is a shopping guide to tea on our website for alternatives to
Tetley. l For the full story and for a template email to Kirin
craft beer brands asking them to end ties with the military, see
our website.
Reference: 1
https://action.burmacampaign.org.uk/tata-make-tetley-tea-and-equipment-
burma%E2%80%99s-military
Let’s make slave-free chocolate the law A recommended brand from
last magazine’s Chocolate guide, Tony’s Chocolonely, has launched a
campaign demanding that governments hold companies accountable by
law for illegal child labour and modern slavery in their supply
chains.
As we said in our guide, even though chocolate companies signed the
Harkin-Engel protocol in 2001 to eliminate child labour, little
progress has been made over 20 years.
Sign the petition https://tonyschocolonely.com/ petition and check
out our chocolate guide.
Two new Best Buy Labels
Last month, two of our Best Buy companies began to display our
Ethical Consumer Best Buy Label on their products: l Gusto soft
drinks l Chocolat Madagascar Look out for them when you go
shopping, or indeed when you stay in and shop online!
Tony’s Chocolonely’s four look-a- like bars are to raise awareness
and inspire the chocolate industry to act.
NEWS
Climate Barclays and HSBC’s risky business A survey of customers
who bank with Barclays and HSBC shows that these banks risk losing
up to three million customers if they continue financing fossil
fuels.
An online survey was carried out by ICM Unlimited on behalf of
Market Forces, an organisation campaigning to stop banks from
financing environmental damage. Its findings suggest that Barclays
and HSBC benefit from a low level of awareness of their climate
impacts, with four fifths (80%) of customers unaware that their
bank is investing in fossil fuels.
When faced with the facts, however, the survey reveals that over
one in ten (12.5%) customers say they would be very likely to
consider switching banks. This would be the equivalent of three
million customers leaving HSBC and Barclays for more ethical
alternatives.1
Barclays and HSBC have collectively invested over £149 billion in
coal, gas, oil, tar sands and fracking since the Paris Climate
Agreement was signed in 2015, making them the seventh and twelfth
worst banks in the world respectively, and the two worst in Europe,
for financing climate change.
The polling results come as both banks have come under pressure to
rapidly phase out investment in fossil fuels from their portfolios,
with many shareholders and activists pointing out the bank’s
funding of fossil fuels is inconsistent with their stated support
for the Paris Climate Agreement and their recent ‘net zero by 2050’
pledges.
Leading personal finance expert and founder of the Young Money
Blog, Iona Bain, commented: “One of the most effective things we
can do as consumers to fight climate change is to demand that our
money is invested sustainably ... If you are one of the millions of
customers of HSBC and Barclays who is horrified to learn that your
money is being invested in fossil fuels, there are plenty of great
ethical alternatives out there and switching is very
straightforward. And don’t leave quietly! Tell your bank exactly
why you are leaving to send a powerful message to the industry that
their time for destroying the environment is up”.
For more information and to take action see Ethical Consumer’s
guides to finance and visit Bank On Our Future’s website:
bankonourfuture.uk/action
References: 1 Calculations are based on figures taken from Barclays
UK Performance Review 2017 and HSBC Annual Report and Accounts 2019
2 www.theguardian.com/ business/2020/nov/30/shell-in-court-over-
claims-it-hampered-fossil-fuels-phase-out 3
www.foei.org/press_releases/shell-climate- case-hearings-conclude 4
www.gov.uk/ government/news/uk-sets-ambitious-new-
climate-target-ahead-of-un-summit 5 www.
edie.net/news/11/Cumbria-coal-mine--
Government-refuses-to-block-UK-s-first-deep-
coal-mine-in-three-decades
End the era of coal Sign the petition calling on the UK government
to “Stop plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria now and commit to end
the era of coal in the UK.” https://secure.
greenpeace.org.uk/page/s/ uk-govt-no-new-coal
Kick polluters out of COP26 Sign the petition to kick polluters out
of COP26, the annual UN climate conference: https://act.350.
org/sign/kick-polluters- out-of-COP26
TAKE ACTION
Despite the UK Government’s recent announcements to cut greenhouse
gas emissions and achieve net zero by 2050,4 it has refused to
intervene in Cumbria County Council's decision to approve a deep
coal mine in Whitehaven – the first facility of its kind to gain
planning approval in 30 years.
The government could have called for an inquiry but has chosen not
to do so. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick reportedly sent a
letter to councillors stating that the Government is "committed to
giving more power to councils to make their own decisions on
planning issues."
The mine plans to remove 2.5 million tonnes of coal from beneath
the Irish Sea every year for the production of steel in the UK and
Europe.
More than 2,300 people have objected to the plan since 2017 in
addition to campaign organisations that include Friends of the
Earth, Keep Cumbrian Coal in the Hole (KCCH) and the World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF).5
Critics of the project argue that the mine could stifle progress
towards aligning the UK’s steel sector with the 2050 net-zero
target and that, quite simply, one new coal mine is one too
many.
One coal mine too many
Extinction Rebellion’s Green Brigade staged their protest outside
the county council offices in Kendal in February 2020.
NEWS
Clothes
There is some major reorganising going on in the fast fashion
industry with the collapse and acquisition of some big brands.
Debenhams, which had been in trouble for a while, has been acquired
by none other than Boohoo in a £55 million deal. Boohoo
will not be retaining Debenhams’ stores – resulting in an estimated
12,000 job losses.1 The takeover will not actually have a huge
effect on Ethical Consumer score tables as Debenhams (which was
part owned by Barclays Bank) already had a score of 3, just below
Boohoo’s score of 4.
Impacts from Covid, on top of a decade of closures and losses, has
also seen the sudden collapse of Arcadia Group.2 It is again an
online-only retailer that has snapped up the failing high-street
brands, with ASOS acquiring Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and
HIIT from Arcadia in a £305 million deal. It is expected to lead to
the loss of up to 70 stores and thousands of jobs.3 Again, this
won’t result in a dramatic change to our score tables, with ASOS
having a marginally higher score of 8, compared to Arcadia Group’s
6.5.
As we went to press, Boohoo announced it had bought the Dorothy
Perkins, Wallis and Burton brands and online businesses from
Arcadia with the further loss of 2,450 workers and closure of the
high street shops.5
References: 1
www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/25/debenhams-close-stores-job-losses-boohoo-shops-covid-19
2 www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55139369 3 www.bbc.co.uk/news/
business-55884596 4
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/11/international-criminal-icc-china-uighur-genocide-claims
5 www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55977587
A new report, ‘Dirty Fashion: Crunch Time’, ranks fashion brands on
how well they are preventing pollution in their supply chain,
particularly in relation to viscose.
Viscose, a common fibre used in clothing, is made from trees and
plants, and has the potential to be very sustainable.
Unfortunately, it is often created using highly toxic chemicals
which can find their way into water systems, threatening the health
of ecosystems and local people.
The Changing Markets Foundation, who produced the report, responded
to the problem by creating the Roadmap to Responsible Viscose and
Model Fibre Manufacturing, with support from Ethical Consumer and
other campaign organisations. ‘Dirty Fashion: Crunch Time’ assesses
the progress of signatories to the roadmap as well as those fashion
brands that are yet to sign up.
D I R T Y F A S H I O N ARE FASHION BRANDS ACTING ON
POLLUTION?
Some key highlights from the report: l ASOS, C&A, Esprit,
M&S, Reformation and Tesco were among the most transparent and
were found to have “published extensive lists of their viscose
manufacturers on their corporate websites, including the names and,
in some cases, full addresses of factories”. l Both budget and
designer brands were given the worst ranking: Armani, Dolce &
Gabbana, Prada and Versace rub shoulders with sports giant Nike and
low- cost retailers Costco, Forever 21, TJ/TK Maxx and
Walmart.
Poorly performing companies will be marked down under our Pollution
and Toxics category.
You can find out more and take action at dirtyfashion.info.
#StopGenocidalTrade Labour Behind the Label is asking people to
show their support for a trade bill amendment which would allow UK
courts to decide whether genocide was being committed. This could
prevent the UK entering trade deals with states even if the UN has
not officially recognised their actions as genocidal.
In the Xinjiang region of China, the Uyghur people are being
subjected to multiple atrocities, including sterilisation,
detention in ‘re-education’ camps and being forced to pick cotton
that ends up supplying much of the global fashion industry. Claims
of genocide have been brought to the International Criminal Court
(ICC). The ICC made a request for further evidence in December 2020
and kept the case open but has not made a ruling.4
Labour Behind the Label states: “Human rights groups have said that
the fashion industry is virtually complicit in the [Uyghur] forced
labour. The upcoming Trade Bill amendment could grant [Uyghurs] the
right to petition British courts.”
Ask your MP to support the bill here: genocideresponse.org
Major shake-up of UK fashion industry
SHOPPING GUIDE
JOSIE WEXLER introduces four new shopping guides designed to help
you understand the main options on your road to a zero-carbon
home.
We have, as a country, officially signed up to completely
decarbonise the UK by 2050. This means that we have 29 years to get
all key sectors to net zero: electricity, transport, heating,
industry,
food and land use. People have been producing proposals as to how
to do
it for many years now. The main official body that advises the
government on it: the Climate Change Committee (CCC), produced one
in 2019, and has just released another. In 2019, it calculated that
it was possible to do it at a “manageable” cost – 1-2% of GDP each
year.1
It also reports to parliament on how we are doing. And it has not
been complementary of late. We are missing nearly all our targets,
and it really doesn’t look like a serious attempt is being made to
rectify that. Given what we have committed to do, the measures in
place to do it are profoundly inadequate.
Consumers may thus need to take more of the lead. This magazine is
focused on the green home – what consumers can do on electricity
and heating.
Electricity There is ongoing movement in the right direction.
Renewable electricity generation in total grew by 9% since 2018, to
37%, with onshore and offshore wind generation rising by 7% and 20%
respectively.3
This is the sector in which the UK is doing best. But even this
looks better than it is, because we don’t just need to decarbonise
100% of our electricity. If we’re going to start using electricity
for heating and transport, we need to decarbonise 200% of it.
Much electricity decarbonisation needs to be done at the national
level – offshore wind is the UK’s really big renewable resource.
But you can help by getting solar PV panels, which we cover on page
21, and supporting companies that are doing more to help build
renewables, covered on page 12.
References: 1 CCC, 2019, Net Zero – Technical Report,
https://www.theccc.org.uk/ publication/net-zero-technical-report 2
BEIS, 2019, UK Energy Statistics, 2019 & Q4 2019 3 BEIS, 2019,
UK Energy Statistics, 2019 & Q4 2019 4 CCC, 2019, Net Zero –
Technical Report,
https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/net-zero-technical-report 5
Committee on Climate Change, 2016, Next Steps for UK Heat
Policy
Heat and power your home
without fossil fuels
Heating – cutting demand Heating accounts for about a third of UK
territorial greenhouse emissions (“territorial” means that it
excludes imported goods). Our housing is old, leaky, and hopelessly
dependent on fossil fuels – around 85% of UK homes use gas
boilers.
Pretty much everyone agrees that the first priority has to be
insulation. The CCC thinks that cutting heating demand by a quarter
is realistic. This includes insulation in millions of lofts, cavity
walls and solid walls.
There are government schemes to help pay for insulation – see page
20. And if you pay about £50, you can get an energy performance
assessor to identify your options. (www.gov.uk/
find-an-energy-assessor)
Another way you can try to reduce your heating demand is by using
smart heating controls, which can automatically adjust heating –
sometimes room by room – from a phone or computer.
Heating options – electricity and gas Once we’ve reduced heat
demand as much as we can, we then need to supply the rest.
Most scenarios envisage electric heat pumps being the backbone of a
decarbonised UK heating system because they are around three times
more efficient than a standard electric heater.4 We cover them on
pages 26-29. They will cut your emissions immediately, by a
significant amount, but they aren’t cheap, although you can get
help with the cost.
As for direct electric heating – it can play a small role, although
if everyone used it then it would require an implausible amount of
electricity. While it has traditionally been regarded as much worse
for the climate than gas, the grid has now decarbonised enough that
high-heat retention storage heaters, which you can heat up at night
when the grid is least carbon intensive, are starting to get more
ambiguous. But they won’t reduce your emissions yet.
We decided to stop covering gas boilers in Ethical Consumer – the
boilers last for about 15 years, so buying one now will probably
lock you into gas heating for a while. We do really need to be
getting off gas. The government appears to agree, as they are to be
banned in new build homes from 2023 (just brought forward from
2025). However, if you do want to get a gas boiler, most of the
companies that make them also make heat pumps or are also covered
in other guides.
Other heating options – bioenergy Bioenergy is any fuel from plant
or animal matter, including wood, alcohol, and biogas. We’re
currently using some for heating – some people run biomass boilers,
and some companies inject biogas into the gas grid.
Unfortunately, bioenergy has a huge problem, which is the amount of
land that growing it takes up. This has led to a lot of concern
about whether it is being produced sustainably or whether it is
encouraging people to clear virgin habitat.
It also leads to the macro-level issue – whatever we do, there is
only ever going to be a very limited amount of biofuel available.
And absolutely everyone wants it. They want it because it is
functionally identical to fossil fuel (fossil fuels are just
biofuels that were made a very long time ago) and, as any heroin
addict moving onto methadone knows, when you’re trying to kick an
addiction, the easiest thing to wean yourself onto is the next
nearest thing.
That is why, in the long term, bioenergy really needs to be
allocated to the areas which need it the most – where there are no
other options. The CCC, like nearly everyone else, concludes that
using much bioenergy for heating “is not the long-term best use of
finite bioenergy resources”. It calculates that biogas could
sustainably provide about 5% of our heating needs.5 This includes
biogas from waste.
As a result of these issues, we decided to stop covering biomass
boilers.
Other heating options – solar thermal, hydrogen, district heating
Solar thermal is a good technology but is limited – it can only
supply a proportion of your heating needs, so you’d need to combine
it with something else. We cover it on pages 32-35.
Another option is hydrogen, which could be pumped down the gas
grid. Companies are starting to make ‘hydrogen-ready’ gas boilers,
which could switch over to burning it. But unfortunately, there’s
quite a bit more to it than that. The CCC puts it like this:
“When technical feasibility is demonstrated and decisions made,
production (primarily from natural gas) will require a significant
infrastructure programme to build dedicated new hydrogen
transmission pipelines, hydrogen storage capacity (e.g. salt
caverns), large volumes of CCS [carbon capture and storage] and
hydrogen production capacity.”
It concludes that once you’ve factored in everything, hydrogen is
unlikely to be cheaper for society than heat pumps. So it only uses
it for a small number of homes in its scenario, in combination with
a hybrid heat pump.
The only other option left is low-carbon heat networks, which can
be heated by waste heat from industry or decarbonised power
stations, or communal heat pumps. The CCC calculates that they
could work for about five million homes.
Conclusion It isn’t easy to keep homes warm and light without
burning that congealed ancient sunlight that was just handily lying
around in the form of coal and gas and oil. But as one recent
report put it: “decarbonisation of heating for the UK’s existing
housing stock is possible, and can be achieved with average net
investment of less than £10,000 per home”. Our guides will lead you
through the options.
During 2019, UK grid electricity came from the following:2
l 41% gas l 3% oil l 2% coal l 17% nuclear l 11% bioenergy l 10%
onshore wind l 10% offshore wind l 4% solar PV l 2% hydro
Ethical Consumer March/April 202112
Electricity & gas suppliers SHOPPING GUIDE
Greening your electricity and gas CLARE CARLILE and JOSIE WEXLER
explain what to look for when choosing your supplier.
The UK is taking steps in the right direction on electricity: about
37% of UK electricity now comes from renewables, and the
amount is slowly growing (see page 10). Yet, much more needs to be
done.
Friends of the Earth states that 75% of our electricity must come
from clean energy sources by 2030 if the UK is to meet its legally
binding commitment to zero emissions by 2050.
Changes in the energy market The energy market has changed
considerably since we last updated this guide.
Many of the small companies in our last guide have been bought out
by larger, less ethical ones. A lot of other electricity companies
have either been selling up or going bust. Two of our previous best
buys were amongst them: Robin Hood has been sold to British Gas and
Bristol Energy to
Together Energy, resulting in falling
scores and the loss of their best-buy status.
© M
from 9% to over 50% in just four years. The
largest energy companies in the UK now offer green
tariffs for domestic and/or small business customers. Many smaller
companies specialising in ‘green’ energy have entered the market
and seen huge growth in recent years.
Several of the large companies have also sold off their fossil fuel
assets or are investing in renewables. Yet, the majority of
‘renewable energy’ tariffs make flimsy claims, with only a handful
actually contributing to the energy transition in the UK. The worst
of the bunch, Shell Energy, offers 100%
renewable energy while continuing to funnel 90% of its capital into
fossil fuels. Shell and RWE (15% owner of E.ON) are both being sued
by those on
the frontline of climate breakdown.
How meaningful are green tariffs? We have written before about the
issues with ‘green tariffs’, because they operate on so many levels
of detachment from physical reality.
Not only does everyone get the same physical electricity from the
same grid, but the way the regulatory system is set up means that
we all pay very similar renewable subsidies through our bills,
whatever tariff we are on. This makes it hard to trace a causal
line between buying a green tariff, – even from a specific company
– and any more money going to building renewables.
We think that there are companies that are doing a bit more, which
are worth supporting, as detailed below. But we suggest that it
isn’t really worth thinking in terms of individual tariffs.
Ultimately, which tariff you are on is just a matter of someone
having shuffled some numbers around on a computer screen.
ethicalconsumer.org 13
Data correct as at Jan 2021. *Npower discloses its fuel energy mix
broken down by regional supplier. The estimates here are an average
of the figures given. **The information in this table is taken from
company websites and completed questionnaires, from
December-January 2021.
Meaningfully contributing to renewable capacity building for all
energy supplied. No/limited meaningful contribution. Some fossil
fuels or nuclear in energy fuel mix. >5% from coal and/or %
renewable below UK grid average (37%).
REGOs One confusing aspect of the system is REGOs. Each bit of
renewable electricity created generates a certificate called a
REGO, which can then be sold separately from it. Legally, in order
to call its electricity ‘100% renewable’, a company just has to buy
an equivalent amount of REGOs. It doesn’t have to produce, or even
buy, any renewable electricity itself.
The idea behind REGOs is that selling them should provide a small
subsidy to renewable developers, although renewables get other
larger subsidies as well. However, the problem is that about 37% of
UK electricity now comes from renewables, while only about 1%
of
the population are on green tariffs. This means that there are far
more REGOs kicking around than anyone wants, and even though the
big companies have started doing green tariffs again, prices are
still very low, at around 30p-50p per certificate. This equates to
only around 1% of the wholesale cost of electricity, so the subsidy
they supply is extremely minimal.
We therefore don’t consider that buying REGOs is a meaningful way
to support renewable energy development.
Making a meaningful difference There are two things that companies
can do which we do consider makes a meaningful difference –
building
renewables themselves or buying renewable electricity through
‘power purchase agreements’ (PPAs), which give generators
security.
If companies are selling electricity as ‘green’ we think that they
should be either building renewables, with a commitment to not
build any further fossil-fuelled plant, or they should be buying
sufficient renewable electricity through purchasing PPAs to cover
100% of customers’ electricity use.
We awarded marks to the companies that did this. Those that passed
were Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK. These companies are
marked in green in the table on the left.
Ofgem appears to be roughly in agreement with us. It has issued
Ecotricity, Good Energy and Green Energy UK with a permanent
exemption to the bill price cap, on the basis that “by consumers
being on the tariff, support is given to renewables to an extent
that is materially greater than that which is brought about as
result of subsidies, obligations or other mandatory
mechanisms.”
Octopus Energy (which also supplies Co-op Energy) is likely not on
the Ofgem list because it does not source 100% of the renewable
energy for its tariffs from PPAs or owned generation. However, its
50% owner is one of the largest investors in renewables in Europe,
and the company itself has recently started generating some of its
own renewable power in the UK. We think this is worth
supporting.
Ripple has a different business model altogether, which you can
read about in Companies behind the brands on page 19.
Brand Coal Gas Nuclear Renewable Other Contribution to renewable
capacity building in the UK
Ecotricity - - - 100% - 20% generated through owned renewables.
Remainder purchased via PPAs.
Green Energy UK - - - 100% - All electricity purchased through
PPAs.
Good Energy - - - 100% - All electricity purchased through
PPAs.
Bulb - - - 100% - Some electricity purchased through PPAs
(proportion unknown).
Co-op Energy - - - 100% - Supplied by Octopus Energy.
Octopus Energy - - - 100% -
Octopus is an investor in renewables and it does own a small amount
of its own. However, it is 20% owned by Origin Energy the largest
owner of natural gas-fired power stations in Australia.
OVO Energy - - - 100% - 20% purchased through PPAs for OVO energy
customers (rather than group). 40% target by end 2021.
Ripple Energy - - - 100% - Electricity backed by PPAs from projects
directly invested in by consumer. Remaining electricity supplied by
Octopus Energy, via Co-op Energy.
Shell Energy - - - 100% - None
Together Energy - - - 100% - None
British Gas - - 24% 76% - All electricity for Green Future tariff
purchased through PPAs.
E.ON 4% 42% 5% 46% 3% Generating energy through biomass
plants.
People’s Energy 0.2% 3% 0.3% 97% - None
EDF 3.5% 9.3% 66.6% 20.5% 0.1% None
Npower* ~6% ~65% ~7% ~17% ~5% None
PFP 6% 72% 8% 8% 5% None
Scottish Power 5% 50% 6% 36% 4% All renewable electricity purchased
using PPAs.
Utilita 6% 72% 8% 8% 5% None
Utility Warehouse 6% 72% 8% 8% 5% None
ENERGY FUEL MIX AND STEPS TAKEN TO BUILD RENEWABLE CAPACITY
Ethical Consumer March/April 202114
Electricity & gas suppliers SHOPPING GUIDE
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research
we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into
the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will
be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an
ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our
rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and Recommended
section to acknowledge this.
A company cannot be a Best Buy if it scores worst for Supply Chain
Management.
All the research behind these ratings is available for subscribers
to see on the score tables on www.ethicalconsumer.org Definitions
of all the categories are at
www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings
[A] = tariff has some additionality [Vg] = electricity & gas
certified as vegan
eth ic
al co
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUP Green Energy UK [A] 14 H 1 Green Energy (UK)
Plc Good Energy [A] 13 H h h 1 Good Energy/Green Britain Group
People's Energy 13 H H e People’s Energy CIC Bulb 12.5 H H E Simple
Energy Limited Ecotricity [A, Vg] 12.5 H h h H h 2 Green Britain
Group Together Energy 12.5 H H 0.5 Together Energy Limited PFP
Energy 11.5 H H h Sands Investments Limited Ripple
(investment-based) [A] 11.5 h H h h h E Octopus/Midcounties/Ripple
Octopus Energy [A] 11 H H h h Octopus Group Utilita 11 H H h h
Utilita Group Limited Utility Warehouse 11 H H h h Telecom plus plc
Co-op Energy [A] 8.5 h H h h h h h h h h h E Octopus/Midcounties
Co-op E.ON 8.5 h H h H H h H E.ON S.E Npower 8.5 h H h H H h H E.ON
S.E. EDF 8 h H H H H h H Electricité de France SA Scottish Power
7.5 h H h h H h H H h Iberdrola S.A. British Gas 7 h H H h h H H h
H Centrica Plc Ovo Energy 7 h H h h h h h h h H h h OVO Group Ltd
SSE 7 h H h h h h h h h H h h OVO Group Ltd Shell Energy 2 h H H H
H H H H h h h H H H Royal Dutch Shell plc
Et hi
sc or
e (o
ut o
ty
USING THE TABLES Ethiscore: the higher the score, the better the
company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company
Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability. Green
(good) = 12+ Amber (average) = 11.5–5 Red (poor) = 4.5–0
H = worst rating h = middle rating = best rating/no criticisms
found
USING THE TABLES Positive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending
on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
All tariffs burn fossil fuels at the same rate Whatever company you
buy from, however, the most important thing to be aware of is that
the electricity you use still has the same carbon footprint –
currently 0.26 kg CO2e per kWh.
It basically works like this – if you are on a green tariff and you
turn your kettle on, some renewable electricity will be taken (on
paper) from the electricity account of someone on a standard tariff
and transferred to yours. Then a gas-fired power station will be
turned up in order to replace it. In other words, your turning your
kettle on causes a gas-fired power station to be turned up to
supply it, just the same amount as when anyone else does it.
The electricity system is ultimately a shared thing. Most of the
decisions about it are being made at the governmental level, and
the cost of decarbonising it is being shared between everyone in
the country. So, while it is good to buy from one of the companies
that is making more of an effort to help, the key things are to
keep minimising your energy use, and to keep pushing for political
action.
ethicalconsumer.org 15
The Best Buys are green tariff companies that are also building
renewable energy capacity.
Our Best Buys are Good Energy, Green Energy UK and Ecotricity which
are all helping to build new sources of renewable energy.
BEST BUYS eth
BES T BUY
Shell Energy claims to have a 100% renewable tariff, but continues
to pump 90% of its capital into fossil fuels. EDF, Npower, PFP,
Utilita and Utility Warehouse all also have a fuel mix with less
than the UK average from renewables.
BRANDS TO AVOID
14
Ecotricity
12.5
Table highlights Carbon management and reporting Our new carbon
management and reporting rating really separates the good from the
poor companies in this guide. Companies automatically received a
worst rating if they owned fossil fuel-fired power stations and had
no published commitment not to build any new ones. (No companies
that currently owned fossil fuel-fired power stations were found to
have a commitment of this kind.) Conversely, companies received our
best rating if their entire model was geared towards energy
transition, i.e. if they were primarily supporting new sources of
green energy. For all other companies, we rated them as usual on
their carbon management and reporting.
Ecotricity, Good Energy, Green Energy UK and Ripple all received
our best rating. Every other company in this guide received a worst
rating.
Energy fuel mix Companies also lost half a mark under Climate
Change if their fuel mix was over 5% from coal, or less than the
national average from renewables (37%).
Renewables purchasing Companies got a positive Product
Sustainability mark where we considered they were making a
‘meaningful contribution’ to renewable energy development, and were
not involved in fossil fuels. We considered a meaningful
contribution to be either owning or building their own renewables,
or sourcing 100% of their renewable electricity through ‘power
purchase agreements’ (PPAs). These were: Ecotricity, Good Energy,
Green Energy UK.
Other companies claiming to offer ‘renewable’ tariffs but just
purchasing energy via REGOs lost half a mark under Climate Change
for meaningless environmental claims.
Lobbying against climate action While an increasing number of
companies are putting on a public show of supporting renewables,
some also continue to be involved in lobbying against climate
action in private. EDF and Shell have both been criticised for
their membership of industry lobby groups that are known to have
opposed robust climate measures. Shell was found to be a member of
eight trade organisations opposing action just in Australia and the
USA. Both companies lost a full mark under Political
Activities.
Green tariffs and offsetting
SWITCHING TARIFFS
Many ‘green’ tariffs offer tree planting as part of your package,
while others claim to provide ‘carbon neutral gas’ through
offsetting emissions. However, many forms of offsetting – including
planting trees – are deeply controversial and often ineffective.
Trees do absorb carbon slowly while growing. However, once at
maximum size they only sit and hold it while the forest remains
there. If the land is ever cleared the carbon is released back into
the atmosphere.
Forestry offsetting projects have also been linked to human rights
abuses. People have been evicted to make way for tree planting,
violating indigenous rights.
In 2019, Shell was criticised for the carbon offsetting scheme it
used as part of its emissions reduction plan. Six NGOs, including
Justiça Ambiental in
Mozambique and Amigos da Terra África do Sul, signed an open letter
stating: “solving the climate crisis requires deep, urgent and
immediate emissions cuts, which means that dirty and harmful energy
must be held at source and cannot simply be ‘compensated’ [for] in
other parts of the world.”
In fact, investing in renewables is one of a few forms of ‘offset’
that works. Energy companies would do much more for the planet if
they focused on this, rather than planting trees.
If you do decide to look at a company that claims to have
carbon-neutral gas or to offset some of your non-renewable energy,
we’d advise checking carefully what form of offsetting they
use.
We discuss carbon offsetting in more detail on our website.
Ripple is recommended if investing enough to cover 100% of your
energy. It is an innovative company, that allows consumers to
part-own a new wind farm. See ‘Companies behind the brands’ on page
19.
RECOMMENDED
© G
er m
an w
at ch
.o rg
Recent lawsuits against companies in this guide could change the
legal landscape for global emitters.
Environmental activists in the Netherlands took Shell to court in
December, accusing the company of knowingly undermining global
climate targets. The case states that Shell has violated Articles 2
and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to life
and the right to family), by failing to take action in line with
the Paris Agreement targets.
Led by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, the suit represents
“17,379 Dutch co-plaintiffs, around a million global supporters
from 70 countries,” and six other Dutch organisations. It will
argue that Shell knew of climate change since at least the 1950s
and its large-scale consequences since 1986; yet invested in public
relations campaigns that misled the public about Shell’s intentions
and lobbied against climate action and policies. It will demand
that Shell cut emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels. A verdict
is expected 26 May 2021.
The company is also being sued for its climate impacts in the
Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights.
Meanwhile, RWE (15% owner of E.ON) is being sued by Saúl Luciano
Lliuya, a Peruvian farmer and mountain guide whose home is
threatened by climate breakdown. Saúl lives in Huaraz, which has
been threatened by flooding from a local lake as water levels rise
due to melting glaciers. He is amongst 120,000 local residents,
whose livelihoods could be destroyed if the lake floods.
Saúl is suing RWE in the German courts for €17,000, 0.47% of the
protective measures he needs – the same percentage as the share of
greenhouse gas emissions for which RWE is responsible since the
start of industrialisation. If successful, the case could set a
legal precedent for those impacted by climate breakdown around the
world.
Fossil fuel companies sued for climate breakdown
Energy prices and fuel poverty Energy prices have risen
considerably over the last two decades.
One in ten households in England and Wales are now in fuel poverty,
meaning that if they heat their homes adequately, they will be left
below the poverty line. In Scotland this rises to one in four. It
makes the UK one of the worst countries for fuel poverty in all of
Western Europe. Over thirty people in the UK die every day from
living in a cold home.
Government action Since 2017, the government has introduced a
series of energy price caps, limiting the amount that suppliers can
charge for those on default or standard variable tariffs or
prepayment meters.
However, much more needs to be done. One of the key government
measures
to tackle high consumer energy prices is the reduced VAT rate on
domestic electricity and gas, at 5% rather than the normal 20%. But
critics say the tax break essentially acts as an electricity
subsidy, encouraging higher energy use, and since gas still makes
up 41% of the grid, a lot of it is going to fossil fuels.”
Libby Peake, Head of resource policy at Green Alliance says that
the tax break “maintains the high-carbon status quo and does little
to help those in fuel poverty,” and argues that the
government
should instead ring-fence the VAT from gas sales, to be
“redistributed to low- income homes and used to install energy-
efficiency measures and low-carbon heating systems.”
Avoiding high prices From a consumer perspective, switching energy
providers frequently can save money. Providers often entice
customers through cheap rates that usually last for one year, but
then automatically switch them onto a higher tariff, once the
initial contract is over.
Citizens Advice has a price comparison tool to check whether you
could be getting cheaper energy: https://energycompare.
citizensadvice.org.uk
Low-income pensioners or low- income households also qualify for
government support known as the Warm Home Discount, which is
currently £140
off your bill each winter. The following suppliers are part of the
scheme: British Gas, Bulb, Coop Energy, EDF Energy, Npower,
Octopus, OVO, Scottish Power, Shell Energy, SSE, Utilita and
Utility Warehouse. Ecotricity and Green Energy UK support it for
the ‘core’ low-income pensioner group.
Energy prices and renewables So why have renewables not yet driven
consumer prices down?
Renewable generation is now cheaper than fossil fuel – with solar
the cheapest means of generating electricity in history. However,
renewables still only account for, on average, 37% of our grid
makeup, and fossil fuel prices are expected to keep rising.
Unfortunately, “Whichever plant was required to meet the last
megawatt of demand is the price-setting technology,” according to
Tom Edwards, senior modeler for Cornwall Insight. While the UK grid
still relies heavily on gas, it is often this that will set the
price.
In the long run, turning to renewables instead could cut consumer
prices. But in the meantime, the government needs to provide
support for up-front transition costs, in a way that supports those
on the lowest income.
Saúl Luciano Lliuya is suing RWE over its role in climate
breakdown, which is threatening to flood his home as Lake
Palcacocha rises.
ethicalconsumer.org 17
Dirty generation
Shell operates fossil fuel projects globally. The company has been
condemned for its impacts on local environments and communities,
particularly in Nigeria, where it is responsible for multiple oil
spills, ongoing pollution and the displacement and violation of
local communities.
Shell has been ordered to pay over $450 million to the Ejama-Ebubu
community, for the pollution of their lands and waters, destruction
of their livelihoods and multiple diseases resulting from a Shell
subsidiary’s oil spill in Ogoniland in 1970. The company is also
being sued by four widows of the Ogoni 9 who, in the 1990s, were
convicted in a sham trial and hanged in secret by the state after
opposing Shell’s actions in Ogoni.
In 2019, the Nigerian government decreed that Shell and several
other companies should restart oil exploration in Ogoni – despite
failure to clean up earlier spills in the region. Movement for the
Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) says there is a “very real
threat of violence from the oil companies and the Nigerian
government in an attempt to force their way into Ogoni.”
“Our suffering has not stopped, pollution has increased. The
clean-up exercise is not happening, yet Shell is planning to return
back to Ogoniland for more oil exploration. We are ready
to resist any encroachment by Shell in Ogoniland,” said Lazarus
Tamana, president of MOSOP.
Iberdrola (owner of the Scottish Power brand) is involved in
renewable generation projects. Unfortunately, these include several
massive hydroelectric projects which, while generating low- carbon
energy, are also responsible for other environmental damage and the
violation of indigenous rights. Neoenergia, a company 51% owned
by
Iberdrola, is involved in the Belo Monte and Teles Pires dams in
Brazil, which have displaced over 40,000 people, including many
Indigenous ribeirinhos and Munduruku, Kayabi and Apiaka
peoples.
Raimundo Braga Gomes was forced to move to Altamira, Brazil’s most
violent city to make way for the Belo Monte dam. He told The
Guardian in 2018, “I didn’t need money to live happy. My whole
house was nature … I was rich … Now I’m poor. I have to buy
everything I need … I used to have a living river, today I have a
dead lake – and to get there I have to pay for transportation.”
Gomes says that he signed a document after being told that his
island would flood. “But I can’t read. I only know how to draw my
name.”
After years of fighting, in 2019, 315 ribeirinhos families gained
the right to establish a collectively owned Ribeirinho Territory
beside the Belo Monte reservoir. Many though are still waiting to
be allocated the land promised.
Also, in Brazil, the Teles Pires dam has destroyed Munduruku sacred
sites, including a burial ground and the Sete Quedas waterfall.
Archaeologists removed over 270,000 ‘artifacts’, placing them in
a
museum to ‘protect’ them. In December, 70 Munduruku occupied the
museum and reclaimed 12 funeral urns as well as other
property.
EDF has been accused of human rights violations in Myanmar.
The company is involved in the Shweli 3 Dam in the Shan State of
Myanmar. According to the Burma Campaign UK, the Shan State has
been under the control of ethnic armed organisations. Preparations
for the dam caused Burmese
Army battalions to move into the area, “triggering conflict that
forced hundreds to flee their homes.”
“Now the project is moving closer to development and construction,
there are fears of more conflict and abuses,” according to the
campaign group. “Dozens of grassroots civil society organisations
have called for a moratorium on dams and other major developments
in ethnic states at the current time because of the link between
large scale projects and conflict and human rights
violations.”
The Ta’ang Students and Youth Union has stated: “The implementation
of the Shweli 3 dam will threaten the lives of local people,
prolong wars and jeopardise the peace process.”
Burma Campaign UK is asking consumers to write to EDF calling on
them to withdraw from the project and commit to ending its
involvement in dams in conflict zones.
https://action.burmacampaign.org.uk/
edf-life-threatening-dam-burma
Some of the companies in this guide are involved in the dirtiest
and most damaging projects around the world. Below, we run through
just a few examples that show how energy companies continue to
extract from and exploit poorer nations, exporting profits to
shareholders in the rich world.
TAKE ACTION
Our sacred places were violated and destroyed. Our ancestors are
crying … The Teles Pires and Tapajós Rivers are dying OPEN LETTER
FROM THE MUNDURUKU
© S
l
Sheyla Juruna calls for the halting of three controversial mega-dam
projects under construction in the Amazon, Brazil. “For me and my
people the Belo Monte dam is a project of death and
destruction.”
“When you see the government, you see Shell.” Esther Kiobel is one
of four widows suing Shell over its role in the unlawful
detainment, torture and execution of their husbands by the Nigerian
state.
Electricity & gas suppliers SHOPPING GUIDE
Around the UK, communities are coming together to generate, own,
manage or reduce their energy. Three of the renewable energy
tariffs in this guide explicitly support community
generation.
There are 550 community energy projects in the UK. By offering
communities the chance to define and control their own energy
needs, these projects can not only help reduce carbon, but also
address fuel poverty, increase local economic resilience and grow
local engagement and awareness on energy and climate issues.
When companies buy energy directly from renewable generators using
power purchase agreements (PPAs), they provide a guaranteed income
and some security to those projects. In doing so, they enable them
to expand and grow.
Good Energy states that it buys directly from community generation
projects through its PPAs, thereby supporting their work and
expansion. Co-op Energy also offers a Community Power tariff that
is “100% powered by community-generated green electricity
projects.” Ripple allows consumers to invest directly in a new wind
farm, and become part of a consumer energy co-op. (See Ripple’s
company profile opposite for more information.)
Community energy projects are also often looking for direct funding
through share offers. For those who can afford it, it is a great
way to support energy transition beyond just choosing a better
tariff. It is also one meaningful way to offset some of your
impacts, including, for example, if you’re on a prepayment meter
that is not compatible with the tariffs offered by the better
companies. Energy4All provides information about current and future
community share offers on its website:
energy4all.co.uk/share-offers
SUPPORTING COMMUNITY RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION
Tariffs for green homes Those with solar panels, electric vehicles
or heat pumps will have specific energy needs and may want
different tariffs for these.
Heat pumps, batteries and electric vehicles Smart tariffs can be
good for those with large, flexible electricity needs – for example
using electric vehicles, batteries or heat pumps. They essentially
offer two energy prices: a higher price when demand is high (and
more energy is therefore being sourced from fossil fuel power
stations) and a lower one when demand is low (and a greater
proportion of the energy is therefore sourced from renewables).
Households can decide – or even pre-programme tech – to charge a
battery or car or turn on a heat pump when the energy price drops
below a certain threshold. Some tariffs even pay consumers to use
excess energy when demand drops below supply.
Jonathan Atkinson from Carbon Co-op says: “Heat pump owners can
benefit, but they need to be able to integrate and automate their
heat pump, and they need to be able to accept the loss of heat that
this might lead to.”
Sarah Hughes, who owns a heat pump told us that she automates her
energy use using Homely, which checks the provider’s smart energy
prices and predicts temperatures to decide when to use the
heat-pump to heat the tanks and house: “It’s grown from a PhD
project over the last couple of years and it’s been working really
well for us.”
We have more information on smart tariffs available here:
www.ethicalconsumer.org/energy/smart-home-smart-tariffs
Home generators For those generating at home, the Smart Export
Guarantee scheme helps subsidise home generation. The government’s
less-generous successor to the Feed-In Tariff scheme, it requires
energy suppliers with over 150,000 domestic customers to pay
home-generators for any excess energy they provide to the grid. The
average sized domestic system is likely to be worth £50-100 from
the scheme each year, going some way to subsidising upfront
generation costs. Read more about it in EC184.
Some of our Best Buy and recommended companies offer special
tariffs designed for the needs of those with green home energy
needs:
Smart meters Smart meters provide both you and your supplier with
information on how much gas and electricity you’re using. They
replace your existing gas or electricity meters and
send automatic updates to your provider, so that your bills
reflect
actual energy use. It also helps you control your energy use and
make cuts.
And it is hoped that they will, in the future, be able to turn
appliances on and off in
response to the demand and supply of electricity, to help deal with
renewables that it isn’t possible to turn up and down.
Energy providers are required to install smart meters in businesses
and homes, as part of the government’s ‘smart grid’ plan. The
initial deadline for installation in all small businesses and homes
was the end of 2020, but (partly due to the pandemic) this has been
delayed until mid-2021.
If you haven’t yet had a smart meter installed, you should be
contacted by your supplier over the coming months and offered one
for free. You can also request one from your provider.
Several providers in this guide lost a half mark under Climate
Change, after being fined by the government for failing to meet
smart meter installation targets.
Ecotricity Fully Charged tariff offers a discounted energy rate for
electric vehicle owners and half-price charging on the Electric
Highway. Smart Grid being launched soon: a smart tariff.
Good Energy Electric Vehicle tariff has different electricity
pricing for day and night. Green Heat tariff offers low unit prices
and no standing charge in winter months.
Green Energy UK
TIDE tariff offers smart pricing. Export tariff pays
self-generators for any excess energy they produce and provide to
the grid.
Octopus Octopus Agile offers smart pricing, including paying you to
use excessive energy from the grid when demand drops below supply.
Octopus Outgoing pays self-generators for any excess energy they
produce and provide to the grid. Octopus Go offers cheaper
overnight charging.
© C
offer them to SMEs
Companies behind the brands
Ecotricity was the first energy company to offer customers green
energy, and has been involved in developing significant green
infrastructure in the UK, including Britain’s first megawatt
windmill and the country’s first grid-scale solar park. The company
is committed to what it calls ‘Bills into Mills’ – taking the money
from its customers’ bills to build new forms of green energy. 5% of
the gas it provides is biogas, and is certified vegan by both the
Vegan Society and Viva! – meaning that it does not use animal
waste, unlike most other companies. We talk more about vegan energy
on our website. Ecotricity is also owner of Ecotalk, a Best Buy for
mobile phone networks, and Forest Green Rovers, the UK’s only 100%
vegan football club.
Ripple is a really unique company. It allows consumers to invest in
a new renewable project, becoming part of a consumer energy co-op.
Once the project begins to operate, energy used by the investor
will be backed by electricity generated, in proportion to their
investment. Their bill will be reduced accordingly (or negated if
the investment was large enough). Any energy needed above the
invested amount (or before the project is operational) is provided
by Co- op Energy (which, confusingly, is supplied by Octopus
Energy!). The company’s first project is a single 2.5 MW wind
turbine, which is due to start operating in summer 2021.
Ripple would essentially receive a different Ethiscore depending on
whether you invested enough to cover all or just a portion of your
energy use. The score on our table (11.5) reflects the second
situation, where a consumer is partly
charity and academia. The project will use 5G and data-centric
intelligence to look at ways to drive the local energy systems
towards lower costs and lower carbon emissions. They predict cost
savings of 25%, and say that it will meet the UK’s Fifth Carbon
Budget target to reduce emissions.
Royal Dutch Shell is the seventh biggest greenhouse gas emitter in
the world since 1965, responsible for 1% of global emissions each
year. The company has been linked to multiple ecological and human
rights violations. It has faced lawsuits around the world for its
role in oil spills, state violence, and corruption and bribes. A
growing body of evidence shows that the company, which is
registered in the UK, recognised the serious threat of climate
breakdown since at least the 1990s. An internal report by the
company in 1986 stated “The changes may be the greatest in recorded
history.” Yet Shell has been accused of continuing to mislead its
investors, oppose climate action and invest billions of dollars in
fossil fuel operations for the last decades.
British Gas is the UK’s largest energy company and is owned by
Centrica. Centrica is involved in fossil fuel and nuclear power
generation. It was previously involved in fracking in Lancashire
but appears to have since withdrawn from the project. British Gas
faced workers’ strikes in January over ‘fire and rehire’ plans,
pressuring employees to accept new contracts with worse conditions.
The company has been accused of “using the coronavirus emergency as
a smokescreen to shed jobs, and erode pay and conditions of
workers.”
supplied by Ripple and partly supplied by Co-op Energy (and
therefore by Octopus). If you chose to invest enough to cover your
entire energy use, and were therefore only supplied by Ripple, the
Ethiscore would be 15.5 – the highest in the table. The company
estimates that this would cost £1,882 for two people in a
two-bedroom house – but would save £3,267 in energy bills over the
25-year lifespan of the wind farm. Ripple takes an arrangement fee
of 5% suggesting that the remaining 95% of your investment goes
directly to the wind farm.
Together Energy is a social enterprise focused on addressing “the
postcode lottery of career opportunities directly through our
recruitment policies.” Over 90% of staff members come from the
poorest 10% of postcodes in Scotland. The company says that it
recruits “with an emphasis on youth, supporting people, many for
whom school was not a positive experience and felt let down by the
education system.” It works with the charity Street League, to find
potential candidates, and teachers, educational psychologists and a
local university to provide support towards gaining new skills and
qualifications. Employees receive a living wage and weekly learning
sessions covering everything from sitting a driving test to
fitness, nutrition and money management.
Although the company is not directly contributing to renewable
energy generation in the UK, it is involved in a project to design
a smart local energy system in Warrington, alongside others in the
energy industry, local government,
British Gas faced workers’ strikes in January over ‘fire and
rehire’ plans.
Ethical Consumer March/April 202120
SHOPPING GUIDE
Grants, incentives and quality schemes JONATHAN ATKINSON, a former
writer for Ethical Consumer and co-founder of Carbon Co-op, a
social enterprise that helps people and communities to radically
decarbonise their energy use, gives us the low-down.
If you’ve decided to invest in energy efficiency, a heat pump, or
solar thermal, there are a number of schemes available to help
cushion the costs.
Green Homes Grant The Green Homes Grants was launched in 2020 in
England and funds two thirds of the cost of a suite of technologies
and energy efficiency measures up to a limit of £5000, or the total
cost up to £10,000 for those on a low income or certain
benefits.
Eligible technologies include solid wall insulation, loft top up,
solar thermal and heat pumps – choose one of these ‘primary
measures’ and a number of secondary measures become available
including new windows and ventilation systems. It doesn’t cover
PV.
The programme has been criticised, mainly due to the lack of
appropriately trained contractors but also because of the
administration of the scheme by an outsourced, private company
which has led to delays in paying builders delivering the works.
But the duration of the programme has been extended to March 2022,
and the number of companies offering work will steadily increase
over time. Visit the Simple Energy Advice website for more
information: https:// www.simpleenergyadvice.org.uk
Shockingly, the Green Homes Grant doesn’t cover Scotland, Wales or
Northern Ireland. Schemes in these are much more paltry – see Home
Energy Scotland, the Nest scheme in Wales, or NI Energy advice for
more information.
Renewable Heat Incentive The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) covers
England, Scotland and Wales. Eligible technologies include heat
pumps and solar thermal panels, and also biomass boilers.
This scheme works differently – the homeowner covers the upfront
installation costs and incentive payments are made for seven years,
based on the amount of renewable heat made by your heating
system.
You can get both the RHI and the Green Homes Grant for the same
technology unless the grant covered the full cost of the
installation, but the value of the Green Homes Grant will then be
deducted from your RHI payments.
You’ll need to use an MCS registered installer (see box below) and
in many cases fit specialist heat metering. The tariffs are fairly
complex, and can change: depending on the size of your home and how
much heat you use, so take a look at the government or Energy
Savings Trust website to see what you could get.
Reduced VAT rates Before 2019, energy efficiency materials were
subject to a 5% VAT rate. However, due to an EU ruling, the
availability of the reduced VAT rate was limited. It is now
available in one of two circumstances: l if you are over 60 years
of age and/or on a selection of benefits or l if the value of the
materials used in your project is 60% or less of the value of the
whole job.
It’s also only applicable to certain improvements. It is a little
confusing so we’d suggest talking to your chosen contractor if you
think you’re eligible, as ultimately they will be claiming
it.
Energy Company Obligation The Energy Company Obligation or ECO
scheme is an obligation placed on
As mentioned above, the government mandated Microgeneration
Certification Scheme (MCS) is a quality standard covering
installers of certain low carbon technologies, in particular heat
pumps and solar PV panels. Whilst not an absolute guarantee of
quality, MCS offers a mechanism for best practice, advice and
rectification. Many incentive schemes like the renewable heat
incentive (RHI) require MCS qualified installers so look out for
the standard. https://mcscertified.com/find-an- installer
MICROGENERATION CERTIFICATION SCHEME
the largest energy suppliers to invest money in energy efficiency
measures. Unfortunately, what was a generous scheme when it was
first introduced was subsequently labelled as ‘green crap’ by David
Cameron and reduced in scope and scale. Now it’s available to a
small number of households with access to certain benefits, for a
limited set of improvements. The quality of works installed under
the scheme has also come under severe criticism. If you are
interested and you think you may be eligible contact your energy
supplier for details.
A fully referenced version of this Product Guide is on our
website
ethicalconsumer.org 21
SHOPPING GUIDE
Solar PV
JASMINE OWENS sheds light on key industry issues.
Solar PV technology has advanced massively – there are now panels
so light and thin they can rest on a bubble without popping
it. Efficiency has shot up, from around 10% just a decade ago, to
an average of around 18% for currently installed panels, and costs
have plummeted.
There are nearly a million solar PV systems on UK houses, and if we
gathered all global panels there would be enough to cover Dubai
completely.
Government incentives hugely impact how many installations happen
in a year: the slashing of Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) in 2016 triggered
a sharp decline. But, although the government support is now
limited, PV panels continue to drop in price. Research group Wood
Mackenzie predicts prices will continue to fall, but at a slower
rate. Solar-Trade suggests that installations dropped at the start
of the pandemic (500 installations in April) but bounced back later
in the year (4000 installations in October).
Number and Average Cost of annual new domestic PV
installations
Year
16283
123,289
201,930
£7,500 £7,000 £6,700 £6,500 £6,500 £6,500 £6,500 £5,103£6,200
Carbon footprint and climate change A typical UK home solar PV
system could save 1.3 to 1.6 tonnes of carbon per year. The average
UK carbon footprint, including imported goods, is around 12
tonnes.
Solar PV has an initial carbon footprint from production, but it is
small. The sum of all the energy required to produce a unit of
solar energy (embedded energy) is around 4% of its output. And
fossil fuels have carbon footprints from their production too –
coal’s embedded energy is 11%.
Solar PV is one of the pillars of plans to decarbonise Europe’s
power supply, and the European Commission described solar PV as
among the most cost-effective electricity generation technologies,
although it does vary on how far south you are. As we are a murky,
windy island, solar PV is likely to play a smaller part in our
decarbonised future than in Spain’s, but the Climate Change
Committee suggests that it could contribute 10-15% of our energy in
2050, which is still significant.
But it’s worth remembering that just installing solar panels
doesn't save an ounce of carbon. They have to be used to do that.
James Page from JoJu states that, often, building developers
install solar to tick a box to get planning permission, with no
interest in continuing its operation. He stated, “I’ve found
systems that have never been switched on.”
Energise Africa is an online impact investing platform enabling
people to invest from £50 in ISA- eligible bonds issued by solar
businesses operating across sub-Saharan Africa. Investments enable
businesses to provide solar home systems to low- income families on
pay-as-you-go payment plans.
INVEST IN SOLAR
Ethical Consumer March/April 202122
Solar PV SHOPPING GUIDE
Best Buys are decided by the editorial team based on the research
we have undertaken, the scoring system and the unique insight into
the issues that our editorial team has. 9 times out of 10 this will
be the brand (or brands) that are top of the table but sometimes an
ethical company which is truly innovative scores less well on our
rigid scoring system and we use the Best Buy and Recommended
section to acknowledge this. A
company cannot be a Best Buy if it scores worst for Supply Chain
Management.
All the research behind these ratings is available for subscribers
to see on the score tables on www.ethicalconsumer.org Definitions
of all the categories are at
www.ethicalconsumer.org/our-ethical-ratings
eth ic
al co
Environment Animals People Politics +ve
BRAND COMPANY GROUP GB-Sol 11.5 H H H E GB Renewables Investments
Ltd Sunshine 10 h H H H H E Sunshine Solar Limited Eco-Worthy 9 H h
H H H H E Eco-Worthy Solar Technology Suntech 9 H h H H H H E
Shunfeng Photovoltaic JinkoSolar 8.5 H H H H H H E JinkoSolar
Holding Co Trina Solar 8.5 H H H H H H E Trina Solar Co., Ltd JA
Solar 8 H h H H H H H E JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd Yingli 8 H h H H H
H H E Yingli Green Energy Holding Canadian Solar 7.5 H h H H H H h
H E Canadian Solar Inc Kyocera 7.5 h H H h H h H H Kyocera
Corporation LG 7 H h h H h h h h H H LG Electronics SunPower 6.5 H
H H H H H H h Total SE/Maxeon Solar Hanwha Q-Cells 6 H H H H H H h
h H Hanwha Solution Sharp 5.5 h H H H H h H H h H Sharp Corporation
Vikram Solar 5.5 H H H H H h H H h h Vikram Solar Limited
Mitsubishi Electric 4.5 h h h H h h H h H H H h H Mitsubishi Group
Rec Solar 4.5 H H H H H H H h H H China National Chemical Corp
Panasonic 4 h H H h H H h H h H H H Panasonic Corporation Hyundai 3
H H H H H H H H h h H h h Korea Shipbuilding & OE
Et hi
sc or
e (o
ut o
ty
USING THE TABLES Ethiscore: the higher the score, the better the
company. Scored out of 14. Plus up to 1 extra point for Company
Ethos and up to 5 extra points for Product Sustainability. Green
(good) = 12+ Amber (average) = 11.5–5 Red (poor) = 4.5–0
H = worst rating h = middle rating = best rating/no criticisms
found
USING THE TABLES Positive ratings (+ve):
Company Ethos: e = full mark E = half mark
Product Sustainability: Various positive marks available depending
on sector.
Best Buys are highlighted in blue
Saving surplus energy Companies may also try to sell you batteries
when you’re buying on-grid panels. Obviously you will need them for
off-grid systems.
Batteries allow you to save surplus energy and take a step towards
energy independence, if you want that.
But batteries are pricey, and their efficiency decreases over time,
so you won’t necessarily recover the financial investment you make
within the battery’s lifetime. And John Beardmore, managing
director at T4 Sustainability Ltd., highlights that using batteries
for on-grid systems is inefficient if you want to reduce overall
carbon emissions, not just your own. Feeding excess energy into the
grid and buying it back when needed could a better option for
this.
If you have an immersion heater you could instead store the excess
energy in water. From Spring to Autumn, while there is lots of
daylight and you will probably not want space heating, a solar
diverter unit can direct excess solar energy into heating your
water. Units may cost around £300 and payback through savings could
be around 3 years.
Smart Export Guarantee The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) is
currently the only solar panel funding available in the UK.
Typically, solar panels are wired up so that if your panel
generates more energy than you use, the excess green energy is fed
into the grid. The SEG enables small- scale low-carbon electricity
generators to get paid by their energy supplier for this energy –
up to around 11 p/KWh.
To be eligible, residential solar systems are normally required to
be accredited by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) or
Flexi-orb.
ethicalconsumer.org 23
Our Best Buy in this guide is GB- Sol, which has a single site in
South Wales. It only produces solar energy equipment, and most
energy used by the factory comes from its own 30 kW solar PV array
on its roof.
Sunshine Solar is a UK-based company that received our best rating
for Environmental Reporting. Eco-Worthy is another company that did
well across the board, and received a Company Ethos mark for
focusing solely on renewable energy and not being in industries
like fossil fuels.
RECOMMENDED
BES T BUY
Hyundai, Panasonic, Rec Solar and Mitsubishi scored worst in this
guide.
BRANDS TO AVOID
GB-Sol
11.5
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) is a US-based non-profit
that produces rankings of solar panel manufacturers, aiming to
pressure companies to make panels safer for the environment and
workers. It covers toxic chemicals, recycling and supply
chains.
In the latest scorecard (2018-19) JinkoSolar received a perfect
score of 100. Some other companies in this guide were rated by the
Solar Scorecard:
Trina 99 SunPower 94 JA Solar 92 Hanwha Q Cells 90 LG 84 Hyundai 0
Kyocera 0 Mitsubishi 0 Panasonic 0 REC 0 Suntech 0 Yingli 0
Visit www.solarscorecard.com/2018- 19/ for more details.
SOLAR SCORECARD
Score table highlights We chose a selection of well-known solar PV
brands, which make a mix of on- and off-grid panels, marketed for
sale by UK installers. If you buy an on-grid panel you have access
to electricity even if your panel’s not producing energy, as you’re
still connected to the utility grid. Off-grid panels, used on e.g.
boats or caravans, are not connected to the grid, so you only get
electricity if the sun’s shining or you’re using power stored in
batteries. Consumers cannot typically buy on-grid panels directly
from manufacturers, so if you want a specific brand contact local
installers to see if they can supply it for you.
Usually, second-hand is our first choice, and it’s true that
second-hand solar panels are cheaper and can avoid waste. However,
it can be a challenge to find panels that meet your specific
requirements and if you accidentally buy a damaged panel it could
be costly to repair. You should use an accredited installer, even
if installing a second-hand panel.
GB-Sol and Sunshine Solar are two small UK-based alternatives in
this guide, and Eco-Worthy is included as several people searched
for it on our website.
Since our last guide, SolarWorld and SunSolar appear to have filed
for insolvency. ReneSola and Tata no longer appear to offer
residential panels in the
UK. And Solarcentury, which partnered with Ikea, has placed its UK
solar panel offerings on hold.
Tax Conduct Ten (52%) companies in this guide received a worst
rating under Tax Conduct, with GB-Sol, Sunshine Solar, Eco-Worthy,
Suntech, Kyocera and Vikram being the only companies which did not
get marked down for likely use of tax-avoidance strategies.
Solar companies causing climate- chaos Several ‘green’ brands are
deeply involved in climate-chaos-causing industries.
Total SE is a French oil and gas multinational and ultimate parent
company of the SunPower-Maxeon brand. Hyundai solar panels are
ultimately owned by Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering
Co., Ltd which is involved in oil and petrochemicals. Hanwha
Corporation’s family tree includes aviation and weapons systems.
REC Solar panels are ultimately owned by China National Chemical
Corporation.
Brands were awarded a positive Company Ethos mark if they solely
produced renewable energy technologies. These were GB-Sol, Sunshine
Solar, Eco-Worthy, Suntech, Trina, JinkoSolar, Canadian Solar,
Yingli, and JA Solar.
Even though this is a guide to renewable energy, several companies
in this guide received a worst rating under our Climate Change
category, and only four received a best – meaning that they report
on their carbon emissions and how they are cutting t