Next Shop Wonderland

Our research indicated that our model would resonate with everyone except professors in the romance languages, thus the name is indeed Latin for "sustaining or nurturing something refreshing or new." We are happy to report that we now have that particular demographic locked up.

We are very happy not to have to choose them. We want to provide the information about the manufacturers and then let the alonovo.com community decide what they want. The companies are continuously monitored, and we receive updates from the wonderful folks at KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. Our community can also exchange more casual (not used in ratings) news and information in our forum section.

Many of our decisions are contextual to each of us, which is why we have built the technology to allow our community to weigh their own values and product ratings that are reflective of their values (not ours!).

All excellent questions, Leah. Our strategy is to engage as many people as we can and to help people incrementally learn about social responsibility and gradually create a new economy predicated upon a balance between people, planet, and profit. Although Amazon.com (or any shipped product) requires production resources, think about how many times I would have to circle a shopping mall in my Prius before I'd find a parking spot -- especially during the holiday season. We have made certain compromises, and you are right that the model is not perfect -- but together, as we shape an intelligent market-force demand, we will have more influence over a more balanced supply chain and help many great organizations (some of which are local-community focused, like the Interra Project.) Furthermore, we believe that as the community grows and we have demand impact on the economy, businesses will certainly become aware of the new free-market economy.

Our advertising model is focused upon earned media, conferences, organizational co-marketing, and, most importantly, referrals from members of our growing community. As we have funded this privately, we are trying to grow alonovo.com in a grassroots manner.

We have a long way to go before making a dent. The online shopping space is over $64 billion in annual consumer spending. I'm not sure we've scratched the paint yet -- but as we grow with great people (like the Grist readership), we are certain to create an impact.

We are skeptical, too. That's why the product catalog is a vast array of competitively priced products from Amazon.com. Nevertheless, I am optimistic -- there has never been easy access to the information we are providing. I've got to believe that most people will pay a small premium if they know the product is produced with fair-labor practices and a gentle environmental footprint. If not, in the future I'll be writing to you from a small farmhouse in France.

No one has taken a similar approach in terms of providing a social-value driven and fully integrated shopping experience. There are other entities that provide varied information, such as BuyBlue.org; however, we believe we have struck an important balance between business viability and societal value in an apolitical way. You don't have to be a Democrat to appreciate a clear blue sky, and you don't have to be a Republican to want a growing economy. We want to bring the American community back together.

My 45 years have taught me to be very cynical. When someone is touting that their coal is so clean it can be sprinkled on breakfast cereal, I am mildly amused and more anxious to get as much independent, trusted data for our alonovo.com community as I can.

I believe that politics are a shadow manifestation of the underlying economy. That is not to say I am not politically active. However, I believe that the American community is intentionally divided into red/blue, liberal/conservative, or by race/gender/religion in order to keep us distracted, divided, and conquered. I think by expressing the economic power we share together -- in an informed, intelligent way -- we will bring the political system along with us and provide the reforms for lasting change, such as campaign finance reform.

We share 20 percent of our commerce revenues with the organizations selected by alonovo.com users. We initially approached a set of organizations I have personally worked with, and from those relationships, the community has suggested various organizations or organizational leadership has contacted us. [Editor's note: Grist is one of alonovo.com's recipient organizations.]

Feel free to contact us at -- we are happy to support meaningful causes.

A very good point, Matt -- we are revisiting our mission statement to clarify. How's the following? We are fostering cooperation in the market between supply and demand by introducing corporate social responsibility as a competitive demand factor. This will cause the market to naturally balance people, planet, and profit within the supply chain. We accomplish our mission by providing a socio-values-driven shopping portal to catalyze an informed market-force demand. We also include social responsibility news aggregation, a community information exchange, subject-matter expert blogging, and SR-related community education.

Fair-trade coffee and an understanding that everyone really wants to do good things. The remarkable group I work with every day and people who have inspired me like John Kenneth Galbraith, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lennon, and my wife and children keep me going.