A Manchester-based marketplace business is combining the power of sustainability with quality products across a range of categories to create the world’s largest and most sustainable immersive lifestyle shopping platform.‏

‏Veo‏, starting in 2019, is building an online shopping community for people and businesses to connect, shop and change the world.‏

‏With the convenience of massive online marketplaces encouraging new consumer habits that aren’t sustainable for our planet, industries are faced with urgently reversing these impacts, disrupting old models to replace them with new ones.‏
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‎‏According to researchers, Retail is the world’s second most pollutive industry. Continuing business as usual global consumption will require 3 Earths by 2040. Nowhere are these negative environmental effects seen more than in so-called ‘fast fashion’, where clothing production has roughly doubled since 2000, yet consumers only kept the clothes for half as long. Unfortunately a lot of this clothing ends up in the dump and agarbage truck full of clothes is burned or dumped in landfill every second.‏

‏This is why ‏ ‏Veo‏ ‏ ensures their brands and products meet their ‏ ‏award-winning sustainability criteria‏ ‏ – and have been rated “most ethical online retailer” two years running by Ethical Consumer magazine – via a thorough assessment framework which demonstrates high quality, sustainable trading, responsible labour standards and ethical supply chains.‏

‏Joe Darwen, 35, the founder of the business, said: “Veo aims to redefine the nature of consumerism and shift perceptions of sustainability to accessible and aspirational. ‏

‏”I have worked with a number of the largest marketplace platforms in the world and I found that none of them seemed to support ethics and sustainability, so I founded ‏ ‏Veo‏ ‏ as a vital future-facing alternative to other platforms that fall short of thee ideals.”‏

‏Joe and the team ‏ ‏describe‏ ‏ Veo‏ ‏ as the future of retail: “It is evident consumers undeniably want to shop more sustainably but many find it challenging to discover sustainable brands that meet or exceed their expectations of quality. There is often a perception that to be sustainable or ‘eco-friendly’ consumers must compromise on some aspect of their products or lifestyle; either quality, aesthetic, look, feel or taste… ‏
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‎”But ‏ ‏Veo‏ ‏ is here to show that embracing a sustainable lifestyle requires no compromise.”‏

‏Offering everything from fashion, beauty, food and drink, home and leisure, ‏ ‏Veo‏ ‏ is reinventing the nature of our consumption, going beyond the current take-make-dispose industrial model and promoting a regenerative ‘circular economy’ that aims to redefine growth and focus on positive society-wide benefits. ‏

“We believe in quality and sustainability; that they are intrinsically linked and one cannot exist without the other,” ‏ ‏Joe‏ ‏ said. “So we can guarantee you’ll never have to compromise in your choices of style, taste or lifestyle. We’re seeking to solve huge real-world problems, empower the consumer, champion ethics and make sustainable shopping mainstream.”‏