Whale of a widget

In January 2009, Vancouver-based digital media company 3rdWhale Media launched a mobile application targeted at Apple iPhone users looking for sustainable businesses in multiple West Coast cities, including San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.

"It's hard for everyone to figure out how green a business is," says 3rdWhale founder Boyd Cohen, who is also a professor of sustainable entrepreneurship at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University. 3rdWhale's application covers four business categories: food, retail, ecotourism and spas, providing locations and directions, plus a rating of a business' "green" credentials.

Cohen says the company created a set of criteria across its categories to determine which businesses are listed in its database. Businesses certified by third-party organizations, such as Canada's Ocean Wise seafood certification group, are included. Other businesses offering sustainable operations, services or products may also be included after being reviewed by 3rdWhale. Users can then rate a business' efforts based on a "three-whale" rating system, or flag businesses that they don't think belong.  

Transparency and accessibility of rating criteria is essential to the credibility of any rating system, including this one, says Marty McDonald of egg, a Seattle-based sustainable marketing firm. People are becoming more critical around "green" claims, he says, adding that third-party certifications can help establishing confidence in consumers.

In late 2008, 3rdWhale merged with Vancouver-based online sustainable business directory happyfrog.ca, which allowed 3rdWhale to include information about businesses from happyfrog's database, Cohen says.

While 3rdWhale started out as a self-funded operation and was in the midst of an angel investment round in January, Cohen says ads and premier listings could serve as future revenue streams as well.