It Won’t Cost the Earth - the woman behind an exciting new sustainable marketplace.

Busy women continually amaze me and Andrea Pugh is just that woman! Somehow Andrea managed to find the time for a chat the day before her new online platform, It Won’t Cost the Earth, went live. We share a passion for working towards a sustainable life without the guilt. Making change one step at a time is all it takes.

It Won’t Cost the Earth is a marketplace with sustainable choices replacing items we use daily. The platform starts with 54 small businesses who are providing plastic free solutions. This idea grew out of need. As a working single mother, there just wasn’t the time to source the products she wanted to buy. Just like any entrepreneur she saw this as an opportunity.

Then the hard work began! Andrea doesn’t have a background in tech or particular experience of sustainability in retail. As we talked, I asked how the platform she is launching differs from competitors; neither of us could identify anyone who was offering something similar. This could be Etsy for green living, supporting small niche producers whilst creating an online community. What I love about It Won’t Cost the Earth is that the producers have a place to sell freeing them up to do what they do best - make the products!

I am sure that we have all thought it would be so much easier to reduce our use of plastic if someone else could point us in the right direction. Well, Andrea, has been doing all the hard work. She described the cold calling as “flirting with businesses on social media”. It hasn’t been a hard sell. Now is the time for sustainability and for small business owners!

As I stumble along the road to living plastic free I am grateful for business women like Andrea for creating a place where I know I can find the products I need. In fact, as soon as I have finished this blog post, I have a basket of goodies that I will be ordering from It Won’t Cost the Earth.

So many of us are time poor. A venture that makes it easier to choose sustainable products, helps small businesses succeed and lets us get on with the important business of enjoying life, is to be celebrated. How Andrea manages to achieve all this remains a mystery though I look forward to watching her progress.