Pet care has a footprint. Food production, packaging, shipping across borders and the sheer volume of accessories bought and replaced all add up, and pretending otherwise would be the easiest thing on this page.
Karuvia is a marketplace, not a manufacturer. We do not make the products sold here, so what we can honestly offer is not a promise about them — it is what we ask of the businesses we work with, and what we show you so you can decide for yourself.
What we ask of vendors
- Accurate claims. Environmental claims on a listing must be specific and supportable. Vague wording such as “eco-friendly” or “green”, with nothing behind it, is not permitted.
- Evidence on request. Where a listing claims a certification, a recycled content percentage or a origin, we may ask to see it — and may remove the claim if it is not provided.
- Materials and packaging. Vendors are asked to describe what a product is made of and how it is packed, so the information is on the listing rather than in an email.
- Where it ships from. A product sent from within Europe travels a great deal less than one drop-shipped from outside it. Vendors publish their dispatch country.
What you can check yourself
Every listing carries the trading business behind it, the country it dispatches from, and the materials the vendor has declared. Where a product holds a recognised certification, the certification is named rather than implied.
Our badges say what they mean and nothing more. Sustainable is applied to a listing on the basis of specific, stated criteria — not as a general compliment.
Buying less, and buying once
The most useful thing a marketplace can do for the environment is to stop selling people things they did not need. That is the whole argument for curation: fewer options, chosen more carefully, replaced less often.
It is also why services sit beside products here. A nutrition consultation that gets a dog’s diet right saves more waste than any packaging decision we could make.
What we have not done yet
We do not currently measure the carbon footprint of deliveries made through Karuvia, and we do not offset them. We would rather say so than publish a figure we cannot stand behind.
If you work in this area and think we are getting something wrong, Community Feedback reaches the people who decide what appears on Karuvia.