zacharyzollman/ethics-query

a Python function that searches online for ethics information about a given entity

ethics_query 🔎

Aim

This Python function takes the name of an entity, such as a brand, and prints English-language ethics information from webpages with matching names.

Scope

Sites it can currently check

• General
  • B Corp
  • Ethical Consumer
  • Wikipedia
• Fashion
  • Good on You
• Banks
  • BankTrack
  • Global Alliance for Banking on Values

Sites that could be used but are harder to analyze due to JavaScript use

• 1% for the Planet
• Bank Green
• The Good Shopping Guide

Sites that could presumably be added in the future

• Climate Friendly Supermarkets
• CSRHub, which is conceptually similar to this project but caters more to corporate actors than consumers and seems lacking in terms of design, transparency, accessibility, and respect for user privacy
• WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard
• EWG Skin Deep and Foodscores guides
• Open Food Facts
• Mighty Deposits
• OpenSecrets
• Food and Water Watch data
• Common Objective
• Waste Not
• Fashion Checker
• Wikirate
• Gulliver by CorpWatch

For nonprofits, info from ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Guidestar, and Charity Navigator could be added. This data is organized by Employer Identification Number (EIN), so a separate function may be appropriate. Additionally, the code could be modified so that results appear gradually rather than all at once.

Example

Here is a test with Veja, a shoe company.

>>> ethics_query("Veja", is_fashion = True)
👍 accepted Veja as entity to query
👀 found B Corps entity profile at https://bcorporation.net/directory/veja
⚫️ overall B Impact Score: 84.2/200
🐢 still checking
👀 found Good On You entity profile at https://directory.goodonyou.eco/brand/veja
🙂 overall score: 4/5, good
🌎 planet score: 4/5
👥 people score: 5/5
🦋 animals score: 3/5
🔎 search complete