Behind the Gift: Eastern Canada

13 Gift Ideas from Eastern Canadian B Corps

This holiday season shop for your friends and family from local B Corps based in Eastern Canada. In this gift guide, you’ll find a mix of food and beverages, clothing, reusable items, and more. Not only does this list highlight some wonderful B Corps, we’ve also indicated which are small businesses, women-owned, Black-owned, have committed to NetZero by 2030, and were listed as a Best For The World B Corp in 2021.

A Vacation With A Purpose

By Animal Experience International

Price: Starting at $1,200 CAD

Calling all animal and travel lovers! Make your next volunteer experience an international one with Animal Experience International. From a wildlife sanctuary in Malawi to wild horse science in Mongolia, these trips are specifically designed to provide meaningful volunteer experiences with animals. Travelers will feel safe, welcome, and know they are being of service on these consent-based travel and tourism experiences.

Reusable Water Bottle

By Fill it Forward

Price: $15 CAD

When you buy a reusable product from Fill it Forward, you are connected to an app allowing you to contribute to charitable projects around the world, and track your environmental impact, while staying hydrated. The Cupanion bottle is dishwasher safe, leakproof, holds carbonation (for up to eight days), has two flat sides for easy storage, and is made in the U.S. Reuse it just two times to offset carbon emissions generated in production.

rPET Jacquard Pillow

Goodee

Price: $190 CAD

These reversible pillows are an easy way to update living spaces and support open hiring practices. Each piece is responsibly handcrafted in Italy by Cartiera, a social cooperative empowering migrants and asylum seekers through artisan craft, using fabric made from 100% post-consumer plastic bottle caps. The pillows are filled with organic cotton batting and muslin provided by Cece’s Wool, a nonprofit that offers training, jobs, and services to people with developmental disabilities.

Stovetop Espresso Maker

By GROSCHE

Price: $30-$55 CAD

Every GROSCHE product sold funds 50-plus days of safe drinking water to people in need via the company’s safe water project. By choosing GROSCHE, you’re making a positive difference in someone’s life. Hence the GROSCHE brand mission: Every Cup Fills Another. The GROSCHE Milano is the best-selling series of Stovetop Espresso coffee makers. These types of coffee percolators are also called moka pots, and are an authentic Italian style of brewing espresso coffee. These moka pot stovetop espresso makers brew a strong, rich and smooth espresso that is more dense than regular drip coffee makers, French presses, or pour over.

The Essential Sweatshirt

Kotn

Price: $80 CAD

Through a ground-up approach to product creation, Kotn has cut out the traditional middle people, allowing the B Corp to create direct and personal relationships at every stage of its supply chain. Kotn works directly with nearly 2,400 smallholder farmers, offering guaranteed pricing, subsidies, and agricultural consultants to ensure their businesses can flourish. Since day one, it has invested in the creation of jobs, infrastructure, systems, and education to alleviate poverty and create shared, sustainable growth for local communities. With every order of comfortable and cozy styles like this sweatshirt (also available in men’s sizing), Kotn donates a portion of proceeds to fund and build primary schools in the Nile Delta and Faiyum, Egypt, where it sources cotton.

Real Food Bars

By Made With Local

Price: $39.50 CAD

Real Food Bars are handmade in Canada at social enterprise bakeries, providing work and training opportunities for people living with barriers to the mainstream workforce. Supporting Made with Local helps change lives by providing people with meaningful and fulfilling work opportunities. Made With Local sources ingredients from local farmers and food producers, creating decadent and nourishing snacks that have a social impact baked-in. Real Food Bars are soft-baked granola bars made using simple, nourishing ingredients like organic oats, creamy nut butters, and local honey. Give flavors like Peanut Butter Brownie, Blueberry Grunt (a classic Nova Scotian flavor!), or the newest — Chocolate Mint Chip. With a combination of healthy fats, protein and fiber, these filling bars provide fuel for busy days.

Roastmaster’s Winter Blend

By Muskoka Roastery Coffee Co.

Price: $19 CAD

To celebrate the change of weather, the roastmaster at Muskoka Roastery created a special medium roast that is ideal for the winter season. Full bodied, with a natural brightness, clean finish, and subtle honey aroma, this coffee is handcrafted in small quantities to meet exacting standards for quality, uniqueness, and sustainability. With Muskoka Roastery, you know your gift is giving back to the planet because every year the B Corp channels at least 1% of annual sales into community and environmental protection programs.

Cedar & Sage Lotion and Hand Soap Duo

By ONEKA

Price: $37 CAD

Experience the natural earthy scent of cedar and sage in this hand soap and lotion combo. Better yet, reuse it over and over again with ONEKA’s refillable glass bottle. ONEKA works in partnership to remove three plastic bottles for every 500 ml of product sold, helping prevent ocean plastic pollution. Additionally, ONEKA commits to reducing and offsetting carbon emissions beyond its annual consumption to ensure the lowest environmental impact possible.

Micro Garden Kit

By SucSeed

Price: $15 CAD

Grow fresh microgreens year-round with this miniature indoor hydroponic garden. It is the perfect tool to get beginners growing and learning from home! Each Micro Garden Kit is equipped with all the means to complete three uses and includes one jar, one net pot, three peat discs, basil, beet, and brilliant blend microgreen seeds, as well as a PDF Micro Garden Workbook for children. All of SucSeed’s hydroponic gardens, including the Micro Garden Kit, work toward reducing the 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions that result from commercial food production and distribution by allowing adults and children to grow produce at home.

Smart Heated Mug Kit

Tease

Price: $75 CAD

Made for busy people who have high (temperature) standards and good taste, the Tease heated mug kit will keep beverages warm for more than four hours on even the chilliest of days. Kit items are ethically made with manufacturing partners that have been vetted for a high level of social and environmental responsibility, and tea blends are 100% biodegradable and contain ethically sourced botanical ingredients.

Holiday Cards

By The Community Company

Price: $22 CAD for a set of five

Give your holiday card even more meaning by shopping with The Community Company. Every holiday card purchased will help deliver three holiday postcards to long-term care homes and social support centers. The holiday cards with designs from 2020 were created by individuals overcoming adversity, and all creators earn money for every holiday card sold through a linked prosperity model.

DIY Kits and Sustainable T-Shirts

The Good Tee

Price: Varies

Create a one-of-a-kind T-shirt with love for a friend or family member, or give this kit as an art project for the recipient to enjoy while supporting transparent and accountable labor practices. The Good Tee establishes long-term partnerships with suppliers who operate with sustainable practices and meet requirements for ethical and legal operations. For every Fair Trade certified product sold, the B Corp pays a premium directly back to the cotton farmers and workers who make the apparel.

Soap Refill Station

By The Unscented Company

Price: $119 CAD

Get organized with a kit that includes everything you need to set up your very own soap refill station! The Soap Refill Station includes laundry, hand, dish, and all-purpose soaps and chicly designed refillable containers for continued reuse. Your cleanup routines can be convenient and contribute to the elimination of single-use plastic packaging. The Unscented Company offers powerful cleaning products that are designed for conscious living.