Tag Archives: treehugger
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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The Future of Biofuels: Can This Green Energy Pay Off?
Posted on 31. Aug, 2009 by Ben Upham.
Opportunity Green was drawn to the Milken Institute yesterday to attend a panel entitled “The Future of Biofuels: Can This Green Energy Pay Off — and Save the Planet?” Biofuels, such as ethanol, made from corn, other plants, like switchgrass, and even from algae, have been both touted and trashed in the last couple years. Heralded as a way to “grow our gasoline”, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and securing energy independence, and denounced for perpetuating heavily subsidized industrial farming techniques that harm the environment and, allegedly, contribute to food scarcity.
The panel featured three guests, Roger Conway, director of the Office of Energy Policy and New Uses at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Daniel Gardenswartz, a founding partner of The Sage Group LLC, a Los Angeles-based boutique merchant banking firm, and Richard Hamilton, president and CEO of Ceres, a company that is developing dedicated energy crops for a new generation of biofuels.
A Convincing Argument for Biofuel
Given the business background of the three speakers, the panel was clearly biased towards the industry, and it showed in the presentation. One by one, the panelists attempted to knock down most of the traditional complaints about biofuel:
It is heavily subsidized. Well, so is oil, solar, wind — every major industry.
It causes food prices to rise, most noticeably in 2008. Actually, food prices rose in ’08 because of the rise in the price of oil (backed up with an accompanying slide).
We don’t have the land. There is more than enough unused “marginal” farm land to produce all the biofuel we need.
It uses up precious resources, like water. Most corn and switchgrass (Hamilton’s preferred crop) is rain-fed.
It adds to global warming. Switchgrass is carbon negative, because the plants suck CO2 out of the atmosphere.
By the end of the Q & A the panel seemed to have the audience in the palm of its hand, especially Hamilton, who is 6’6″ and bears a striking resemblance to Brian Williams.
…But on the Other Hand
Opportunity Green remains skeptical. These men have made a career out of deflecting questions about biofuel, and have a lot of practice. While they have valid points on all the issues raised here, the information they provided was selective. For more detailed analysis, check out these articles from the New York Times and Treehugger.
Plus, there are other objections that were not raised. For instance, biofuel is most viable when oil prices are high, but if they are, people are not going to be looking to find a cheaper (but still not free) substitute for gasoline — they’re going to be looking for a way to avoid the stuff altogether. Why pay for liquid fuel when you can get electricity for little or nothing?
Over the long run, we think biofuels will provide a stop-gap between current internal combustion technology and widespread adaption of a green technology like electricity or fuel cells. Biofuels also have a future in aviation and shipping, and possibly diesel trucking, where alternative energies are not cost-effective or simply not possible.
One biofuel that did get short-shrift from the panel was the so-called third generation fuel made from algae. Hamilton and Gardenswartz agreed that those processes were still too untested and expensive for commercial use. This opinion seems to jibe with current sentiment. There’s been a lot of excitement about algae-based fuels in the last couple years, but a lot of high-profile failures too.
Despite our skepticism, Opportunity Green left the panel with increased open-mindedness about this much-maligned fuel source. But we’re still waiting for our electric car.
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Opportunity Green Rolls Out the Green Carpet for the New York City Debut
Posted on 22. Jul, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
Who would be bold enough to take over one city block of Manhattan on Bastille Day? Opportunity Green and MINI E, of course. Last week the Opportunity Green team went bi-coastal and headed to New York to host over 300 guests for a night of metropolitan mingling. As guests strolled into the three-story Environment showroom, they were able to catch a glimpse of ten electric MINI E vehicles, proudly driven by a diverse set of MINI E Pioneers.
Notable guests in attendance included Graham Hill, Treehugger Interactive Founder & CEO; Julie Gilhart, Fashion Director & SVP at Barneys; Rohit Aggarwala, Director of New York City Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning nd Sustainability; and Helen Walters, Innovation Editor at Businessweek. Movers and shakers in the clean tech space included Micah Kotch, Operations Director of NYC Accelerator for a Clean & Renewable Economy and Lex Heslin, MINI E Pioneer & CEO of Beautiful Earth Group.
Party attendees interacted with other executives, artists, designers, and academics from around the Tri-State Region. In between conversations, many guests indulged in organic delights from Sage Events and fruit cocktails splashed with natural mixers and organic vodka. In true Opportunity Green fashion, a NYC Photobooth was set up on the second floor of Environment to capture guests up close and personal. As the night started to wind down and the NYC humidity went up, guests left with new connections and a fresh taste of California cool.
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Opportunity Green’s Top 10 Eco Twitterers To Follow
Posted on 22. May, 2009 by Chathri Munasinghe.
We scoured through hundreds of tweeps in the green space to find the best eco twitterers. Whether your focus is eco-fashion or clean tech, check out Opportunity Green’s list of the top eco twitterers to add to your list:
1. @grist
Grist.org is the hub of everything fun and green. Their witty, yet informative site has contributors from around the world scribing about politics, green business, living green, and just plain fun stuff. Opportunity Green Co-Founder, Karen Solomon, had her latest post as one of the top living green posts last week.
2. @maxgladwell
Rob Reed, the face behind the Max Gladwell alter-ego, is almost like an eco-friendly Batman. He is using the alias and social media as his super power, launching green living into the mainstream. His spiderweb-like network of people is leading a wholesale shift to sustainable systems.
