The OLA Bamboo family is made up of three young Canadian entrepreneurs—Jean-Philippe Bergeron, Simon-Pier Ouellet, and Vicky Jodry—who wanted to make a difference for the planet.
Our mission is to help reduce plastic waste by offering eco-friendly products that are affordable and easy to use.
Everyone knows that plastic has devastating effects on the environment, especially marine life.
Making a difference means starting with small gestures. Our adventure began with bamboo toothbrushes because they are items that we will use all our lives and are (almost) always plastic. But we weren’t going to stop there! Many useful, everyday items are disposable and tremendously polluting.
Hence the creation of our various other eco-friendly products, such as our reusable bamboo utensils and straws, bamboo makeup remover pads, eco-friendly dental floss, and much more!
In September 2020, we offered the first Canadian-made OLA Bamboo product: natural deodorant in a cardboard tube. A few months later, we added the all-purpose cleaning tablet in partnership with the Quebec company Myni. We then wanted to go further and repatriate the production of our flagship product: the eco-friendly toothbrush. It’s the most popular OLA Bamboo product with the highest ongoing demand.
We are proud to say that we are the only ones on the market offering toothbrushes made here in Canada.
The manufacturing process in Drummondville, Quebec, means hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments, and this is only the first phase! We hope to gradually make other products here.
The OLA Bamboo family extends well beyond its three founders. About thirty people are involved in our young company—and that also means thirty jobs—whether it’s the teams of representatives on the road, about a dozen in Quebec and just as many throughout the rest of Canada, or the Re-Source Intégration team who takes care of delivery, the assembly of certain products, warehousing and much more. For us, it’s important to provide as many work opportunities as possible here at home! Other projects and products will allow us to create even more of them in the coming months. It’s just another great reason to support businesses here in Quebec and Canada!
When you purchase an OLA Bamboo’s eco products, you are helping Compensation CO2 Québec plant trees. For us, reducing our carbon footprint and benefitting the health of our beautiful planet is crucial. Since the beginning of this venture, over 2,000 trees have been planted in Notre-Dame-des-Bois and another 1,000 in Stratford, Quebec—thanks to you!
Three thousand trees cover the emissions from 375 Montréal-Paris round-trip flights. In other words, during their growth, these trees will capture an amount of carbon equivalent to that emitted by 130 cars—every year! And that’s just the beginning.
In addition, we created a contest for Earth Day 2019: a draw for trees to plant in your yard. Five winners across Canada had the good fortune of choosing a new tree. And we have a ton of other ideas.
For OLA Bamboo, social involvement is integral to the company’s mission. That is why we do business with Re-Source Intégration, a social economy enterprise based in Gatineau that employs over a hundred people with disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, physical limitations and mental disorders.
Whether it be to assemble some of our products and displays or to engrave some corporate products, we are proud to work with this wonderful team.
Since OLA Bamboo’s beginnings, we have made numerous donations to various organizations for fundraising events or volunteer tourism. Notably, we donated 1,500 toothbrushes to the Salvation Army Canada in Toronto and 3,000 toothbrushes and 400 zero waste kits for the Association québécoise pour l’Avancement des Nations Unies-Haïti.
OLA Bamboo, it’s more than a brand, it’s a lifestyle. Let’s reduce our environmental footprint together by eliminating plastic waste and planting trees!
Becoming eco-responsible takes a few simple steps and that’s what we propose. Join the OLA Bamboo journey!
From a young age, Jean-Philippe always had many passions, including politics, history, horticulture, entrepreneurship, and the outdoors. His varied interests led him to work on many different projects and business ideas, some more eccentric than realistic.
After completing a Bachelor’s degree in communications, he worked in politics for a few years and then returned to school. He then completed a second Bachelor’s degree in Education at the University of Ottawa. Against all expectations, he ended up launching an entrepreneurial career by establishing OLA Bamboo with his wife Vicky and his friend Simon-Pier.
Jean-Philippe is proud to work at a company that allows him to combine his many passions and that contributes to making a real impact in the community.
You can reach him at: jpbergeron@olabamboo.com
Vicky began her career in 2003 as a radio host, a profession she pursued all over Quebec for around fifteen years.
Since January 2019, she has been working full-time at OLA Bamboo Inc, a company she founded in 2016 with her husband Jean-Philippe Bergeron and their partner Simon-Pier Ouellet.
In her view, ‘going green’ is an essential shift that involves a host of small, simple actions. Not everyone can afford to change everything overnight… But everyone can make a difference by making small incremental changes.
It’s Vicky who responds on social media and it’s to her that media requests, whether for interviews or advertising, should be put.
You can reach her at: vjodry@olabamboo.com
Simon-Pier worked as a journalist for nearly 10 years in the Outaouais region for a local television station.
Having nurtured a dream of starting a business for several years, he launched OLA Bamboo with his two friends in 2016. Since the fall of 2018, he has been working full-time on various management tasks within the company.
He takes great pride in contributing to the reduction of plastic waste in the environment, while at the same time contributing to the Canadian economy.
You can reach him at: spouellet@olabamboo.com
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