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Ethical living is the philosophy of making decisions for daily life which take into account ethics and moral values, particularly with regard to consumerism, sustainability, environmentalism, wildlife and animal welfare. At present it is largely a personal choice, and not an organized social movement.

Ethical living is an offshoot of sustainable living, in which the individual initially takes a series of small lifestyle changes in order to limit their effect on the environment. Making the decision to start to live ethically, can be as easy as beginning to recycle, switching off electric lights when leaving a room, buying local organic or fairtrade produce. Though many people often go further by re-using/re-cycling waste water, using renewable resources in their homes (solar panels or atmospheric water generators), giving up the use of the family car in preference of greener modes of transport (bicycle).

Though ethical living is growing in popularity,^[1] many in the environmental movement believe that the responsibility of ethical practice should be enforced on "Big Business". They argue that the onus is being unfairly laid on the individual to change the way they live in order to effect change, as these everyday changes are often insignificant in comparison to the level of changes that large organizations or multinational corporations could make.

Ethics

A set of ethics is defining a set of concepts and ideals which are identified as either right or wrong. Ethics can be thought of as a sense of moral duty, which is defined as "how one should live".

Sustainability

In order for an action to be considered sustainable, the continuation of the action must not deplete the resources used in the action. This also means that the resource must remain able to produce more than is being used. the decrease in sustainability is caused by human interaction in most cases. In order for human interaction to remain sustainable, humans must replace what is used. In the ideal case, humans would replace more than what is used to ensure the longevity of the resource.

Recycling

The act of recycling can be considered a part of ethical living in the sense that recycling is a method which is more sustainable due to the fact that waste is reused instead of being sent to landfills. Many items that are used on a daily basis can be recycled, including but not limited to paper products, glass, metals, plastics, electronics, and cloth items.

Fairtrade Products

The Fairtrade organizations were created to improve equality in the workforce. Products which are marked with the fairtrade certification are guaranteed to have been produced ethically with those who produced the product receiving fair wages and completing the work in acceptable working conditions.

Energy Usage

Minimizing energy usage is a decision that can be made to decrease the cost of energy both in the private and public sectors. The majority of energy in the united stated used per household is used on heating and cooling systems, and water heaters. Reducing the energy used in these areas can be done by setting the thermostat to be a few degrees warmer in the summer and a few degrees cooler in the winter. In addition, turning off the systems when not in use will dramatically decrease the energy used. In turn, these choices will reduce the amount of energy produced which decreases the amount of natural resources used.

Types of energy usage can be switched to more renewable power options such as wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro power. These options reduce the amount of waste produced while providing cleaner energy than coal has done in the past. In most cases, there is very little maintenance required and subsidies or tax breaks are often offered by the governments of the area.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Many people believe that large corporations should be held responsible for their impact on the environment. Social corporate responsibility refers to the business taking actions in an ethical, and sustainable manner. Companies can improve their social responsibility by taking actions that would improve sustainability, such as switching to reusable or recyclable materials in their products. In addition, donations could be made to organization which replace used resources (ie. planting trees in previously deforested areas). Products that are made to be repaired versus be replaced also tend to have lower levels of waste produced that end up in the landfill. Some changes that could be made would be for the company to promote recycling, use sustainable materials, and practices, and use power generated from renewable sources.

References

^ Siegle, Lucy (2006-03-05). "Can our way of living really save the planet?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-05-02.

External links

Ethical Today, Ethical Living News
Living Ethically, a website for the philosophy
Ethical Journey BBC journalist reporting on the highs and lows of living ethically
Buying Organic Shopping and Living Organic and Ethical
Eco-Green Pages, a website for environmental news, eco shopping and green events

[1] Siegle, Lucy (2006-03-05). "Can our way of living really save the planet?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-05-02.

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