ethical junction

Ethical and Environmental Policy

Veganline.com is a 100% vegan online shop. Its purpose is to help customers boycott the animal industry. As that industry shrinks, animal suffering is reduced.

A by-product of being vegan is that we are environmentalists by accident. Land is wasted by growing animal feed, feeding that to animals, and then eating the animals or wearing their skins. The less animal farming; the more efficient the use of land. We also reduce the pollution caused by chrome-tanning of leather. Our PVC shoes are obviously less biodegradable than, say, our hemp ones but compared to chrome tanned leather they are little worse.

Most of the energy spent on the shop is spent on getting affordable vegan shoes available together online. This involves getting some of them specially made and keeping up a minimum wholesaler order each month for others.

Putting one ethical issue first means putting another second. Veganline.com does buy shoes from countries where it is illegal or impractical for us to monitor working conditions. We have shoes from China, Vietnam, Albania, Tunisia and India. Often they reach us through a chain of traders who do not reveal their sources. We buy them because we have no other source.

The only reason we can tick the boxes above is that, as far as able, we do ask our wholesale suppliers for shoes from countries with courts votes and a welfare state, where wealth is more likely to trickle down to the people making the shoes. We also note the country of origin next to each shoe we sell on the web site, linked to a page of human rights news about that country. This influences our customers. It may surprise a few casual visitors as well.

Veganline.com pays bills on time, wastes little and makes relatively low profit margins. This enables us to sell products like wallets made in Manchester that would otherwise not be economic. Over time, we hope to offer a simple ethical choice on human and environmental issues as well as animal ones, but meanwhile we are working to get there.