JustChange is happy to announce the winner of this month’s micro-grant, EthicalTree. Siavash and Frank co-founded EthicalTree because, as ethically-oriented consumers themselves, they found it very difficult to find businesses that aligned with their values.
According to EthicalTree, research has shown that 33% of Canadians are either vegetarian or consciously reducing their meat consumption, that 58% of Canadians buy organic products every week, and that at least 31% of Canadians say that Fair Trade certification has a high or very high influence on their buying. As such, their goal is to make it easier for consumers to find local businesses that align with their specific ethical values, whatever those may be – vegan, fair trade, organic, woman-owned, eco-friendly, and more.
Hence EthicalTree, the Ottawa-based “Yelp” of ethical consumers – a free online directory where users can search for local businesses based on the ethical values that matter to them. Users can currently filter local business searches to see only vegetarian-friendly, Fair Trade-friendly, Organic-friendly, or women-owned businesses, and we plan to add more ethical criteria, such as Halal, Sweatshop-free, and Eco-friendly, as we go forward.
Making it easier for consumers to purchase ethical products empowers people to make purchasing decisions that have positive social and environmental impacts on their city and the world, whether that means reducing suffering to animals, lowering carbon emissions, supporting producers with fair wages, or encouraging young women in entrepreneurship. As we make it easier for consumers to support causes they care about with their dollars, they will shape Ottawa’s business ecosystem into a more ethically-oriented one.
Now that EthicalTree is up and running, it’s all about marketing and encouraging more consumers to use EthicalTree. With this new support from JustChange, EthicalTree will host a Street Market at the University of Ottawa, where local businesses can sell ethically-sourced goods to ethically-oriented consumers on campus, as well as grow and expand on the website. As such, we invite you all to join us on April 11
As such, we invite you all to join us on April 11 at Café Nostalgica from 6:30pm – 8:00pm to celebrate giving, EthicalTree and of course, great conversation.