Member Article

Sustainable Tech Start-up Beyond Bamboo launches Ethical Accreditation for sellers

Beyond Bamboo is launching its Ethical Ratings System, developed in collaboration with Ethical Consumer Magazine. The system will be used to rate all businesses selling the Beyond Bamboo Marketplace.

Beyond Bamboo is a new online marketplace and community that offers sellers of ethical, sustainable, upcycled and refurbished products a platform to connect with conscious consumers.

Beyond Bamboo, which is set to launch in the UK in September 2021, has already onboarded a wide range of ethical sellers and is now looking for more companies to join the movement.

All sellers with new products joining the marketplace will be assessed on the Beyond Bamboo Ethical Ratings System across a range of criteria to ensure they are ethical and sustainable. The system has been devised in collaboration with Ethical Consumer Magazine which has over 30 years’ experience vetting companies and products for sustainability.

The ratings system also includes a ’Working Towards category which allows companies that have started down the road to sustainability to be listed and showcase what they have achieved so far.

All products listed on Beyond Bamboo must pass the following criteria:

• Must be vegetarian or vegan • Must are cruelty-free (no animal safety testing conducted or commissioned on ingredients or products) • Must not contain any hides, skins or hairs, leather, suede, wool, fur, silk, down, feathers, angora, shearling, or cashmere • Must be palm oil free (including palm oil derivatives) • Must be free of GMO ingredients • Must be non-toxic • Have a clear, written commitment to minimising their environmental impact • Standards for workers throughout the business and supply chain must conform to the Ethical Trade Initiative base-code (freedom of association, no discrimination, no child labour, no forced labour, reasonable working hours and fair pay) • The business must not be engaged with the arms trade or extractive industries • Must have a clear, written commitment to making use of recycled / upcycled materials for packing and to minimising packaging overall with a move away from plastic.

If a product fails on one of these categories, it is evaluated for inclusion in the Working Towards category.

The Beyond Bamboo marketplace will also feature a wide range of upcycled and refurbished products from accredited sellers with strong customer service records.

Tiffany Kelly, CEO of Beyond Bamboo comments:

“There are so many wonderful ethical and sustainable retailers, but unfortunately for every genuine retailer there are others that make unsubstantiated claims and erode consumer trust. Beyond Bamboo, with its bespoke product accreditation helps those retailers which are really making a difference to stand out from the green-wash. This has been a major selling point for many of the retailers that have joined the platform – they are proud of what they are doing and want buyers to know that they take the future of our planet seriously. In addition, we have made the process of onboarding as effortless as possible so that even smaller companies, with limited time, can easily join. We’re proud to be creating an inclusive community of like-minded people passionate about ethical and sustainable retail.”

Product categories for the Beyond Bamboo retail marketplace include home and kitchen wares; electrical goods, such as refurbished mobile phones and laptops; body and self care; accessories; outdoors and leisure; bedroom and bathroom; clothing; tools and garden and luggage.

In addition to the consumer retail marketplace, Beyond Bamboo has a business-to-business section which will supply the hotel and hospitality industry. Several sellers on the retail marketplace are already in line for wholesale contracts with a global hotel chain.

The Beyond Bamboo Marketplace is set to launch in the UK September 2021 with a nationwide PR and marketing campaign and is already on target to onboard 500 sellers by launch date.

About Beyond Bamboo Beyond Bamboo aims to be the largest global community of sustainable products, services and suppliers working as a collective to restore and rejuvenate the planet. With a marketplace, a B2B supplier portal, a knowledge hub and a team of passionate people dedicated to triple bottom line reporting, Beyond Bamboo aims to help us all do well by doing good.

Beyond Bamboo is a move towards more conscious consumerism, selling locally sourced beautiful products that are ethical and sustainable. Beyond Bamboo works to rejuvenate economies, encourage ethical entrepreneurship, and inspire us all to recycle and up-cycle, reduce waste and create new sources of income that feel great. If you are asking ‘what is next?’ - This is it.

About Ethical Consumer Ethical Consumer has developed the world’s most sophisticated and simple to use, personal ethical rating system to give consumers the information they need, based on detailed research of over 40,000 companies, brands and products.

These ratings are updated in real time from their corporate research database. The database is a result of over 20 years work conducting primary and secondary research and systematically organising it using their ratings system. Their ratings cover around 300 topics in 19 areas in 5 main categories.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Eloise .