Urban Green: ethicalDeal and Living the Local Life.

Remember Groupon? ethicalDeal, with both Toronto and Vancouver branches is WAY is better than that. And then remember every other startup spinoff that followed the online shopping guru that have completely taken over everyone’s inboxes? Well worry not, because there is now a website following those EXACT parameters and features ethical, eco-friendly, sustainable, vegan, animal-friendly, and cruelty-free products from as close to you as your next door, or neighbouring ttc stop.

I know I get sick of the dozens of emails that pour in starting at about 3am every morning, but this site is the only subscription you actually really need. Like Groupon and LivingDeal, each ‘deal’ is dependent upon the number of people who buy in, but what I like about this site as opposed to all of the others is the community feel to buying LOCAL. Every business that is featured is not only providing a product or service that meets the companies ethical requirements, but the products you’re buying are coming from organizations within your very own community.

After watching a lot of True Blood and working for an eco-friendly e-commerce company, a new lifestyle value I’ve discovered is carbon footprinting. Not that anyone has developed a metrics system to provide an accurate numerical value (although that might be some kind of hilarious undergraduate statistics project one of you should look into), carbon footprinting is the impact a person’s behavior has on the environment. Imagine for instance, that you take your boyfriend out for dinner and he orders a Belvedere vodka and Redbull. Not to mention that your boyfriend is probably an asshole, but the distance distance the products he’s consuming have traveled, and the labour that went into creating all parts of the cocktail have an impact on the world we live in.

Decreasing your carbon footprint is actually quite easy, an buying local is the best first step. No one is asking you to give up brunch or throw away every piece of sporting equipment you own, but there are ways to cut corners without cutting the universe. If you’re a beer drinker in Toronto, stick with Steamwhistle, Mill Street, or Amsterdam, or if you’re from a small town – buy your own cow. The important part is thinking beyond what you’re consuming and existing in a conscious world.

I hope you’ll check out the site and peruse the aisles of their eco-friendly community . You’d be surprised the quality of what you’re getting and the social benefits to living more ethically. And hopping on that bike of yours once in a while actually might a little too!