Here’s a green trend I’ve been seeing a lot:
1. New companies with enviro-missions come out with green alternatives to existing, less-eco-friendly products.
2. These new green companies start bickering with each other about who’s really green, creating consumer confusion and green distrust.
3. Suddenly, the non-green big companies that were making the uneco products in the first place come out with uber-green product lines — that are actually more eco and better performing than the ones the green companies are selling.
Let me give you a couple examples of this somewhat disturbing trend. We saw this first with dishwashing liquids:
1. Seventh Generation, Method, and many other green companies started selling eco-friendly household cleaners, providing an alternative to the toxic bleach and noxious chemicals that Clorox offered.
2. Green infighting began, with companies like Dr. Bronner’s vilifying Seventh Generation, Method, and others for selling products that still contain cancer-causing chemicals like 1,4-dioxane and other less-than-eco ingredients. Of course, the uber-eco alternatives free of 1,4-dioxane, like Dr. Bronner’s multipurpose castile soap or LifeTree Home Soap, just didn’t work as well as the “traditional” Clorox-type products or the somewhat greener stuff from Method and Seventh Gen.
3. Suddenly, Clorox came out with an eco-friendly Green Works line. Its dishwashing liquid is not only 1,4-dioxane free but also a damn good product, as tested by both myself and my friend Summer in our respective kitchens AND as attested by the fact that the Green Works line’s already outselling established green brands. And while many environmentalists are still leery of giving Clorox — which still sells the less than eco lines and fights eco-friendly legislation — their hard earned dollars, I don’t think any of them can name a dishwashing liquid comes from a 100% green-committed company that’s also 1,4-dioxane free and works just as well as “conventional” products.
I’m now also seeing the same trend happen with organic personal care products. Case in point:
1. Aubrey Organics, Avalon, Alba, and a slew of other eco-friendly personal care companies sprang up, providing lotions and shampoos free of parabens and other less-than-eco chemicals that big, mainstream companies like Estee Lauder use.
2. Green infighting began, with various green-minded companies calling each other out on a number of different issues (“They still use parabens!” “They don’t use parabens but do use worse chemicals people don’t know about!” “They’re leading customers astray by putting ‘organic’ in the product name when their products aren’t USDA organic certified!” “Organic’s the only way to go and they’re not organic!” “Organic’s NOT the only way to go — Shampoo doesn’t have to be food-grade!”). A bunch of different eco-certification programs were launched. General consumer confusion ensued.
3. Suddenly, the big companies started launching uber-green product lines. The Estee Lauder-owned Origins, for example, launched Origins Organics, a line of mostly USDA-certified organic products that are higher up on the eco-scale than most “green” personal care companies’ products — and work better than USDA-certified products from green companies like Miessence.
Combine this trend with the fact that many once-independent uber-eco companies — i.e. Tom’s of Maine — are getting bought up by big, less than eco companies, and we’ve got a strange eco-marketplace indeed. Before, environmentalists just had to pick between a very uneco Clorox product and a much more eco product from Seventh Gen or Earth Friendly products. That choice was easy. Now, environmentalists have to pick between a fairly eco product from Seventh Gen — or an even more eco product from Clorox.
How do YOU make these decisions?
>>How do YOU make these decisions?
I choose baking soda.
Okay, I realize that’s not totally eco either because it’s mined or something, right? Really, I go for the most eco choice that also has the least packaging — especially plastic.
I’d love to see all of these companies start to focus more on their packaging. Offering bulk options for bringing your own container. Creating concentrated versions (shampoo bars, for example) that require less packaging. Using 100% post-consumer recycled content in their packaging and taking back and recycling packaging at the end of its life (like Preserve.)
So, yes, the stuff inside the package is obviously the most important part, but now that we have so many least-toxic options, I’d like to see zero waste be the next green movement for these companies.
Didn’t really answer your question, though.
Comment by Beth Terry, aka Fake Plastic Fish — November 23, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
Interesting that green works used the same font as GreenatWorkMag.com. A small green magazine that has been around since 2000.
Great blog.
Comment by greenerguy — November 24, 2008 @ 5:16 am
What a dichotomy! Man o’ man… I’ve been aware of this progression for some time. A trend that will seemingly continue to transcend because there is a need and a want for more eco-friendly products made available at your local Vons, not at your local apothecary or Co-op. It’s that consumer one-stop shop attitude; and quite honestly, I fall “prey” to that at times, but I have also learned to educate myself about what companies support what, and what it is I’m putting on my face or on my dishes.
The need is for more grass-roots competition on a more main-stream level, perhaps? However, when it becomes mainstream, it looses that home-spun appeal, which I personally love!
How progressive can we get when you’ve got big-time companies like Clorox buying out Burt’s Bees, etc.? It’s frustrating, but then at the same time, my hope is that the uber-green lines from the not so uber green companies will create a more sustainable trend for themselves as a whole. We’ll see… :)
Your blog definitely sparked conversation in our home this evening. Thank you for such a great perspective!
Comment by Rosalie Miller — November 24, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
Beth — Baking soda doesn’t quite make for a good dishwashing liquid — and while I hear you about how companies should be thinking about their packaging too, I’m tired of getting press releases from companies that sell totally uneco products — but in recycled / recylable packaging. I guess our pet peeves are different –
Rosalie — It is definitely an odd time. I mean, Seventh Gen’s defending the fact that 1,4-dioxane’s in its products, arguing that it’s a minuscule amount, while Clorox’s Green Works has just gone ahead and gotten rid of it. We’ll see if conventional companies actually end up pushing green companies to catch up –
Comment by Siel — November 24, 2008 @ 10:11 pm