social purchasing portal/business directory
Welcome to the Vancouver Social Purchasing Directory (SPD)
The Vancouver Social Purchasing Directory is a partnership of local businesses, agencies and non-proft organizations with a common goal of fostering economic growth and employment in Vancouver’s historic Inner-City. It is a convenient and comprehensive list of goods and service providers who actively contribute to the social, environmental and economic welfare of the community. From cleaning to construction and from gardening to graffiti removal, businesses and individuals looking to utilize the huge range of local providers and support the inner-city’s urban economy can search through this practical and easy to use directory. (just click on the search bar to the left and you can take a look for yourself)
About social purchasing, locally and globally
Social enterprise and social purchasing directories, portals, and other platforms represent not only a new consumer standard but a new way of socially responsible and competitive economic thinking. Products and services in these directories cost no more than their average competitor, in fact they are most often a more competitively and attractively priced option! But they have a distinct advantage in that they directly contribute to the long term economic, environmental and social health of communities and individuals.
Because demand for these kinds of directories has been steadily increasing, many countries have similar directories in place or are currently working on them. Australian organization Social Traders is working with numerous partners for a directory of Australian social enterprise, while in China a social purchasing directory created by the group Collective Responsibility provides socially and environmentally responsible choices for citizens and companies there. Some major cities with large urban economies to themselves have their own directories and portals, like London, England, while several Canadian cities including Ottawa, Winnipeg and Kitchener-Waterloo also have active portals that they are building and improving upon. In Vancouver, the Social Purchasing Directory hosted here on the Building Opportunities with Business site is one of the most comprehensive and accessible directories of its kind in any Canadian city.
While this Social Purchasing Directory hosted by BOB focuses on Vancouver’s inner-city it fully supports other regional purchasing directories like Access Works, The Green Zebra Guide and Buy Smart. As our urban economy continues to grow, this directory will be updated and managed to meet the needs of business and private consumers looking for competitively and attractively priced goods and services from socially responsible and innovative companies.