Getting Paid With Purpose: Zecozi

We love the idea of shopping till we drop, and next month, there will be a way to do good at the same time. A startup called Zecozi will soon deliver a community shopping experience that is filled with sustainability.

The Purpose:

Deana Zelenka is the founder and CEO of the ecommerce platform Zecozi with patent-pending technology called Shared Shopping. She spent time commissioning extensive market research and quickly found a void in creating and sustaining significant global change in the $400 billion sustainable market. To fill the gap, she created Zecozi, set to launch this September.

The company vows to build an online platform, which engages the global community around the ideal that they have the power to define the future of sustainability. To this end, they have Shared Shopping that allows consumers to peruse online goods in real time with their friends. The technology is intuitive, and the experience is the closest thing on the net that mimics a shopping excursion with pals. It has all of the social interactions you would in a real store — conversation with your friends, communication with the shop owner — and provides information about the sustainability of the products and the businesses.

Zecozi's not only bringing people together for social change through business, this company lives by the rules of sustainability. It's really important to Zelenka.

"We encourage travel to and from the office by bike, public transportation or carpool — with financial incentives for each — and offer both maternity and paternity leave for new parents, adoptive parents and domestic partnerships," she said. "We provide 100 percent health care for employees and their families."

What's more is employees have unlimited vacation time and receive paid time off to volunteer. Zecozi's office supplies are sourced from 100 percent recycled content. Their wooden furniture is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified. Oh, each and every GHG (greenhouse gas) the company emits, resource they use and offset they make is documented in an annual sustainability report available to the public on their website. That kind of transparency landed them a B Corporation certification, yet Zelenka remains humble.

"We do not claim to be perfect, but we are conscious and aware that our actions must align with our intent," she said.

The Profit:

Though they are not there yet (set to launch Sept. 1) the structure for profit is there, and it's hand-in-hand with social and environmental change that will be driven by consumers. Zelenka has built this company with strong triple line values, values that she hopes will lead to a financial return and a better world. In her words:

"Let's be honest, Zecozi makes money when products sell in the marketplace. You bring together the most amazing sellers on the planet, the most conscious consumers seeking better products to support a better lifestyle, a plethora of products to support this lifestyle as almost any product produced has a counterpart that is or can be produced more sustainably and then you connect this all in a truly social and transparent environment where I can choose to share with my friends and family in ways consistent with my personal values and beliefs. You have a win, win, win. Triple bottom line success: the people generating the profit that serves the planet!"

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Images Provided by Zecozi.