Demand for ethical goods and services on rise in UK

Ethically-minded early adopters are helping to drive the boom in the UK's ethical market which increased by 9% in 2013 according to the annual Ethical Consumer Markets Report.

Sales of electric, hybrid and other tax-band A-rated cars grew by 78% and are now worth almost £5bn and represent the strongest growth in the sector.

Overall spending on ethical goods and services grew by 9% in 2013 and is now worth over £32bn.

Rob Harrison, co-editor of Ethical Consumer magazine which compiled the report said: “Early adopters, the people who try out new products first, are continuing to lead the way to a more sustainable future. The continued strong performance of the UK's ethical market is also particularly good when compared to economic growth of 1.9% over the same period.”

Ethical food and drink also saw strong growth of 8% and is now worth almost £9 billion.

In addition to surveying what ethical goods shoppers are buying the survey also includes a YouGov poll to find out whether shoppers are boycotting any company or product.

The poll reveals that almost 20% of shoppers are boycotting specific products or retail outlets as a result of their ethical concerns with almost three million shoppers now actively boycotting companies over their tax avoidance policies.

The Ethical Consumer Markets Report has been acting as an important barometer of green spending since 1999 by tracking sales data across a wide range of consumer sectors from food to fashion.

This year the project is a new collaboration between Ethical Consumer and the Consumer Data Research Centre, a project run by the Universities of Leeds, Liverpool and Oxford and University College London.

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