Interview with YourArbor
Image given by YourArbor
I love companies that are as excited about sustainability as I am. This doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, I just want to sit down in their office and talk about their story and vision. Rarely am I able to do such a thing, but recently I got close. I am so excited to share that I had the opportunity to interview two individuals for the fantastic company YourArbor. I immediately fell in love with YourArbor when I was first introduced to the company by a friend. After doing some research into the company, I knew I needed to cover them on this blog as they are doing some amazing things and positioning themselves to have a massive impact on how the world sees sustainability. I was ecstatic when William Fiore and one of the co-founders, Danny Grande, agreed to do an interview with me. Our conversation focused on five core questions which I am excited to share.
Q. In your own words, what is YourArbor?
Danny: “Well, to give you a short answer, YourArbor is our mission to create the largest sustainability database in the world.
To expand on that more, currently YourArbor has a couple of different components. First, it is a browser extension that allows users to better align their shopping habits and personal values. We have done countless hours of research on major brands and have assigned them scores in three spheres: People, Planet and Employees. These are then further broken down into nine categories: Community, Human Rights, Emissions, Environmental Care, Environmental Innovation, Materials, Corporate Ethics, Diversity and Job Quality. Users can then check this browser extension while shopping online to see if the brands they are buying from line up with their personal values.
Second, YourArbor offers The Arbor Marketplace, which allows shoppers to directly shop for sustainable and ethically made products from our most recommended brands. The Arbour Marketplace enables shoppers to search either by a specific product they are looking for or shop by cause: Emissions, Human Rights, Diversity and Labor Rights. Either way, the Marketplace is made to guarantee that shoppers can find what they are looking for, and all from sustainable and ethical brands.
Finally, our blog section allows users to get more insight into various topics such as specific company score highlights, sustainability concepts, and even debunking some sustainability myths. Like the Marketplace, we have made sure that users can easily find what they are looking for and search our blogs by issue or article type. Ultimately, we want to offer as much information to our users in the most user-friendly way possible. We are passionate about consumers knowing they are always making an informed purchase that aligns with their values.”
Q: As a Startup, what have been the most significant changes you have experienced in the last year?
Danny: “It’s funny you ask that because in about a week we will be celebrating our one-year anniversary as a company, so a whole lot has changed. It was the pandemic that created the spark that led to YourArbor. We saw how the environment responded when everything shut down, like rivers clearing up and animals returning to once abandoned areas. We couldn’t help but link this to the impact companies make on the planet. So, we decided to make a way for consumers to better evaluate the brands they purchased from, and YourArbor was born.
Another exciting change is a positive related to covid. We found that people are much more open and flexible to talking online. Before the pandemic, meetings were usually in person, and often it took more time to schedule and travel to the meeting than to have the actual meeting. However, this last year, we found that almost everyone we reached out to was happy to talk through some online platform and was very flexible in when they could call. We ourselves have stayed up late to have calls with people in Asia. We have all become even more connected online, and we see that as one of the positive changes of this last year.
Regarding YourArbor specifically, a lot has changed and progressed as the company has quickly evolved over the past year. We started the company with a focus on the everyday consumer. Our goal was to impact the demand for sustainable products by making these products more accessible for consumers to find. We also wanted to equip buyers with more information on their favourite brands. However, we have recently seen a growing demand from businesses asking how they can become more sustainable. So we are very excited to say that we are developing a product for companies to see how they line up to competitors and how they themselves can become more sustainable in their business practices.”
Q: That sounds incredible. What can you tell me about this new product?
Will: “We can’t share everything quite yet, but we can give you a sneak peek. We can happily share that we are creating an application for Shopify. This application will allow clients to measure their sustainable impact easily. Even better, the application will allow clients to quickly find out which areas are their strengths and which areas are their weaknesses regarding sustainability. YourArbor is working to make this application easy to use and understand, just like our current browser application, so that any company can better understand their business's impact. Additionally, we are working to make sure this application offers guidance to clients and practical and effective strategies to improve sustainability performance.
We are very excited for this new application to be ready because our clients keep asking for it. We have been surprised by how many companies have contacted us for sustainability information. It is understandable as more and more evidence comes out that sustainable companies outperform competitors. So, this new Shopify application will allow YourArbor to create an even more significant impact on the marketplace by working directly with companies and giving them the tools they need to function more sustainably.”
Q: What is the most interesting thing that you have learned in this last year about sustainability?
Danny: “Not to be crude, but I was amazed to find out that so many sustainable certifications are bulls**t. I assumed that most certifications would have a fairly strict application and vetting process, but unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case. For many certifications I looked into, the application process is filling out a vague submission sheet, paying a registration fee, and then suddenly you are certified. This was frustrating because I feel this misinforms the shopper. They think this certification means something. However, all these certifications mean is that the companies choose to pay a registration fee. Even more frustrating, when I looked into the CEOs of some of these certifications, I discovered some were making over a million dollars a year. It just didn’t feel right to me.”
Will: “For me, the most interesting thing was just how vast a subject ‘sustainability’ is. Not only is the subject vast, but there are also so many different points of view on everything. Even when it comes to simple definitions, there is much disagreement, and people seem to get very passionate about defending their perspective. Being involved in communicating sustainable concepts effectively, we have received a lot of feedback from people who insist on using slightly different definitions. Or they will insist that their process is the only good way to measure sustainability. From our perspective, we are all on one team, and we are fine if people use slightly different definitions or processes to measure metrics. Our mission is to help anyone we can make better and more informed decisions regarding their shopping or business habits.”
Q: After joining YourArbor, what changes have you seen in your own shopping habits?
Danny: “I try to no longer buy new. I love to be more sustainable by buying used. Not only do I usually get perfectly functional products cheaper, but this drastically improves the product lifespan of the products I purchase. However, when I need to buy something new, I use YourArbor to help me find the most sustainably made product out there. That might be a shameless plug, I know, but hey, our application works great!”
Will: “I have to agree with Danny. I personally use YourArbor when I shop online as it helps a lot in finding sustainable products and brands. For example, I looked into Lululemon and found they line up well with my personal values. Another thing I do is buy sustainable lines from bigger brands. Many have come out with sustainability-focused products. I try and buy these products to push the market demand for sustainability within big companies. Adidas and Nike are two big companies that have made some big pushes to having sustainable lines. Finally, I love to buy local. I always find fascinating finds, and I love knowing I’m helping out my local community.”
I am so thankful to both Will and Danny for letting me talk with them about YourArbor. It really is a fantastic company, and I recommend all readers take a few minutes to check it out. I am already using YourArbor for my online shopping, and I am very excited to see what happens with their Shopify application. As Will said, “we are all on the same team,” the only way to make the better world we are all pushing for is to work together! YourArbor is paving the way to soon be a global leader in the realm of sustainability.
Check out YourArbor at https://www.yourarbor.com/