Ethical Back-to-School Shopping Guide: Slave-Free School Supplies

The back-to-school season is here! Whether you’re shopping for yourself or your children, back-to-school shopping can be time-consuming and difficult to navigate. On top of that, shopping for ethical school supplies can be even more challenging!

Whether we like it or not, our purchases have a direct impact on the lives of those who make the products we buy. When we fund unethical companies, we fuel their desire to exploit their employees who often earn less than a dollar a day. Fortunately, promoting conscious consumerism is one of the easiest ways to increase the demand, and ultimately the supply, of ethically-made products. By supporting companies with fair business practices, we are able to vote with our wallets for the kind of world we want to live in.

In 2019, the national Retail Federation estimated that the average American family spent a whopping $696.70 on back-to-school shopping. Can you imagine how much the quality of workers’ lives might improve if we spent that amount on products from companies that truly value their employees?

Every product in our Ethical Back-to-School Shopping Guide was made by brands that use fair labor practices. Your purchase ensures that workers around the world are compensated fairly for their work and treated with dignity by their employers. This means that you are voting with your wallet for companies that take a stand against forced labor and other unethical business practices. Best of all, you can feel confident that your purchase will make a difference in the lives of workers across the globe!

The Good Pencil Company