Tag Archives: Method
The Future of Cradle to Cradle Certification: An Interview with William McDonough
Posted on 17. Aug, 2011 by Sara Glaser.
Opportunity Green had the privilege of attending 2011’s Dwell on Design Conference where William McDonough gave a captivating keynote address that emphasized eco-effectiveness within this new paradigm that focuses on continuous quality improvement. Prior to McDonough taking the stage, we were fortunate enough to have the chance to commend him on his recent accomplishments as well as ask him a few questions of our own.
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New Eco-Friendly Products for Earth Day 2011
Posted on 22. Apr, 2011 by Kristall Lutz.
Happy Earth Day 2011! Today, and everyday, we urge you to think about the products you purchase and use, and the impact they have on our planet.
This morning, Emilie Cowan of Opportunity Green and Ecofabulous.com was featured on CBS “The Early Show” highlighting seven great, new eco-friendly products from household cleaners to organic underwear.
Watch: Emilie Cowan on The Early Show
See more coverage here: Emilie Cowan on The Early Show
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Interview with OppGreen 2009 Speaker, Adam Lowry, Chief Greenskeeper of Method
Posted on 03. Nov, 2009 by Susanna Schick.
Adam Lowry (being throttled by Eric) is the Chief Greenskeeper and co-founder of method. He founded method in 2000 with Eric Ryan, because he was tired of writing white papers on climate change that had no impact on the general public’s behavior. He wanted to use his powers for good, and solve a gap in the market he saw because he could never find quality environmentally-friendly cleaning products. Adam and Eric sought to create cleaning products that don’t require a sacrifice-based positioning. Adam believes that people shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything to be green, particularly quality and design. He wanted to build a company that inspires people to live sustainably, rather than simply educating them, to create products that are high-quality and beautiful, that just so happen to be at the highest possible standard of sustainable design.
OG: It seems every week there’s a new eco cleaning brand on the shelf, and the DfE list of certified products is quite long. How stringent is it really? Do they require products contain NO chemicals of concern? Are there chemicals we should be concerned about that the EPA is permitting?
Adam: Dfe is a great starting point as it assesses the formulations of a product and deems whether they are compatible with program objectives. We’ve worked with the DfE program on a number of cleaning products and will continue to do so in the future. DfE is an industry standard, the one problem with standards is that a lot of people just try to meet the minimum and call it a day. You want to constantly improve, it’s not helpful to just hit the bar, you need to constantly strive to be more sustainable and more delightful. We’ll always be both C2C and DfE certified, and we’re constantly trying to evolve, to be even better.
OG: The Consumerist has a great story on microfiber cleaning cloths, how wonderfully effective they are, and how hard the US household chemicals industry tries to convince us that we need to kill germs, not just wipe them away. Method has a great line of dedicated microfiber cloths for various surfaces, positioned with relevant fluid products. Is the US finally getting it, or do we still need to be taught why microfiber is so great?
Adam: Microfiber is great, but the real issue is not so much about microfiber specifically, but how we manage infection within the home. Microfiber is just a tool. Unfortunately, with H1N1, we’re actually going in the wrong direction, and we’ve seen a big rise in disinfection products- a lot of toxic surface disinfectants and hand sanitizers with Triclosan. If you look at what the CDC and the scientific community have to say, a lot of studies show that just cleaning effectively is every bit as healthy as the “kill ‘em all” strategy. Germ control is best done without using toxic chemicals, as certain chemicals have all these harmful side effects, especially when mixed incorrectly with other products. Method never uses any of these chemicals. For example, with handwashing, if you just use hot water and regular soap, your hands are just as clean and you don’t have to use dangerous chemicals like Triclosan.
OG: Yes, I recall your Treehugger article on handwashing from a design perspective, it was great.
OG: So as a rapidly growing cleaning products company, what’s it like at this stage? Have your sales & marketing strategies had to change drastically as you’ve grown?
Adam: No, they haven’t changed at all. At method we sell a philosophy of living where you don’t have to sacrifice design or other sensibilities in order to be eco. The tactics we use to spread that philosophy- our people against dirty, social media (methodtweet and Adam on Twitter), etc. have always been the same. Creating products that are worth talking about- awesome products that people want to talk about, to spread the word in authentic way, that’s what we’re always about.
OG: I love it when companies listen to me on Twitter. I recently tweeted a complaint that my local grocery store seemed to carry less method than it had in the past (full disclosure, I’m a fan), and methodtweet was on it within hours. I’ve had this happen with other companies as well.
OG: In the 2008 Fox news story, you said “Green, cheap and high-performance are what you want, but there’s a rule of thumb that says you can only have two out of three.” (Like anything, really, we get what we pay for.) But the article goes on to say that your products are usually only 50 cents more than the competition. Yet your market share took a hit (according to this article) when Clorox GreenWorks came out. Are other forces at play here? Or are people really that cheap?
Adam: Part of it is how the larger companies control shelf space in our industry. But there are a lot of consumers who are really price sensitive. The big guys create a really cheap product, but spend a fortune on marketing, whereas we invest heavily in making the product experience as good as it can possibly be. We are committed to internalizing the environmental cost of our products, and others don’t, so method has to cost a little bit more.
OG: The article also mistakenly stated only one brand wasC2C certified, while method’s entire line is C2C, isn’t it?
Adam: We build the C2C methodology into all of our products. At the front end of creating any product, we work with the EPEA (led by Michael Braungart) and MBDC to assess all potential ingredients and to ensure we are using healthy, safe and environmentally-sensitive materials. At the back end, we look to certify every method product as C2C. However, with over 200 products in our portfolio, we focus the C2C certification process on where it will be the most impactful and where we can afford to do so.
OG: Actually, Method has surpassed Herman Miller on the C2C list, but Steelcase and their subsidiaries seem to have the top spot.
OG: What advice do you have for eco-entrepreneurs?
Adam: My advice to entrepreneurs is- it’s really important to make sure that what you’re doing is really compelling for reasons other than being green, it has to be great in its own right, and green has to be just another part of its quality. The whole idea of eco-entrepreneur should become the standard for entrepreneurship in general.
OG: people against dirty is a brilliant concept. But do you measure its impact? Say, how sales increase in regions where you have more people against dirty, or by working with retailers to track influence through coupons or anything?
Adam: No, it’s more qualitative than quantitative. People against dirty is about a lifestyle and a movement, where people don’t have to compromise, they can do things that are fun and inspiring. That creates a community, but measuring communities isn’t really that effective.
OG: Thanks so much for your time, Adam. I’m looking forward to hearing you talk about upcoming trends in green products.
Photo of Adam and Eric courtesy of Liz Haphalia for the Chronicle.
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Interview with WearPACT–Change starts with your underwear
Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by OppGreen Insights.
This morning I met with Jason and Jeff, co-founders of WearPACT, the sustainable underwear company. They met and started WearPACT while MBA students at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Jason is showing off their awesome compostable shipping bag that I was so impressed with. Even the glue on it is compostable! Pure genius and proof that where there’s a will there’s a way.
They sent me off with a free pair of boy shorts, event though I wanted to buy them, which I’ve found to be a very comfy indeed. They’re a thinner, silkier cotton than the boy shorts I’ve bought elsewhere, and come with a cute print bag that’s handy for storing jewelry and such.
OG: Tell me about the name WearPACT.
Jason: Well, first we called it ActionPACT when we were just going to do men’s underwear. When we added women’s, we needed a name that would work for women too–we thought ActionPACT was too macho. We had Yves Behar do the branding–essentially you’re wearing a pact between yourself, your underwear and the cause you’re supporting with your purchase. 10% of sales of each pair go to a charity-Oceana, Forest Ethics, and 826 National.
OG: This is remarkable, as most companies who donate a portion of sales don’t give more than 1% of profits, so 10% of sales is massive.
Jason: To build something sustainable, it has to be beautiful and work on all other aspects too. Then we also worked within the constraint of it being environmentally and socially responsible.
OG: Like Method, with tho they led with gorgeous cleaning products that work great, and the eco benefits are core to the product, but not trumpeted to the consumers?
Jason: Method was a huge brand inspiration for us, we really like them.
OG: So why underwear?
Jason: Jeff was hunting for sustainable and quality underwear, and I just wanted to start a green business of any kind. We looked at the category and couldn’t find an existing eco market leader, and saw that luxury underwear is a growing segment, with room for growth. Men’s and women’s underwear sales grew in 2008, in general it is a healthy category.
OG: Like the underwear index indicated?
Jason: Exactly! Also we wanted to focus on what people actually need, and well, we all need underwear. Plus there’s clearly room for innovation in the category.
OG: How hard was it to find Planet Access Company? I’m impressed they even exist!
Jason: We were introduced to PAC by Horny Toad–Gordon helped start Planet Access. It may have been solely Horny Toad’s fulfillment center at first, have since become a valuable fulfillment for many small and conscious companies.
OG: What were the biggest obstacles you faced as a startup?
Jason: I’m pretty familiar with startups, I’ve worked on about 6 so far, so we have a company attitude that we will be derailed weekly, and just need to work through these challenges. Potentially company-destroying problems come up all the time, but we just have to plow through them.
For example, we were starting up last summer, and when the financial crisis hit in Fall 2008, some of our investors backed out. So we started on a much smaller budget than we’d originally planned. We knew our floor–essentially we had to be able to pay for the first run of production and get the website up and running. So, we made sure we at least had that much.
OG: Do you see WearPACT expanding the product line in the future? Do you see yourselves eventually becoming the eco Victoria’s Secret, but for men and women?
Jason: We’re not trying to be anyone but PACT–we’re brand new, so volume is tiny right now. First we’d like to dramatically increase sales. We don’t want to deal with fashion whims but do like to come up with one or two new pairs per quarter. We’re still learning about what our scale will be, and trying to expand beyond the eco-consumers without compromising our values. We and our customers to buy beautiful underwear that fits great, looks great, but also has this eco dimension. We want to design a product that people are excited about, that’s sexy and fun but not trashy.
OG: What are you looking forward to at Opportunity Green?
Jason: I’m really looking forward to meeting like-minded people in sustainable businesses that we might partner with someday.
OG: You’ll check out Yves’ panel, of course?
Jason: Of course!
OG: Anything else you want to tell readers?
Jason: Buy lots! We’re offering a 25% discount to Opportunity Green attendees. Just enter the discount code “OG25″ when you place your order.
