Certifications, Memberships and Partnerships:
Elva's All Naturals' is proudly partnered with circular economy non-profit organization Impact Zero and Random Acts of Green, a social enterprise with a vision to build a glocal (global + local) climate action community where everyone is empowered to take action together and promote environmental sustainability. We are also partnered with Circulr for taking back our product packaging for reuse in the GTA, and support Nature Canada.
Our skincare and haircare products bear the CertClean certification for clean beauty, North America’s leading certification for safer beauty and personal care products.
Recommended by environmental journalist and advocate Candice Batista, you will find Elva's extensively featured on the eco living blog: The Eco Hub.
Our Mission:
Is to help people eliminate chemicals and waste from their homes and the planet. Our truly natural and effective skin care, hair care and cleaning products are made from PLANTS and filled with goodness, free of toxic chemicals and made with care, for people and the planet.
By creating products with natural ingredients sourced sustainably and from Canadian organic farms, and in sustainable packaging (such as in bulk home refill, refillable glass and metal), we are furthering our mission to help people reduce their carbon footprint, one household at a time.
Not just our mission; it is our passion making natural home and beauty products that support the wellness of both people and the planet, and the reduction of unnecessary waste. Making premium products that are innovative in their packaging and sustainability, our formulas do not compromise on quality. From home cleaning to soaps, body washes, shampoo, skincare and product refills, all of our products are made in Canada, cruelty-free and formulated to EU standards.
We also believe in responsible manufacturing that respects the health of people and our planet. We want to help people and do that through creating excellent plant-based products without harmful chemicals, by helping people to eliminate waste and reduce their carbon footprint, by supporting the refill revolution, by responsible lean manufacturing, and finally by giving back to our community through consumer education and supporting environmental outreach programs.
We believe that known toxins in consumer products is both a social and environmental justice issue. The people segments the most greatly affected are often the poor and women; the predominant users of cheaper toxic chemicals which are still present in many cleaning products and cosmetics today, due to lax government regulations. In addition, many chemicals (such as Polyvinyl Alcohol "PVA" microplastic - present in laundry strips) have an adverse negative effect on our ecosystems and aquatic life. This is why, we are very vocal about the presence of toxic chemicals in our products, and why we started our company.
Ingredients and Transparency:
We are pleased to list ALL ingredients on all of our products, allowing YOU the customer, to make correct and informed purchasing decisions. We are real people who take our customers questions and inquiries seriously and therefore, if there is something you want to know, ask us and we will respond. We also list all ingredients on our cleaning products, even though this is not yet (but we feel it should be) standard practice.
All of our products are SLS/SLES and sulfate-free, PVA-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, palm-free, phosphate-free and artificial fragrance-free. Most are also vegan (with the exception of organic honey in the facial scrub). All are cruelty-free; we love animals very much. We source and use certified organic, certified biodynamic, wild-crafted and local Canadian ingredients wherever possible.
We take a hard stand against using any ingredients appearing on any published "unacceptable lists" as determined by Health Canada, David Suzuki, The Environmental Working Group, the FDA, and Whole Foods.
We only use the safest Ecocert approved preservatives, when necessary and for your safety. None of our products contain ingredients with the letters "eth" (Ethoxylated ingredients). All of our essential oils are either certified organic or have been tested free of contaminants with supporting documentation to this effect, available upon request. As such, we do not (cannot) compete on price but rather on quality. It is our hope that through better consumer education, people will begin to realize that sometimes you should pay more for something that you put on your body or bring into your home because it can directly affect your health and well-being. That being said, our aim - with an eye first on environmental impact - is to continually improve our costs and prices as we grow, in order to make our products accessible to a wider audience.
Since our skin has over 5 million pores and what we put on our skin is absorbed into our bloodstream, we feel it is of paramount importance to consider what is actually in the products we use everyday.
Sustainability:
As an environmentally-focused company, we are extremely concerned with sustainability and are conscious of the need to apply sustainability metrics to all levels of our business; from manufacturing to product life cycle. We are committed to continually improving our environmental performance and managing our environmental impacts. We are committed to continually complying with our local environmental legislation and training our employees on environmental issues. And lastly, we are committed to improving our sustainability and communicating that clearly to our employees, stakeholders and to you, the customer. As of May 2021, we have successfully migrated most of our products into glass, aluminum and recyclable refill packaging. Our circular economy partnership with Circulr in the GTA (announced May 11, 2021) will now further help to reduce our need for virgin packaging materials.
Jessica Pelchat, Senior Sustainability Advisor to Elva's All Naturals
Her multidisciplinary work over the last two decades has been focused on creating a more sustainable future through the building of social purpose organizations and actioning climate change remediation of various forms. She served as Chief Sustainability Officer & Executive Vice President for a Canadian Profit 500 company, led the Canadian arm of a purpose-driven + award-winning management consulting firm, and spent many years focusing on the intersection of strategy, communications, and sustainability.
As an avid gardener for the last 20 years, she stewards 50+ acres in Southern Ontario and experiments with different regenerative applications such as food forests and Hügelkultur beds, and enjoys nothing more than to rewild a new site and fill it with wonder.
Manufacturing:
We operate in a lean-manufacturing model whereby we do not produce mass quantities of product at a time. This on-demand, small-batch model allows us to drastically reduce waste, bring you fresher product from fresher ingredients and reduce our carbon footprint. We believe this is the way of the future and contributes to sustainable, responsible and local economic development. We follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and manufacture our products in Canadian facilities in BC and Ontario.
Packaging:
On May 11, 2021, Elva's All Naturals announced a new circular economy partnership with Circulr to take back packaging for reuse. Click here to view the press release. 🌎 All of our packaging is made from recyclable materials or post-consumer recycled content wherever possible (our 1 CLEANER box is made from 100% recycled content and helps to keep 6 plastic bottles out of the environment). We are always actively investigating new ways to package our products, as more data becomes available on the environmental impact of glass vs. plastic vs. metal vs. compostable. We have chosen to use a combination of dark amber glass, aluminum, refill bulk 'bag in box' and some recyclable dark plastic for our products, due to the requirement to protect the botanical ingredients and essential oils from UV-related decomposition. We are pleased to offer sustainable home refill formats for most of our products as well, which helps to greatly diminish plastic and waste.
Operations:
Behind the scenes, COO and Co-Founder Ian McEwen, P.Eng brings over 30 years manufacturing expertise to our team. Ian is focused on sustainability, environment, reducing waste and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices). Our team of chemists and accredited laboratories have helped us optimize our concepts and bring them to market, with non-traditional and revolutionary formulations that are based on plants and omit toxic chemicals. Our lean manufacturing model allows us to be to able to grow and adapt to market demand and as new information becomes available, with regards to natural ingredients and their proven benefits.