The story
Why this exists
I grew up in Portland, Oregon, and was lucky enough to see firsthand that nature and modern life can coexist. I spent countless days at the river, on trips to the coast, hiking in Forest Park and exploring the mountains nearby. That appreciation for the outdoors only deepened when I moved to Montana for college.
The outdoors became a core part of who I am. And as I got older and learned how fragile our planet’s ecosystems are, I grew increasingly frustrated with the way we’ve set up business. The incentives to cut costs, take shortcuts and maximize revenue make doing business the wrong way far too appealing for companies to ignore. Excessive pollution, exploitation of workers, harmful materials and much more have become commonplace — so commonplace that supporting those companies with your dollars is nearly unavoidable. Between how widespread these practices are and how much greenwashing covers for them, finding the companies doing things right is much harder than it needs to be.
In 2025 I got tired of feeling helpless about it, quit my job, and started Leif List. The vision was simple: put the power to “vote with your wallet” back in shoppers’ hands. I wanted to give people instant information on a company’s practices and values, so they can make quick, well-informed decisions about where their money goes and support the businesses that share their values.
I was raised believing it’s part of the social contract to be stewards not just of the environment, but of one another. Most of us do that in our own lives. As a society, I think we’ve lost sight of it. My hope is that, in some small way, giving people the power to reward companies doing things the right way creates an incentive for the whole industry to shift.
When you look up a brand here, the answer shouldn’t be a press release, an ad, or a feeling. It should be what the record shows — including when the record shows nothing. That’s the test I hold the site to, and the one you should hold me to.