Conscious Kiwi company spreading its wings

Conscious Consumers, New Zealand's ethical business accreditation programme, is being rolled out overseas. Photo / Supplied

A New Zealand-developed programme that can assure you the bacon and eggs your café is serving are truly free-range is going international.

Conscious Consumers describes itself as an ethical business accreditation programme and consumer movement. It helps hospitality businesses respond to increasing consumer demand for environmentally and socially responsible products and services.

Co-founder Ben Gleisner says a growing number of cafés and restaurants are signing on, and it is currently being rolled out in Barcelona.

Melbourne and San Francisco are next in line, and people in other cities around the world who have seen the system on Facebook are clamouring to join.

Conscious Consumers was launched in Wellington in 2010 by friends who set up an incorporated society at university, and it now has business and consumer members across New Zealand.

Gleisner, who quit his job as a Treasury analyst to become national director, says the combination of an accreditation programme and marketing platform appeals to the hospitality industry.

Read more about how Conscious Consumers works.

There's no greenwashing and cafés and restaurants go through a rigorous programme to join - showing supplier invoices and evidence of recycling. Conscious Consumers will help them make any change needed and provides ongoing monitoring.

"It's the integration of the system as a whole, the fact we help businesses connect with suppliers who are certified and genuine, we provide independent support and advice on being a sustainable business, they like that and it's unique.

"Then it ties in with a whole consumer-facing smartphone app marketing platform. It's not about putting a certificate on the wall and making them feel good, it's about providing them with real services around making connections with suppliers and driving demand and driving people into their business," he says.

"It tells stories about the social and environmental practices of a business in a transparent and quantitative way."

That's why the international roll-out must be managed carefully. It's not just an app to sign on to. The underlying certification systems and supplier networks need to be developed, he says.

Barcelona is being used to test what changes need to be made to accommodate other badges, standards, languages, IT systems and so on.

"In Barcelona the issue of workers' wages is key, customers want to be sure cafés are paying people properly," he says.

Conscious Consumers started with voluntary labour but grants from foundations and councils, and a growing base of businesses paying monthly subscriptions, means it can now hire a dozen staff -including five regional coordinators.

"In five years we want to be recognised as a global brand around sustainable business, and it will grow beyond food and beverage into accommodation, fashion, health and beauty products, electronics," Gleisner says.

"Anywhere you buy something and you go beyond 'what's in it for me?' you will use our brand and our technology to find those products and services.

"We want to be a brand people in business look to when they want to improve what they are doing, and so we will drive change.

"It creates demand and an economy that also delivers social and environmental benefits.

"That is the game changer. That is what the people, in the next generation, are looking for. They are not looking to support business that just gives them a good quality product; they want to know about social and environmental performance and we will provide that for them."

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