Ethical Economy
What is Ethical Economy?
Ethical Economy is a free tool that helps you maximise your ethical impact while encouraging others to do the same. The Ethical Economy community is based on a philosophy of turning abstract ethics into concrete actions.
How does Ethical Economy work?
Ethical Economy is a web application that allows users to affirm their ethical values and describe their ethical actions. Users receive feedback from proxies on how well they are doing in relation to their stated values. The feedback is converted into a rating that serves as a benchmark for comparing individuals and companies. The rating shows the average of all the feedback received by the user, as well as any changes in the last 30 days. The data can be broken down into individual values to inform the user of how to improve on specific values and actions.
Who is behind Ethical Economy?
The Ethical Economy was launched in 2007 by an Anglo-Danish start-up company run by social entrepreneurs who aim to make ethics a practical part of our daily lives.
Membership
Advantages of becoming a member
Ethical Economy is a cost-effective way for your company to get in sync with your stakeholders’ ethical expectations. It’s an invaluable human resource tool that promotes two-way communication between employer and employees within a private online community. Ethical Economy gives workers a way to express their ethical values and offer suggestions on how the company can maximise its ethical impact. As an external communications tool, Ethical Economy lets you react quickly to changes in stakeholder attitudes. Stay on top of emerging ethical market trends by monitoring your feedback in real time while your competitors are still waiting for the results from their focus groups.
Why should I, as an individual, use Ethical Economy?
Ethical Economy gives you the ability to influence the ethical performance of individuals and organisations by giving them feedback on their values and actions. You can use Ethical Economy to compare your values to those of your friends, your employer, the store where you buy your groceries or the politician who wants your support. The feedback tool gives you the chance to draw on your own experiences and persuade others to create the most ethical value in a way that matters to you.
How do I create a profile page?
After joining Ethical Economy, go to the My Profile page and select three values that are most important to you, and then add actions that illustrate what you are doing to live these values. You can also upload a photo and write a short bio telling your proxies a little about yourself.
How do I get a plugin on my own website?
The plugin is automatically created with your profile page. Sign in, click on the Edit Profile tab and then click on ‘Settings & Code”. Copy the plugin code into your website or blog code, and the plugin will automatically appear on your site.
Who can sign up?
Any company, organisation or individual can have an Ethical Economy profile. After you have signed up, invite others to join as your proxies so that they can leave you feedback. Their feedback will be used to generate your Ethical Economy rating.
What if I don’t want a profile but still want to leave feedback or make nominations?
Even if you don't want to create your own ethical profile, you can still leave feedback for individuals and organisations or create a nominated profile. However, we do encourage you to upload a photo and write a bit about yourself so that the feedback recipients know who it's from.
How much does it cost to get Ethical Economy?
Nothing, it’s absolutely free.
How do I close my Ethical Economy account?
You are free to end your membership at Ethical Economy at any time simply by sending an email to info(at)ethicaleconomy(dot)com. Of course, we would be sorry to see you go and would appreciate some feedback as to what prompted you to close your account.
Using the Ethical Economy account
Can I add my own values?
You can add your own values and definition to your profile. We’ve tried to create a common reference list of values that covers the full spectrum of ethics. The main list is temporarily fixed to prevent the dilution of our ethical focus with non-ethical values. If you'd like to add different values to your profile, please do so. If the community decides that your value belongs in the main list of values, then we’ll include it. The community filtering feature will be introduced shortly.
How do I find my own ethical values?
Everyone’s ethical values are different. Your own values are the principles by which you want to live your life. They are a reflection of how you want to be seen by others, and the standard by which you want to be judged.
Explore our list of values and check out the definitions and related actions to find the three that mean the most to you. Or simply add your own value.
How do I find actions that make a difference?
Actions are the everyday things that you do that create ethical value for yourself and others. They are a way to live your values, rather than just talk about them. It could be as simple as taking the time to remember the names of your colleague’s kids, because familiarity is important to him and sociality is important to you. Or giving your time to a worthy cause because you believe in charity and benevolence. Actions help us maximise our ethical impact, given limited resources.
Can I have more than three values?
Yes and No. To simplify the Ethical Economy site, we have limited the number of ethical values to three. But you can still add up to five actions for each value. If you need more than three values, we can offer you a private bespoke solution. Please contact us for further details.
What are "proxies"?
Proxies are your family, friends, colleagues, customers, etc. They are the people who are close (proximate) to you, the ones whose opinion matters the most. The more people you invite to be your proxies, the more feedback you will receive. Anyone can give you feedback, but because your proxies know you, their feedback is more valuable.
What are suggested actions?
Suggested actions are the actions that your proxies propose to you to maximise your ethical impact on them.
What is an Ethical Economy Nominated Profile?
An Ethical Economy nominated profile is a company or an individual that could add ethical value to you and to others. By nominating an agent, you are encouraging them to live their ethical values and to maximise their ethical impact.
You can create a nominated profile for any company, organisation or individual who is not already present on Ethical Economy. A nominated profile is publicly owned so that anyone can contribute to its content. However, as the profile creator, you will be the first to choose the values and the only person who is allowed to edit the About Me page. The official owner of your nominated profile can reclaim it at any time and convert it into a private profile page. We believe that this is in everyone's interest, as the object of Ethical Economy is to promote direct communication between companies and individuals, bringing them together into value-focused communities.
I represent the official owner of a Nominated Profile. What do I do to reclaim it?
As the official owner of a nominated profile, you can reclaim it at any time by clicking on the 'Reclaim' link. You will need to provide a few details that will help us to verify your identity. Once we have confirmed that you are, indeed, the official owner, Ethical Economy will convert the nominated profile into a private one and hand over the control of the profile to you.
Technical
What does the Ethical Economy score mean?
Your Ethical Economy score includes your rating (based on the weighted average feedback from your proxies), the change in your rating in the last 30 days, and the total number of feedbacks that you've received.
What is an Ethical Economy plugin?
The Ethical Economy plugin is a small software application that integrates visually into your site but gets all of its content and services from the Ethical Economy servers. The plugin consists of a "badge" displaying your Ethical Economy score. Clicking on the badge opens a second window giving you your feedback.
The installation guide doesn’t include my blog software/social community. How
do I install the widget?
We’re sorry that our installation guide doesn’t provide support for every kind of social network's API and blog platform. Please ask a technically skilled person among your friends to help you put in the code on your website. If you find a solution, tell us, and we'll be more than happy to include your installation tips in our guide. info(at)ethicaleconomy(dot)com.
Give Feedback
Is the Ethical Economy plugin secure?
Yes. Naturally, we find spyware, worms and viruses quite unethical. Installing the Ethical Economy plugin does not breach your present security level. The widget gets its content and services from our servers in a secure way. You can safely put it on your company’s intranet or on your website without fear of any accompanying malicious code.
Ethical Economy philosophy
What exactly is the Ethical Economy philosophy?
The Ethical Economy community is based around a philosophy of ethics, which consists of three
elements:
- Proximity: People behave most ethically towards those who are closest to them. Ethical Economy promotes ethical behaviour by increasing the feeling of proximity between individuals.
- Derive the greatest ethical value with minimal input: Ethical Economy helps individuals and companies identify actions that offer the greatest ethical value, given limited resources.
- Improve and include: As you get better at creating ethical value for yourself and your proxies, you can expand your proxy network to include more people. Do more good, better.
What is an ethical value?
In the context of Ethical Economy, an 'ethical value' is the general quality of an action that was prompted by the feeling of proximity towards someone or something.
What is an ethical action?
We all have limited resources, but unlimited intentions to do what's right. Actions are the things you do to maximise your ethical impact, given the resources that you have. Ethical actions add value to the lives of individuals and to the world as a whole.