Nagisa MizunoAbout 80% of consumers are willing to buy more eco-friendly and ethical products in Japan. Yet, when we want to eat an organic or plant-based diet, or purchase plastic-free or zero waste products in Japan, we might have difficulties discovering where to buy those sustainable items.
A new online platform was released in January 2021 to solve this. It’s Ekolokal, a free website and upcoming app where you can search for eco-friendly stores near you based on a geo-localized map. It allows you to search and filters results with the following sustainability criteria of your choice: organic, zero-waste, fair trade, plastic-free, plant-based diet.
We talked with co-founders of Ekolokal, Hélène Quéguiner and Noriko Shindo, to know more about the project, what motivated them to launch it and how this can help us live a more sustainable life.
Ekolokal is a community platform
Ekolokal aims to be a platform for people who are interested in becoming more eco-friendly. Customers can find sustainable shops and cafes using the free platform, and also add local, sustainable stores in their neighborhood to the database. On the other hand, the platform can support local stores and communities by attracting new customers. Ekolokal looks to be a virtuous community that helps consumers on their journey while supporting local businesses.
While customers can use it for free, Ekolokal will offer a freemium membership for stores, providing an option for extra advertising and consumer insights. It offers a unique eco-certification as well. The eco-certification helps stores assess where they are in the sustainability journey and advise how they can go to the next level.
Among some other similar apps and websites which promote sustainable actions and communities, such as slowz (available in Japanese) and mamoru (available in Japanese and English), Ekolokal focuses on nurturing and supporting its community through change.
“The online platform is a tool to inspire people, but the community is more important. By looking at other people doing something sustainable, we feel that we can do the same,” said Hélène.
Noriko added, “when we surveyed around 150 English and Japanese speakers about hurdles to continuing an eco-conscience life, many answered they feel lonely. With a community, we can share not only successes but also struggles.”
Ekolokal’s community plays a more functional role in promoting sustainable actions and mentally supporting each other.
“Our user community can add more sustainable shops and stores they find in their local community. We then verify them before uploading to the website and soon the app. We also have plans to enable our community to help us verify the listings – enabling a better map, faster!”
They are also launching some educational programs to help people on their journey to become more sustainable. Meanwhile, you can join their free 7-days eco-challenge.
A community has the power to turn knowledge into action. A survey conducted by INTAGE Inc shows that participation as a community (doing something together) such as cleaning up volunteer activities triggers actual steps towards sustainability.
What motivated the two to launch Ekolokal
Individually, both Hélène and Noriko want to raise awareness about environmental issues and encourage collective actions through a community.
Hélène started the initiative “Mottainai Transition,” helping individuals and organizations based in Japan reduce their environmental impact. She invited practitioners who take action for a sustainable lifestyle to talk about their activities in online events to inspire an audience. She explained her challenges for living a sustainable lifestyle when she moved to Japan from France.
“I started changing mindset and became more aware of the emergency of environmental issues when having discussions with friends. That’s why the community is important. After arriving in Japan, I wanted to continue living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. At first, it was not easy for me to find a shop near my house with plastic-free or organic products. However, little by little, I was able to find solutions to my sustainability challenges when I came across small local stores that were accommodating and had great quality products. Most of the time, these stores struggle to attract new customers as people tend to shop in supermarkets or convenience stores. During one of the events I organized online during the COVID-19 first lockdown, I had the chance to meet Noriko, who is a plant-based diet expert. A few months later, we decided to go on a mission to ’empower you to make the right decision for your health, your local community, and the planet’ together.”
Noriko is the founder and CEO of “Veggino,” which provides simple information to sustain a vegan lifestyle easily while living in Japan.
“While scuba diving a couple of years ago, local instructors told me that there should have been more coral reefs and whale sharks. Hearing this made me sad. What about in the next ten or twenty years? That’s when I decided that I want to do what I can to the best of my abilities in my life so that I can take peace in knowing I did something about a problem I cared about.”
Both founders share a similar vision for a better future. They are willing to do what they can for the local community and future generations. Above all, they enjoy doing it.
Education helps us take more effective actions
When Hélène and Noriko came up with the idea of Ekolokal, they believed that education is essential.
In a survey they conducted, 150 English and Japanese speakers were asked about their barriers to living a sustainable lifestyle. The top three reasons were: inconvenient, expensive, and not knowing where/how to get the right information.
“Lack of right information is one of the obstacles to starting a sustainable life. That’s why we provide educational content regarding sustainability in English and Japanese in addition to the platform’s searching function,” said Hélène.
They frequently broadcast Instagram lives with role models’ interviews to inspire everyone to take action in their daily lives. They also send mail magazines to share Japan’s relevant eco-tips that users can implement daily and some inspirations to motivate them at the same time.
“Sometimes people don’t know the impact of their actions and what is going on. If you don’t know the truth, how can you understand the real impact of what you do? For example, I see many people avoid using plastic straws. Even though this is also great, plastic straws account for very little of the entire ocean plastic waste. It is actually abandoned fishing nets that are the biggest ocean polluter because of conventional fishing methods. Knowing this will allow users to prioritize and choose what to do. That’s why we focus on education,” explained Noriko.
Soft activism is vital in Japan
Hélène comes from France, and Noriko lived in England for more than ten years. Compared to Europe’s proactivity in taking environmental actions, how do they personally feel about the Japanese mindset for sustainability?
“Lack of knowledge” was the first thought that came from both of them.
“In France, we want to understand what’s going on and why it is so. As a way of expressing our ideas, we often demonstrate, and it creates awareness. But this doesn’t work so well in Japan.”
To overcome the cultural difference, Hélène introduced a more effective way of raising awareness in Japan.
“Recently, when I read an interview of Mona, a founder of no plastic Japan, she talked about ‘soft activism.’ Japanese people prefer a gentle approach. It is more culturally appropriate and is more effective to engage people.”
Noriko gave us an example of peaceful activism. “If I ask the staff at a restaurant to take out the meat, the staff will ask why I don’t eat meat. Like so, by doing something differently, people will start asking why. It’s the best way for people around you to understand the motivations behind your action. That’s soft activism.”
“Certainly, it is slower at the beginning, but once you pass a tipping point, it will accelerate as these new habits become trendy. Demonstrations can create division between demonstrators and people who are not aware of the issue. However, if it’s a trend, no one needs to be defensive because it’s a choice. People do it because they think it is cool to do.”
Peaceful activism might be the key to more sustainable actions in Japan. Such a mindset is also gentle.
The goal is to make eco-local lifestyle the norm
“Our ultimate goal is to make our platform obsolete. We wish for all the stores to become eco-friendly so that people will not need our platform anymore to find stores that allow them to make better consumption choices,” they continued.
“Even though we wish more people to adopt a more eco-friendly lifestyle, we don’t want to force our ideas onto people. Instead, we aim to influence them and show them the benefits of adopting such a lifestyle, especially if these options are healthier, reasonably priced, and taste better!”
With Ekolokal, more people can easily take action, becoming a collective power to change society.
［Website］Ekolokal
