We'd like to introduce you to six merchants who have made concrete gestures to improve the quality of life in our neighbourhood.

The owner of Fleur Sauvage natural food store, Avi Dor, tells us "We use biodegradable plastic and charge 5 cents to educate the clients. All our produce is organic and we buy from local farmers as much as possible. We are also open to all suggestions from our clients."

At Ben & Jerry's on Monkland Avenue, Michael Levine's slogan is "Happy Cows, Happy Farmers, Happy Planet."

John Hopkins, from À votre santé health food store is proud to state that "the proceeds from our plastic bags go to an environmental charity. We sell only organic foods which are part of sustainable development."

And Kurt Houghton from the Coop La Maison Verte explains that "the mission of the store is to help consumers change their purchasing habits so they can reduce their environmental footprint. We offer alternatives and tools so our clients can become more responsible and go from pale to dark green on an environmental scale."

On Somerled, the owner of Scrapbook Star, Samantha Star, is proud of the fact that "while scrapbooking, we always try to reuse our material and to be as environmental friendly as possible. We're trying to hold on to our scraps while creating scrapbook pages and keeping cut-offs for future projects."

Michael Kutchuk, owner of Nettoyeur Écologique Royal Sherbrooke and Monkland, has a reputation that reaches far beyond the borders of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. "For the environment, the health of our employees and our clients, we decided to switch to wet cleaning, which is a water and steam-based energy-efficient process using biodegradable citrus-derived detergent."