green products come from green companies

(pictured above: our biodiesel truck)

from the start of method's existence as a company we've been focused on how to do good through our business. from both social and environmental perspectives, we've tried to ensure that we leave things better than we found them - hopefully radically better. when making our products, we've focused the design process on the greenest chemistries, materials and formats around and constantly push to raise the bar. and this has been successful - we are fully confident of the health of the materials from which we make our products and stand behind our record of innovation in designing products.

now we are taking the next big step – using this same design mindset to redefine the processes that are used to actually manufacture the products. the trick is, we don’t own any of these facilities. this means intense collaboration with all our supply chain partners, helping them develop green manufacturing as their bread and butter so that our processes improve in terms of the materials, water and energy they use.  we are making the leap from product design to process design.

we are gearing up to start into this in earnest in the coming months, and will share our tales of blue collar sustainability as we make the transition from designing green soap to designing green processes to make the soap.

what other companies do you admire for their ability to design a process for operating green in addition to making a green product?

people against dirty, for dirt

Though we may be people against dirty, we do make one exception for the grimy stuff…compost! A family of happy, well-fed worms resides in our 3rd floor kitchen, and chomps the day away while the rest of us work.


Much to our delight, our hunky San Francisco mayor has just made sure that we’re not the only ones reveling in green bin fun. Gavin Newsom signed a new law that mandates composting across the city and county of San Francisco.

While worm-haters will eventually be fined for not separating out their food scraps, the city will first spread the message through an educational campaign. Seems like a cool way to put the carrot before the stick. We’ll be on the lookout for pizza boxes that instruct the masses to recycle a clean box and compost a greasy box (see Gavin’s demo piece above). As if the boxes are ever grease free.

The good people of San Francisco already have much to be proud of – our fair city already diverts 72 percent of waste bound for landfills to recycling and composting programs. The new pro-worm, anti-methane law will hopefully help the city meet its 2020 goal of sending zero waste to landfill. And you wonder where we get our inspiration from.

Gavin Newsom image credit: John Cote/The Chronicle, SFGate.com

A talk with our own Drummond Lawson and GreenerDesign.com

So if you’ve been keeping up with us, you know we recently became certified as a Cradle to Cradle business. This morning, one of our very own Greenskeepers, Drummond Lawson, spoke to GreenerDesign.com on the process and what’s involved.

 In the article, Drummond shares how 20 of our products received silver certification and that we’re currently in the process of certifying another 20 more. The criteria for this certification involves examining our materials to see if they’re environmentally safe, designing for material reutilization, using renewable energy, water and energy efficiency, and company social responsibility practices. A few of our practices that comply with the certification standards include using label adhesives that don’t clog up recycling systems, utilizing bottles that are made from 100% recycled plastic, and purchasing carbon offsets to make up for emissions from manufacturing and employee corporate travel to name just a few.

If you’re interested in checking out the full article, be sure to check it out here.

what being a Cradle to Cradle business means

We recently had the honor of being endorsed as a Cradle to Cradle^SM company by some pretty inspiring people – green architect Bill McDonough and environmental chemist Dr. Michael Braungart, who literally wrote the book on green product design (called Cradle to Cradle). This endorsement comes after a few years of working with these two, and shows that running a company in an environmentally intelligent way is just as important as making a green product. What does that mean? It means we’ve been recognized for being a green and sustainable company in ALL that we do - not just the products we create. We’ve been recognized in being green as a whole (rather than just having green products) and that we don’t take part in practices that aren’t environmentally sustainable. Everything we do meets the C2C standards even if  we don’t choose to certify every single one of our products.

So why did method get named a Cradle to Cradle^SM company? Well, all the work we’ve been doing with Dr Braungart’s team at EPEA to assess each and every material that go into our products means that everything we make literally has the C2C principles built into them.

But this recognition is because Michael and Bill also saw that how we do things as a company strives to be truly good for the environment: from how we make and ship our product, to the office we work in, to the environmental innovations we create with our suppliers and partners, we are seeking to drive change in the system of how things are made.

This reminds us that a green product is a reflection of a green company – of the vision and goals of the people working there, and not a one-off to satisfy a trend that some forecaster observed. Everything we make at method reflects the belief that we can create a better functioning, more beautiful, and greener product, and change the way that industry works in the process.

Adam goes to TED

One of our co-founders, Adam Lowry just got back from attending the TED conference down in Southern California. When he got back, we asked him how the experience was.

===========

Late last week I got to go to the TED conference for the first time.  TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, and Design”, and is basically a conference about the bleeding edge of everything. The attendees are a who’s who of business, film, television, and design, so I was super excited when I got the invite.

   
In a nutshell, some of my favorite highlights were: 

• chatting with Al Gore face to face about how to combat global warming using the power of consumers
• having dinner with Robin Williams and laughing hysterically as he put on impromptu show for our table
• seeing the looks on peoples’ faces when Bill Gates released live mosquitoes into the crowd during his talk about malaria

In the technology area, I was blown away by Bonnie Bassler’s ability to determine how bacteria talk to each other, and engineer that speech to get them to do almost anything.  Watch out, because this is one we’re going to bring to method.  Using antibacterials means using chemicals that kill bacteria - all bacteria, including those that are actually good for you and help you stay healthy.  The next generation is probiotic products, where you use bacteria to get the job done instead!

There were other fascinating talks by Ed Ulbrich on how he created Benjamin Button out of Brad Pitt; Dan Ariely on why people cheat; and Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert on creative genius.  And many, many others….

It’s not often with today’s crazy schedules that we get to take time out to get truly inspired, and that’s exactly what I was last week.  My head is brimming with innovative ideas to bring to method’s products, the way we do business, and how we create good in this world through that business.  Just wait, even bigger things to come!!!

Mr. Lowry Goes to Washington

Earlier this week, Adam Lowry, co-founder and head Green Giant, was called upon the Obama-Biden Transition Team to participate in something very cool. Adam got to speak among a panel of other sustainable businesses about the future of green business and a green economy. We asked Adam what the trip was like...

==========

Last week, I got a call from the Obama-Biden Transition Team.  They wanted me to come to Washington and present method’s policy priorities and recommendations to the Administration.  After briefly lamenting the extra travel and subsequent carbon emissions (offset, of course), I realized I was being an idiot, and this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  So off I went to Capitol Hill!!

After a morning getting prepared with other members of the sustainable business community and my friend Jonathan Greenblatt, founder of Ethos Water and GOOD Mag CEO, who is running the Transition’s Social Innovation Team, we headed over to Transition Team HQ.  Apparently, the man himself was in the building, as evidenced by the black SUV’s out front with peculiar appendages and the men in suits talking to their sleeves (and no, I didn’t meet Obama).

 

After goofing around in the green room, we were escorted up to a conference room to get down to business.
 

In the room were 15 of us – some sustainable business practitioners like me, Seth Goldman from Honest Tea, Gary Hirschberg from Stonyfield Farm; some public policy specialists; and some of the leaders in the green jobs movement (like Melissa Bradley-Burns from Green for All).  We spent two hours hearing about the priorities of the Administration, and sharing our thoughts and wish list for policy over the next 8 years.


For method, our recommendations included nationwide recycling infrastructure and green chemistry policy, a new corporate form for sustainable business, and increasing transparency in the supply chain.  Incredibly, many had similar themes, and the Administration walked away with some action items to put to work. 


While it’s hard to walk out of a meeting like that feeling that something concrete has happened, it was clear that we are entering a new era.  The Obama Administration understands that the deck has been stacked against businesses trying to do the right thing, that government has been padding the coffers of polluters, and we need to rebalance the playing field.  The feeling in the room that change was coming was palpable. 


I don’t know if any history was made on Monday, but it sure felt like one small step that represented the first step in a change toward a sustainable economy that uses business to help, not hinder, our environmental and social condition.  I’m incredibly excited for what comes next….

It's everybody’s business

If you’ve been keeping up with Microsoft, you may have already noticed their brand new ad campaign built around the idea “because it’s everybody’s business.” The ad campaign features Quicksilver, Coca-Cola, and even our very own Eric Ryan, co-founder of method. In Eric’s spot, he talks about one of our core values: keeping it weird. Intrigued? Watch Eric’s moment of animated glory below.


Microsoft's It's Everybody's Business Ad from People Against Dirty on Vimeo.

farewell to our #1 call girl

It is with sadness that we bid our #1 people against dirty, Sarah Homeijer a fond farewell. Anyone who calls him or herself an advocate; anyone who’s written us a letter or called in to method; and anyone who’s attended our in-home parties has likely come across Sarah. And for those who have not, she’s undoubtedly come across you.

Sarah has been the friendly and impassioned voice of method’s people against dirty since she started 5 years ago when method was a wee little company with grand endeavors. She handpicked our dedicated consumer response team, founded our very successful advocacy program and is the reason we value advocate-love above all else. It is to her that we owe a lot of who we are and who we’ve become.

If method were a family, then Sarah would be that wild and crazy aunt – you know, that one that bought you alcohol snuck you into bars when you were seventeen. That one. 

Her easygoing and fun disposition; her scrappy and tireless work ethic; and her fiery dedication to keeping us on our green toes have become a glowing example of the spirit and passion of what method’s all about - she not only personifies our culture, she’s also one of its early inspirations too. 

Sarah will move back to New York City with her husband, Matthew and son, Silas to be closer to family. 

Au revoir, adieu and aloha, Sarah.

We’ll miss ya.

NYC mayor looking to ban plastic bags

 

There's an article on TreeHugger that's really something to boast about. NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is looking to charge consumers 6 cents per plastic bag (5 of which would go to the city, 1 of which would go back to the store). The hope is to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags and promote the use of reusable shopping bags.

Plastic bags are an inefficient use of non-renewable materials – they take a long time to break down, are brutally ugly eyesores, can interfere with water drainage and recycling systems and, worst of all, are totally unnecessary. Companies around the world churn out over 4 trillion plastic bags a year. Ugh.

While paper bags are a better option in some respects, they are still unneeded waste. This is why we love the idea of promoting the use of reusable shopping bags. They're a much better alternative for the environment and some stores even give you discounts for bringing in your own bag. These bags can be made of a bunch of different materials all varying in their degree of greenness, but what makes them really effective is when you use them over and over and we're all in support of that.

Our own hometown, San Francisco, became the first city in the US to ban the use of plastic bags back in 2007. While we like to think that SF helped pave the way for other cities to realize just how dirty plastic bags can be, we are most impressed by the results seen in Ireland, who placed a 15 cent levy on plastic bags in 2002, and saw a 90% reduction in their use (resulting in 1 billion fewer bags used per year) and raised over 12 million dollars of dedicated environmental program funding in the first year – all things that we’d love to see result from the New York City plan. And in case you didn't know it, we have our own version of a reusable bag that'll help get you into plastic bag rehab too.

Rubbish in blue (bag) image by SouthbankSteve

What does it mean to “Design for the Environment”?

You’ve heard from method’s very own environmental stewards – we call them “greenskeepers” – on our blog before, but the Design for the Environment (DfE) office of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also has our back. We work closely with this group of respected scientists to perform a final check on all of our formulations, validating that the ingredients we choose are safe for people and safe for the environment – “recognized for safer chemistry,” as they put it.

  We dig DfE for the rigor of their assessment work. They take the same approach we do: that products should be made with inherently safe materials, avoiding any potential safety hazards before we start to formulate. DfE researches a broad range of health and environmental characteristics for each proposed ingredient, as does a third party environmental research institute, the Environmental Protection and Encouragement Agency (EPEA).  The head of the EPEA is Dr. Michael Braungart, who developed the concept of “cradle to cradle” to describe the ideal life cycle of products and authored a book of the same title with architect William McDonough.

After DfE performs their in-depth assessments on the formulations, they make recommendations if necessary and decide to either recognize the formulation or not. So far in our collaboration, DfE has recognized over 50 of our products – which actually accounts for every one we've submitted to them!

So why go through the ingredient assessment process twice? It’s because we're really proud of our formulations and want to communicate their good health to as many people as possible – that means you! DfE, with their expertise and credibility as an EPA office, help tell this story through their DfE logo - the little globe you see here and on many of our bottles. And then the EPEA endorsement is the icing on the cake.

If you ever have questions or comments on our formulations, please tell us here, write [email protected], or give us a call at 1-866-9-method (1-866-963-8463).