MONTREAL, OCTOBER 5, 2005 – www.ethiquette.ca will go live and be open to the public as of this October 17th. This new Quebecois web portal, which will function somewhat likeGoogle.com, is meant to guide Que�?bec consumers seeking to make ethical purchasing decisions. Aside from price and brand, ethiquette.ca leadsvisitors to consider the larger effects of their everyday choices, leading the visitor towards those products made by businesses, which have taken the lead in social and environmental responsibility. To date, ethiquette.ca is the first service that brings this type of information to a large mainstreamaudience.

There has been talk for years now around the issues of fair trade, sustainable development, buying local and other facets of “responsible�? commerce.This trend has grown to be much more than a consumer fad or a clever marketing ploy. Statistics show that the ethical concerns dimensions ofbusiness and trade have become well-established considerations among many consumers and, for some, these considerations have given shape to new lifestyle choices. Currently, 88% of Canadians believe that business should go above simple profit. In Quebec, consumption of fair tradeproducts is growing exponentially. For example, there were only two points of sale for fair trade coffee across Quebec in 1997. Today there aremore than 1500. These trends are global trends. In less than a decade, worldwide sales of fair trade products has been growing from 10-20% yearly.

visit www.ethiquette.ca: A NEW “GOOGLE�? FOR QUEBEC’S RESPONSIBLE CONSUMERS | Top of page

Submitted by alexjhill on Wed, 12/10/2005 - 2:27pm.