You might not expect modern corporations to tackle an urgent problem of the 21st century by looking back to the 1950s. But that’s what one group of companies is doing with a new service called Loop, whose backers refer to its approach as “the milkman model.” As that Leave It to Beaver–era nickname implies, Loop delivers supermarket and drugstore staples—including toothpaste, detergent, mayonnaise, and ice cream—to consumers’ homes in durable, reusable containers. It’s a “zero waste” initiative, an effort to alleviate the planet’s plastic-pollution crisis. Several consumer-goods giants are Loop partners, including Unilever and Nestlé (which are packaging their brands in Loop’s bottles and tubes) and retailers Kroger and Walgreens. The company that conceived Loop, however, and will distribute, clean, and refill all those containers, is tiny TerraCycle, a 302-employee startup in Trenton, N.J., whose CEO, Tom Szaky, founded the business 18 years ago in his Princeton dorm room. TerraCycle holds the No. 10 spot on Fortune’s fifth annual Change the World list. The list honors companies that recognize public health, environmental, economic, and social problems as major challenges—but also as opportunities to initiate a so-called virtuous circle. They understand that doing good for society and the planet can help them bring in more revenue, which can help them do more good, in a self-reinforcing loop. The TerraCycle project embodies another kind of virtuous circle: As the threats posed by pollution become increasingly urgent, more companies are embracing the idea of a “circular economy,” one in which products last longer and are close to 100% recyclable. That idea animates Daisy, Apple’s iPhone-repurposing robot (No. 16); the reusable “smart grid” circuitry manufactured by French giant Schneider Electric (No. 9); and many other innovations featured here. Expanding opportunities for your own employees can create another positive loop. That ideal guides $514 billion retailer Walmart (No. 5), which is paying for higher education for thousands of its employees, and $398 million restaurant chain MOD Pizza (No. 28), which has built its workforce around formerly incarcerated people and others who struggle to get hired elsewhere. We selected the 2019 list in collaboration with our expert partners at Shared Value Initiative, a consultancy that helps companies apply business skills to social problems. As MOD shows, small companies are just as capable as multinationals of fitting that bill. This year’s smaller candidates were particularly potent. Our 52 honorees include at least nine companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. “Small” doesn’t mean “money-losing,” however. These companies here have built their do-gooder ideas into real business models, and are either turning a profit with their help or have credible plans for doing so. (Please see more about our methodology here.) The Change the World list doesn’t score companies on their charitable generosity, nor does it rate them on some cosmic scale of good and bad. It celebrates the nexus where daring ideas overlap with the desire to make the world better. Loop, which has signed up 80,000 customers in the U.S. and Europe since its launch in May, sits in that sweet spot. It’s not going to make the Great Pacific Garbage Patch disappear. But be patient: Many world-changing ideas start small.

Do the words "moving apartments" immediately spike your heart rate? I'm with you. In the weeks leading up to my recent move, my palms were sweaty and my brain ran amok with logistics. U-Hauls and moving boxes played a prominent role in my nightmares more than once. As if the typical concerns about packing, parking, and paying for my new place weren't enough, this time I'd assigned myself the added challenge of keeping the move as low-waste as possible. During the packing and unpacking process, I wanted to avoid the trash can and recycling bins (the recycling industry is in crisis right now, after all) and make sure that everything I gave away was actually going to be reused. This way of thinking definitely added time to my moving process. It did take some extra energy to find homes for all my different buckets of stuff. (And I realize that not everyone has the luxury of making a slow, methodical move like I did.) But doing things this way saved me some of the eco-guilt of throwing away perfectly good items like I had done in moves past. Here are some of the resources that I found most helpful throughout the process. May they save you at least one moving-box-related nightmare.   For clothing, look to resell first and recycle what's left. My closet was the first thing I tackled, and I did a serious wardrobe edit about a month before move-out. As I did, the words of fashion industry waste expert Elizabeth L. Cline rang through my head. When I spoke with Cline for a story on what actually happens to clothes after they're donated, she told me, "On average, most resale stores and thrift shops only sell 20 to 25% of the donations they receive, and the rest is sent onward to exporters or recyclers." She added that around 1.7 billion garments are exported out of the United States every year. The problem is that many of us are guilty of donating things that are tattered, stained, and outdated to the point that nobody else would ever want to buy them. Instead of lugging my piles of clothes to my local Goodwill and hoping for the best, I picked out the pieces that I thought could still be worth something and mailed them to ThredUp—an online consignment shop that pays you for the items it sells and then recycles the rest. The process was really easy: I printed a prepaid label from their website and sent in my clothes (after washing them and making sure they were in tiptop shape). A few weeks later, I got an email recapping what items the company decided to sell and how much I would make off of them ($12.47 richer, baby!). After that, I was left with stuff that I didn't think could reasonably be resold, which I took to a GrowNYC drop-off location for recycling. Now, they probably exist as insulation or carpet padding or industrial rags somewhere. It's not the best-case scenario, but hopefully by my next move, it will be more common to see old garments be repurposed into new ones.   Give away your small appliances and household staples. Freecycle was a godsend during my move. The online platform is similar to Craigslist, except everything is free. I posted things like mirrors, clocks, small furniture, hot water heaters, and fans. Everything was scooped up within a few days of posting, and it was easy to coordinate pick-ups via email and text. It was a win-win: I got rid of my stuff and gave it to someone who was genuinely excited to use it. Granted, I live in a central area of New York City, so it might be harder to find takers if you live in more remote locations, but I encourage anyone to try the service. I'm keeping an eye on the site for the next time I'm tempted to order something online because you can find some real gems. I've also heard good things about Buy Nothing groups on Facebook, which serve a similar purpose. If you're hoping to make money off of higher worth electronics, Best Buy also has a take-back program for those. Oh! And I tried to use up most of my food before the move, but if you have any perishable ingredients on your hands, the OLIO App can connect you with nearby people who will gladly use them in their own kitchens.

Article continues below

Swap what's left with friends. As Lindsay Miles writes in her new book Less Stuff, an overview on how to declutter responsibly, you shouldn't recycle anything until you've made sure no one else wants it! As a wellness editor, I'm sent a lot of beauty products, supplements, and superfoods to try—some of which I never actually use and just collect dust in my cabinets. But they're perfectly good! I asked around to see if my roommate, co-workers, friends, and family wanted anything and was able to find a home for most of it. I also attended a "swag swap" organized by Good Stuff, a circular economy pop-up, and started to think about how fun it would be to organize something similar with friends. Next time!   Rent reusable packing boxes. Cardboard moving boxes are deceptively bulky, expensive, and annoying to get rid of. Instead, I used NYC-based reusable moving box company Gorilla Bins at the recommendation of a friend. The company delivered reusable boxes to my old apartment and picked them up from my new one a week later (another benefit of a service like this: It forces you to unpack quickly!) to be cleaned and reused. The boxes were well-sized, waterproof, and much sturdier than cardboard. Though Gorilla Bins is an NYC-based company, U-Hauloffers a similar service nationwide.   Remember that the zero-waste mentality shouldn't stop when you move in. Now that I'm settling into my new place, I'm trying to keep up the momentum by purchasing things that I won't need to just get rid of again during my next move. Instead of going with cheap furniture that's low in quality, I'm saving up to buy more expensive pieces that I know will last. I'm also on the lookout for secondhand pieces—AptDeco is a highly trafficked site in my browser right now—and am considering renting anything I can't see myself hanging onto in the long run. For household items that usually come wrapped in disposable packaging (think shampoo, conditioner, razors, cleaning wipes, etc.) I've been using Loop—a new program that delivers products from companies like Unilever, Procter & Gamble Company, Coca-Cola, and Haagen-Dazs in reusable packaging that will be collected and reused when you're done with them. I was lucky enough to receive a trial Loop box to try out and I love it so much I've already signed up to become a regular customer. I'm far from perfect, but my visits to my apartment building's trash room are definitely getting a little less frequent, and that's a win in my book.

  Our single-use disposable packaging world is about to change. And this time the change is being fueled by consumer demand. Witness the backlash against plastics with the ubiquitous refillable metal water bottle in everyone’s hands, the ban of single-use plastic bags in New York, California (and elsewhere), and the focus on how our oceans are overflowing — not with fish, but with tons of plastic. Efforts to recycle are also proving too difficult and costly to be effective and don’t address the root cause of the issue. But, aside from single-use packaging being bad for the environment, it simply can’t deliver on truly great and entirely new brand experiences unconstrained by the cost of goods (i.e. fretting over fractions of pennies in material costs). With consumer acceptance growing, we can now view packaging as durable rather than disposable, and offer solutions that are truly sustainable while delivering usage experiences never before possible. One example is Loop, the zero-waste platform announced at the World Economic Forum, formed by a coalition of major consumer product manufacturers including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, etc. With pilot programs rolling out in New York this past May, the circular shopping platform features products in durable packages that are delivered, consumed, and then returned back to the manufacturer to be cleaned and refilled, and sent out again. This major shift in ownership of the package from the consumer to the brand is a ticket to unfettered imagination in consumer experience and sustainability. The package essentially becomes an asset and can be viewed and designed as a device. This opens the door to a myriad of opportunities and innovation, unlocking technology that can change the experience of the user in ways never before possible. Brands can rethink what their package does and how the consumer uses it, such as a pill package that reminds you when to take or reorder pills, detect when a food has expired (say goodbye to the smell test), automatically order more product when its running low, or self-seal to insure freshness. While initial package costs are more, with each reuse, the cost splits in half and, importantly, the consumer is not throwing it away. TerraCycle, the parent company of Loop, calculated the total impact of the packaging and found that it’s between 50-75% better for the environment than conventional alternatives. Jasmin Druffner, (durable packaging developer, Loop Global), acknowledges, “Loop is a groundbreaking platform that goes against the grain. But, it gives brands an opportunity to rethink how consumers view them through their packaging.” (See sidebar). Whereas it used to be convenience and ease of use that dominated the landscape, today consumers are more than happy to bring their own reusable bags to shop while demanding that Starbucks get rid of single-use plastic straws. Here are three ways that brands and packaging teams can approach this successfully:

1. Inspire your team with the possibilities. This is the chance to help them imagine an entirely new consumer experience is possible. What can be done for consumers to change their experience with the brand and differentiate it from the competition? For the Loop initiative, Häagen-Dazs has developed a refillable stainless steel ice cream tub that delivers a better experience by keeping the product colder longer. According to Tommy See Tho, packaging and design manager at Nestlé, “The feature resonates well with test consumers and contributes to the “freshness” of the product.” (See sidebar.)

The initial launch will reach thousands of consumers in New York and Paris. Reusable packages have the potential to allow technological features that make them more “intelligent,” able to anticipate user needs, and many other things we didn’t imagine possible. Think of it as a chance to deliver something to consumers that is really important to them — even an experience tailored to their unique lifestyle.

2. Quantify the result to insure leadership support. Make sure your team has created real value for your consumer, and not just a gimmick. Usability studies and in home usage tests provide a window into the real world. Also, collecting usage data directly from the package can unlock quantitative evaluation tools only dreamed of in the past! Think of this as designing an asset, so that it can be robustly engineered.

3. Identify suppliers early on to insure best implementation. Many existing packaging components are composed of plastics that may be difficult to clean and reuse. New global manufacturing partners may need to be part of an innovative solution. Finding the right partner and utilizing the right technology is key. Getting them involved early in the design process ensures a smooth and quick transition into production.

Transitioning from a use and toss packaging model to a durable package shouldn’t be seen as difficult or expensive but instead an opportunity for your team to innovate at a level never before seen in your category. The durable packaging movement is an opportunity for packaging professionals everywhere to be part of a truly sustainable product/package model that can have a tremendous impact in the world. Get out and inspire your teams to be a part of it!

Big businesses are some of the world's largest producers of waste, and they're under mounting pressure to craft strategies to address the issue. Experts advise that actions speak louder than words.

Consider an average deodorant tube. Packaged in a hard plastic case, your deodorant contains lots of tiny plastic components for twist-ability that are not recyclable. This means that out of the all deodorants sold in the U.S. last year, most of them were tossed into the trash, with many of them ending up in the ocean. (Yes, garbage often ends up in sewers, rivers, and the ocean on its way to the landfill.) The result? Whales with bellies full of plastic, vanishing coral reefs, and a patch of trash three times the size of France floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Plastic waste is so pervasive that it has been found at the furthest depths of the ocean, and as plastic containers break down, tiny plastic fragments invisible to the naked eye (microplastics) end up in waterways and eventually, into the very fish we eat. Still, the plastic containers filling your bathroom cabinet and makeup bag are not the only troublemakers. It’s the ingredients inside the bottles that are also wrecking havoc with the environment. From glitter, which is often made from plastic and washed down the drain, to face wipes, which are virtually indestructible, to the 14,000 tons of sunscreen collecting in the world’s reefs each year, the beauty industry’s environmental footprint is having long-term ramifications. Take sunscreen. Oxybenzone and octinoxate, two of the most common sunscreen ingredients, are toxic for coral reefs. Avobenzone, a common substitute for oxybenzone, could be just as dangerous. Experts estimate that 90 percent of all reefs will be dead by 2050 unless we ban these sunscreens altogether. As for ingredients like parabens and sulfates, well, most chemicals that are washed down the drain are unable to be filtered out in treatment plants, so they end up in our waterways, in our tap water, and eventually the ocean—an important point, considering American women use an average of 12 personal care products, each containing 168 different chemicals.

We Can't Recycle Out of This Problem

You’ll notice that your serums and moisturizers are often kept inside a little bag, which is inside a colored light-protectant bottle, with a special pump and applicator. Most of these different parts (especially colored plastic, along with pumps, which usually contain a metal spring) are considered “non recyclable.” While companies like TerraCycle are changing the game by recycling the "non-recyclable" (from coffee capsules to plastic gloves to toothbrushes and deodorant cases, TerraCycle can recycle almost any form of waste), it’s important to focus on buying brands already committed to clean, sustainable practices. “The packaging thing has become such a hot button issue,” says Follain founder, Tara Foley. “However I want people to remember that it's the ingredients inside the packaging that can make a huge, huge impact very quickly as well. It’s critical to ensure that the whole product, not just the packaging, is clean.” She notes that bio-based plastics and biodegradable plastics, often viewed as green alternatives by consumers, have environmental drawbacks of their own. Indeed, the process in which plant ingredients in your natural beauty products are farmed can affect local communities and ecosystems, as well as the product’s overall carbon footprint. With conventional beauty brands, their packaging might taut recyclability, but the catastrophic environmental impact of the chemicals used to make their products could potentially be worse. It’s also important to note that most beauty products use water in manufacturing and as a main ingredient (usually under the label of “aqua”). Water is a precious energy resource that we need to protect as we tackle climate change.

The Solution

Try an eco-audit of your own daily beauty and grooming regimen. Assess the number of products you buy and how much waste is produced as a result. The first step is to contact Terracycle to find out how to properly recycle the products you are currently using. (To make the process easier for yourself, keep a separate bin for recycling in your bathroom.) Loop, a new innovation from TerraCycle inspired by the old milk man delivery and pick-up system, has already seen companies like P&G, Unilever, and The Body Shop sign onto the pilot program which recently launched in New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Maryland. If you need more incentive, Credooffers store credit when you bring in empty bottles. The next step is to slowly start replacing your products with sustainable alternatives. You may have seen brands like Meow Meow Tweet and By Humankind, which offer products like refillable deodorant and mouthwash tabs. You can also switch to reusable cotton pads, refillable makeup from brands like Kjaer Weiss, and package-free products like shampoo bars—all of which significantly cut down plastic and chemical waste. Oh, and ditch the single-use face mask.

Summer might be ending, but the extreme heat waves and storms this year brought won't stop any time soon. The good news is, businesses and individuals from all industries are making strides to combat climate change in 2019. This year, GreenBiz has continued to track the progress of the clean economy for our sustainability-conscious readership. Thoughtful innovations are leading the charge, from zero-waste packaging to airless tires to regenerative agriculture. During these dog days of summer, we rounded up the 10 stories that our readers collectively tuned into the most, in case you missed them or want a refresher. We hope this list will keep you inspired — and here’s to the stories of the clean economy that are still to come. 1. A zero-waste packaging innovation launched in February, and blue-chip companies have been joining in droves since. We want to Loop you in.   Loop, a zero-waste system that recycles and refills high-quality packaging, attracted an impressive roster of consumer brands — and the largest GreenBiz readership this year. The system aims to eliminate the environmental consequences of disposability but also maintain its virtues, such as convenience, said Tom Szaky, CEO and co-founder of TerraCycle, the company that made Loop. Big names such as Procter & Gamble, Nestlé and Unilever are joining because they recognize the growing demand for sustainable products and packaging, but it remains to be seen whether consumers will match the enthusiasm, our executive editor wrote in this article. 2. At the beginning of the year, the EAT-Lancet Commission released dietary guidelines for the "Great Food Transformation," which aims to achieve sustainable human and planetary health by 2050. The recommendations in their current form, argued our op-ed writer, nutrition consultant Erica Hauver, cannot accomplish either goal. The Eat-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health sought to answer a critical question: "Can we feed a future population of 10 billion people a healthy diet within planetary boundaries?" Its answer — the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems (PDF) — gives recommendations for global diets for the next 30 years. However, its findings have been controversial. Contributor Hauver explores these recommendations and their shortcomings. She notes of the commissioned report: "First, it is founded on outdated, weak nutrition science. Second, the commission failed to achieve an international scientific consensus for its dietary targets, in spite of its claims to have done so. Third, it has suffered from biased, or at least unrepresentative, leadership." The need for a sustainable food system and for transformational change within it are critical — and must be given the consideration deserve, argues Hauver. 3. Car owners know how scary tire blowouts can be, but this new development might offer them a peace of mind: Michelin is teaming up with General Motors to test airless tires.   A prototype of the Michelin Uptis technology — the potential benefits of airless tires include fewer punctures and reduced materials requirements. "Airless tires" might sound like an oxymoron, but the iconic French tiremaker is looking for new ways to advance sustainable mobility. It’s doing just that with Uptis, a new generation of airless tires, made up of composite materials, which could decrease the amount of rubber and raw materials used. Their unique design, which bears the weight of cars at high speeds, also could improve passenger safety. They are likely to be quickly adopted in markets with higher rates of tire blowouts because of gnarly road conditions, such as India and China. Michelin and GM are testing them later this year and hope to make them commercially available by 2024, wrote GreenBiz’s editorial director, Heather Clancy. The ultimate vision is to produce "100 percent sustainable" tires, sourcing entirely from renewable or bio-sourced materials. 4. We put out our fourth list of up-and-coming changemakers in the sustainability field. These twentysomethings represent what makes us hopeful about our work during these uncertain times. One of our most widely-anticipated stories is our annual 30 Under 30 list. After nominations from the global GreenBiz community throughout the spring and much-appreciated partnership from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and BSR in gathering suggestions, the GreenBiz editors must whittle the hundreds of names we've received down to only 30. They're always difficult deliberations, but the application pool was particularly incredible this year. As we wrote: "They work in the worlds of technology and tires, finance and forestry, retail and recovery operations. They hail from Tokyo and Toronto, London and Lima, Mexico and Manhattan. They toil in data centers and diversity, conservation and conservative politics — and generally are making the world greener and more just." 5. We spent International Women's Day doing what we do every day: feeling inspired by the work that women in corporate sustainability are undertaking. To celebrate, though, this year, we decided to write about those amazing women.  From women running corporate offices to those running for office, incredible badasses around the world are leading the way to a more sustainable and just future. They're fighting for everything from greening finance to equity in tech startup acceleration to healthy materials in fashion to decarbonizing transportation. "Whether it's the unwavering diplomacy of public-sector leaders such as Christiana Figueres or the steely resolve of executives such as Apple's Lisa Jackson, this group is especially noteworthy both because of what they already have achieved and for their ability to directly influence future innovation and progress," wrote our editorial director, Heather Clancy. 6. Our food production system and climate change are inextricably linked. However, better decision-making in our land use and agricultural practices has the potential to stop climate change — and even, reverse it. The agriculture sector represents a far outsized proportion of global emissions that contribute to climate change — between 20 and 25 percent, according to scientists. However, in order to feed the growing population nutritiously and maintain millions of livelihoods around the world, the field is a difficult one to transition to low-carbon. However, the way that we manage agriculture and husbandry makes a massive difference in the amount of greenhouse gases both of them emit. General Mills’ Head of Sustainability of Natural and Organic Operations, Shauna Sadowski, wrote for GreenBiz on why how the future of land and livestock management is regenerative. 7. Oil companies love to talk about their transition to clean energy. BP even changed its name to "Beyond Petroleum." But how are they really doing? Our senior energy analyst Sarah Golden breaks it down with facts and numbers.    Oil supermajors such as Chevron and ExxonMobil are ratcheting up PR budgets to brand themselves as clean energy allies. They're talking the talk, but are they walking the walk? As it turns out, "only 3 percent of the capital expenditures by the top five supermajors is dedicated to low-carbon technologies," GreenBiz’s senior energy analyst, Sarah Golden, wrote. These companies might understand the importance of energy transition to stop runaway climate change, but in the meantime, they’re cashing in on the current U.S. oil boom, with plans to increase oil production and export to foreign markets. Golden also explained in detail what the big five are doing to transition to clean energy. "In some ways, the oil companies would be perfect renewable allies," she concluded. Want to know why? 8. Amazon makes it easy to start your own delivery business by providing its branded vans. Why not make it easier on the planet by electrifying them? Amazon has set ambitious goals to minimize its carbon footprint, from investing in electric pickup truck maker to championing reusable packaging. The logistics giant could make another leap by electrifying its branded vans, which it lends to contractors to launch local delivery businesses and courier packages for Amazon customers. Without electrifying its delivery fleet, Amazon is missing a cost-saving opportunity, wrote GreenBiz’s transportation analyst Katie Fehrenbacher. As these last-mile delivery trips are "relatively short-range, occur over a condensed area and have somewhat routine routes," electric vans can save money by eliminating fuel costs, she analyzed. UPS, FedEx and DHL are already electrifying their delivery fleets, but the market is still relatively new. Could Amazon make a move and tip the scale? 9. Looking for some new listening material to learn even more about the diverse field of sustainability? We have some recommendations for you.  You might have heard our GreenBiz original podcasts, but you might not know that we're generally major podcast aficionados — and we wanted to share the love with you. We've been creating podcast roundups for the past few years, and this year was our longest list so far. We couldn't choose our favorite — but maybe you can find a new one of yours. From transportation expertise to stories of resilience to sustainability comedy (yes, that's a thing), our list has something for everyone. 10. WeWork’s leader of sustainability and well-being sat down with GreenBiz contributor Mia Overall to explain her role in the coworking brand, how she got there and how the company plans to take on climate change.   Lindsay Baker, WeWork's first chief sustainability officer. You won’t find any trace of meat at WeWork’s corporate spread. Don’t worry — carnivores are still welcome, but the coworking brand has stopped spending its budget on meat. This is only one of the ways it’s minimizing its environmental footprint, spearheaded by The We Company's new leader of sustainability and well-being, Lindsay Baker. From building healthier office space to imagining cities of the future, she has seen the role evolve tremendously since jumping on board. And now, the most pressing matter on her mind is climate change. "For us, this means tackling our own climate footprint, but also helping entrepreneurs start businesses to help tackle climate," Baker said. "We’re also disproportionately trying to have a positive impact in areas of the world that are impacted by climate change."

How can marketers and their suppliers create more sustainable cosmetics and home cleaning products? Summits developed by Ecovia Intelligence provide some answer New York, New York was the site of Ecovia Intelligence’s Sustainable Cosmetics Summit and the Sustainable Cleaning Products Summit, which were held several weeks apart from one another. Combined, the events attracted attendees from raw material suppliers and finished product manufacturers who were there to get tips and tactics from peers as well as experts outside the industries about issues surrounding sustainability—a topic that won’t go away. “Over 200 senior executives combined attended these summits to discuss some of the major sustainability issues facing the cosmetic and home care industries,” explained Amarjit Sahota, chief executive officer, Ecovia. Some of the pressing issues that came out of these events, according to Sahota were:

• Closing packaging loops to combat plastic pollution;
• Addressing health and environmental impacts of products;
• Targeting wider consumer segments, especially Millennials and Gen Z, with green products; and
• Emergence of new green brands, such as Seed Phytonutrients and Love, Home and Planet.

Supplier Ideas Many sustainable ideas originate from the supply side of the household and personal products industry. That was clearly evident during the Sustainable Cosmetics Summit, held in May, when a number of raw material producers took to the podium to provide insights into what makes their products and business models sustainable. Michael Birman of Mibelle Biochemistry explained how plant stem cells can protect and activate human epidermal stem cells. He noted that, in contrast to human cells, every plant cell can regenerate new organs, such as leaves, stems, flowers and seeds or even the whole plant throughout their whole life. In addition, plant cells can de-differentiate under certain conditions and become stem cells. With this in mind, Mibelle has developed PhytoCellTec, a technology to de-differentiate plant cells and produce stem cell cultures in large quantities. The technology makes it possible to cultivate cells of endangered and rare plant species, which helps preserve rare or limited plant stocks. Furthermore, PhytoCell Tec technology allows for the production of active raw materials without harming the environment, as it requires very little plant material, no agricultural land to produce biomass, significantly reduces water consumption compared to conventional biomass production and requires no fertilizer, pesticides or other chemicals. Mibelle’s three stem cell products, derived from apple, grape and alpine rose, provide two different modes of activity: general protection of skin stem cells and plant-specific activity; i.e., apple stem cells promote longevity, grape provides enhances UV protection and rose imparts resistance properties. Croda has been providing sustainable solutions to the personal care industry for decades; for example, it relies more and more on non-fossil energy and 60-70% of its materials come from biobased feedstocks. Chris Sayner explained his company’s idea of a sustainable ingredient supply chain and the growing importance of clean beauty trends such as transparency, safety and responsibility. He reviewed Croda’s Ingredient Integrity program and noted that more sustainability efforts will reshape the personal care industry in the future. “Brand integrity is under constant scrutiny by consumers and NGOs and third-party certification is increasingly important at all levels in the supply chain using publicly available standards and a transparent standard development process,” explained Sayner. “Life Cycle Analysis will become increasingly important in judging the sustainability of personal care consumer products.” Genomatica offers natural glycols for personal care and Damien Perriman explained the benefits of using Brontide natural butylene glycol in personal care formulations. Glycols offer a range of functionalities including humectancy, emolliency, solvency, viscosity reducer, preservative booster, freeze-thaw stability and improved sensory feel. Brontide provides all of those benefits, but contains no heavy metals and with a much lower global warming impact. “If 100 tons of petroleum-based butylene glycol was converted to Brontide, it would be the CO2 equivalent of 33 homes’ electricity use for one year,” observed Perriman. Sustainability Management The Sustainable Cleaning Products Summit was held last month. Presenters included executives from Unilever, Gojo and Earth Friendly Products, as well as presentations from trade associations and non-government organizations. Keynote speaker Steve Cohen of The Earth Institute at Columbia University detailed the importance of sustainability management; e.g., organizational management practices that result in sustainable development, and economic production and consumption that minimize environmental impact and maximize resource conservation and reuse. “We view sustainability management as the third and current phase of environmentalism,” Cohen explained. “The goal of sustainability management is to use technology and human ingenuity to increase the size of the economy while reducing environmental impact.” It may seem unattainable, but it can and already has been done. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, from 1980 to 2015, the US GDP grew by 153%, the US population increased 41%, vehicle miles traveled grew 106%, but air pollution declined 65%. According to Cohen, to reach the next level of sustainability requires an engaged citizen base, accurate science and measurement, technologies for renewable production, public policies and organizational practice that use knowledge of environmental impact and are flexible by design, and a change in culture, norms and values about consumption and lifestyle. “Technological change results in economic change that, in turn, causes social change; social change creates a context for political change,” explained Cohen. “Sustainability requires all levels of society—government, the private sector and citizen participation, in order to succeed and move forward.” Unilever executives have been warning about the environmental impact of FMCG products and consumer habits for decades. Clotilde Balassone detailed the emergence of Love, Home and Planet (LHP), Unilever’s new home and personal care company that is anchored in a love for the planet. As as result, all LHP products are packaged with recycled materials, sustainably sourced, water conscious and created with “benevolent innovation,” according to Balassone, who detailed the company’s work with the Givaudan Foundation to ethically source essential oils. She went on to promote LHP’s Dry Wash Spray, which is designed to refresh gently worn clothes without having to wash them. “It’s like dry shampoo for your clothes,” Balassone explained. Consumers just apply Dry Wash Spray, smooth out and air dry the garment and hang up. LHP relies on post-consumer resin for all of its packaging materials. But TerraCycle and its partners, including Unilever, want to do even better. Their Loop initiative is designed to eliminate the idea of packaging waste by creating high-quality packaging formats that can be reused again and again. TerraCycle’s Brett Stevens told Summit attendees that traditional PCR is no longer a differentiator with consumers. “Because traditional sources of PCR are generic, brands that use recycled material lack a unique story that they can deliver to consumers on-shelf,” he explained. One of those unique stories was P&G’s Head & Shoulders beach plastic shampoo bottles that were created using beach-reclaimed HDPE. Retailers liked the story so much that P&G was able to secure incremental retail display space. The Loop redesigns traditional packaging so that it can be reused without waste. Taking a page from milk delivery, the more durable the package the lower the cost per fill, explained Stevens. For example, a standard antiperspirant package results in a cost per use of 10 cents a package, but after dozens of uses, the Loop program reduces the cost per use to three cents. Loop is now available in Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. This expansion comes approximately six weeks after the launch of the pilot in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, DC. Along with the expansion, the platform has greatly increased its product line to include Häagen-Dazs’ non-dairy frozen dessert flavors, International Harvest, Cascade and Tide, according to the company. Loop is just the kind of program that may interest Millennials and Gen Z, two demographic groups that together account for more than 50% of the US population, according to Sourabh Sharma of Figorout, a digital marketing and public relations company. “Younger generations have killed casual dining, beer and many other industries, which industry is next?” he asked. Both Millennials and Gen Z expect sustainability to be a value of a company that sells products. As a result, the brands they choose to bring into their lives say something about the person, their values and how they fit in. And they’ll pay for it. While just 36% of the general population will pay full price for items made in a sustainable or environmentally-friendly way, 39% of Millennials and 40% of Gen Z agreed with that statement, according to a recent Cone Communications survey. But in order to engage with these age groups, marketers must capitalize of digital trends such as Switch Off and #Connect2Earth, two social media-driven initiatives designed to reduce energy use. According to Sharma, just 1% of these consumers believe in “traditional” advertising; in contrast, more than 90% believe in influencers. In fact, 36% turn exclusively to social media influencers in their decision making. Looking ahead, the 2020 North American dates for Sustainable Cosmetics Summit is May 6-8. No dates have been set for the Sustainable Cleaning Products Summit, according to Ecovia.  

In keeping with the society-wide movement toward environmental sustainability, consumers are demanding less packaging. A new study indicates, however, that this trend won’t translate into less spending on packaging in the coming year. Of 250 CPG brand owners polled, 75 percent reported that they plan on spending more on packaging over the next year, according to a study conducted by L.E.K. Consulting. These numbers demonstrate a notable increase from 65 percent in 2018 and 40 percent in 2017. While 85 percent of respondents said that they had been working toward changing packaging materials to make them more recyclable, there were other significant trends in the packaging landscape discussed in the study which all require investment in innovation. CPG companies have made moves into easier-to-open packaging (57 percent), single-serve packaging (51 percent) and packaging with different formats, printing and textures to match the new, premium products that they contain. The general public has become more aware of the problems of excessive packaging in recent years for a numerous reasons, one being the tremendous volume of boxes and packaging waste generated by shopping via e-commerce. Amazon.com, in an attempt to curtail some of this, has instituted rules for its sellers requiring streamlined packaging and is imposing punishment in the form of fines for those who fail to use it, reports Mashable. These restrictions are not solely for reasons of sustainability, though, as bulky packaging from vendors also leads to additional shipping weight for Amazon if it is holding the inventory, driving up costs for the e-tail giant. At least one startup has even attempted to close the gap by creating reusable versions of packaging for major CPG brands that can be left on the front porch and picked up for re-use. Loop, a “circular” e-commerce platform created by startup TerraCycle, entered into partnerships with Walmart and Kroger earlier this year for pilots in four cities. CPG companies are in some instances pioneering different versions of packaging for products sold direct-to-consumer. Proctor & Gamble, for example, released a lighter, sturdier box of Tide specifically to be purchased and delivered from Amazon.com.  

Szaky is founder and CEO of TerraCycle, in Trenton, N.J. He says the throwaway culture in the U.S. took shape in the mid-20th century. "There were advertisements in 1950 that talk about, 'You don't have to wash the dishes anymore, simply take the whole thing, — the cutlery, the dishes, the tablecloth itself — and throw it all out,' " he says. That disposability was made possible in large part by the invention of cheap plastic.

From mouthwash to kitchen cleaner, environmentally friendly dehydrated products are coming to your home.   Just-add-water cleaning products from Blueland. Blueland My first lesson in savvy consumerism came in elementary school from my best friend’s mother, who sat us down and handed us a bottle of fancy grown-up shampoo. “Let’s read the ingredients,” she said. We started: “Aqua …” She cut us off there. “What do you think aqua is?” “Water?” “Yes! It’s just a fancy name for water!” I now know that brands who call water “aqua” are simply abiding by the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (and by “now know,” I mean I just looked it up), but at the time, the fancy vocabulary struck me as a mild consumer scam designed to hide how much of our fanciest consumer products are simply water. It also spawned in me a lifelong interest in reading ingredient labels. MORE THAN 90 PERCENT OF A TYPICAL BOTTLE OF CLEANING PRODUCT IS SIMPLY WATER So 25 years later, when brands started shipping normally waterlogged products to consumers with all or most of the water removed, I was intrigued. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, more than 90 percent of a typical bottle of cleaning product is simply water. Drying out these cleaning and personal care products does several environmentally friendly things: It reduces their volume, thus reducing the number of boats and trucks needed to transport them. It reduces their weight, thus further reducing fuel and carbon emissions associated with shipping them. And it reduces the plastic packaging by requiring a smaller container to hold the refillable concentrate, or by precluding the need for any disposable plastic at all. An estimated 20 percent or more of global disposable plastic packaging by weight could be replaced by reusable packaging if we only shipped active ingredients. The time is ripe for a low-plastic, just-add-water revolution. Only 5 percent of plastic produced globally is ever recycled, a number that has likely dropped since China stopped accepting our recyclables in 2017. You’ve probably heard this, but there’s a lot of plastic swirling around in our oceans, and in developing countries, single-serve product sachets are a scourge on the rivers and beaches. Almost all at once, waterless products have arrived to save the day. By Humankind (emphasis theirs) launched in February. The startup makes a “forever” refillable container for its mouthwash tablets, packages its shampoo bars in paper boxes, and provides refills for its deodorant. It’s all in the design scheme du jour: gender-neutral, with minimalist font swimming in pastel color schemes. Truman’s, which also launched in February, says shopping for cleaning products is too confusing and onerous, offering as an alternative four concentrated cleaning products for glass, floors, bathrooms, and all-purpose, shipped in small recyclable plastic refill cartridges that fit in the neck of its reusable plastic spray bottles. In 2018, Seventh Generation introduced an “ultra-concentrated” laundry detergent, which the company says uses 50 percent less water and 60 percent less plastic and is 75 percent lighter than the standard detergent bottle. The bottle automatically doses the right amount of detergent with one squeeze. It’s only sold online, or else I would absolutely get that to carry home instead of the standard 100-ounce detergent bottle. By Humankind’s mouthwash tablets. By Humankind In March, Amazon launched an in-house product line called Clean Revolution. You screw a bottle of concentrate with the equivalent of six refills to the bottom of the spray bottle or soap dispenser, and pour water into the top. The product has 3.9 stars online; the complaints that the refill pod can sometimes leak are far outweighed by praise for how eco-friendly it is. The system is by a packaging company called Replenish, which has its own line, CleanPath. It’s a subscription refill service for five cleaning products that lets you choose your scent, your bottle and baseplate color, and — for an additional $7.95 fee that strikes me as patently ridiculous — a customizable label. Buying a six-time-use refill is certainly less wasteful than the alternative, but the drawback is that, like a fancy Gillette razor, you’re now wedded to that particular refill and at the mercy of CleanPath’s redesign process. “We regret that previous versions of CleanPath reusable bottles and refill pods have been discontinued and are not compatible with the all new CleanPath,” it says in tiny font on the website. All of the above products promise to be nontoxic, of course. We’re talking about a target market of eco-minded consumers here. The European brand Cif doesn’t make that promise. (It might not have to, as Europe has banned a much longer list of potentially toxic ingredients, so Europeans tend to be a little more relaxed than we are.) That hasn’t stopped Unilever from launching the Cif ecorefill in July, a 10-times-concentrated liquid refill for the normal Cif spray bottle, which Unilever now markets as a lifetime piece. If the spray trigger breaks, it will even deliver a new one for free. And once you remove the plastic sleeves, the ecorefill tube can be thrown the recycling bin. According to Unilever, asking consumers to dilute the product at home means 97 percent less water being transported, 87 percent fewer trucks on the road, and less greenhouse gas emissions. ASKING CONSUMERS TO DILUTE THE PRODUCT AT HOME MEANS 97 PERCENT LESS WATER BEING TRANSPORTED That all sounds great, but in actuality, distribution of Unilever’s products, which range from Dove to Axe, Hellmann’s to Bertolli, Suave to Tresemmé, only accounts for 3 percent of Unilever’s greenhouse gas emissions. (The company says 25 percent is in raw materials and blames 65 percent on how consumers use the products. Our bad?) But this isn’t about carbon emissions. Unilever, cognizant of the growing resentment against single-use plastic, has vowed to reduce the weight of its packaging by one-third, halve the waste associated with the disposal of its products by 2020, and use only reusable, recyclable, or compostable packing by 2025. Its efforts in this direction have been tentative. In 2018, it launched a 3-liter bottle of a Brazilian laundry detergent brand with a formula six times the concentration of the original. Unilever says it’s reduced the volume of plastic used for the detergent by 75 percent. Unilever is one of the consumer product behemoths in Loop, an ambitious cross-brand pilot project that ships reusable containers of everything from Degree deodorant to Häagen-Dazs ice cream to your door and then picks up the empties when you’re done. For that, Unilever redesigned Signal toothpaste to come in tablet form in a recyclable and refillable jar. You just chew one, brush your teeth, then rinse. I can’t tell you how Signal tabs work — I signed up for Loop’s pilot in New York City the day it was announced in January and haven’t yet gotten off the waitlist. But I have tried out ChewTab by Weldental, which was relaunched this year in a glass bottle with a metal lid to appeal to the zero-waste market. The sickly sweet minty xylitol is an acquired taste ... but the bottle sure looks good on my medicine cabinet shelf. If I’m honest, aesthetics are also why I selected Blueland, launched on Earth Day in April 2019, to test out this whole just-add-water fad for myself. That, and out of all the cleaners described above, it had no one-use plastic in its refill system and the most certifications, including the reputable Cradle to Cradle certification, which covers not only how the product is made and disposed of but also its toxicity — or lack thereof. I asked Blueland to send me a kit, and a few days later, a simple cardboard box arrived at my apartment. Inside, I found three shatterproof acrylic spray bottles accented in pink, yellow, and Caribbean blue and labeled in tiny font: Bathroom, Multi-Surface, Glass + Mirror. I filled the bottles with aqua de tap, unwrapped three tablets in corresponding colors, put the postmodernist wrappers in the compost bin, and dropped the tablets in the bottles, where they fizzed just like antacids. An hour later, I used the resulting lightly scented cleaners to wipe down my countertop and mirror and, with the help of a scrubby brush, break apart the soap scum in my bathtub. Before I put them away, I Instagrammed my zero-waste, nontoxic cleaning supplies and received a barrage of questions from my friends eager to try for themselves what might be the most attractive cleaning system ever made. If I sound like I’m in the Blueland cult, I apologize. I really did try to find something wrong with the products, and I couldn’t. While a lot of these supposedly more sustainable consumer products are rightly criticized for feeding our ever-expanding appetite for more stuff, you can’t quibble with making cleaning products — a necessary component of doing life — more sustainable. Blueland could only steal market share, not create a whole new purchasing category. I’ve DIYed my cleaners before, and found myself with shards of glass in my foot after my cat shoved the pretty brown glass spray bottle off the counter. And you can call it the placebo effect or clever marketing, but I honestly don’t believe plain white vinegar works as well as formulated cleaning products. Also, jugs of vinegar are mostly water. I guess my only quibble with this wave of just-add-water products is this: Shipping dry ingredients in compostable packaging and adding water to them ourselves is not a new concept. In fact, we’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Hello, tea, coffee, and soap. It’s only in the past few decades that we’ve taken these formerly eco-friendly items, added in water pumped out of water-scarce areas; thrown in aspartame, flavoring, parfum, and various other synthetic ingredients; put them in plastic bottles with cool logos and ridiculous health promises; and shipped them around the world. The fact is, even if every glass and multi-surface cleaner on the market came in tabs and refill cartridges, it would be BB shot compared to the warships of “functional” beverages that exist for no other reason than getting us to buy more stuff. According to Blueland’s research, the average American home will go through 30 single-use plastic bottles of cleaner in a year. Reducing this to zero is a good thing, sure. But in 2017, America’s per capita consumption of bottled water rose yet again to 42 gallons. That’s equivalent to more than 300 bottles of water. In Europe, plastic drink bottles are the most prevalent form of plastic found in waterways, now that plastic bags have been tackled. Yes, I’m definitely signing up for a Blueland subscription because I’m a sucker for pretty stuff that makes me feel less personally guilty about being an American consumption monster. But I’m under no illusion that this will save the world. It will merely save me a few trips downstairs to the recycling bin.