Hillary Hetherington
Stefanie Kaminski
Maddy Lee
Taylor Floris
Jake Appleby
University of Guelph
Ruben Burga
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terra20 was founded in 2006 by Bill Stewart and Steve Kaminski on the premise of making eco-friendly sustainable products easily available to mainstream consumers. The goal of terra20 was to enable people to be able to buy healthy and sustainable products, while also making connections between customers and the vendors featured in the store. In essence, terra20 has created a one-stop shop where people are able to easily find and purchase products, for both home and personal needs, that are free of harmful chemicals. terra20 is a modern retail supplier that uses a system of ethical standards when selecting potential products. This allows customers to trust and be confident that the products are both healthy and sustainable, making a healthy lifestyle more easily accessible to all consumers.
terra20 has grasped the concept of corporate social responsibility and made it the forefront of their business model. The concept for the store emerged from a conversation between two friends, Bill Stewart and Steve Kaminski, Terra20's co-founders. Steve was having difficulties sourcing more sustainable alternatives into the design of his new home and challenged Bill to look into this space. From their research they developed an "entirely new concept on the Canadian retail market". The terra20 retail stores are modern destinations for health and sustainability, with the goal of making healthy living easy. They "offer a broad range of everyday products from seventeen different departments, over six-hundred brands, and over thirty-thousand SKUs," all under one roof. In addition to their innovative business model, terra20 incorporated a new service called the "ecobar", which allows customers to refill their bottles from a variety of cleaning liquids eliminating the recycling process altogether. The small choices made by terra20 customers create a great impact on the well-being of the individual and the well-being of the planet.
Bill and Steve noticed a gap in the market for healthy and sustainable products, one which failed to be optimized by current retailers. Although there were major mainstream retailers selling eco-friendly products, they noticed that these companies were not properly educated about how to successfully convert traditional shoppers to green consumers. Bill explained that they don’t know how to sell them, and “that’s why they’re on the bottom shelf.” They wanted to create a modern environment that highlighted those eco-friendly products and make "an impact to show that health and sustainability is becoming mainstream.” They wanted to establish their brand on trust - priding themselves in a high standard. Each and every product in terra20 locations are researched in depth and labeled accordingly with one or more of their nine ethical categories. terra20 strives to be the hub that allows for meaningful connections to be made between themselves, their vendors and their customers in order to collectively work towards healthier individuals, a healthier society, and a healthier world.
terra20 has had a major societal and environmental impact since its creation in 2012. Through acting as one-stop-shop for eco-friendly products, terra20 has been able to benefit society by saving consumers time, supporting smaller vendors, and fostering discussion about health and sustainability. terra20 supports vendors who have created products with that demonstrate embedded sustainability into them and their production process, creating environmental benefits as well. terra20 has seen their impact first hand. They are "seeing the month over month continued and constant growth of people registered for the store’s services" and they have "continually met and exceeded targets for people signing up for their newsletters." This has resulted in terra20 being the "largest database in Ottawa of folks interested in conscious consumerism." They have also seen environmental effects through their ecobar service, which has eliminated over 500,000 bottles from landfills.
The idea of terra20 has been nothing but beneficial to both consumers and the founders. As an untapped market, terra20 was able to take advantage of being a niche business, resulting in their success. Creating a one-stop shop for all of consumer’s sustainable needs, with everything from cleaning products to cosmetics to home and accessories, terra20 has experienced steadily growing returns. By working with various vendors for multiple different product lines, they are able to have an impact on how products are being produced. Their ability to work with these small vendors in order to produce these goods is something that benefits the environment and is better as a whole for consumers.
terra20 is very beneficial to both society and the environment. The vendors that terra20 supports have placed a large focus on creating products with environmentally conscious motives integrated into their production process. Just the ecobar itself has displaced 500,000 bottles from landfills. This amount will only increase from this point on, which creates a very strong benefit to the environment. In addition to this, the increasing amount of customers who have signed up to terra20's email list demonstrates a genuine interest in terra20 and the products that they carry in order to benefit society. Customers of terra20 are demonstrating a growing concern for the environment and are focusing on making small changes in order to help improve the issue.
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Bill Stewart, President & Co-Founder
terra20, an eco-friendly retailer, has created a modern destination for health and sustainability, with the goal of making healthy living easy for the mainstream consumer. They promote personal and global well-being to work towards a more sustainable world for future generations.