Please take a look at our November newsletter!

We have stories on The Dirty Dozen, The People in your Neighbourhood and our new Charity Chips!

Many of us fondly remember the TV Sesame Street song “We are the people in your neighbourhood” and upon hearing the song again recently, I couldn’t get it out of my head for days.

As a member of the local business community, we have been chatting with our neighbours here on Victoria’s Fabulous Fort Street, looking for ways to encourage our local community to continue honouring us with their business.  Times are tough for many local small family businesses due to increased competition from big business in the suburbs, big business on the internet, as well as increased taxation and a faltering economy.  Times are tough!

And yet small business is the main driver of our economy. For every $100 spent in a locally owned independent store (The Good Planet Company, for example!) $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures.  If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here.  Half of this country’s private sector labour force works for, and is dependent upon, small business.

So we put our heads together and came up with a low key campaign along our block of Fort Street, entitled “We Are The People In Your Neighbourhood”.  Thank you, Jim Henson and Sesame Street for loaning us your song, we hope there are no copyright infringement lawsuits pending.

What we’re saying is that your local downtown merchants rely on the community for support, and the favour is returned with a wide variety of  products and services, friendly service and conversation, taxes galore, charitable donations, wages and benefits, so many of the factors required for a functional, inviting and safe community.

As the world economy continues to spiral towards what could be major upheaval in the coming years, we hope that people will continue to embrace local, independent business as the lifeblood of their community.  The global economy, at least in it’s current form, may sputter and one day fall apart, but your local merchants are working hard to support the community, and, we hope, earn your support in return!

We are the people in your neighbourhood

Take a peek at our Earth Day E-News!   We have questions to ask your electoral candidates this week, news about our 1% for the Planet party, new products and discounts, even a dental hygiene story!

Please Click here for the April 2011 Good Planet Company newsletter!

(Or here for our E-News archive)

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between memory foam and natural rubber?  There are advertisements every day extolling the virtues of memory foam mattresses, but with a little research, some disturbing facts come to light.

Memory foam mattresses are made of polyurethane foam, a petroleum based material that emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which can cause respiratory problems and skin irritation.  They also usually contain the flame retardant polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) which has been banned in Europe but is still used in Canada.  This chemical can accumulate in fat tissue, blood and breast milk and has been linked to cancer and nervous-system disorders.

Here at The Good Planet Company, we have done our research!

Our mattresses originate from forests and fields, not chemical factories.

Our mattresses are made of the sap from organically grown rubber trees by a simple, chemical-free process. The sap is collected and baked into durable pure rubber mattress. No petrochemical additives are required, so the resulting mattress is VOC-free, durable yet supremely supportive and comfortable.
Our mattresses are wrapped in a thin layer of naturally fire-retarding wool (no PBDEs here!) and finished with a luxurious certified organic cotton ticking.
Our mattresses are crafted right here in Canada, and have a proven longevity of 20-35 years.  And at the end of their long life, they are biodegradable!

The best thing of all… comfort.

Some memory foam companies might have you believe that their memory foam mattresses will soothe your back condition. The opposite is true… once your body heat warms the foam, you sink right into it… not a recipe for comfort!  Natural rubber on the other hand responds to your body weight so when you lie on your side, there is more weight at your shoulders and hips so those points will sink into the mattress while your lumbar spine is still properly supported.  When your spine is aligned you will reach the deeper levels of sleep and your body can begin to heal itself.

See for yourself… come in to The Good Planet Company and try out our five in-store display mattresses. We think you’ll be impressed.

We are occasionally approached by customers with a dislike for products manufactured in other provinces or countries. Some people are reluctant to buy anything made outside of our local community, some will not purchase anything made in the USA, and others are vehemently opposed to purchasing anything made in China.

When it comes to product sourcing and selection, The Good Planet Company is held to a higher standard than the big-box stores, department stores and mega-malls, and for this we are grateful! As a small, independent, locally-owned company, The Good Planet Company’s policy is to be honest and up-front about our products, while offering the best, safest, most durable and most environmentally sound products on the market. We also enjoy sharing our purchasing philosophy with anyone who has questions about it.

With increasing concerns about peak oil, climate change, food security and our shaky economy, there are sound economic and environmental reasons for buying products manufactured close to home, and as an ethically-run, environmentally conscious business, it’s our duty to look after our environment as well as our people (customers, employees and suppliers).

Although more than 75% of our goods are sourced from Canadian suppliers, a significant percentage of these goods, and the raw materials used to create them, are actually manufactured outside of Canada by environmentally sensitive, ethically run, foreign businesses. We strive to ensure that our suppliers, whether domestic or foreign, are ISO complaint in standards 9000, 14000 and 26000.

We would love to offer 100% Canadian goods, but it’s a fact is that over recent generations, Canada has divested itself of the capacity to produce enough consumer goods for it’s growing population. Despite being the 10th largest economy on the planet, manufacturing accounts for just 13% of Canada’s GDP. (BC is even lower, at 12%). Even if we wanted to stock The Good Planet Company with exclusively locally sourced and manufactured goods, there would be huge gaps in the product range that our customers have come to expect from us. We continue to encourage local manufacturers to approach us with new and innovative products.

So, as a responsible retailer, we do the best we can for our customers. Our focus is upon finding the safest, most durable, most fairly traded, most earth-friendly goods at the best price. Some products like stainless steel containers can only be found in the far east. Other products like our beautiful fair trade woven baskets can only be found in Africa.

We share the concerns of some of our customers regarding Chinese-made goods in terms of China’s politics and human rights abuses, yet as a responsible company, we must look at the bigger picture. China has developed it’s industrial might at an incredible rate, yet in terms of labour law, it’s lagging about 50 years behind the western world. Do we turn our comparatively wealthy backs on the Chinese worker so that they bear the brunt of their government’s policies and the western world’s indignation? Or do we continue to encourage the ongoing development of their burgeoning union movements, environmental improvements and living standards? For the benefit of our fellow workers in this global community, we feel the answer is obvious.

Here at The Good Planet Company, we continue to act locally and think globally. Our local community is important to us, and we do all possible to sustain it, yet at the same time, we do not turn our backs on the plight of others. In addition to our Canadian-made goods, we will continue to market a selection of goods imported from the USA, India, China, Australia and other countries, so long as they are safe, well-made, and not available within our own shores.

There’s a distinct possibility that within the next generation, Peak Oil may turn international trade and the global economy into a thing of the past, and we could be forced to re-build and re-tool our domestic factories, become more self-sufficient, and lead less consumer-oriented lives. Many who consider themselves “conservers” are already partly prepared for such an eventuality. The Good Planet Company counts hundreds of such people as our valued customers. We applaud them for their insight, and thank them for their support of our company with their purchases of our quality, durable products.

We’re not perfect, but we do our best! We always appreciate our customer’s comments and will always strive to give a well-thought out answer to your questions. If you have any thoughts or insights regarding this policy or any other, please feel free to e-mail us at feedback@goodplanet.com

50% off Level Ground

This weekend only (April 10th and 11th) we are offering 50% off all of our in-stock Level Ground Trading DIRECT FAIR TRADE COFFEE!  Level Ground Trading is changing their packaging, so we need to clear out our remaining but still VERY FRESH inventory in anticipation of a new shipment, arriving Monday. We have mostly Ethiopian medium and dark bean left, so hurry in and stock up! Regularly 9.99, but this Saturday and Sunday only, it’s $4.99 per 300 gram pack. If you have never sampled Level Ground Trading coffee before, now’s your chance to caffeinate yourself with the best beans from this awesome Victoria-based  company!

We invited Eric Beamish, the supplier of our All Seasons Indoor “Bokashi” Composters, to drop by The Good Planet Company this afternoon, to answer customer questions and help spread the word about this amazingly effective and efficient composting system.

Whether you live in a big house with a big back yard, or a small apartment without so much as a balcony, this is an ideal and speedy way to turn your food waste into a high quality growing medium to keep your plants happy, and divert food waste from the landfill.   Available year-round at The Good Planet Company.

Click here to watch Eric’s short video presentation:  All Seasons Indoor Composter