Shopping List:

• Fair Wages
• Health Benefits
• Mutual Understanding and Respect:
  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Sexuality
• Better Work Environments
• An End to Human Trafficking
• Environmental Recovery

I know, this list might seem like a farfetched idea that a child (or Pageant
Contestant) might request (i.e. World Peace) and us adults might snort and think we’re too far down this rabbit hole to go back now.

Are we? Is this list too much to ask?

I think all of those things are achievable…especially at a time of year like this when we’re all driving to the mall, scouring the web, knitting sweaters, and baking pies. We love to give — and that’s a great thing that this time of year reminds us. But sometimes in our giving we are also participating in taking. Businesses often pad their earnings and profits through a poor handling or ignoring of the shopping list above. Whether it be shortcuts on environmental impact (sometimes it is the vendors they use for parts that are the culprit – tricky), sexism and homophobia in the
workplace, or a total disregard for another person through trafficking folks.

We can impact these things by investigating best practices with the same vigor we investigate the best prices. Please join me this year in giving gifts that are a celebration of joy for those receiving them as well as those helping to get them in your hands.

Here are a couple resources:

Labour Behind the Label

Ethical Consumer

Article on Ethical Shoppers

Upcoming Site

Please leave your sites/tips/comments for all of us to read. Peace to you and yours during this time of giving, sharing, and caring for others.