You Can Consciously Consume With This Search Engine

Most people want to buy from companies that treat their workers and the planet kindly. Thanks to a nonprofit social enterprise called Balu, it just got much easier to find sustainably and ethically sourced products!

That’s because  Balu consolidates these companies onto its website and application so that you can be a conscious consumer without all the hassle of having to do the research yourself. This will make Cyber Monday shopping so much easier.

As global consumption grows, being a conscious consumer is more important than ever. The more we purchase fast fashion and other cheap goods, the more the supply chain searches for ways to cut costs, leading to abysmal workplace conditions, unlivable wages, and an environmental crisis.

But a growing number of people and organizations throughout the world are not accepting this dreary reality, and niches of fair trade and ethical shopping are popping up every day.  

Since we’re not always aware of all the new ethically sourced products, Balu is helping us out by doing the leg work. According to the search engines website, you shop the way you usually do using the same stores and google searches that you have always used. In fact, Balu changes everything by essentially changing nothing in your normal shopping routine.

 Established in 2015, Balu  consist of a desktop app and an online directory but what’s really exciting is that the nonprofit has rolled out with a web browser plug-in as well. That means that the next time you’re searching for a winter coat on Asos, Amazon, or Ebay, ethical companies will appear in a box on the side of the results.

So, whether you’re looking for shoes, food products, or electronics, Balu can help you.  

Furthermore, by consolidating ethical brands, Balu helps get the word out about these companies. Large (and often highly polluting) companies invest millions of dollars in advertising campaigns, a financial investment that small-scale ethical companies just can’t afford to do. 

The company said, “[Balu] gives a fair voice to hard working, industry-changing companies that simply can’t compete with the web dominance of the global brands.”

Balu is part of an emerging new ecosystem of ethical companies, non-profit organizations, and conscious consumers who together are shifting the tide and making ethical and sustainable products mainstream and economic.