Thursday, October 30, 2008

Patagonia: how to manage a clothing & gear company without compromising the environment

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series
Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.

By Alex Salzman

To build the best product, to cause no unnecessary harm, to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.
This is the mission statement of Patagonia, the renowned outdoor gear and clothing company. Alternative Channel’s Alex Salzman discussed with CEO and President of Patagonia, Casey Sheahan, regarding the company’s CSR initiatives. Read how these outdoor enthusiasts manage their business without compromising their love for nature.

A.S. - How did you get involved in Patagonia and how did you meet its founder Yvon Chouinard?

Casey: I have known Yvon since I was a little kid. My sister was a friend of his, back in the 60’s, and we become fishing partners. Through the years we stayed in touch. I have been in the outdoor and skiing industry for 25 years. I previously served as Vice President of Marketing for Merrell Footwear, Category Marketing Manager at Nike ACG, and Editor/Publisher of POWDER Magazine back in the late 80’s.

I’ve known Yvon for a long time and in 2005 he asked me if I would come to help run his fishing and paddle sports divisions. This is where it all started!

A.S. - Can you describe the transition from being New Business Director at Patagonia to leading the company and its work on sustainability?

Casey: I have all aspects of directing the global brand from sales, marketing, finance, customer service, you name it! A big part of my work is to make sure we respect our mission statement, which focuses on inspiring and implementing solutions for this environmental crisis. That has been the key addition to my role. It’s a very complex company. We are active in 4 or 5 channels of distributions, including those we control ourselves; our direct channels of catalogue and Internet and or own retail stores. So, it’s really a fun job because we’re applying various avenues of commerce in very unique ways.

A.S. - Which of Patagonia’s initiatives are you most proud of?

Casey: Every great company starts with great leadership and a team approach to solving problems. I would say that I have worked hard to develop a team that works cohesively. I think that has been manifested in the great sales results we’ve had in the last 3 years.

A.S. - You’ve got a background in media and marketing, so I wonder how do you use technology and media to help your internal and external communication?

Casey: Obviously the power of the Internet is limitless and increasingly it is a means of telling our brand story. Internet is also a good method of giving the consumers, who want to shop for a specific brand, a powerful experience through which they may interact with us. So I’m really interested to see how we are transforming from what was a 1 to 2 catalogue a year company, to one that is producing catalogue to cover variety of activities- from surfing to mountain to skiing to fishing - and then using that tool to stimulate sales over the Internet which is a very efficient, environmentally less impactful and powerful way to sell product. It is our fastest growing channel right now.



Patagonia is such a rich tapestry of stories beginning with the creation of the company to the founders early days of building climbing hardware and transforming that into a more volume based apparel business that has this incredible authentic cachet around it. With the Tin Shed and the Blog sections on our website, we are now being able to tell Patagonia’s rich history, based on the adventures of Yvon Chouinard and our host of ambassadors, and to spread it to our community all over the world. We can replicate this story through all different kinds of media such as print, online, video or PR, and these methods appeal to me because they have a huge marketing impact to the brand.

A.S. – The new content on your website such as Vote the environment is giving a new flavour to your website, is it a new chapter with how you’re using online media?

Casey: Patagonia didn’t need to say that it was committed to the core because it always was. But there may have been times where we felt we needed to reinforce that. Now, with the last 8 years that we have lived through political climate and loosening environmental regulations, it is time to be more aggressive in supporting that part of the mission statement which is environmentally grounded and to encourage our consumers to step out and do what is necessary to protect what little we have left of our natural playground.

A.S. – Do you think this campaign will help position Patagonia as a leader in the CSR space and as well accelerate your bottom-line?

Casey: The more successful we are as a company, the more we are able to contribute to grassroots environmental causes that we support through our alliance with 1% For The Planet- we give 1% of our sales revenue to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. We also do a number of other pro bono, philanthropic things to support the environmental community like supporting grassroots activist conferences every 18 months. At those conferences we train and equip the activists for success in the fields of marketing, lobbying and grant writing. We do all sorts of things like that to help our community, but they’re all driven by our success as a company, we couldn’t afford to do them if we weren’t profitable.

A.S. - What is the aspect of Patagonia’s sustainability you would like to build upon or improve?

Casey: The aspect I’d like to build upon is our company wide environmental campaigns. Every 2 years we develop a new initiative, the most recent one was called Oceans As Wilderness. That was a message to the world that 90% of our ocean fisheries are at risk and that we’ve been treating our ocean as a dumping ground. We’ve got to stop this or we’ll no longer have an environment that supports millions and millions of people around the world.

A.S. - Would you have any final thoughts to share with our readers?

Casey: Our founder just met with the leaders of Wal-Mart, which is kind of a paradox, Yvon Chouinard founder of an environmental small outdoor specialty company teaching CSR practices to one of the biggest company in the world. The meeting was about Wal-Mart’s new approach to minimal packaging and taking a hard look at the monumental changes the company can bring to its supply chain, to reduce the amount of waste it produces. Wal-Mart is taking a big environmental step by starting to evaluate the social and environmental impact of its practices. Our mission, at Patagonia, is to influence other companies to be more like us and when that happens, we think that they can not only be profitable, but they can be better planetary stewards!

Visit Patagonia's website for more info.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Fiji Water a green role model for bottled water companies

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series
Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.

By Alex Salzman

Few weeks ago Alternative Channel’s Alex Salzman connected with Thomas Mooney, Fiji Water’s senior vice president for sustainable growth, to discuss the social responsibility efforts of this soon to be carbon negative bottled water company.

A.S - Since when have you been involved with Fiji Water and its sustainability efforts?

T.M - I have been involved with Fiji for 4 years now and have been doing the work around environmental and social initiatives for over a year.

A.S - What are some of Fiji Water’s CSR initiatives that most excite you?

T.M - On a daily basis we try to focus on all the areas of importance where our business has an impact on the environment. That involves understanding and managing our carbon footprint and offsetting our emissions at a rate of at least 120% to be a carbon negative product. We are also working on our packaging and trying to reduce the amount of packaging that we use. Of course our packaging is 100% recyclable, so we are committed to promote recycling around the world.

We also have longer term projects such as the protection of our watershed. Last year, we made an investment with Conservation International (CI) we announced the protection of the largest rainforest in Fiji. We make sure that those 50 000 acres of rainforest will remain in pristine condition. In the years to come, we will also add rainforest back to Fiji by restoring some of the land to its original condition.

A.S - Do you feel Fiji Water is setting a new precedent for the responsibilities of the bottled water industry?

T.M - The owners of Fiji Water always believed that their business should operate with environmental excellence in mind, which is not a common way of thinking for bottled water companies.

For legitimate reasons, bigger bottled water companies have more difficulty of getting internal consensus about CSR practices through their agenda and getting shareholders to agree. It is easier for us at Fiji Water to make decisions regarding the environment, as we are a smaller team. It is easier to discuss and make decisions quickly.

A.S - How do you communicate your CSR initiatives?

T.M - Our environmental work is a big part of how we talk about Fiji Water to all of our stakeholders. It actually begins with our customers whom we spend a lot of time with, whether that means beverage distributors, retailers, hotel and restaurants. They all have an interest in the work and want to know what we’re doing and how it compares to other products they buy and sell, or serve to their customers. We do must of our communicating through our sales team and our website to current and perspective customers.

We found over the last few years that there is much greater interest from consumers to know more about the people behind the brand and what their values are. Consumers are more and more concerned about the products they buy and their impact on the environment. This is why we are trying to be completely transparent by publishing our carbon footprint on our website.

A.S - What aspect of Fiji Water’s impact on society and the environment are you most determined to improve?

T.M - I would like to communicate more what a great positive influence Fiji Water has on society. Beyond our environmental work, which is exceptional work, I would like people to know what our product replaces in the marketplace when somebody buys it instead of something else – in particular, what it means to the nation of Fiji for our business to be a success.

We created the bottled water industry in Fiji. Until then, every bottle beverage in Fiji was a soda, which is not really healthy. Now, Fijians have the opportunity to drink bottled water if they want to. In addition, one of the impacts we had on Fiji is that we bottle water in a remote part of the island, where the source is. It is no exaggeration to say that before Fiji Water was there, there was simply no opportunity for employment. We have revolutionized that part of Fiji. Now it is where the highest paid jobs are. People who had left to find jobs in the city, started to come back to the village.

We can be proud to say that Fiji Water raised the standard of living in a very remote area of the island. It will obviously produce a change that extends for generations to come.

A.S. - After all, what are you most proud of about Fiji Water initiatives?

T.M - We have literally changed so many lives. We have become 20% of Fiji’s exports and we are a vital part of their balance of payment. As like any sustainable development example, we have put in a lot of capital and expertise and hard work, but in the end the reason that it is successful are the people in Fiji themselves. They built that place and were willing to change their lives completely and embrace a different way of life.

Going to Fiji and meeting all those workers in the villages, is truly amazing and it keeps us going everyday! It is rewarding to know that every next bottle of Fiji Water that a costumer buys anywhere in the world is going to contribute to the nation and to the people we know and love. It is so much more personal than anything I have ever experienced!

A.S - Thank you Thomas. You can be sure that I won’t ever drink a Fiji Water bottle the same way now!

For more information about Fiji Water visit www.Fijiwater.com.

To know more about Fiji Water’s green initiatives visit www.Fijigreen.com.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Mooka Bath and Body Studio: how to be green from head to toe!

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.

By Joanie Bergeron Poudrier

We all enjoy soaking in the bathtub for hours until our toes look like grandmas’! Nothing wrong with that, only if you really know what products you are soaking into! I recently discussed with Carolyn Wyse, Owner of Mooka Bath and Body Studio based in Montreal, about her eco-friendly bath and body product line. Discover how this young woman manages a Green business from the making to the packaging!

JBP- Mooka Bath and Body Studio’s products are environmentally friendly, what exactly are they made of?

CW- The base for our soap is the same our grandmas used to make them. They are made of an oil and water mixture. We don’t use anything synthetic, so no sodium laureth sulfate, no parabens and no petroleum based ingredients. I do try to choose sustainable products all the time, so for instance, I use palm oil but it is sourced from the Philippines from a sustainable farm. So it doesn’t affect the orangutan habitat or anything else. It is important to do my homework when it comes to all my ingredients.

JBP-Where did you get the interest in eco-friendly products?

CW- Helping the environment is something I’ve always been really interested in and finally with Mooka Bath and Body Studio I’ve gotten my chance to make, at least, a little bit of difference.

JBP-Where did you get your recipes to make all your products, do they come from grandma?

CW- No, not at all, it doesn’t seem to run in the family (She giggles!).My grandma is much more of a cake mix kind of women. So I read many books at the library and tried a lot of recipes. It is just like cooking, with a lot of practice you see what kind of combination works and what doesn’t. So at this point I make all my own formulas.

JBP-Was there a turning point that made you decide to produce natural products?

CW- Well, since the beginning of Mooka I wanted it to be eco-friendly. Prior to the bath and body products I used to work in the stained glass industry, and it’s wonderful creatively and artistically but it isn’t safe for the environment and after a while I couldn’t justify continuing to do it. I still wanted to create something that was lovely and that people would get enjoyment out of it, but at that point it had to be something that was green!

JBP-Is it a challenge for a company to use green products, when it is so easy to get cheaper ingredients that are not eco-friendly?

CW- It definitely is a challenge and it requires constant research. Most of the day, when people come into my boutique, they see me sitting at my computer and it may looks like I’m browsing the Internet for fun, but all day long I’m trying to resource materials or ingredients or my packaging is always a huge concern. Also for deliveries there are no green delivery companies, that I know of, so I had have to buy carbon credits to offset that. But it would still be much better if I could, from the beginning, not produce any waste at all.

JBP-You said the packaging for your products is always a huge concern, how can it be environmentally friendly?

CW-At Mooka Bath and Body Studio, I use only a recycled paper band to put around my soaps and a label that is tied on with a raffia string. Cannot be greener than that!

JBP- Is less packaging a new trend?

CW- I have noticed that people appreciate responsible packaging, so for my body butter I put them in a tin container and people ask me why I don’t use glass instead. So my answer is quite simple it’s because of the amount of oil that ends up getting used to transport glass. I have to have them transported to me and when people order them online I also have to ship the glass back out to them, so it ends up being more energy costly for the shipping fuel than just using a tin container that isn’t itself recyclable but uses a bit more energy to have it recycled.

When I first started out, I didn’t package my soap at all, I just left them out naked, but it was a problem and people started requesting that I put at least a label on each and every one of them. I would prefer to leave them naked, but I still managed to answer my costumers’ need in a green way!

JBP- What would you say to other bath and body products companies that tend to over package ?

CW- If every company would try to be environmentally friendly in every step of their business, from the production to the selling and shipping, it would make a big difference. Some of my customers have told me, when they come to buy my products that, in their mind, it’s like making an investment. They say they would much rather want Mooka to be around in 5 years from now, than the big box stores, where it’s poor quality and they don’t care about you. And it is true that if no one was buying from them anymore, they probably wouldn’t be in business and then, the kind of practices that they promote wouldn’t be in business either !

I would also tell them that it is easier to be green than they realize and in some cases it could even bring down some of their costs - the packaging is a good example of that.


JBP- Are you, in your daily life, as environmentally conscious as you are in your business?

CW- Definitely, I don’t own a car, I walk to and from work, I never buy coffees out, unless I have my travel mug. I try not to produce any garbage at all and I try to recycle, reuse and compost everything!

JBP-You are such a good example to follow! Tell me, what is the biggest reward you get from trying to be greener than green?

CW- The reason I studied Anthropology in university was because I wanted to make a difference in the world but I decided that becoming a professor wasn’t the lifestyle I wanted. And now, even though all I’m doing is making soap I feel like I am still making a difference because people do need soap, so might as well be green soap!

JBP- Thanks for your devotion to the environment Carolyn. With more people like you, the world would be greener!

To read more about Mooka Bath and Body Studio visit their website here

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Chew on this! Glee Gum, a sustainable affair!

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.

By Joanie Bergeron Poudrier

Have you ever wondered what your daily chewing gum is made of? With all the new trends in gum – long-lasting flavor and teeth whitening, to name a few – it’s wise to question whether these products are made with natural ingredients. We’re guessing not! But can you imagine chewing a gum made of 100% sustainably-harvested ingredients? Alternative Channel’s Joanie Bergeron Poudrier recently discussed with Glee Gum’s President Deborah Schimberg about how making chewing gum in Central America can be a sustainable affair.

JBP-What is Glee Gum in a nutshell?

DS-Glee Gum makes an all natural chewing gum. It is the only company in North America that uses chicle, the raw material that all chewing gum used to be made from. Ancient Mayan culture used chicle, a latex that comes from the chicosapote tree, for many purposes. They used it as a glue to solidify pyramids or just to chew it as a gum.

JBP-How exactly do you get chicle?

DS- The chicosapote trees are taped by the chicleros, just like we tap maple trees in Canada to get maple syrup. The chicleros climb on the trees with spiky boots and with a machete they cut the tree trunks with big X’s and the sap flows down these incisions to be collected at the bottom of the tree. They do around 10-12 trees every day and at the end of the day they collect the sap and boil it in a big cauldron. After stirring it over fire for few hours, they end up with a sticky mixture which they put into wooden molds that are later on processed industrially to remove any impurity.

JBP-Why is the chicle not as popular as it used to be in the chewing gum industry?

DS-Once upon a time all chewing gums were made from chicle, it was an important industry in Mexico for many years. But after World War II, the demand for chewing gum had grown so much especially because American soldiers used to bring chewing gums in their rations when they were in stations overseas. So it got people interested in chewing gum all over the world. For the high demand the industry got, it became expensive and too long of a process to use natural chicle. The chewing gum companies figured out how to make synthetic and less expensive gum base. This caused the demand for chicle to fell instantly .

JBP-Why did you decide to get involved in the natural chicle industry?

DS-I was very interested in the idea of using the markets in North America and Europe to help support community development in the places where raw materials for chewing gum comes from . We created our chewing gum to use chicle because we want to provide a market for this product to support the chicleros and their community. We also want to build awareness about the rainforest of Central America, and the important part that non timber forest products play in terms of conservation.

JBP-What is the reward you get from using sustainably harvested chicle ?

DS-I went recently to the annual meeting of all the representative of the chicleros, which represent about 200 families involved in extracting the chicle. We are involved now in providing scholarship money for sons of chicleros interested in furthering their education in biology, sustainable development or ecotourism , etc. And by talking to the group about what we do at Glee Gum to help their communities, I was very moved to see their happy faces . When we realize that the sale of our gum makes it possible for these people to live a more sustainable lifestyle and to help conserve the forest instead of chopping it down, this is where we get our reward!

JBP-What are the other organizations supported by Glee Gum?

DS- We are a member of 1% for the planet, so we give 1% of our gross sales to these two organizations that support the environment:

The Cloud Forest School which mission is to encourage a new generation of ecologically aware, bilingual individuals with the skills and motivation to make environmentally and socially conscious decisions on a local, national and global scale"

The Forest Foundation promotes sustainable livelihoods through environmental education and “green” business development. "The mission of The Forest Foundation is to assist artisans, producer groups and other entrepreneurs living in and around areas of high biodiversity."

JBP-What do you hope for the chicleros ?

DS-By selling a million pack of gum a year with the word «chicle » written on it, we hope people will better understand their connection with the chicleros, the architects of chicle, and give them the credit for it.

JBP-Glee Gum is a good model to follow, what would you say to other companies trying to deal with developing communities ?

DS-We believe that business should be more of a partnership than simply a transaction. It is not easy to figure out all these things, but this is our vision. If we can have a close relationship with the makers of our chicle, we ensure that they are not exploited and we also guarantee that the forest is used in a sustainable way.

JBP-Would you say that all the hard work to get natural chicle is really worth it ?

DS- To me, it is! But clearly, for much bigger companies it is not, because they get smaller profit and more hassle out of it. With all the new trends in gum; teeth whitening ones, others that help you quit smoking, long lasting flavor ones, etc. the gum base for these companies doesn’t really matter.
At Glee Gum we ensure that we make an all natural chewing gum made of non-synthetic ingredients, so our gum is aspartame free. We believe that a small treat shouldn’t harm you in a any way, chewing gum should be a pleasure all the way.

JBP- What would you wish for Glee Gum in the next few years.

DS- We would like to expand our product line with sugar free gum. We also would like to define even more our relationship with the chicleros. Last year Hurricane Dean affected the forest of southern Mexico and the amount of chicle harvested was less than the previous years. As a result, the income of the chicleros have been affected. So, we would like, in the next few years, to be able to work together and to stabilized the relation between consumers and producers so that the earning of the chicleros can be more steady and assured.

JBP- Thank you Deborah and I wish you the best of luck in Glee Gum’s expansion and hope that other chewing gum companies will embrace your sustainable path as well.

DS-Thank you so much!

To read more about Glee Gum visit their website here.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Ken Hubscher shares his views on the future of ribbon and why Ingredients Matter.

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.
By Chris Advansun and Kassandra Linklater

What does oil consumption and water bottles have to do with ribbons and bows? “Everything,” according to Ken Hubscher. Alternative Channel recently caught up with Hubscher to discuss Ingredients Matter, his new line of ecological, environmentally friendly ribbon.

CA - We are fascinated with the Ingredients Matter project. Give me a sense of where this project originates and what the genesis for this was?

KH - Well, Ingredients Matter International was my idea to try and create an eco-initiative for our company. We are a sixty-year-old family run business, started by my grandfather, and we are the experts in ribbons, bows, and custom packaging for the luxury market. At the end of 2007, after seeing the amazing eco-wave that was just vesting out there in the market place, I decided that I wanted to create something that was unique to both to my personality and to the personality of the company. I thought it would be cool to come out with an ecological ribbon and given that we have been doing ribbon for sixty years, we should be the leaders in sustainable ribbons as well.

I first started doing a lot of investigation into what it meant to be “eco” and what was available in terms of materials in the market place. I then started working with a variety of component manufactures to create specialty yarns that are made from 100% recycled materials including scraps and polyester from manufacturing floors. By using recyclable plastics, which are basically taken in, re-mashed up, cleaned out, melted, and re-extruded into filaments, we were able to take those filaments, chop them into yarns and basically weave replica ribbon out of them. So we are using a 100% recycled yarn to make a 100% recycled ribbon and that was the logic flow behind ecological ribbon.

I then took a deeper look into what the ecological advantages of this were and found that the primary advantage is diverting materials from landfills. So instead of having water bottles and scrap materials all over the place that may have no economic value when they end up in the landfill; we diverted it and turn it into a tangible, usable project.

The second advantage is that you do not need to use virgin oil to produce new polyester and nylon yarn to make more ribbon. This is a huge advantage. The amount of oil used to make ribbon in the world in nominal compared to the amount of oil used in every other industry but we have to start somewhere. I believe an initiative starts with having a collective amount of energy put forth in the same direction and that in turn will create an end result that is sizable enough to measure.

So in the ribbon world, did we solve the oil crisis by creating Reribbon? No, but did we create a product that is part of a consciousness of a market place? I believe so.

CA - Looking on your website, it states that it may be only a small fraction of the amount of overall oil consumption that would go into creating ribbon using virgin materials but technically it is still a huge amount of oil.

KH - It’s all relative like everything in our lives.

Speaking of industry, do you know why it is difficult in the ribbon industry to measure things like carbon footprints? Because most of the products are made off shore and why are they made offshore? Because people have an agreeable idea of what a product should cost, and they all say I’m willing to pay this amount for a product, and we are have become quite conditioned to that.

So in order to have a product that is sellable, which by the way is the only way to sustain a business, is to have it made offshore. One of the things that we are doing is working to have yarns made in North American and then we ship them offshore to produce our ribbons. In a sense, we are kind of organic because we are sustaining a local economy by procuring yarns that are made locally, thus sustaining an industry here and we are keeping it within the parameters of economic affordability of the mass consumer, which makes it a product that can actually make a difference.

CA - To compare the two products, is there a quality difference or an appearance difference?

KH - I challenge anyone in the ribbon industry to do the Pepsi challenge, with the ribbon challenge. I challenge them and they will just be guessing. If you do it a thousand times, it will be a fifty-fifty just by natural statistical odds.

CA - Wow, impressive. Talk to us a bit more about the marketing and where you are today in terms of getting the word out there.

KH - Classically, Hubschercorp, which is the parent company, is an expert in custom ribbon projects. So we cater to retailers, large chocolatiers, confectioners, jewellery companies, and the cosmetic industry. We generally cater to people who purchase ribbon and bows, in a creative way, but as a commodity per say, because they have to deliver a packaged or gift-able product for their consumers. Ribbon is a commodity, so there is a known value for ribbon. And to produce a product that is slightly more expensive than your packaging budget, which every year they aspire to shrink while natural resources cost go up, is going to be a hard sell.

So why would a large retailer switch over to reribbon? Well they won’t unless they were going to leverage a whole marketing campaign off of their new eco green packaging initiative, which is not happening, the paradigm shift is not there yet because budget constraints won’t allow for it. People want recycled paper in their recycling bags, its not there yet, people want biodegradable additives in their plastics, it’s not there yet, it’s still too expensive. But the reality is that people are still going to go to retail stores, even if the prices still go up, and it will eventually keep going up because nothing is going down, except for the amount of oil in the ground. So as everything goes up, it will kind of equalize; a lot of the reasons why these earth-friendly products are more expensive is due to volume issues. Plus the process and materials, because they are derived naturally, are more expensive, and perhaps they aren’t developed enough. You’ll get to a point where the natural evolution of the market place is such that everything will equalize and the desire of the mass consumer will eventually motivate the suppliers or retailers per say to appease their appetite for eco products.

As for our current customer base and whether their actually the target clients for what we’re doing, I would have to say “not exactly.” Our target clientele for Reribbon actually is more a Susie Johnson, the average American consumer, the end user. She sees the value of the overall product and she puts an emotional value on it. For example, she might look at the product and say, “I could buy this regular satin ribbon, for X amount of dollars, or look at this, this is beautiful, it’s all eco packing and its 100% recycled ribbon. I can’t tell the difference and it is within my 10 to 20% threshold of price differentiation that I can except in order to make an earth conscious choice.” Bingo.

CA –You are passionate about this personally, but this isn’t passion absent of a strong business argument and I want to thank you for sharing the story of “Reribbon” with us.

KH – You are welcome. Thank you.

All images courtesy of Ingredients Matter's website: http://www.im-portant.com/index.php

Friday, July 25, 2008

Peter Girard on Timberland’s leadership in environmental sustainability (Part 2)

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.
By Chris Advansun and Kassandra Linklater

Part two - Peter Girard shares how Timberland is leading the way in environmental sustainability, one step at a time.

CA - In the case of working with Timberland, what does it involve with partnerships? Do you work along side non-profits and civil society organizations to accomplish your goals?
PG - We have some partnerships directly with non-profits. A lot of our partnerships that we developed with non-profits are based on their areas of expertise, whether it is in climate change or supply chains and product life cycle. We develop internal programs to try and improve on our environmental goals in a variety of areas and then we will bring in NGO’s and academics as stakeholders to review our programs.

Timberland also takes the approach that we are a transparent company first. One of the ways we’re transparent is our environmental impact. We have become pretty comfortable with bringing NGO’s in and having them comment and criticize our programs to push us to go further. Our CEO actually does quarterly calls with stakeholders to discuss our code of conduct, environmental initiatives, and all sorts of things.

Also, some of the places that we are having a large impact are with our partnerships with other brands and manufactures. When you look at dealing with a complex supply chain, a lot of brands are buying and manufacturing with contractors and they are using a lot of the same ones. In order to get information out of your supply chain, there has got to be those partnerships both with the contractors as well as with other brands. We have done a lot of work with the Outdoor Industry Association and working with other brands to discuss, “what are the things we need to ask our supply chain? Can we start to standardize these environmental questions so that one, we get consistent information out of our supply chain about what the environmental impact of our designs are and then two, start to use that information to make better design choices for our products?” I believe interestingly enough, some of our partnerships with other brands, through industry working groups, are actually some of the most productive right now.

CA - You mentioned Jeffery Schwartz, the CEO of Timberland. Where does the inspiration for driving these efforts to be sustainable come from? Is he just responding to the values of customers or is it really from the executive suite down that this influence and passion comes from?

PG – I believe they feed off each other. It’s clearly Jeff’s passion. He is very much leading the company to strive to be a better business and a business that does right by society. He really lives by the motto of “justice in commerce” and also to serve as an example for other businesses. I think part of having that passion in the executive suite, and it’s shared by all the top level people, is that it brings in employees who are also very passionate about those ideas. So, the question of how a company’s culture gets created, I believe the two things feed off each other. Our executives layout a clear vision for where they want the company to go, but all of these very engaged employees help to create the ideas about how to make a lot of these things happen.


And I think a big part of that is that it’s okay for any employee to have an idea that isn’t tangent to their specific role in the company. For example, you work in finance, but you want to help out with the community garden in the front lawn of the headquarters – that is encouraged. Employees are empowered to take on projects and they are supported in doing different things. So for a company that is doing as many things related to the environment as we are, there are roughly only two people whose job description are task specific with environmental projects, but the amount of people who take it on, either formally or informally as part of their job, is enormous.

CA - How many employees are there in the company?

PG - If you include all of our sales associates world wide, it’s about five thousand.

CA - I am curious if there are any initiatives or projects, that you think customers might not know of, that would be relative to the issue of sustainability?

PG - I think when you look at a lot of our product initiatives; we look at going beyond. Although, I am not sure that the depth and effort necessarily shows up to the consumer. For us to go through and look at the carbon foot print of our products is very important and it is starting to show on the labels. But the fact that we do that across a lot of product categories and that our designers are looking at carbon footprint relative to how they design products doesn’t always translate. There is a lot of complexity there and that is very hard to communicate to consumers and I am not sure it will get less complicated to communicate in the near future. It’s certainly something that we are pouring a lot of effort and research into especially regarding designing for environmental products, carbon foot printing in the supply chain, and looking for lower impact materials and production processes.


CA - Tell me what motivates you in all of this?

PG - I have been working on environmental issues for quiet a while; my entire career has been related to the environment. It started when I was in the six grade and as a class we had a little project to preserve the local marsh, and I thought, “That’s pretty cool.”

I have always been an outdoors person, as far as liking to be outside and being in the natural environment. It is very easy to see how people become passionate about the conservation of natural places but I think for me, conservation was one thing but it also ties to equity. It is one thing to preserve parks, that people who have enough money can go and see, but it is another thing to give people bare access to things like clear air, clear water, and make that really a right for people. When you look at it, people need shoes, and that provides a lot of good, but industry also has a downside. I have always been interested in reducing that downside, and not only in a conservation sense but in a “how do we give things to people that they really want,” like having footwear that’s comfortable to walk in or good healthcare and services, without giving up all of these natural resources and places that we find beautiful.

So, the short answer; it started in the sixth grade.

CA - Thanks so much Peter. I am sure our readers will have a whole new perspective on Timberland.

PG – My pleasure.

Image credits (from top): 1) Timberland's Premium Boot; 2)Timberland CEO - Jeffery Schwartz; 3) Timberland Logo

Peter Girard on Timberland’s leadership in environmental sustainability (Part 1)

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.
By Chris Advansun and Kassandra Linklater

Most people would agree that carbon neutrality is not something regularly associated with a boot company. But then again, most people are not familiar with Timberland’s policy on the environment. I recently had the opportunity to connect with Peter Girard to discuss ambitious plans to become carbon neutral by 2010.

CA - Before we start, tell us about your background and how you joined with Timberland?

PG - Timberland is actually the first private company I have worked with; my background is in Environmental Science and Resource Management. I have worked for non-profits, state government and actually on a coalition with Environment Canada.

I completed my Masters in Resource Management at the University of New Hampshire which is quite close to where Timberland is headquartered. Some of the things I did as part of my Masters were looking at how do you value and put metrics around a lot of environmental qualities. There are many clean air, clean water, and low carbon impact titles, but they aren’t generally monetized so they can be hard to manage and plan around.

So when I finished my graduate program I had some interaction with Timberland. They were in the beginnings of a project to really look at how to drive metrics into their products and into some of their business processes. That is when I joined the company and that is what I primarily worked on.

CA - Was it intentional to take the skills and the knowledge that you acquired in the pubic sector and bring it to the private sector, or was it that the opportunity arose and you took it?

PG - I think for me, I have consciously transitioned from working with non-profits and government. There was a realization, while there’s a role for regulation; the most cutting edge environmental changes are going to go on in the private sector. That is where most of the money is, and that is where the power to move very quickly is. Business has a great power to do harm, but it also has a great power to do good. For myself, I started in science and then why I moved into resource economics and management was because I thought, “Ah ha, maybe that’s where the more levers of power exist in order to try and make change.” And it was the same thing in work, I started off in NGO’s and government and have transitioned into the private sector because I am constantly looking for places where I can be more effective in creating change and right now I think that the private sector is the place that’s doing that.

CA - Were you surprised that this wasn’t a forestry company, this is Timberland, a garment producer? Did it surprise you that they had such an interest from an environment management perspective?

PG - From a public perspective, this is a brand, a clothing company and a boot maker but historically Timberland is very much a manufacturer and is rooted in manufacturing and putting goods together in the footwear and leather industry. So it is not too much of a surprise that they are interested in managing their resources. Their position with the brand, because there is more interaction with the consumer than say a commodities producer like a paper company, creates a dynamic where there is more of a demand for that information. There is more visibility.

CA - What is Timberland doing that is leading the way, that maybe competitors aren’t, and going that extra distance on sustainability?

PG - Timberland has two broad initiatives that we are moving forward with. One is, as a company, we are moving towards carbon neutral. We have set out a goal of being carbon neutral, in our operations and facilities - things we own, by 2010. The other bold goal is that we are looking at our product and figuring out how to make it a low impact, even a zero impact product.

I think what’s bold about the first one is the timeline in which we are trying to do it. We are pushing to be carbon neutral very quickly for our own operating facilities. First trying to reduce, second trying to purchase renewable energy, and only as a third choice, starting to offset some of our admissions.

The second initiative is moving towards sustainable products. A lot of companies just think about greening their headquarters, the things that they do in the office which in a sense is a lot easier. But the reality is that we are a boot company and we make a lot of boots. When we look at the whole company and we look at relative impact, the majority of our impact is in the materials and manufacturing of the products we make. Digging into that long supply chain is obvious but at the same time I believe we are ahead of some of our competitors at starting to look deeper into where our product comes from and how we can affect the whole supply chain.

CA - Carbon neutrality in two years is extremely tight. What are some of the main challenges in trying to complete it within that time frame?

PG - I think most of it comes down to electrical purchases because most of what we are looking at is office space and distribution facilities. I think two years is very soon but, in the context of what we have been doing, it is not that far fetched. We have been investing in renewable energies in our facilities for many years. Our European facility buys wind power, our actual distribution center in California has solar panels, and just recently our Mid-West distribution facility was involved in a project to directly purchase energy from a small scale hydro company in the area. We have been tracking and looking at our energy use for a while and that has helped it go down.

CA - So it is not quite 0-to-60 in two years, it is more like 70-to-100% in two years:

PG - We’ve definitely started down the path and we are familiar with what we need to do. As per percentages that we have reduced, we still have a ways to go. Although it still is going to be a challenge to meet that goal, I think we are on the path and accelerating towards it.

Next: Peter Girard on partnerships, Timberland’s CEO’s commitment to justice in commerce, and what motivates him personally.

Image credits (from top): 1) Peter Girard, Sr. Analyst Environmental Stewardship; 2)Instillation of solar power at Timberland's distribution centre in California

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Abitibi Bowater VP Denis Leclerc on the forestry sector, the planet, and its future inhabitants

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.
By Chris Advansun and Kassandra Linklater

Abitibi Bowater, a leader in the forestry sector, shares their plans to also become a trailblazer in environmental sustainability. Alternative Channel’s Chris Advansun recently discussed with Vice President of Sustainability and Environment Denis LeClerc the importance of the company’s new philosophy, the importance of educating children on the environment and finally the importance of questioning everything.

CA - First, tell me about Abitibi Bowater and your efforts to take leadership on environmental sustainability:

DL - First of all, Abitibi Bowater is a new company; it was created at the end of October 2007. Although it was a merger of two companies, Abitibi and Bowater, the result of this merger was a creation of a new entity. The executive team completely reviewed the business model and decided to take a long term vision on leadership, and contrary to all other companies, we don’t want to be a leader in sustainability. What we want is to do the right thing and let others judge if we can be a model for other companies.

In terms of environmental sustainability, as we have reviewed that as well, we’ve identified three important aspects. The first one is that we need to be profitable, second, we want to be sustainable and third, we want to be responsible; the three words that best describe our journey to sustainability. As a new company, the senior management decided that sustainability was a key factor and that’s why they created a new position – Vice President of Sustainability and Environment. Since the creation of the company, we’ve done a lot of work talking to our people internally and talking to stakeholders, customers, and suppliers to really have a better understanding of what sustainability means for a forest-product company.

The result was that we came up with key drivers for the new company. The first, which is a global key driver, is the environmental footprint, so as a company we are committed to reducing our environmental footprint. We have also identified four other key drivers.

The first one is related to climate change. Our predecessor companies, Abitibi and Bowater, have done an excellent job in reducing their green house gas emissions. Actually the two companies, Abitibi and Bowater, if you compare the statistics with the year 2000, have reduced 35% of their green house gas admissions which is very significant. But we know we can do more and we can do better. We are working to find ways to use more green energy; so using biomass energy, even landfill gas, and working on improving the efficiency at our mills by using the best equipment. We have a task force to evaluate all of these options but our goal, our aspiration is to be a carbon neutral company. Since we are a major forest product company and we have a very significant lumber operation, we are working right now, using the World Resources Institute methodology and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, to make sure that we have the best tools to calculate our carbon footprint.

The second key driver is responsible fibre sourcing. Abitibi Bowater right now has 95% of its woodland operations certified. We want, by the end of the year, to be at 100% and even today with 95% certified that’s over 50 million hectors of forest. That makes Abitibi Bowater number one in the world, in terms of forest certification. Also, another well kept secret is the fact that we are using a lot of recycled fibre. Actually, I believe that we are the biggest recycler of old newspaper and magazines in North America. So we do recycle a lot of fibre, and we have a business to collect paper in North America and in the UK. Responsible fibre sourcing means using as much certified, recycled fibre as possible.

The third one is product stewardship. Do you know what our customers are asking us now?

CA - What is that?

DL – Well, normally they ask us for a good paper that will have a good run-ability, good price, good service, but now customers are switching. What they are asking us is, “how can you help my company to reduce its carbon footprint?” In terms of product stewardship, we want to provide our customers with solutions to help them limit their environmental impact.

In May we announced the creation of two new grades of paper. We have created an innovative paper that uses 50% less fibre, water, and energy than the traditional paper made for the same usage. We are committed to providing our customers with solutions that will help them reduce their carbon footprint.

Finally, stakeholder-relations is something that is very important. Of course we can’t please everyone but we want to be in a position to consider how we can team up with our stakeholders to create more beneficial partnerships. We have five roads: the first is that we are an employer, we have to deal with employees and unions, we are a neighbour for the community, we are also a supplier so we need to deal with customers, we are a partner, we partner with Government, NGO’s, suppliers, so we have a role there. And finally the fifth one, that we should never forget, is we are also an investment. So these factors are all important parts of our new sustainability road map.

CA - That’s great. Getting back to stakeholders, is it sometimes difficult to deal with, in particular non-profits, and in some cases just the general public, who have misperceptions about the forestry industry and its impact on the environment?

DL - It is a challenge, it is a major challenge. I don’t pretend I have all the answers but the impacts of its operations are very visible and it is also very emotional. I don’t know too many people that can look at a freshly harvested region and see it as beautiful. Maybe a forest engineer who sees that it is well done but generally it is against nature to see that. I would definitely say that the forest industry is a natural target due to the emotional impact. It will always be a challenge and the forest industry, in my mind, will always be a target. First, it is difficult because we can’t bring people into the forest and show them what we do. Second, what I often say to reporters is, don’t always believe what you are told. In fact, don’t believe me, don’t trust me, go and check the facts, and that what I am saying is true or not. It is important to develop this critical mindset, to always question everything. I am always urging NGO’s, the government and the population to say, “I want to know more.”

CA - I think this is great, I think this gives us a great sense of the company. I am also interested in what motivates you personally, how else is the environment important to you?

DL - First of all, I would like to say I have one of the best jobs on the planet, for the planet. Yes, we have a lot of challenges and it is difficult to explain everything, but it is a fantastic job and even though we are going through major restructuring, the forest industry will continue to play a vital role, not only on the social economic aspect but also on the environmental aspect. I also believe the forest industry will be a major positive player in the global solution to climate change. Right now we are talking about climate change, but what is going to be the next big global issue? Probably biodiversity and the forestry sector is also a major player in that issue.

Why am I so excited about it? Probably, because it has given me the opportunity to improve upon what we’re doing and help make a significant contribution towards sustainability.

For example, after our interview I am going to talk about the environment to 500 students on their last day of school. This year their theme was the environment. At lunch time, each students will leave the school with a small tree. And it’s not meant to be a gift; they have a challenge to take care of these trees. So that is just one example of my interests, to make sure that our children will do two things, one that they will be different than me when I was at their age so they will act in a positive manner towards the environment and the second one is that I hope when they are at my age, that the planet will be better than it is today

CA – That’s fantastic. I want to thank you for sharing Abitibi Bowater’s story.

DL – You’re welcome. Thank you.

Image credits (from top): 1) Denis Leclerc, Vice President of Environment and Sustainability at Abitibi Bowater; 2) One of Abitibi Bowater's mills in Thorold, Ontario; 3) Promotional image of Eco Laser, one of Abitibi Bowater's new "hybrid" paper lines; 4) Aerial image of Abitibi-Bowater's Thorold, Ontario mill.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Meet Clif Bar & Company’s In-House Ecologist

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.

What sort of company would appoint an ecologist to its corporate team? Alternative Channel recently caught up with Elysa Hammond, resident ecologist and environmental visionary at Clif Bar & Company. Join us as Elysa offers a glimpse of what it's like to be inside a company acutely concerned with all things ecological.

What is Clif Bar doing to take leadership on environmental sustainability?

We began what we call our Journey Towards Sustainability in 2001 with the sourcing of organic ingredients and the launch of an employee education program to help people understanding sustainability. Challenging ourselves to reduce our environmental impact in everything we do—from the field to the final product—we have expanded our program to focus on five key areas: organic food and agriculture; packaging; shipping and transportation; climate action; and sustainability partnerships. By coordinating our efforts around these specific areas we have not only been able to significantly reduce Clif Bar & Company’s impact on the environment we have also created a structure that provides us with a continual source of new opportunities for improvement.

Image at left: Elysa Hammond with daughter Amy and dog Nikki.

What partnerships have you created to enhance your role as a leader in sustainability, with non-profit organizations or government?

Since its inception, Clif Bar & Company has partnered with a wide range of non-profit organizations that provide essential funding to projects that protect and conserve wild places; promote people’s health and people-powered sports; support solutions to climate change and work to create more sustainable food systems. These partner organizations have been invaluable guides on our Journey Towards Sustainability and have allowed us to create innovative and inspiring programs for our consumers. Among others, these partnerships include the Breast Cancer Fund, the Organic Farming Research Foundation and Focus the Nation: Global Warming Solutions for America.

What influences have brought about this environmental stewardship imperative? Does the pressure come first from clients and outside constituencies, or more from internal sources, such as employees, executives and investors?

Clif Bar & Company’s owners, Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, and its employees have always had a deep appreciation for the outdoors and the environment. As a privately-held company, Gary and Kit had the freedom and the opportunity to integrate this passion for the environment into the Company’s business model through the creation of Five Bottom Lines: Sustaining our Business, Sustaining our Brands, Sustaining our People, Sustaining our Community and Sustaining the Planet. Equally-weighted and interdependent, these Bottom Lines direct the Company’s business, sustainability and community efforts.

Image at right: Clif Bar & Company's signature and best-selling product line.

How does Clif Bar cultivate a corporate culture centered on environmental stewardship and community engagement? Is it a challenge to get ‘buy-in’ at all levels of the company?

Because we measure Clif Bar & Company’s performance with Five Bottom Lines, the Company’s environmental stewardship and its community initiatives are integrated into every area of the business and are weighted with equal importance to traditional business metrics. As a decision-making framework this model not only serves as inspiring platform for discussion and education amongst employees, it also empowers people to explore, develop and launch innovative ideas that are in tune with the Company’s priorities.

What motivates you personally to do what you do? Are there other things you do in your life to reduce your impact on the environment, beyond your role at Clif Bar?

I absolutely love my job at Clif Bar because I have the opportunity to work on a daily basis with a company and people motivated to make a real difference in the world. And because of this work in sustainability, new doors have opened for me where I try to contribute to related institutional change. For example, I’m on the Mayor’s Environmental Advisory Committee in my home town of New Rochelle, New York where we are promoting green building legislation, bike trails, urban tree planting and sustainability education. I also serve on the advisory board for Focus the Nation, an organization that led a national day of education on global warming, the largest teach-in in U.S. history.

Image above: Clif Bar & Company's bustling recycling center (more action than the shipping/receiving department).

On a more personal note, I’m working with my church community to help create a climate action program and my husband and I just bought our first home, a 100-year old fixer-upper that we are trying to green. Thus far we’ve had an energy audit, painted the walls and refinished the floors with ‘”green” materials, set up a compost bin, switched to CFLs and picked out an energy star refrigerator. Most importantly, we’ve recycled a lot of used home goods—all that stuff you find out you don’t really need when you move-- through our local Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore.

To learn more about Clif Bar & Company, its products, corporate culture or environmental stewardship, feel free to visit the company's website.

Monday, June 02, 2008

What Gets Seventh Generation’s “Director of Corporate Consciousness” Out of Bed in the Morning?

Alternative Channel's Leaders in Sustainability Series

Leaders In Sustainability is an exclusive series of interviews with those at the fore of the sustainability movement, both in the corporate and non-profit sectors.
By Alex Salzman
May 19, 2008

Don’t let the altruistic job title fool you – Gregor Barnum and his cohorts at Seventh Generation are relentlessly pragmatic about building a sustainable company. I recently caught up with Barnum, who is part ethics scholar and part corporate visionary, to explore his company, “Earth to Earth” thinking and his nouveau take on the corporate social responsibility movement.

AS – What is your current role at Seventh Generation? How would you describe “corporate consciousness?”

GB - Ultimately Seventh Generation has been living by this Iroquois quote of long ago: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” This is probably the most telling statement as we move towards a new level of sustainability. But how do you begin to frame sustainability? If you look at the idea of where you take your stuff from the Earth, how you manufacture it and how it actually ends up in the hands of the consumer, our question is this: How is this all going to impact people not even born yet?

And so in the midst of being a part of the world of corporate responsibility, I’m beginning to get a stronger and stronger sense that most companies are still framing corporate responsibility as an object; something outside of its core strategy and operations, outside of its every day world. In a strange sense, our mission with corporate responsibility is to make my job completely obsolete. Every person in this company should, in their every deliberation, be thinking about what their impacts are at every stage in the company’s evolution and at every point in the product’s journey from Earth to factory to consumer. To us, the question of corporate responsibility is this: How are we all moving people to think about their impact on the present Earth? How are we seeking a different level of well being for generations as yet unborn?

AS – Tell us about the company culture? Does this mission permeate every corner, every department of Seventh Generation?

We’ve really taken on the challenge of building the company culture by understanding the need to get everyone’s thinking beyond the cradle to cradle mentality, shifting to Earth to Earth. Cradle to cradle means: “Where can we get in our present framework, within the span of one generation.” We brought someone onboard the company a few years ago whose role it is to get the company focused on regenerative business. She’s been in the systems-analysis world for about 30 years, and we’ve been working with her to make corporate responsibility intrical to the evolution and the strategy of the entire company. We’ve actually begun to make our business regenerative. This means that, instead of being in the business of making things that are less bad, we’re focused on making every system touched by our business better. This keeps us away from approaching corporate responsibility as something apart from the core of the company. We’re thinking much more pragmatically, and approaching sustainability on a whole other level. So the culture is really geared up.

AS - The consumer sees the products on the shelves but doesn’t sit in the boardroom or see the factory floor. Are there any company innovations that the consumer might not see?

GB – Our real innovation is in our thinking. We think about things as total systems. Our business is a system. The consumer’s home is a system. Like all companies, we’re just trying to sell more of our products through more channels. But we’re also taking on this question that, if we’re all about making people’s homes and environments less toxic, what else do we need to do accomplish that, beyond our line of cleaning products? Most people don’t realize that the air inside their homes is 2.5 to 5 times more toxic than the outside air. We’re in the early stages of building a system of products and services that will help people build more healthy homes. When our customers walk into their living space, we want their health to be nurtured and enhanced. So this system approach can be pretty interesting.

We’re also innovative in our approach to sourcing. As a company always thinking about regenerative business, we see lots of opportunities to help and educate people and companies along our value chain to understand their real impacts. How can we get them thinking about reducing their packaging in a whole new way? Reducing their CO2 output? Using other means of electricity?



AS – How does Seventh Generation educate and engage your consumers using social media and online communities?

GB – We do a few things. We distribute a number of short films that inform people on who we are and how we’re doing what we’re doing. This has been helpful.
We’ve also launched a few programs in Vermont that get small communities of people together to share ideas on how they can reduce their carbon footprints. It’s based on a book called The Low Carbon Diet. I think the internet is the best way to reach out to and encourage people to move out of this present paradigm.

AS – Rethos, as you know, stands for rethinking one’s ethos. What’s your rethos?

GB – I believe it was Albert Einstein who once said that people are harnessing about ten percent of their potential. If we begin to realize and trust that, basically, the constructs that we’re currently working within are just one phase of an evolution, and that we human beings are truly untapped from the standpoint of what we can become, then the slate is left pretty much wide open to designing a world that we are today incapable of understanding. One of the most fascinating questions to me is: “What is the next evolution of our relationship with nature?”

AS – Spoken like a true philosopher. Thanks for doing this.

GB – Thank you, Alex.


Seventh Generations Home Care Product Line, 2008