Jennifer Johnson and Carl Hickerson, Co-Founders of Trestle on the challenges of conscious consumerism, their new "myTrestle" button, and their entrepreneurial journey

Aug 21, 2019

Meet Jennifer Johnson and Carl Hickerson, the co-founders of Trestle, a Portland-based technology company aiming to make conscious consumerism convenient!

“It’s worth taking into consideration the historical perspective of the movement of business into this [sustainable and ethical] space. And for us, we like to celebrate the ones that are doing incredible work to reduce their waste or their energy consumption or clean up their supply chains. Those who are starting to ask the questions themselves: “Oh, what is our impact? Where are we actually causing more harm than good?” The ones that are  asking those questions and starting to address them are the ones we like to celebrate.” — Jennifer Johnson

In this episode we cover:

• The challenges consumers face (especially when it comes to trying to support ethical and sustainable brands).
• What it means to be a conscious consumer, i.e. can we actually define ethics seeing that personal values are likely to differ from one person to the next?
• How Trestle analyzes and aggregates brands + how the "myTrestle" button works.
• Why Trestle is being coined the "Match.com" of e-commerce.
• The challenges around "greenwashing" and why it matters that brands be transparent with their customers.
• Why Jennifer and Carl decided to create a company to help consumers discover the values of their favorite brands.
• How Jennifer and Carl met, the challenges of their entrepreneurial journey, and so much more!

This was such a fun and insightful conversation. I know you're going to love it! Happy listening!

PS: myTrestle Button is a free Chrome extension/add-on that shows you instantly the ethical practices of a company when you land on their website (or a product they sell on Amazon). Not sure if a brand is cruelty-free, fair-trade, sustainable, etc.? Just #trestleit 

Here's how it works:
1. Download the myTrestle Button Chrome extension (Go to www.mytrestle.com and click on the “Add myTrestle Button” must be done on a desktop!).⁣

⁣⁣2. Make a Trestle profile and update your most important values.⁣⁣

⁣⁣3. Shop as you normally would! As you land on the websites of companies we’ve analyzed, you’ll be notified of their ethical practices.⁣⁣