Why Shop Consciously?
Over the course of 2020, Hempsley Founder Kristen Williams learned more about racial disparities, climate change, and injustices of the world than ever before. As she began rebuilding the Hempsley website on Shopify, Kristen wanted to integrate a way to support businesses who were owned by historically marginalized individuals as well as businesses who take extra steps to help make the world a better place, whether that be through cruelty-free, organic, vegan, or sustainable practices.
Kristen began referencing InclusiveBase, a database of over 800 POC-owned cannabis companies, as a resource to connect with minority-owned businesses in an effort to actively work on making Hempsley's network more diverse and inclusive.
- If you are also a white-owned business, we hope that you too will utilize InclusiveBase as a resource for finding POC creators and entrepreneurs to hire, amplify, and collaborate with.
- If you're a POC-owned cannabusiness, we encourage you to add your company to the InclusiveBase Directory to strengthen your SEO and support your reach!
Inspired by InclusiveBase
Kristen was first introduced to InclusiveBase by Kieryn Wang, founder of Almost Consulting. Kristen admired the way InclusiveBase created a resource dedicated to helping individuals find POC-owned businesses in their own communities whom they could support. She loved that it was a free and shareable database, open to anyone in the cannabis space.
Kristen built Hempsley with a goal of showcasing cannabis as just another wellness tool in your self-care toolbox. As she began rebuilding our website, InclusiveBase inspired Kristen to integrate POC and other "Conscious Shopping" filters across a collection of products with cannabis, herb, and lifestyle products alongside education and holistic health service businesses.
Kristen set Hempsley's new website up to introduce the people behind the brands in a meaningful way. Every Community Directory page shares the company's origin story as well as how Hempsley found and is in relationship with the brand in an effort to build transparency and trust between these brands and you, the consumer. Now more than ever, we want to make sure we are using our money to support brands who are doing good for the world, not faceless corporations who put profit over people. We hope that Hempsley can be a resource for you to find brands and people that you feel good about supporting.
About the Filters
All POC filters on shop pages were derived directly from InclusiveBase, including "Black-Owned, Indigenous-Owned, Latinx-Owned, Pacific Islander-Owned, Asian-Owned, Arab/Middle Eastern-Owned, Woman-Owned, Veteran-Owned, LGBTQIA-Owned, and Disability-Owned."
In an effort to also highlight environmentally-conscious businesses, we added "Cruelty-Free, Organic Practices, Certified Organic, Sustainable, and Vegan" to our Shop Consciously filter options.
About InclusiveBase
InclusiveBase invites people of color who are "leading the way in the cannabis renaissance" to join their database in an effort to support communities that "have been impacted by the unjust war on drugs" for decades. InclusiveBase is intended to be a resource for conscious cannabis consumers to share and reference when "travel[ing] to legal states or shop[ping] in your home state," as well as use for "collaboration and community-building" to "amplify minority-owned cannabis businesses," as described on their website. Click here to explore or join InclusiveBase.
InclusiveBase is a collaboration between Cannaclusive and ALMOSTCONSULTING. Below is a little bit more about each of these thought-leading businesses, as described on InclusiveBase.
About the InclusiveBase Collaborators
"Cannaclusive was created to facilitate fair representation of minority cannabis consumers. At Cannaclusive, we celebrate the cultures of this thriving community through curated experiences and thoughtful content. We make it easier for brands to communicate with diverse audiences and ensure that minority consumers are not an afterthought, but a valued ally in the fight for legalization and destigmatization."
"ALMOSTCONSULTING began as cannabis marketing consultancy focused on harnessing digital communities and experiential activations to bring consumers and collaborators together. At ALMOSTCONSULTING, we work to break the stigma of woman-identifying cannabis consumers by bringing an unapologetic, fresh take on old marketing concepts. We believe in the power of transparency and accessibility for consumers of all levels to appreciate the cannabis plant and understand its potential benefits and applications."
Thank you, InclusiveBase
We are so grateful for all the work that InclusiveBase has done to create an international directory of POC-owned cannabis businesses. Moving forward, we plan to utilize InclusiveBase as a resource in actively searching out minority-owned businesses whose products or services would be a good fit for our self-care shop.
Please know that any business who meets our CBD Certification Standards is welcome to join our directory, and products that we have tried and personally recommend to our own loved ones will be curated in our shop. As of May 20, 2021, we are working on an application for non-cannabis related wellness businesses to join our directory as well. For more information, please click here to contact us.
