About Us
We're on mission to make
sustainable gift cards
fun, accessible and easy to use.
About Us..
Making sustainable gift cards fun, accessible and easy to use is only the tip of the iceberg… Our fundamental purpose is to raise awareness of sustainable brands, empower consumers with choice, and influence businesses to adopt sustainable practices, thereby driving fundamental change within the gifting industry.
The idea for EcoSwap came about during lockdown in Covid 19 times. Co-Founder Antony Gutsa was on the hunt for the perfect sustainable gift. Naturally he jumped on Google and searched for genuine sustainable brands that offered a digital gift card. After spending hours scouring the web he was left with a raft of basic sustainable products and a whole lot of GREENWASHING (Companies claiming to be environmentally friendly when they’re not). Quickly realising there was a gap in the market for a gift card for genuinely ethical and sustainable brands, EcoSwap (Originally named Dinkm) was born.
The original name dinkm (aka dinkum), is an Australian slang term meaning to be genuine, honest and true. This captures the essence of our brand and is the bedrock for our values and approach to business.
"Whilst our name has changed our core values remain unwaivering, to be genuine, honest and true in everything we do."
Antony Gutsa
Co-Founder & CEO
Over the second half of 2022 and beginning of 2023 we tested the market to see whether people were actually interested in buying gift cards from sustainable brands rather than from the megaliths found on the high street. We launched a marketplace and developed affiliate partnerships with brands across the UK. Some brands being household names, lots being independent and all creating eco-friendly & ethical products with a digital gift card. Safe to say our market-place was a big success, as suspected there is a clear demand ford digital gift cards from ethical and sustainable brads.
Fast forward to the present we have transformed our marketplace into the first of it’s kind multi-store digital gift card soley for ethical and sustainable brands, with the certifications to prove it! Making it even easier for you to shop and gift more consciously.
Given the demand we decided to launch the new product early with a small group of retail partners but rest assured we will be back up to a full catalogue in no time, spanning across the same extensive range as our marketplace. From natural beauty products, zero waste essentials to recycled phones and gadgets, our EcoSwap gift card will enable you to swap and shop at a wide collection of sustainable brands. All hand selected by our team with quality and style in mind and most importantly they are genuinely sustainable, we do this by following a two-step approach.
Our 2 step approach to Sustainable Gifting
Step 1) Tackling sustainability in retail
The 26th United Nations Climate change conference more commonly known as Cop26 highlighted that countries are under committing in their emissions reductions plans and therefore it is up to industry to step up to influence change.
To drive Industry change, the power lies with the consumer through how they choose to spend their money.
4 out of 5 people prefer to buy from sustainable sellers, yet most consumers are unaware of practises which consumer brands have adopted to encourage environmental sustainability.
At EcoSwap, our aim is to promote awareness. We do this by providing our customers with a selection of UK’s top eco-friendly brands that have all been certified by at least one of three reputable global certifiers including B Lab, 1% for the planet and climate neutral.
Step 2) Tackling the gifting Conundrum
Finding the perfect gift for a friend or a loved one can be difficult. People often waste copious amounts of time trying to find that perfect gift only to have it returned and traded for something else, re-gifted, or sometimes even worse thrown away.
2 in 3 shoppers say they are more likely to buy their loved ones a gift card/prepaid card rather than a physical or experiential gift.
Therefore, we’ve decided to specifically focus on retailers that provide e-Gift cards as a product offering. This takes the guess work out and of course it’ environmentally friendly!
Intertwined with these two-steps, we also like to promote a ‘human’, approach to sustainability, we know that often sustainability comes with compromise and we don’t want that. So we’ve made it a prerequisite to have brands and products that are comparable to those that you might find on the high-street , meaning you won’t need to settle for getting mum a bamboo toothbrush next birthday!
We hope you enjoy gifting with EcoSwap and would love to get your feedback on how we are doing. Let’s drive real change together.
PS – don’t forget to check out our blog, where we share insight on a diverse range of topics and showcase ways we can all incorporate conscious living.