What’s in the Green Guide?

 

The Green Guide is much more than a consumer or business directory. Over more than 20 years we have collected an ever-widening range of listings covering the whole gamut of green and sustainable living and thinking. You’ll find entries for academic research, product development, consultants, politics and campaigning as well as a huge range of shopping and purchasing choices, including how to spend your leisure time and where to go on holiday.

Our aim is to create a rich and immersive experience when using the Green Guide, showing readers just how far green thinking and sustainable choices have developed, and revealing the real depth of choice available.

The directory includes products, services and organisations that help promote and encourage a sustainable lifestyle. Also included are ethical, natural and fair trade businesses. The listings are intended to be inclusive and are free of charge. To that end we have tried to include as many organisations as possible, no matter their commercial outlook nor their size.

If there is a bias, it is towards supporting smaller, innovative businesses or organisations that do not benefit from a PR or marketing department. However, inclusion of an organisation does not imply an endorsement nor a preference.

See our Inclusion Criteria for how we decide to include an entry.

 

Local, National & International

We include local, national and international companies and organisations. Local entries operate in a defined region of the UK, national listings offer a nationwide service in the UK (some of these also offer a global service) and international entries are located outside the UK, with some offering a global service. Currently, the database is made up overwhelmingly of UK-based entries.

 

What’s in a listing?

A standard free listing contains the contact details – address, telephone number, email and web address where available – and a description about the service or organisation. As well as free listings, we also offer upgraded listings which include much more information as well as pdfs, videos and links to social media.

Many of the organisations listed in the Green Guide will have responded to an invitation to add a listing, an email update form or will have given us their details over the phone. Some entrants we visit, but there are simply too many for all to receive a personal visit. For a few, we gather information from other sources, but we will always endeavour to verify details with the organisation before we publish.

Very few organisations refuse to supply information and fewer still request not to be listed. We try hard to contact organisations but we assume that if we find it impossible to get information – because forms and emails are not returned, phones ring unanswered and voicemail messages are ignored – then readers will not have much luck either. The general rule is that we will try to contact an organisation five times before marking it as unobtainable and its listing not to be published.

If you find the inclusion of any organisation unreasonable or unjustifiable, please inform us. We will attempt to explain our reasoning, or if we fail to do so, we will remove the listing. If you want an organisation’s green claims verified, consult one of the larger bodies. They will be able to give you advice or refer you on.