The inspiration for Owen Ward's virtual venture came from his very real experiences travelling in developing countries after graduating from business school.

"I saw an enormous amount of poverty and environmental degradation. It awakened in me a passion to make a difference," said Ward, 29, who grew up in Hamilton.

"I was convinced that there is a lot of power in business to do good."

The marriage of business acumen and moralistic ideals came together last week with the launch of ClickGreener.com.

It's an online shopping portal that allows consumers to support the environment by clicking through the website to about 140 popular Canadian and American retailers.

Ward said he picked four national environmental partners based on four streams of concern: climate change, wildlife conservation, tree planting and renewable energy.

Consumers can pick from the World Wildlife Fund - Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Federation, Tree Canada and Carbonfund.org -- then click on the organization they want to support and continue shopping.

A 5 per cent referral fee (based on the item purchased) paid by the retailer goes to ClickGreener.com which in turn gives the environmental partners 51 per cent of the take.

Ward said there are several similar models for such a site such as Airmiles' online shops or Canada Post's slate of businesses it has partnered with, but as far as his research found, no one else has created his version of the online green mall.

The company was established with the help of Ward's two partners, Ronan Levy, a 30-year-old corporate lawyer also from Hamilton and webpage/graphic designer Andres Aquino in Toronto.

Ward said the business plan was about a year in development.

But without the marketing budget of Air Miles or Canada Post, Ward is currently relying on word of mouth, a media campaign and an innovative use of a Facebook group page (with 500 members already) to promote the page.

Next steps for the fledgling company include a Google campaign and expansion to the U.S., the U.K., and Australia.

Ward said one of his goals is to get Canadians to shift 1 per cent of all online purchases through ClickGreener. He estimates that would generate $1 million for the company's environmental partners. He figures his market for the site is as wide as the diversity of people who shop online.

"There's no demographic, it's psychographic. This spans all ages."

lmarr@thespec.com

905-526-3992