Getting There: Sustainability at Public Goods

How can we be kinder to the Earth?

We only have one, so let’s take care of it. Through several sustainability initiatives, we seek out earth-friendly ways to provide our members with affordable goods that leave a lighter footprint. 

Trees.

Deforestation and systemic poverty are global problems. Oftentimes, direct-to-consumer businesses perpetuate the crisis without even knowing it. This is why we’ve partnered with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant trees for every order placed on our website. To date, we’ve planted over 202,463 trees and counting. 

What does our tree-planting lifecycle look like?

Once your order is placed, we donate funds to Eden. Eden accepts our donation and plants a tree somewhere around the world. Local members of the communities where these trees are planted are employed, fed, and paid fairly. In doing so, Eden (with your help) combats the cycle of poverty and deforestation at the same time. 

Shipping that’s gentler on the environment. 

Public Goods carbon offsets every order and 100% of shipping (including both inbound and outbound freight shipping). 

Donations.

Extra inventory isn’t a problem, it’s an opportunity. 

Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. They partner with food banks and businesses to provide meals to those in need. These meals consist of extra inventory from food retailers, farmers, and distributors — thus fighting hunger and food waste at the same time. Through our partnership with Feeding America, we’ve donated 27,480 meals. 

St. Mary’s Food Bank in Arizona – the first food bank in the US! – and Community Food Bank in New Jersey donate food to those in need, across the country. We donate all of our near-expired and expired inventory to these food banks. Nothing goes to waste. 

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Refill.

We partner with Clean The World, a non-profit organization that works with Zeus Recycling Program to collect and donate partially-used hygiene and personal care products. We’ve set up recycling stations at 5 Zeus locations around the country where CTW and Zeus accept our partially-used personal care products and either recycle the bottles or repurpose them to create Hygiene Kits for homeless and veteran communities. So far, we’ve recycled 332 pounds of plastic and repurposed our personal care products to create 664 Hygiene Kits. 

Our products are currently packaged in sugarcane plastic, a bioplastic that is derived from plants instead of petroleum. While sugarcane plastic is not a perfect solution — it’s recyclable but not biodegradable — it produces 0% of the carbon created by traditional plastics. We also encourage the reuse of these bottles with our refill program. 

All of our boxes and shipping supplies are made of 100% recycled paper. Paper protective packaging is used instead of bubble wrap, and we’re currently working on switching out the plastic bags we sometimes wrap fragile, heavier products in for safer shipping. Our goal is to eventually be 100% plastic-free.

Thank You!

Many of the toughest problems we face are the result of the products we choose to consume.  That’s why we’re committed to making healthier, more informed choices easy and accessible to all.  Together our small choices can make a big impact.