Ethical Swag Inc.
Woman-owned business advances eco-friendly advertising solutions
Now more than ever consumers are looking for sustainable products, driving businesses to seek out branded items that truly reflect their values.
Ethical Swag Inc. is taking big strides to transform the branding industry. Its focus is sourcing sustainable promotional products that are fully decorated with a client’s logo and/or message to help tell the client’s brand story. Products are made from recycled, organic or biodegradable materials and sourced from suppliers dedicated to social and environmental responsibility.
Though the company places an emphasis on ethical and sustainable branding products, it also offers graphic design support, inventory management, pop-up shops and more.
Tara Milburn, Ethical Swag’s founder and CEO, had come up with the idea of a sustainable company in 2010, as she identified a gap in the promotional products industry.
In 2017, she decided to focus full time on Ethical Swag and give up her full-time corporate position, becoming a full-time entrepreneur in her 50s. She recognized there were not enough options for organizations to make informed and eco-conscious decisions to promote their businesses and wanted to do something about it.
Making tangible change
Ethical Swag is not only providing a much-needed presence within the branding industry, but it’s also backing up its environmental stance with action.
The company, a Certified B Corp, has been audited to a global standard for social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
These values are taken a step further as Ethical Swag recently implemented Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impact reporting. The ESG process allows customers to see what Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) the company is contributing to with the products they are buying.
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) is proud to support women-led, eco-friendly companies like Ethical Swag. Funding through ACOA helped the company increase marketing efforts and boost production to pursue new market opportunities both nationally and internationally.
As of 2024, 95% of Ethical Swag’s sales were outside of Nova Scotia, with approximately 55% in Canada and 45% in the United States. The company has also seen tremendous growth in recent years – over 100% since 2020.
This has resulted in Ethical Swag expanding its team three times over since 2022. With 12 employees, the company has a head office in Sydney, NS and remote workers in nearly every Canadian province as well as other international locations to keep up with demand.
Well-deserved recognition
Last year, Milburn participated in a panel with the Executive Director of the Jane Goodall Institute to speak about sustainable business practices. The panel took place at one of the largest business advertising conferences in North America with over 15,000 people in attendance.
Milburn and her company have both been recognized for outstanding achievements. In 2021, Milburn was given the Small Business Magazine’s Technopreneur of the Year award, and Ethical Swag received a Beyond Borders Exporter of the Year nomination. In 2022, the company was a finalist for the Women Business Enterprise Canada Excellence award.
Ethical Swag is unwavering in its goal of promoting positive environmental impact and social responsibility.
“We’ve made sure that sustainability is embedded in everything we do,” said Milburn.