Greenbanks

As ethical banks have developed from niche players to a serious competition for traditional banks, supposedly ethical banks and even traditional banks use the term ethical bank in order to sell bank services under the cloak of sustainable and ethically correct business conduct.Therefore, the aim of this research is to make truly ethical banks distinguishable from traditional banks by investigating, analyzing and determining principles, ethical banks have to fulfill or refrain from in order to call themselves truly ethical. Based on academic research results, a web-based survey identifies the bank customer’s attitude towards sustainability, ethics, and their banking, and the ethical attitude towards the nine areas of business, banks may be confronted with. The survey results build the basis for a list of positive and negative ethical guiding principles which should serve as a general standard for ethical banks.Nevertheless, the ethical guiding principles need to be continuously reviewed and validated as a consequence of the ever-changing environmental, social and legal environment. In the case of its direct implementation, a control mechanism within or outside the bank must monitor and ensure compliance with these principles.

A turbulent tale of a young man's growth from innocence to maturity in the harsh world of Victorian England. In the teeming heart of nineteenth-century London, Owen Oliver walks out of his gloomy, unwelcoming lodgings and doesn't stop his travels until he reaches Kent. There, Owen's life is dramatically altered. An orphan, he is adopted by a loving old lady and her roguish amicable son, Tom. With Tom's help, he secures employment in the shipping agency of an old sea captain and his fortunes start to increase. But Owen is not content. All around him he sees a widening gap between the comfortable middle classes and the helpless destitution of the poor. He is horrified by the plight of the thin and hungry and the evils of child labour. So when he takes the matter into his own hands and rescues a beautiful ragged child with haunting blue eyes and long golden hair, his fate is sealed . . .

"An extraordinary book... it may permanently change the way we see a country spire, a concession road, even a pound of butter" - Books in Canada