Find ethical, eco-friendly alternatives for everyday life!
Community supported agriculture, farm shops, organic markets and food co-ops.
19 alternatives
Natural building materials, insulation, energy advice, housing co-ops and shared living.
11 alternatives
Tenants’ associations, rent rules, deposits, service charges and how to find a flat.
10 alternatives
Genuine green electricity suppliers, energy co-ops, solar panels, heat pumps and saving energy.
10 alternatives
Independent health information, care services, mental health and psychological support.
19 alternatives
Free courses, open educational resources, adult education centres and libraries.
9 alternatives
Cycling, public transport, trains, car sharing, electric cars, boats and planes.
11 alternatives
Ethical banks, cooperative banks, sustainable investments and fair insurance.
14 alternatives
Cooperatives, social enterprises, purpose-driven jobs and the solidarity economy.
16 alternatives
Fair fashion brands, local makers, second-hand clothing, tailors and mending.
6 alternatives
Independent and reader-funded media, fact-checking, encyclopedias and science communication.
6 alternatives
Train travel, night trains, eco-certified accommodation, hospitality networks and holidays close to home.
11 alternatives
Free and open source software, European alternatives to big tech, privacy-friendly services and green hosting.
16 alternatives
Cleaning products, laundry, refills and simple home-made alternatives.
10 alternatives
Cooperative and ethical mobile operators, internet providers and privacy-friendly email.
8 alternatives
Privacy-friendly search engines, the Fediverse, Mastodon and encrypted messengers.
10 alternatives
Independent online shops, fair marketplaces, local shops and buying directly from makers.
25 alternatives
Second-hand shops, swap groups, tool libraries, lending platforms and giveaway shops.
19 alternatives
Repair cafés, community workshops, spare parts, repair guides and makerspaces.
8 alternatives
Solid wood furniture, local carpenters, second-hand and restored furniture, natural textiles.
7 alternatives
Repairable phones and laptops, refurbished devices, durable appliances and energy labels.
10 alternatives
Avoiding packaging, bulk shops, composting, sorting rules and where to take what.
20 alternatives
Drinking tap water, saving water, rainwater use, dry toilets and water-saving fittings.
8 alternatives
Organic and seed-saving seeds, community gardens, native plants and wildlife-friendly gardening.
10 alternatives
Safe and durable toys, second-hand baby gear, cloth nappies, family advice and child care.
7 alternatives
Adopting from shelters, sustainable pet food, vets and animal welfare organisations.
9 alternatives
Sports clubs, hiking, durable and repairable outdoor gear, gear rental and second-hand equipment.
9 alternatives
Independent bookshops, libraries, fair music platforms, cinemas and public media libraries.
8 alternatives
Restaurants with local and organic food, fair delivery cooperatives and ways against food waste.
9 alternatives
Fair trade coffee and tea, organic winemakers, local breweries and juice from regional orchards.
9 alternatives
Natural cosmetics, solid soaps and shampoos, reusable hygiene products and ingredient checkers.
10 alternatives
Evidence-based nutrition advice, seasonal calendars and simple, mostly plant-based recipes.
12 alternatives
Charity evaluators, donation seals, volunteering platforms and local associations.
13 alternatives
Petitions, citizens’ initiatives, transparency tools, voting guides and local participation.
7 alternatives
Consumer advice centres, independent tests, legal aid, complaint letters and dispute resolution.
15 alternatives
Neighbourhood networks, community centres, third places, local exchange systems and maps of local initiatives.
19 alternatives
Shared housing for older people, care advice, living wills, hospices and natural burials.
9 alternatives
Gifts of time and experience, fair and second-hand gifts, reusable decorations and low-waste parties.
9 alternatives
Recycled paper, eco-friendly print shops, refillable office supplies and durable printers.
7 alternatives
The Alternative Bank Schweiz (ABS) is a Swiss bank in Olten that lends only to projects meeting its ethical guidelines, and publishes the name of each borrower and what the loan is for.
Alternative to the big Swiss banks such as UBS and to banks that do not say what they finance
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Amalgamated Bank is a New York bank founded by a garment workers' union in 1923 and still majority-owned by a union, which says it has never lent to fossil fuel companies.
Alternative to big American banks such as JPMorgan Chase or Wells Fargo
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Bullfrog Power is a Canadian green energy retailer that, for a premium on top of a customer's usual bill, makes sure the same amount of renewable electricity is put onto the grid on their behalf.
Alternative to an electricity bill backed by the provincial grid mix alone
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Communauto is a Canadian car-sharing company from Quebec with around 7,000 cars in about 15 Canadian cities and in Paris, rented by the hour or the day with fuel and maintenance included.
Alternative to owning a car in Canadian cities
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Almo Nature is an Italian brand of wet and dry food for cats and dogs whose company is wholly owned by a non-profit foundation, the Fondazione Capellino, which spends the profits on wildlife and…
Alternative to pet food from multinationals whose profits go to shareholders
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Alter Eco is a French brand of organic and fair trade chocolate, coffee, tea, herbal tea, rice, quinoa and sugar, sold in French supermarkets and organic shops. All its products carry both an organic…
Alternative to mainstream chocolate, coffee and tea from unknown plantations
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The Association Végétarienne de France (AVF) is a French non-profit that helps people eat less meat or none at all, with free leaflets on nutrition, recipes, cooking workshops, the Défi Veggie…
Alternative to eating meat every day without knowing how to cook without it
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Crédit Coopératif is a French cooperative bank, owned by its client-members, that has banked associations and social-economy businesses since 1893 and also offers current accounts, cards and savings…
Alternative to commercial high-street banks that finance fossil fuels
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Le Pari Solidaire is a Paris association that places young people under 30 in the homes of people aged 60 or more, in Paris and Île-de-France. The young person gets a room for a small contribution…
Alternative to living alone in old age and to overpriced rooms in Paris
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MAIF is a French mutual insurer, owned by its 4.2 million members, that insures homes, cars, bikes and borrowers. It became a société à mission in 2020 and gives 10 % of its profit to environmental…
Alternative to shareholder-owned insurers for home and car
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The Nutri-Score is a front-of-pack label from A (dark green) to E (red) that sums up a food's nutritional quality per 100 g or 100 ml, so that two breakfast cereals or two pizzas can be compared at a…
Alternative to nutrition tables in small print and to health claims on packaging
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Solidarités International is a French humanitarian NGO, founded in 1980, that brings drinking water, sanitation and hygiene to people hit by wars and disasters, along with food aid and shelter. Water…
Alternative to donating without knowing where the money goes, for clean water in crisis zones
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Yuka is a free French app that scans the barcode of a food or cosmetic product and gives it a score out of 100, with healthier products suggested in its place. It takes no advertising and no money…
Alternative to trusting the marketing on food and cosmetics packaging
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ACORN is a community and tenants’ union in England and Wales whose members act together against bad landlords, to get repairs done, deposits returned and evictions stopped, for a membership fee based…
Alternative to facing a landlord or letting agent alone
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Adopte un bureau is a French company that buys used office furniture from businesses, refurbishes it in its workshops in Antony and Albi and resells it, with a 24-month warranty, at much lower prices…
Alternative to buying new office furniture
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The ANE Elternbriefe are 46 parent letters from the Berlin association Arbeitskreis Neue Erziehung, sent by post from a child’s birth until its eighth birthday, each explaining what parents can…
Alternative to parenting apps and commercial baby magazines full of advertising
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ARCHE NOAH is an Austrian association that preserves old and rare varieties of vegetables, fruit and grain, and sells organic seeds and plants of them so that gardeners can grow them and save their…
Alternative to hybrid seeds from the big seed groups that can’t be saved and resown
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Artisans du Monde is a French network of fair trade shops run mostly by volunteers, selling crafts, food and cosmetics bought from more than 120 producer organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin…
Alternative to gift shops and chain stores selling crafts and food from unknown suppliers
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The BZfE Saisonkalender is the seasonal calendar for fruit and vegetables of Germany’s Federal Centre for Nutrition, free as an app and as a poster, showing when each kind is harvested in Germany and…
Alternative to buying strawberries in winter and other out-of-season produce flown or trucked in
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Cafédirect is a British Fairtrade coffee company founded in 1991 by Oxfam, Traidcraft, Equal Exchange and Twin Trading, with two coffee producers on its board and a certified B Corp since 2018.
Alternative to Nescafé, Kenco and other coffee from multinational groups
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The calendrier de l’Avent inversé, or reverse Advent calendar, turns the December countdown around: instead of opening a window each day, the family puts one useful item a day into a box, then gives…
Alternative to bought Advent calendars filled with chocolate, cosmetics or toys
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Camif is a French online furniture and home shop that sells only products made in Europe, 70 % of them in France according to its own figures, and shows on each product page where it was made.
Alternative to IKEA and furniture chains that sell flat-pack furniture made far away
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The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is an environmental charity near Machynlleth in mid-Wales that teaches low-carbon building, eco-renovation and renewable energy through free information…
Alternative to conventional building and renovation that ignores energy and materials
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CodeCheck is a German-language app and website that scans the barcode of a cosmetic, food or household product and rates its ingredients, with special ratings from BUND for microplastics and parabens…
Alternative to trusting the front of the pack for cosmetics and food
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The Community Land Trust Network is the charity for community land trusts in England and Wales: local, member-controlled non-profits that own land so that the homes on it stay affordable for local…
Alternative to speculative housing whose prices follow the market, not local wages
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Compagnons Bâtisseurs is a French network of associations that helps low-income tenants and owners repair and renovate their own homes themselves, with a building professional and volunteers at their…
Alternative to paying a contractor for every repair when money is short
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Compassion in Dying is a British charity that helps people plan their care at the end of life, with free living will (advance decision) forms, guidance on lasting power of attorney and a free…
Alternative to paying a solicitor for a living will
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Conny is a Berlin legal-tech company that checks for free whether a rent is above the German rent cap (Mietpreisbremse) and, if so, claims the reduction and the overpaid rent from the landlord as a…
Alternative to paying more rent than the Mietpreisbremse allows
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The Coopérative Funéraire de Nantes is a funeral home run as a cooperative (SCIC), owned by its members, including families, which pays no dividends and offers funerals around Nantes, with sister…
Alternative to the funeral chains OGF and Funecap
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The Deutscher Alpenverein (DAV) is the German mountaineering association, with more than 1.6 million members in over 350 sections, which runs 325 mountain huts and 220 climbing facilities, maintains…
Alternative to commercial mountain guides, gear rental and tour apps
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The DGE recommendations, “Gut essen und trinken”, are Germany’s food-based dietary guidelines from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung, which since 2024 take the environment into account as well…
Alternative to diet trends, influencers and nutrition advice paid for by food brands
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dieUmweltDruckerei is a German online print shop that prints flyers, business cards, brochures, posters, calendars and labels on 100 % recycled paper, much of it with the Blauer Engel label, using…
Alternative to online print shops printing on virgin-fibre paper
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Dogs Trust is a British dog welfare charity that takes in stray and unwanted dogs at its rehoming centres, finds them new homes, and never puts a healthy dog to sleep.
Alternative to buying a puppy from a breeder or online advert
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Dr. Hauschka is a range of certified natural cosmetics made by WALA, a foundation-owned company in Bad Boll-Eckwälden in Swabia that grows many of its medicinal plants in its own biodynamic garden.
Alternative to conventional skin care from L’Oréal, Beiersdorf and other cosmetics groups
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Dreschflegel is a German group of small organic farms that grow, breed and sell open-pollinated seed of more than 800 vegetables, herbs and flowers, without hybrids or genetic engineering.
Alternative to hybrid vegetable seeds that must be bought again every year
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Ecosia is a Berlin search engine that spends all its profits on climate action, mainly tree planting and renewable energy, and has been legally barred from being sold since it became steward-owned in…
Alternative to Google Search, whose ad profits go to shareholders
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Écotable is a French label and guide for restaurants that cook with organic, local and seasonal produce, with three levels from “transition started” to “an example for all” and a map of about 300…
Alternative to restaurant guides that say nothing about where the food comes from
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einhorn is a Berlin company that sells vegan condoms made from traceable natural rubber, and period products such as tampons and a menstrual cup, with no outside investors and in steward ownership.
Alternative to condoms and period products from Durex, o.b. and other consumer-goods groups
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Energy Saving Trust is a British organisation that gives free, impartial advice on insulating and heating a home, and runs government advice services such as Home Energy Scotland, without selling or…
Alternative to energy advice from installers and sales companies that sell the product
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Ethical Superstore is a British online shop that sells only products with at least one ethical credential, such as fair trade, organic or eco-friendly, from food and cleaning products to clothes…
Alternative to Amazon for gifts, food and household goods
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