Vegan Arborist: New Online Platform Wants To Be “Apple Store” Of Sustainable Products

Vegan Arborist is a new London-based online business and consumer platform dedicated exclusively to sustainable and plant-based products. Launched earlier this year in April, the platform matches impact investors with sustainable companies on the one hand, while ensuring consumers are able to access eco-friendly and vegan-friendly products and services. 

Founded by John Creaton, a former technology managing director at Goldman Sachs who wanted to merge his investment career with veganism and sustainability, Vegan Arborist is a new platform that is designed to go “full circle” – integrating consumers, businesses and impact investors. 

On its B2B portal, the platform supports investment by curating funding and providing development services to businesses to ensure that sustainability indices are applied. Vegan Arborist also offers buying advice and information on products to consumers via its B2C portal with the aim of ensuring that the most sustainable choices can be made, from food to fashion.

“The sustainability market can be very confusing. Even the most straight-forward products can have very complex supply chains and it is difficult to know how to make the best choice as a business or as a consumer,” said Creaton. 

Put together, Creaton believes that the platform can become the new “Apple Store” for the sustainability market. It will work with and provide guidance to only those companies and products that have ability to scale, whilst also ensuring that its business models meet transparency, quality, ethics and affordability requirements. 

Ultimately, the firm hopes to be able to drive positive change by way of promoting plant-based products that leave a lighter footprint on our planet to all consumers, from vegans to flexitarians.  

Awareness about the benefits of choosing plant-based have increased significantly in recent weeks, especially as the meat industry faces a crisis during the coronavirus pandemic. With slaughterhouses and meat plants staying shut due to outbreaks, propped up prices and supermarket shortages have turned mainstream consumers to plant-based alternatives, from Hong Kong to the United States and United Kingdom. 

But prior to heightened food safety and health concerns as a result of coronavirus, plant-based had been gaining greater traction as more consumers became conscious of the climate crisis. In January, the movement encouraging people to adopt veganism for an entire month known as Veganuary managed to attract a record-breaking 400,000 participants. 

Recent studies have also shown that mainstream consumers now perceive veganism as a positive action that people can take for a more environmentally-friendly and ethical lifestyle. 

While it is clear that plant-based is here to stay for the long-term, “having only vegans buying vegan products is just not enough for a volume change in consumption needed to have a positive impact,” the firm said in a statement. 

By providing an integrated platform that is inclusive of producers, consumers and investors, Vegan Arborist hopes to help accelerate mass change in order to meet the challenges facing a climate-stricken future. 

All images courtesy of Vegan Arborist.