Beyond Bamboo is today ‘opening its doors’ to consumers.

Beyond Bamboo is an online marketplace and community that allows consumers to shop for planet-friendly items without having to do lots of time-consuming research and without the risk of being bamboozled by greenwashing. It also offers sellers of ethical, sustainable, upcycled and refurbished products a platform to connect with conscious consumers.

Every business selling via the Beyond Bamboo Marketplace has gone through a strict Ethical and Sustainable Assessment System, developed in collaboration with Ethical Consumer Magazine.

Beyond Bamboo is launching today by unlocking its first room: the BATHROOM

This will give consumers access to a wide range of genuinely ethical and sustainable bathroom products, allowing them to create a truly sustainable bathroom environment and giving them confidence that every item, from every seller has been through a strict accreditation process. Beyond Bamboo does the hard work of research and checking, so that consumers can buy easily, quickly and confidently.

Over the coming weeks and months Beyond Bamboo will open more rooms, giving conscious consumers access to a full range of accredited sustainable and ethical products.

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 consumer marketplace, a B2B supplier portal, a knowledge hub and a team of passionate people dedicated to triple line reporting, Beyond Bamboo aims to help us all do well by doing good.

All sellers joining the marketplace are assessed by Beyond Bamboo on their ethics and sustainable practices across a range of criteria, directly relevant to their business.

Sellers must provide evidence that their products:

. Are vegetarian or vegan
· Are cruelty-free (no animal safety testing conducted or commissioned on ingredients or products)
· Do not contain any hides, skins or hairs, leather, suede, fur, silk, down, feathers, angora, shearling.
· Are palm oil free (including palm oil derivatives)
· Are free of GMO ingredients
· Are non-toxic

In addition, all sellers must:
– agree to comply with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, Green Claims Code Policy;
– ensure standards for workers throughout the business and supply chain 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);
– not be engaged with the arms trade or extractive industries;
– agree to make use of recycled / upcycled materials for packing and to minimising packaging overall with a move away from plastic. Those selling upcycled and preloved products must have a clear, written commitment to minimising their environmental impact.

Beyond Bamboo will be unlocking new rooms throughout the year, giving consumers access to a wide range of sustainable, ethical, upcycled and refurbished products from accredited sellers with strong customer service records.

Tiffany Kelly, CEO of Beyond Bamboo comments:

“Consumers want to know they are making ethical purchasing choices, but with so much greenwashing, and so many ‘green’ claims, many of which are very vague or don’t stand up to scrutiny, it’s almost impossible for a consumer to be sure they are buying a genuinely ethical product.

“Our mission at Beyond Bamboo is to make it easy for consumers to buy ethically and to give them complete confidence in the planet-friendly credentials of the business they are buying from.

“Our assessment system is deliberately strict, even though this means that, as a platform, we will grow more slowly. It takes time to assess each seller, and many don’t make the grade. Being sure we only have the right companies on board and giving our buyers peace-of-mind is of paramount importance to us. For those sellers who don’t currently achieve all the essential criteria, we offer help, support and advice to enable them to make the changes needed.”