Our Sustainability Ambitions

Our Promise

Our mission is to help you choose products that are good for you, your family and our planet in a convenient manner, so you can live your best low impact life. We strive to continually offer you a variety of sustainable and affordable solutions to improve your daily lives.

Planet

We are fully committed to offering the least amount of packaging per product as possible. Where packaging is necessary, such as food products, we aim to ensure that it is reusable, recyclable, biodegradable or compostable. We reuse materials as much as we can throughout the store such as using boxes from our suppliers as delivery boxes and sourcing second-hand or up-cycled store fixtures.

Your well-being and the health of the earth are our number one priority; therefore, we strive to offer you products that are natural or plant-based as alternatives to many traditional chemically based products packaged in plastic.

To reflect our commitment to our employees, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment, we have a goal to become B Corp Certified by 2025 and of becoming carbon neutral as soon as possible. Certified B Corporations are businesses that balance purpose and profit and are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.

    Customers

    We are always looking for amazing solutions to offer our customers and take pride in personally testing many of our products before stocking our shelves.

    Transparency and honesty are integral to us, which is why we're always happy to offer a recommendation or suggestion.

    Suppliers

    We work with all of our suppliers to understand how they align with our values, taking into consideration manufacturing processes, code of ethics, packaging, ingredients and environmental impact. We seek to work with fellow 1% for the Planet, Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, Living Wage Employers, Certified B Corporations, and sustainably focused companies whenever possible.

    We search for the best products to offer you sourced as locally as possible, with 80% of our products sourced from Canada and about 60% from right here in Ontario!

    We are committed to having diverse representation throughout REPLENISH’s inventory and our team has taken the 15% Pledge, a commitment to dedicate at least 15% of our assortment to Black Indigenous People of Colour (BIPOC).

    Employees

    We are committed to fair and equitable hiring practises. Our employees are a part of the "silly geese" family and we will become a certified Living Wage Employer as soon as our region is eligible to best support them.

    A living wage is not the same as the minimum wage, which is the legal minimum all employers must pay. A living wage reflects what earners in a family need to bring home based on the actual costs of living in a specific community. Less than 400 business in Ontario are certified Living Wage Employers.

      Our Impact 

      In 2020 alone REPLENISH General Store saved over 5,000 single-use packaging by refilling!

      We are expanding our impact to outside our own store by working in partnership with CASE, a Toronto start up by an amazing entrepreneur Catherine, who’s mission is as simple as it is impactful: Saving takeout containers from landfill and sending them back to restaurants. Black plastic takeout containers from restaurants are NOT accepted for recycling in your blue bin in York Region. CASE has already saved over 60,000 take out containers! Collected containers are resold to restaurants for reuse saving them money and also donated to food kitchens. At end of life they're taken to a recycler accepting the black plastic. Replenish will be accepting your CLEAN black plastic take out containers and lids in our store until further notice!

      a circular flow chart showing the steps of the CASE PROGRAM

      Our Current Charitable Partnerships 

      We are invested in giving back through our philanthropic partnerships with organizations that prioritize the health of the planet and the wellbeing of our community.

      • We aim to increase our charitable giving by 25% in 2021. 
      • We have joined 1% for the Planet an organization which represents a global network of businesses, individuals and non-profit organizations tackling our planet's most pressing environmental issues. 1% for the Planet certifies all member donations—legitimizing members’ commitment by reviewing and confirming sales and donation details annually.

      Here are two organizations we are currently supporting:

      Water First logo with a blue background and white bock letters
      Water First is a non-governmental organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration. Click here if you would like to donate to Water First.
      360 Kids is a charity that provides a full range of programs and services aimed at assisting at-risk and homeless youth across York Region.

      Our Commitment to Improvement 

      We are always looking for opportunities to learn and grow in order to maximize the benefits that REPLENISH General Store can have on the planet. Perfection doesn't exist but we commit to doing the best that we can and holding ourselves accountable. Have a suggestion for us? We want to hear from you! Contact us here.