People: Imagine if customers were told carbon footprint of purchase?

Getting Green Products on More Retail Shelves

By Suzi Sosa | 12.23. 2010


I am an investor in an "eco start-up" based here in Austin. The company, Blue Avocado, creates green consumer products dubbed "hot products for a cool planet."  They launched in 2008 with a set of stylish, responsibly produced, reusable bags for activities such as errands, grocery shopping and toting your lunch.  So far, they've had pretty good success penetrating the mid-size retail market, gaining distribution through stores like Whole Foods, Sur La Table, and The Container Store.  


But, the break they've been looking for is shelf space in big retail.  To have any shot at reaching their goal of getting more than one million people to stop using plastic bags, they need scale—the kind of scale that comes at 20,000 square feet of retail space and thousands of customers per day.


Unfortunately, things are moving slowly. Why?  Big retailers don't work well with early stage companies.  They get nervous if you've been in business for less than three years or if your sales are lower than $10 million. They won't buy new products unless they're sure their customers want them, but often, ironically, customers don't know they want those products until they see them on the shelves. The net effect in this case is that eco start-ups are often shut out and big retailers don't carry the best, most innovative green merchandise. The consequences for our planet are millions more tons of carbon emitted, countless resources unnecessarily used, tons of excess waste dumped, and millions of people left outside of the green revolution.


This problem is intensified when it comes to consumer products, which make up both the bulk of household discretionary spending and as much as 20 percent of landfill waste. Most Americans purchase their consumer products in big retail but the green choices currently available to them are few.  Some retailers are making strides in specific categories, such as food and personal care. For example, Walmart now carries most of the major green brands including Stonyfield, Tom's of Maine, Burt's Bees, and Seventh Generation.  Several big grocery stores, like Kroger and Safeway, have launched their own line of organics.  But, as a share of what goes into each customer's cart, the number of green products remains small. 


In this quandary is the glimmer of an opportunity—an idea—that was shared with me by Amy George, Blue Avocado's founder and "Chief Ozone Officer," that could not only drastically accelerate our progress toward a sustainable future but would also support small and growing businesses such as theirs. 


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trend spotting... how & what will we shop for in the future?