Shopping is an act no longer driven by need, but a hobby, a tradition, an addiction, an obsession, even a citizen's duty in its own right. Whether the natural effect of the year-round marketing and advertising baths we are immersed in, or whether a particularly urgent pursuit at a time of the year when it is good to give - and to give one must buy first -  shopping is endemic to our all-embracing capitalist values. Yet the short-lived happy-hormones release it triggers in our brains is leaving behind a trail of personal debt and environmental blight. And this courageous little handbag is having none of it.

Thanks to the steadily increasing trend to shop online, a number of so-called 'charity shopping platforms' (also called shop-and-donate or cause-related shopping) have arisen that leverage this growing shopping behaviour by using it to generate donations for good causes. The idea is simple – but does it work? We take a closer look.

The idea of donating a product to someone in need for every product that a company sells has become a popular form of social enterprise over the past decade. But is it effective?

Do philanthropy and consumption mix? As part of a broader analysis of sustainable consumption, we will take a look at charity shopping, the sharing economy and put tech tools that help consumers make more sustainable choices to the test. The aim? There's a lot of hot air, labels, trends and movements when it comes to 'going green' but what actually has an impact and what is just marketing?