Ethical retailer of the week: Earth Friendly Products

Earth Friendly Products is an award-winning firm producing environmentally friendly, non-toxic and cruelty free cleaning products.

Earth Friendly Products aims at to create cleaning products that are “environmentally responsible, work well and provide value”.

It was founded in 1989 by Van Vlahakis as a ‘green’ division of Venus Laboratories and it now supplies stores across the US, Canada and the UK. Vlahakis has long been campaigning for environmental issues but the push to create the company came from the birth of his daughter.

“As I held my infant daughter, I did not want any harm to come to her. I realised that everything that was harming the environment would also be harming her”, he said on his blog.

“I felt I had to make a difference for her, to make the world a better place for her.  I had to show her that one person could change the world.”

Products include kitchen and bathroom cleaners and laundry and pet products.

The firm uses non-toxic, plant-based ingredients that are free from phosphates. It doesn’t test on animals and was nominated for the best cruelty-free household products from PETA in 2007. It also won the Socially Responsible Business award in 2003.

Earth Friendly Products has a strong focus on contributing to the community and for this reason it supports a number of social services, animal rights and environmental groups, such as the Homeless Helpline in Chicago, Sierra Club and the Chicago Vegetarian Society.

The firm sources its ingredients in the US and is working on reducing its carbon footprint, by installing solar panels on its facilities.

www.ecos.com