We’re taking ethical shopping to the next level – and we need your help.
Here’s how YOU can help millions of shoppers make more ethical fashion choices.
As members of the Otter community, we know you take your ethical shopping seriously.
Maybe you already know which brands align with your values and which ones to avoid.
But new research from UTS Sydney shows that about 25 per cent of shoppers have ‘mixed feelings’ about buying ethically.
And it found that the most commonly cited reason for not buying responsibly was confusion about what makes a product ethical.
Everyone wears clothes, let’s help them choose wisely
It’s hard to overstate how big the global fashion industry is and how many people are impacted by it on a daily basis.
We’re talking about the second most polluting industry in the world after oil, and the third for climate change impact.
That’s why at Otter’s sister-project Good On You, we’ve spent the last couple of years building an online database of almost 3000 brands – each of them rated for their ethical practices.
Now we want to take it to the next level and make that information easily available to millions of consumers. To do that, we need your help.
The Good On You Ethical Fashion App
We’re very excited to announce our campaign to crowdfund the Good On You Ethical Shopping Assistant app.
The app enables you to search for a product you’re interested in. It lists all the brands near you, shows their ethical rating, and where to buy them.
Or you can search for a brand and see how rates and compare with other brands that do better.
Once you’ve made a choice, the app helps you find stores near you.
It’s Not Just About Shopping
The value of apparel sales globally was estimated to be US$1.2trillion in 2012.
By putting the information in the hands of you the consumer, the Good On You Ethical Shopping Assistant app enables you to make an informed choice about where to spend your money.
If you don’t like what a brand is doing you can take your money elsewhere.
And we know that’s the kind of pressure that forces companies to make changes to their production methods.
Some Brands Are Listening …
Around the world a number of major retailers are already developing schemes to provide consumers with useful ethical information.
Marks and Spencer, for example, highlights which products are Fairtrade, cruelty free or avoid poor labour practice. They are also committed to increasing the number of products with positive ethical qualities.
And just last month, David Jones announced that it was setting a target of making all 1600 brands in its stores sustainable, environmentally friendly, and free of child and slave-labour.
Nobody wants to see another Rana Plaza disaster, where more than 1,000 people lost their lives in the collapse of a Bangladeshi garment factory.
Everyone who creates clothes, sells clothes or buys clothes has an interest in cleaning up the industry and making it fair and sustainable.
It’s Up to Us to Persuade More Brands to Change
Good On You’s mission is to make it possible for you, the consumer, to shop with peace of mind and learn which brands are doing better on the issues you care about.
Please pledge your support for Good On You to help make the Ethical Shopping Assistant a reality.
Together we can harness the power of consumers to change the world.
What’s different about the Good on You app?
- Clothing focus with more than 3,000 brands listed including many never researched before
- Suggests alternative brands that do better on the issues you care about
- Personalised to your values, and you can even teach it your style (think Tinder for brands)
- Tells you the closest stores or online options for your chosen brand
- Makes it easy to give direct feedback to companies from within the app
