Sustainability can be tricky term
Concept has broad definition
As consumers, we aim to purchase the healthiest, most eco-friendly products on the market.
We want goods that are sustainable, made from recycled materials, and are cruelty-free.
But do these buzzwords actually have any validity? Or are they just like their cousin, “natural” — the word that can be slapped on any products sans real meaning.
According to a new study by Genomatica, a San Diego-based biotech firm, 95% of Americans say sustainability is a good goal. But sustainability has a very broad definition.
At the root of it, sustainability means that the system of living can continue in its manner indefinitely due to the way it cycles, said Max Turk, who owns the Roots & Crowns Apothecary based in Portland, Oregon, and has a masters in sustainability education leadership.
For example, if a cosmetic company said it’s sustainable, Turk said she’d expect them to be doing due diligence regarding where they’re sourcing their ingredients, making sure they’re ethically sourced and not endangered, that they’re not using materials that are harmful to the earth, people or animals, and the way they package their product has sustainability in mind.
So when a company says that it’s sustainable, it may be referring to its packaging (possibly the packaging was made from recyclable materials) or maybe it wasn’t tested on animals.
There are many types of sustainability, and the actual word “sustainable” has no regulation.
“In food, there are certifications such as organic, biodynamic, fair trade, while the term natural has no legal definition, just like sustainable,” said Shel Horowitz, a green entrepreneurship profitability consultant with Going Beyond Sustainability in Hadley, Massachusetts.
So what’s an eco-friendly consumer to do?
Horowitz said consumers can ignore the label “sustainable,” as the company could be claiming something that may or may not be true. Any company could add “sustainable” to its label sans repercussions.
“Unfortunately, there are many examples of greenwashing: pretending to be green when you’re not,” he said.
But fortunately, there are third party certifications aiming to qualify some companies as green, and there are a few simple ways to determine if your favorite company is earth friendly.
The gold standard is
LEED Platinum, but there are other valid standards such as PassivHaus, Forest Stewardship Council, Cradle to Cradle Certification and Energy Star. If your product passed any of these certifications, it would appear on the packaging and Website.
The big certification that currently uses a holistic approach to evaluating an enterprise’s sustainability efforts is the B Corporation Certification (B Corp).
Sometimes, companies will add a sustainability percentage so that they are more transparent, said Shireen Sultana, head of product and innovation with KinderPass in Singapore, which creates sustainable, handmade developmental toys. The higher the percentage, the better — but often, companies don’t include a percentage.
Sultana suggested that consumers ignore buzzwords like “sustainable” and “cruelty-free” and instead look at the following before purchasing: whether the company or firm is a member of the World Fair Trade Organization (if the product has WFTO stamped on it, it means that its buying, management and human labor processes have been approved by the WFTO) and where the product is made (purchasing a local item cuts down on transportation and supports the businesses in your area).
Also, sustainability may refer to different phases of the business or process ranging from the supply chain to the energy stewardship to the manufacturing process, said Casey Meehan, a climate action consultant, and the sustainability manager for Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Meehan suggested looking for products with the shortest list of materials — and of those, you should be able to pronounce them (even if they’re products you’re putting onto, not into your body).
“More ingredients with crazy chemical sounding names can signal that many more resources went into making the product and that it will, after use, release many more compounds into the surrounding environment,” Meehan said.
Sustainability is obviously a tricky consumer catchphrase, but this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to navigate — nor do you have to spend inordinate amounts of time researching each product before making a purchase. But if you have a choice between a few products, you may want to reach for one that has one of the sustainable certification labels, that has a significant percentage of recycled materials or that sources the majority of its materials locally.
That’s a good sustainable start.