New World Island Bay owner Amanda Elliot says: "We will be cost neutral by July meaning we are being paid more for our recycling efforts than it is costing us to dispose into landfill."

A Wellington social enterprise has found more than 10,000 Kiwi shoppers want businesses to reduce packaging and waste over anything else.

Since September last year, more than 10,300 people had registered with Conscious Consumers and selected values that were most important to them when shopping.

Anonymous transaction information was collected from the shoppers so subscribed businesses could see what values shoppers' supported most.



Conscious Consumers chief executive Ben Gleisner said: "We're trying to build this system that pull businesses and customers together onto one platform. It is so, so important for this to be easy for both parties. It is the key thing".



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"If you want to change the world, you've got to make it easy."

SUPPLIED Conscious Consumers chief executive Ben Gleisner is about to bring Conscious Consumer to London Tech Week.

After tracking transactions for 10 months, Conscious Consumers found waste was the main concern for shoppers.

It comes after consumers lashed out at Australian supermarket Woolworths for its reliance on plastic packaging to wrap up kumara.

A photo of Woolworth's Select brand gold kumara being sold in plastic trays received more than 6000 angry responses since it was posted on the supermarket's Facebook page on Saturday.



A Waste Management Institute New Zealand study also found almost two-thirds of Kiwis wanted to see a mandatory charge slapped on plastic bag use.



Gleisner said his platform was what businesses needed to avoid incidents like the wrapped kumara uproar.



"It signals to businesses that this is what [shoppers] care about," Gleisner said.

SUPPLIED When consumers sign up they chose what values they want to see businesses take on board.

Change in response to shoppers' values was already underway at New World Island Bay in Wellington and Auckland Mexican fast food chain Mexicali​ Fresh.

Thorndon New World joined on Wednesday and Kathmandu recently signed up 47 of its stores.

But it is not just free marketing for businesses.



Business pay between $40 and $120 a month to subscribe, depending on their size.



An accreditation system ensures they make decisions based on customer values.



"Businesses don't get to market on the platform until they are accredited by us," Gleisner said.

SAM BAKER/STUFF Although the social enterprise had been running since 2008, new technology allowed Gleisner to go straight to businesses and tell them what their customers valued. The findings come in the wake of figures showing current industry-led recycling schemes have been a dismal failure

"We accredit them on the back of existing certification systems. They provide us with assurances of what they're doing, like invoices from a recycling company outlining how many times they collect."

Island Bay New World owner Amanda Elliot subscribed nine months ago and found Conscious Consumers shoppers spent $20,000 a month at her store and care most about climate change.

More than 8700 customers held minimising packaging and waste as their highest value. More than 7800 people cared most about animal welfare, and almost 7700 cared most about workers' welfare.

"Over the past two years we've been doing a lot of little things working towards being a lot more environmentally friendly and conscious with our waste," Elliot said.

"We put LEDs (lighting) throughout the whole store two years ago. Solar power is definitely something we are looking at for the future.

"We haven't started that journey yet but it's definitely something that we want if we can make it economically viable."

Gleisner said that although his social enterprise had been running since 2008, new technology tracking electronic transactions allowed him to go straight to businesses and tell them what their customers valued.

Last year, 22 investors put up $600,000 for Conscious Consumers to take off.

"We're in our ninth year of changes but the payment technology we use has only been around for about 18 months," Gleisner said.

"We started with 10 cafes on Cuba Street voluntarily pledging to do business by certain values. Last year we introduced the payment technology and it's really taken off."

Companies and investors in Australia, the United Kingdom and United States were interested in Conscious Consumers being launched, which may be on the cards already.

Gleisner was chosen by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to take part in London Tech Week and would fly to the United Kingdom on Friday to pitch the success of Conscious Consumers to the European market.

"With everything going to plan hopefully this will go global."