What lovely news to hear about that quirky, eclectic sustainable shop selling aromatic Fair Trade coffee and a carefully curated collection of pre-loved items, isn't it?
Until you learn it's a 50-minute tube journey away… 🫠
Here's the thing - sustainable shopping should be straightforward and handy. It's easy to expect everyone to spontaneously evolve into their best selves and adopt sustainable shopping habits, all without any help. But, wouldn't it be better to lend a hand to simplify this process for everyone? That’s where Ganddee steps in. Ganddee is the easiest way to find (and save money at) 2nd-hand and low waste shops in your local area. We're on a mission to help you shop more sustainably, and guess what? You can lend us a hand, too!
At Ganddee, our mission is straightforward - we make sustainable shopping a breeze for everyone. As our Founder, Antoine, shared in an interview with our friends at Inspiration Space,
"we are beasts of convenience. If something is not easy, we don't do it."
As we know that convenience is key, we're working hard to develop technology that makes sustainable consumption convenient and accessible to all. We don't believe it is viable and constructive to expect that everyone will become a sustainability expert and carry out research each time they want to buy a coffee or some groceries. Having a 9-5 job, a family and other obligations is more than enough to keep us all busy, we don't need the extra burden to do advanced due diligence on everything we buy. So, with Ganddee, we meet you where you are, making it a breeze to access businesses’ credentials, sustainability pledges and charity work. As a community-based, data driven platform that maps sustainable shops in cities around the world, Ganddee and its community do the research, and you, as a user, reap the rewards.
Making sustainable living convenient
When we talk about sustainable shopping, there are different components to this idea of "convenience". Of course, the most sustainable good is the one we don't consume (and don't produce), but, hey, we need to eat, drink, dress etc., so unless we all produce or repair everything we need to live our lives, we still need to buy things.
Now, what does sustainability even mean? (see our criteria) How to find shops that are sustainable? How to make sure they aren't greenwashing us? Where shall we even look for information?
We've talked to a lot of Londoners (like, a looot), and the same questions pop in every discussion. Finding sustainability-related information is hard, time-consuming, and requires some knowledge of what you’re looking for.
So, ok, Ganddee makes it easier to retrieve businesses’ sustainability credentials etc. via the map. But there's more to the story. Location matters. If the shop is far away, will you visit it often? Probably not. Hence, sustainable shops need to be within an easy reach.
That's why we've been studying our data, including insights from Ganddee's map dataset, to see how far Londoners need to travel to reach sustainable shops. We've been focusing on London areas that are a 15-minute walk or cycle ride from shops on Ganddee.
Preliminary findings are interesting.
North London, particularly the area ranging from London E8/E1 to SW6 passing by (N)W1, hosts numerous shops listed on Ganddee, making sustainable shopping more accessible for residents. So, the good news is, some of the most densely populated areas of the capital (according to the 2021 census data) are pretty well covered by Ganddee. Most residents of the central boroughs can easily access second-hand, rental and other shops listed on Ganddee. However, Ganddee’ coverage of areas like Newham, Brent but also Harringay (Seven Sisters, Tottenham, etc.) isn’t quite matching the relatively high density of such areas. This is a call for action on our side to increase coverage in these boroughs.
We believe that everyone, not just zone 1/central London dwellers, should have easy access to sustainable shops. That's why we aim to leverage our data to better analyse the location of shops listed on Ganddee. This could help business owners reach more customers, and aid city planners in making informed decisions to support such enterprises, all while allowing us to deliver on our mission to bring sustainable consumption to every home.
How can you help? Suggest shops on Ganddee!
Here's how you can help. We're inviting the Ganddee community to help us list more sustainable shops on Ganddee. You can tell us about any shops you know via the "Suggest shop" button on the free Ganddee mobile app. It only takes a few seconds to suggest a shop to be listed on the app and helps the whole Ganddee community to easily find shops selling sustainable alternatives to what they need. In addition to this, each time you're suggesting a shop, you get points that you can use to plant trees via the app! How cool is that?!
Together, let's make sustainable shopping accessible and convenient for all.
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