One of the largest issues when it comes to sustainability is lack of traceability. The bigger and more complicated a product's supply chain is, the harder it is to keep track of the myriad of raw materials, chemicals, manufacturers, transportation, and energy sources that go into making it. Companies can say they're trying to be sustainable, but it's easy for things to fall through the cracks.

That's why we look for products with short supply chains and raw materials sourced from as few locations as possible, so we can keep track of them. Many of our brands actually work with farmers directly and manufacture their own goods in house! 

Traceability is crucial because it keeps supply chains transparent. That creates trust and accountability, so companies that operate sustainability can get the credit they're due.

Agriculture is a leading source of pollution. Pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air and soil. They can also remain in the environment for generations. Here are just some reasons why organic is important:

1. Reduce the amount of chemicals in your diet and environment. Organic food also typically contains more vitamins, minerals, enzymes and micronutrients than conventionally raised food 
2. Food future residency and Soil Health. Since the 1970's, earth has lost 30% of our topsoil. Topsoil is crucial because they contain all of the nutrients that plants need to survive, and thus provide humans with minerals and vitamins.  When food is grown in healthy soil, crops are better able to resist disease, survive drought, and tolerate insects. 
3. Reduce Greenhouse gas emission: Microbes in soil break down nitrogen fertilizers to produce nitrous oxide (N2O) – a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times as powerful as CO2. In addition, producing fertilizers is an energy-intensive process, on its own responsible for almost 1.5% of total global CO2 emissions.
4. Fight against Biodiversity Loss: Organic farms and crops are pollinator-friendly and protect bees, pollinators and wildlife from toxic chemicals. 
5. Organic farming generally uses less water than conventional farming methods. Organic cotton farming, for example, can contribute to a 91 percent reduction in water consumption.
6. Carbon Sequestration: Organic farming supports carbon sequestration, which helps to mitigate rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Carbon sequestration is the long- term storage of carbon in oceans, soils, vegetation (especially forests), and geologic formations. Although oceans store most of the Earth’s carbon, soils contain approximately 75% of the carbon pool on land — three times more than the amount stored in living plants and animals. Therefore, soils play a major role in maintaining a balanced global carbon cycle.

We look for products that are either certified organic (meaning generally at least 95% of ingredients are organic), or made with organic ingredients when possible. 

Since the 1970's, earth has lost 30% of our topsoil. One of the main reasons that our soil is becoming lifeless is because we are practicing monocropping at scale, and these crops (mostly corn, soy and wheat) are extracting the same nutrients from the ground over and over again. Our farm systems often rely on chemical fertilizers to add back in nitrogen and other crucial nutrients to this depleted soil, instead of using traditional methods of rotating crops, which gives the soil time to heal in between growing cycles.

Certified Regenerative farms maximize soil health and improves biodiversity of crops and animals by mimicing natural ecosystems as much as possible. It includes using cover crops, reducing tilling, rotating crops, and moving away from synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and factory farming.

This results in healthier soils, meaning increased carbon sequestration and biodiversity!

Animal agriculture is among the highest contributors to deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions. This includes things like methane production from cows and other animals (farts and burps) but also the cutting down large parts of the Amazon and other rainforests to grow soybeans to feed them.

That's a big deal, because the Amazon is one of the world's largest and most important carbon sinks. But over the past 20 years alone, the Brazilian Amazon has lost 350,000 square km of forest and emitted 13% more CO2 than it has absorbed.

We believe that moderation is key. You don't have to stop eating animals overnight. But we do believe that people should incorporate more plant based protein into their diets to reduce the overall demand for meat.

Because most of our customers are in the United States, we look for products made in the USA or in North America when possible. This is to keep the supply chain as local as possible and reduce how far products need to travel before reaching you!

We prioritize brands that work directly with farms to source their ingredients. This ensures that farmers and workers are paid and treated fairly, and that brands have full transparency, allowing them (and others) to verify sustainability practices on the ground. 

But not everyone can source directly from the farm. When we see a brand purchase their ingredients from an intermediary, we try to make sure that they source Fair Trade.

Fair Trade helps consumers make sustainable choices that ensure producers are paid fairer prices for their goods. enhancing their ability to implement sustainable and equitable practices.

When you see a product with the Fair Trade Certified label, it means that it supports rigorous social, environmental, and economic standards, including:

• Safe working conditions
• Environmental protection
• Sustainable livelihoods
• Community Development Funds

Only ~9% of the plastic produced gets recycled, ~16% gets burned. Most of the rest ends up in landfill or the sea, and eventually, in you.

Estimates suggest that between 8 million and 11 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean each year, and that's just the ocean! Tons of plastic makes it into the freshwater supply too!

Once it's there it turns into microplastics. Some of the microplastics we drink, some we use to wash, some get eaten by fish we eat and we even inhale some!

All that means a lot of microplastics end up in us. All of us. In fact, studies show that we all now have microplastics in us, which results in a variety of toxic effects, including oxidative stress, metabolic disorder, immune response, neurotoxicity, as well as reproductive and developmental toxicity.

Unfortunately a lot of things have plastic in them. But moving forward the best we can do is prioritize the ones that don't.

At the end of its life, waste is typically put in landfill, burned or recycled. And out of those three, recycling is by far the best option, even with materials like plastic which is not infinitely recyclable (and, as noted above, doesn't usually end up that way)

Materials like aluminum and glass are even better. They can be recycled indefinitely, which is probably why they have a much higher recyclability rate than plastic. In fact, about 65% of America's aluminum is currently recycled!

The vast majority of packaging (and products) are made from virgin materials but there is another option out there. Post-Consumer Recycled material or PCR.

PCR refers specifically to plastics that HAVE been recycled after being used by consumers, and then reprocessed into new products.

PCR reduces reliance on virgin plastic by decreasing the demand for plastic made from new fossil fuels. This lowers the amount of plastic sent to landfills and helps create a more circular economy, which is exactly the economy we want!

As biodegradable products break down naturally, they eventually decompose and are consumed by soil and other natural components. This natural process means no forced chemical reaction needs to take place to kickstart the process and less pollution will happen as a result.

This is especially relevant for many soaps and detergents on the market, which often contain harmful "forever" chemicals such as PFAS and microplastics.

We are big proponents of composting because plants take precious nutrients from the ground that humans and animals need for survival. Throwing all this into a landfill, which creates methane (a GHG gas 80x more potent than CO2) is just bonkers! 

While still in its infancy stages, we generally prefer compostable packaging over plastic because this is less likely to generate microplastics (beware that not all compostable packaging is generated equally and plastic made from plants can still generate microplastics and be harmful to aquatic life). As industrial composting really hasn't reached the scale required to process all these materials, we encourage at home composting with devices such as Reencle.

If you're looking for more info on composting, check out our Eco Education Hub (or search "How to Compost" in the search bar.

Upcycling simply refers to “The act of taking something no longer in use and giving it a second life". On our platform, this is especially relevant for food and plastic products that would have instead gone to landfill. Just look at the stats:

In the USA about 38% of food gets wasted, so it is a huge problem. Generating food is incredibly resource intensive. When it goes to waste it basically means we're taking nutrients and minerals from our soils and turning them into methane in landfills. And that's before we get to plastic!

Estimates suggest we produce more than 350 million metric tons of plastic waste each year. That's a lot of waste, for a petroleum-based product that's going to stay in the environment basically forever. Recycled polyester production also uses up to 59% less energy than regular polyester and 32% less water. Instead of making more plastic, why not work with what we have to give it a second life?

As you probably know, deforestation is bad, and we should stay away from products that result in trees getting cut down.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies forests to ensure their environments are responsibly managed and meet the highest environmental and social standards. 

We especially look for this label for bamboo products, which are a great alternative to trees, but controversial when grown on deforested land to meet growing consumer demand.