MANITOULIN – Good Stuff Box, owned and operated by an Ice Lake woman, has been nominated for and awarded the title of ‘best eco-friendly subscription box in Canada’ for 2019.
“I’d just like to note that I am very grateful to everyone who nominated and voted for me during the competition,” stated Vanessa Glasby on Monday. “I was very surprised and excited to have won, and believe the win will go a long way towards helping to promote and market Good Stuff to a wider audience.”
Ms. Glasby also noted, “I so appreciate being recognized for my ‘green’ efforts, as they represent one of the key values of Good Stuff.” If readers are interested in reading more about Good Stuff’s green initiatives, including the use of recycled and recyclable materials, local pick-up, and carbon offsetting, they can do so at
GoodStuffBox.ca/pages/green-initiatives.
The ‘a year of boxes’ website reported April 16, “this past month we launched the first annual Canadian Subscription Awards! Voting was open for almost three weeks and we received an amazing response. With your help, we were able to determine the best Canadian subscription boxes in 20 different categories.”
In naming the ‘best eco-friendly box’ as Good Stuff, they reported on their website, “Good Stuff is the little box with big impact. Health and lifestyle products made by companies doing good through social and environmental missions. Delivered to your door four times a year.”
As was reported in the February 15, 2019 edition of the Recorder, “Good Stuff Box is a new quarterly lifestyle subscription service aimed at customers who want to give back and make a difference in the world through small, everyday actions,” said Ms. Glasby. “Customers receive one box per quarter (shipped out in March, June, September, and December), and each box contains four to six full-sized items plus additional coupons and samples. Local customers can elect to pick their boxes up at The Island Jar in Little Current if they’d like to save on shipping.”
“Good Stuff connects customers with like-minded businesses and other consumers who share their values and desire to make the world a little better through small, everyday actions. Good Stuff is not just a subscription service, but also a social network of Canadian change-makers. We strive to become a brand leader in socially and environmentally conscious living, and to work with partner charities to give back and reinvest our profits to do even more good,” said Ms. Glasby. “Our first charity partner of 2019 is Zawadi La Tumaini, also known as ZLT Hope Homes. It is a children’s home in Nairobi, Kenya which was founded by Sudbury native Jacqueline Villeneuve.”
“Good Stuff is committed to Canadian consumers who want to make the world a better place, and believe their purchases can contribute to this wish. Each and every product included in a Good Stuff Box is created by innovative companies working in Canada and is specially designed to do good in the world, giving back to the global community. All participating companies have a charity partner and/or a cause-focused mission and are working hard to have a positive impact on major social or environmental concerns,” continued Ms. Glasby.
“Good Stuff exists to provide customers with a premium subscription service that they can feel proud to be a part of,” she said. “Customers can feel good knowing that the brands behind the socially and environmentally conscious lifestyle products they are receiving are working hard to do good and create a positive impact.”
Good Stuff strives to be an industry leader in both social responsibility and environmental sustainability. “We continually make efforts to become greener in all areas of our business,” said Ms. Glasby. She explained the business uses recycled materials. “Our boxes are made in Canada with FSC-certified fibres, by a company that supports several different charitable causes. The crinkle paper we use to fill our boxes is also made in Canada from 100 percent recycled paper. Our boxes are sealed with environmentally-friendly paper tape which is made with a 100 percent recycled core and 95 percent post-consumer recycled content. We intentionally avoid using any plastic products in our packaging, as we feel it is unnecessary and environmentally harmful; we also want to make it as easy as possible for you to recycle your box once you’re finished with it.”
The business also provides local pickup for Manitoulin area customers, which helps to reduce the environmental impact of shipping boxes. And, in an added effort to reduce waste and encourage environmental sustainability, local customers may also return their boxes to be refilled for the next quarter, if desired, rather than receiving a new box each time.
“Good Stuff recognizes that the transportation/shipping portion of our business model will always have an environmental impact. To combat this, we have implemented a carbon offset program and are aiming to not only become carbon-neutral, but actually make a ‘climate-positive’ contribution, as recommended by GoldStandard.org to reduce emissions globally and create sustainable development benefits for communities around the world.”
“Basing our estimates on research conducted by GoldStandard.org and the World Bank, we’ve roughly measured the amount of carbon emissions created by Good Stuff,” she explained. “Using those numbers, we have decided to start by supporting development projects by an organization called Impact Carbon in the Shanxi, Hubei and Guizhou provinces of China.”
“These projects are working to build more efficient cook stoves that are able to use agricultural waste as clean fuel for heating and cooling (rather than the more typical coal). These stoves not only reduce indoor air pollution for the families using them, but also help to reduce overall global carbon emissions. To date, more than 128,000 stoves have been sold, saving more than 450,000 tonnes of coal, avoiding 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, and saving households roughly $1,500 to $2,000 over the lifetime of the stove.
