by MATTHEW HAYS

The Christmas season can put environmentally conscious people in a quandary. After all, a huge part of the holiday is about shelling out for copious amounts of presents, many of which are often luxury items that are entirely unnecessary. And our conspicuous consumption is one of the ills that socially responsible people have pointed to as a cause for the dilemma our planet now finds itself in.

It was just this dilemma that led Montreal consultants Brenda Plant and Tom Liacas to create Ethiquette.ca, their online guide to shopping sensibly and conscionably. Now a year old, they have culled together a collection of seasonal gift ideas that offer the wary consumer a way to get a cool gift without worrying about going to hell.

“When we started Ethiquette, the idea was to create something that was very user-friendly,” says Plant. “I certainly knew of sites where you could go and find out about coffee that was made with fair trade, for example, but there was no general site for various different kinds of goods and services where consumers could turn to for tips.”

Plant, who has a Masters in international management from HEC and also studied humanistic studies at McGill, joined with Liacas, a communications consultant who’d created campaigns for organizations like Adbusters. “We both had a lot of the same feelings about wanting to make work that had meaning behind it,” explains Plant.

Getting the good goods

Plant says that over 700 services and products are listed on

Ethiquette.ca. The company helps to promote socially and ethically responsible products, but also offers consulting to companies that want to improve their eco-standards or invest ethically.

“Increasingly, more and more companies know that it’s important that they move in this direction,” says Plant. “People are far more aware of pressing issues like the damage we’re doing to the environment. Consumers are simply demanding that companies that provide products act in more ethical and responsible ways. The response has been incredible. People are very eager to integrate their values with their purchasing habits.”

But beyond her own interests, Plant says many people knew that she was involved with ethical and socially responsible trade and would often ask questions. “People wanted to know where they could buy things that weren’t made in sweat shops. I got these questions a lot. It was obvious there was a real need for a service like this.”

The broad range of products listed on Ethiquette.ca is itself noteworthy. Financial institutions, clothing, cleaning service (they use vinegar and baking soda instead of the usual toxic cleansers), chocolate, coffee, even a funeral home, are all posted. Given the consumption frenzy that takes place during the pre-Christmas binge, a holiday gift list was the next logical step.

Among the finds? Vert Tendre, a Montreal-based greeting card company that sells the work of up-and-coming Quebec artists, printed on entirely recycled paper products; Agri-info Books, which publishes books and calendars that are completely recycled; funky eco-hats created by Atelier Entre-Peaux, made from 90 per cent recycled materials; Green Beaver skin care products, made without animal testing and from safe materials; soaps from Savon Populaire, entirely biodegradable; and bigger-ticket items, like Canada Goose jackets, which are made in Canada by a company that pays its employees reasonable wages.

Consuming in the modern age

“People often think of socially-responsible products and gifts as being tired and boring,” says Plant. “But these gift ideas are really great—it was so much fun collecting these and putting the list together. I would recommend any one of them as a super gift concept.

“Much of our ideas around consumption are very old—like, from the days of the Industrial Revolution. The idea was that the more we consume, the better our economy would be and the better off we would be as a result. But those ideas were born out of a time when we thought we had infinite resources. We now know that’s not the case—so shopping ethically, for gifts that are recycled and created through ethical labour practices, are one way people can make a difference.”

Plant adds that “our setting up Ethiquette.ca was a way that we could help promote businesses and services that we already used and knew to be reliable and socially responsible. This has been work we created that we feel really good about. These are all products we can vouch for.”