Compile a responsible shopping guide for your town and distribute it in your school and community

Socially responsible shopping is starting to take on a life of its own as consumers increasingly look for companies that are environmentally friendly and good to their employees and surrounding community. At the same time, many consumers want to avoid companies with records of sweatshops and child labor, toxic-waste dumping, animal testing and corporate crime.

But how can you tell the difference?

Fortunately for us, there now are several sources for consumers who want information about corporate responsibility but don’t have the time to wade through court documents or headlines doing research. Here’s where to get quick and easy information on the companies:

'The Better World Shopping Guide’

This pocket-size guide by Ellis Jones, a sociology professor at the University of California at Davis, can be found at Amazon.com. Luckily, the guide it its entirety is also on Jones' website at www.betterworldshopper.org.

Jones rates companies with letter grades from A+ to F based on research from 27 nonprofit and government entities, including everything from Business Ethics magazine to the Environmental Protection Agency. The guide is easy to follow and gives consumers a ready list of who is more socially responsible, on everything from bank credit cards and gasoline to supermarkets and water.

Alonovo

Another rating system that can tie shoppers to online shopping is through the company Alonovo at www.alonovo.com. The company provides research on about 3,000 manufacturers.

Other sites

Consumers also can shop online now at places that specialize only in socially responsible products:

In October , eBay launched WorldOfGood.com, a shopping site that offers only products made with environmental and fair-trade practices in mind. Among the items listed are products made from natural, recycled or organic materials or are made by artisan women in developing countries.

Another site devoted to socially responsible products is Co-Op America’s National Green Pages at www.CoOpAmerica.org. You can search a directory of close to 3,000 businesses that focus on being sustainable and socially just, including sweatshop-free labor, organic farms, fair trade and cruelty-free products.

Co-Op America also recently launched www.responsibleshopper.org, a rating of more than 150 major companies in 27 industry categories from best to worst in socially responsible business practices.

SweatFree Communities and International Labor Rights Forum have compiled a 2009 Shop with a Conscience Consumer Guide filled with excellent products made in good working conditions. They believe that one of the most important criteria for meaningful and dignified work is that workers themselves have an effective, collective voice in determining their wages and working conditions. Therefore all the products in this shopping guide are made by workers organized into democratic unions or worker-owned cooperatives.