Where Are All the Good, Green Products?

It's been more than 16 years since my book, The Green Consumer, was first published in the U.S. (You can now buy it for a penny on Amazon.) That was during the media frenzy of Earth Day 1990, when the world (or at least some of it) reawakened to the environmental challenges we face. We were told there were "50 simple things" we could do to save the earth, and we felt empowered.

At the time, it seemed like a floodgate of greener products was about to open. Large consumer product companies like Procter & Gamble and Unilever were dipping their corporate toes into the green waters, with the expectation they would eventually dive in. Big retailers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart were doing in-store promos featuring environmentally improved products. We could smell the change coming.

It didn't come, of course. Many of those early products were outright failures: biodegradable trash bags that degraded a little too quickly; clunky fluorescent bulbs that emitted horrible hues; recycled paper products with the softness of sandpaper; greener cleaners that couldn't do their job. Much it was expensive and hard to find, to boot.

By about 1993, after flogging my green consumer mantra ("Every time you open your wallet, you cast a vote -- for or against the environment!") around much of North America and beyond, I peered over my shoulder and realized that I was more or less standing there alone. The great wave of "green consumerism" hadn't materialized.

Things have changed somewhat. A handful of greener products have gotten better and more cost-competitive. Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and other natural food mega-marts have made some of them more accessible to the masses. A few of the more successful product purveyors have been swallowed by bigger fish, in most cases benefiting from their new owners' marketing and distribution clout. The food, beverage, and personal care markets made the deepest inroads, rolling out organic, nontoxic, free-range, Fair Trade, and other eco-improved products to everyday shoppers. (However, there is a health connection there: these are all things we put in, or on, our bodies. In other words, it's more personal than planetary.)

Outside of those categories, green products remain the exception rather than the rule. Can you name any trusted, mass-marketed brands of apparel or footwear that pass some reasonable green screen -- made from organic or recycled materials, naturally dyed, nontoxic, using environmentally friendly processes, etc.? True, Nike has a single product line that comes close, and there are many smaller firms with terrific green products but sparse distribution. But there's no Green Gucci, Gap, or Guess.

What about home furnishings? Any mainstream brands you can think of that are earnestly environmental? Or appliances, cameras, carpeting, consumer electronics, jewelry, kitchenware, sporting goods, tools, toys? Don't even get me started about cars!

(I'm guessing this post will elicit comments and e-mails touting smaller, niche companies that are making and selling environmentally exemplar products, and I welcome knowing about them. I see many of them during my periodic scans of Treehugger, Metaefficient, HippyShopper, and other sites. But how many can you purchase today, somewhere close to home?)

There are some encouraging signs that bigger players want to get in on the action. Last week, for example, Panasonic announced the launch of Panasonic Home and Environment Co., a new business unit focusing on energy-efficient consumer products and what it calls "green technology." Home Depot recently launched Eco Options, a line of products that meet "a rigorous set of criteria" covering energy efficiency, water efficiency, improved air quality, reduced toxicity, waste reduction, and greener materials -- but only in Canada; Eco Options aren't sold in the U.S. And of course there's Wal-Mart, which in recent months has committed to developing markets for sustainably harvested fish, organic cotton, and other sustainable products.

Also encouraging is that some big-time entrepreneurs are moving into the space, not the least of which is Steve Case, father of AOL, whose start-up, Revolution Living, is buying or investing in sustainability-minded brands like Gaiam and FlexCar. Case will find competition over the next year or so from other well-financed entrepreneurs, currently in stealth mode, seeking to do similar start-ups or roll-ups of consumer-facing green lifestyle brands.

It's all good, of course, but the pace of change still seems oh-so-slow. The green marketplace remains barely a blip on the screen for most consumer brands and retailers.

So, what would it take to reach the proverbial tipping point -- that virtuous cycle in which large, mainstream companies trip over one another trying to "out-green" the competition, offering a dizzying array of environmentally better products, available where most people live and shop?

Should we even look to big companies? Perhaps the mass-marketing of greener products will come from smaller, niche firms, some destined to become acquired by the behemoths, most left to find their comfortable, profitable markets. Or perhaps it will be a whole new breed of ambitious entrepreneurs and venture capitalists fueling the green world's version of the high-flying dot-com success stories. Or, ideally, all of the above.

Whatever the answer, it needs to happen soon. There seems to be a window of opportunity -- a burgeoning recognition by the public that we need new choices to help us combat climate change, global terrorism, toxic lifestyles, sweatshops, commodification, corporate malfeasance, and assorted other societal ills.

How can we make good, green products -- the things we use every day -- common and abundant? Should we look to Wal-Mart and Home Depot as the market makers? Or, if not them, who?

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Comments

[Jane]

Great article. Don't you think consumers should/can take things in their owns hands and demand more green products? The companies are responding to what sells and the more they hear from us, hopefully the more green options they will produce.

[Marc]

I agree, Joel, that progress has been slow but I think we are closer then ever to that tipping point.
Seventh Generation's household products are green and approaching mass distribution, especially if CEO Jeff Hollender decides to do business with Wal-Mart, which, as you not, could make a huge difference here.
Also, it may be the some green products are being sold without green marketing. Hewlett Packard told me a while ago that one of their printers is entirely made from recycled materials, but they don't market it that way because customers worry it won't be as high quality as an "all-new" model.

[greg]

Just a quick comment from Holland.

I completely agree with Mark!!
The real BIG changes is happening right under our feet..!! We don't see it, because we have no helicopterview. But really:
Industry, peoples mindset, public opinion, productdevelopment etc are changing on a really rapid scale.

It will surprise you how much has been achieved already.

And never forget:
A lot of industrial companies never tell they are green-changing, because of the simple fact that it might give too big a stirr.
Because people/consumers might even say: "Why so late', 'Why not better' and even 'Tell us more, become transparent..'.

So companies might not be to keen on this development, that the public is sort of interfering with their policies.

Speaking of which, it seems that a certain degree/level of courage is needed to come forward, become transparent, let's say: to come out of the closet. Comparison?
We might call this 'gay-green'... Nothing to loose, but still affraid. I guess.

[Lee]

Hie friends,
Actually im doing a research on the main macro environment factors which have led to the emergence of the green consumer. Therefore, i hope you all can contribute some comment and view on this matter in order to carrying out my research. Thank you!

[Craig]

im doing a research on the main macro environment factors which have led to the emergence of the green consumer.i hope you all can contribute some comment and view on this matter
Thanks