the dirty secret

Adam Lowry is kicking butt and taking names! Make sure you take some time to read this very intriguing article from Treehugger.com (have you hugged a tree today? No? Well go! Hug! Ah, didn't that make you feel all sorts of better! Yes, I knew it would.) In it he discusses in detail laundry's dirty secret: overdosing! (No, not that kind of overdosing!)

"Laundry's Dirty Secret: The Overdose Dilemma |
by Adam Lowry, method

I blog here about design as intention, which is to say that if you broaden your design intention to include social and environmental factors, your designs can become transformational. Examining typical laundry packaging from this design perspective provides interesting insight. If you ask what is the intention of the design of a typical laundry package, the answer is clear: Big detergent jugs are designed to get us to use more. They are a symbol of bigger-is-better wastefulness. The laundry jug is the SUV of consumer products--it's antiquated, wasteful, and costly, but supremely profitable for its makers.

In last Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, Ellen Byron wrote an article called "The Great American Soap Overdose," in which she examined America's addiction to using too much laundry detergent and the various reactions of the "we're on your side" laundry detergent manufacturers.

The piece examines why dosing of laundry detergent is so confusing; why the fill lines are hard to read, and why the caps are oversized. Detergent manufacturers are quick to point out that they, too, are against overdosing and its' negative effects, and that they are constantly looking for ways to curb it.

I'm not buying it.

This rhetoric is symbolic of a greater ideological battle in sustainable business today. It is a fight between those that want to appear green as they protect the ignorance-is-bliss status quo that serves their business interest, and those that are truly willing to put their money where their mouth is and innovate better, greener solutions that help people live more sustainably.

You might ask, why is this important? Isn't it just laundry detergent? When you consider that 1,100 loads of laundry are started every second in America, that means over 500 million pounds of laundry detergent go down the drain and into our waterways every year.

The main arguments that detergent manufacturers give for why dosing is so confusing are that they haven't yet found a way to make it clearer, and that consumers want control. According to the article, large manufacturers don't want to boost sales by confusing consumers, because they don't want their customers disappointed in how the product makes their clothes look and washing machines wear.

These arguments warrant a critical eye.

If detergent manufacturers were really that concerned about the negative effects of using too much, then why wouldn't they limit the size of the cap to the amount you need for a heavy load? That's what Method did when we launched our 3x laundry detergent in 2004. Furthermore, given the huge volume of laundry detergent sold every year, "right-sizing" the cap would save manufacturers millions in plastic cost and create an enormous sustainability benefit. But they don't. Still today, the volume of the cap is often more than double what you need, and the 'natural' brands are as guilty as all the rest..."

Head on over and read the rest!

adam travels (and speaks!)

Co-founder Adam Lowry has written a post over on method's official people against dirty blog, all about heading over to LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) to speak (and spread the good green word!) He writes...

"I went to LOHAS last week. LOHAS stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability and is a conference focused on health and fitness, the environment, personal development, sustainable living, and social justice. It was my first time at LOHAS, and my first time in Boulder. By the way, Boulder is awesome. But that’s beside the point.

I got to speak on a panel that included Deepak Chopra’s daughter, Mallika Chopra, founder of Intent.com; and Wolf Ludge, CEO of HessNatur. We discussed how to design business for good and how to stay ahead of the mess of green noise by driving true innovation. You can see the talk about the death of the “steal and donate” model of corporate responsibility by visiting the LOHAS website here.

In addition to getting to speak on that awesome panel, other personal highlights were hearing Hunter Lovins, author of Natural Capitalism, Wade Davis, a National Geographic Explorer, and my personal buddy Adam Werback..."

Head on over and read the rest (with additional pics!)

method man

Have you read this great Q&A article with Eric Ryan, method's co-founder over on ANA Advertiser magazine? No, well hey, now you can! (See, I knew I was good for something. I just KNEW it!) Enjoy!

"Eric Ryan, who co-founded cleaning products company Method in 2001, has a simple strategy for competing with the likes of Unilever, Procter & Gamble, S.C. Johnson, and Clorox. "Everything we do has to be different," says Ryan, 36, chief brand architect of the San Francisco company, which is among the fastest-growing private companies in America. "Method is a belief brand being built on what money can't buy. We're a challenger brand, taking on 8 Goliaths."

With sales "just north of $100 million" and 106 employees, the company has a long way to go before it can slay even one of the Goliaths in its space, as Ryan readily admits. Meanwhile, he's betting that "our scrappiness can match competitors' scale." And, perhaps more crucial to the company's continued success, he's betting that consumers will embrace the company's environmentally friendly philosophy of producing cleaning products that are effective, safe, and without toxic ingredients. "Historically, consumers were focused on the best products," he told the crowd during his session to kick off Tuesday. "Now, consumers are equally focused on how things are made." Ryan was joined on stage by Scott Potter, founding managing partner of San Francisco Private Equity Partners, a key investor in the company.

Ryan's presentation created quite a buzz among the 300+ attendees, who were fascinated by his entrepreneurial spirit and optimistic outlook. "The difference between successful and unsuccessful companies is that the unsuccessful ones gave up too early," Ryan said as he described the launch of the company in 2001, during an economic downturn. "We constantly push ourselves and remind ourselves that standing still is not an option."

Ryan had much more to say, on a range of topics, when ANA Magazine Editor Bob Barrett sat down with him under the 100-degree Phoenix sun. Here's a transcript of the interview.

Bob Barrett, ANA Advertiser: You've created an instant buzz here and I've seen you shaking a lot of hands since coming off stage. What kind of response have you had to your presentation?

Eric Ryan: Usually, the word I hear most often, which is really cool, is inspiring. That's what I try to do, as far as a lot of people working for really big companies and legacy brands. I feel like the one thing I can do is just help try to inspire them to think a little differently and give them the confidence to do that. So I try to design my talk, as much as possible, to be uplifting, anything's possible, and then here's some real simple ways of how to think about it to try to create change. People want something they can use, versus just talking about it. So I don't want to just talk about what we do. If I talk about something we do, I want to make it easy for someone to take that and run with it.

BB: What role has traditional marketing played in the growth and success of Method, to the extent that anything Method does is traditional? And how close are you to the marketing function?

ER: I'm really close to marketing because I come from a marketing background, and the only asset we own is the brand. So, creating and building the brand is my number one priority. Now, with that, we've got a big team and we've got a head of marketing, a creative director, and other people who that's their daily responsibility. But it's something that I still get my hands quite messy on, so it's still very focused.

BB: As you look forward and you think about the next level of growth for the company, what role will marketing play in allowing you to achieve the success you're targeting?

ER: Well, we're in a great spot, depending on how you look at it — glass half full, glass half empty. Our awareness is high for how new we are as a brand and how little we spend. But, compared to our competitors, our awareness is very, very low. So, the role of marketing, more than anything else, is going to be trying to get our story out there in a broader way and bring more people into the brand. If you look at our growth drivers, our number one growth driver is getting more people into the brand. We have a lot of distribution opportunity, a lot of products opportunity, but what's really going to be our number one focus is just creating more advocates, as we call them.

BB: Today you talked about differentiation and how you really work hard to differentiate Method from the mega-competitors you face. But what have you learned from them? What are some things that maybe you're doing similarly to them, even though they have much bigger scale?

ER: The big thing we're trying to do is use their strengths against them, right. We can't outspend them. We can't outmarket them on claims. So we've got to try to use their legacy against them. So, that's anything from the way we try to reframe products. It's all about shifting the conversation, right. These are brands that have been around for decades and decades, so they own the conversation. If you're Windex, you own the conversation on streak clean. We can't come in and join that conversation and do a better job, so we've got to shift the conversation to a different topic. So, in that case, we shift the conversation to non-toxic and the fragrance and the beauty of it and the overall experience. So, that's the biggest thing we've got to do, is keep trying to figure out what is the conversation that our competitors are talking about and then how do we shift it to something different.

BB: You are ever-mindful of your competition, including the fact that many of them were listening to you today. Given that, how do you approach a presentation like this? Are you cautious about giving away secrets and strategy?

ER: We're cautious about what we share. But, also, anybody can look at what we do and dissect it. It's not rocket science, it's soap. And the things we're sharing we know are difficult for them to do in some cases. In other cases, they're really, really great at it. And I don't think we're giving anything away. But, also, if we really are a challenger brand, we've got to keep innovating and keep challenging. So, our story shouldn't be static. It should be dynamic. And what I shared here this year, by next year, this story should've evolved. So, if they're following what were doing today, that's fine, as long as we're evolving.

BB: How are your competitors reacting to Method's early success and your presence in the market?

ER: Quite aggressively. We're seeing it come from all spaces, but it's coming in a very different way. So, I think CPG really struggles to build tensions into a brand. So, what makes Method unique is the tension of style and the tension of substance. Bringing those together is really challenging because there's constant trade-offs that you've got to work through. Typically within the world of consumer products, brands are built around a single attribute, so there is no tension within it. It's a single plot. The way you're seeing competitors come after us, the way it's manifesting, is they're focusing on green or they're focusing on design. Nobody's focusing on bringing them together. Design's not something you talk about; it's just something you do. It's your tone. It's who you are. It's your personality. And the ones who are focusing on what we call substance, which is the green, they're also doing it in a very single-dimensional way, which is selling green as a product feature. Whereas, to us, it is a product feature, but it's bigger than that. It's the entire philosophy behind the brand..."

Make sure to head on over and read the rest!

method: balancing performance, looks and safe materials

Greener Design has this very indepth Q&A with method co-founder (do I need to even say that anymore? Don't we know the co-founders by now! Oh wait, I guess I do for new readers. Ok, I've answered my own question. Thanks!) Adam Lowry! Read on, lusters!

"By Jonathan Bardelline | Published May 14, 2009

One of the biggest and most recognizable companies in the green cleaning world is San Francisco-based Method. One of the companies' hallmarks, and one of the reasons it's stayed so successful and grown its reach, its it multiple commitments to improving the ingredients in its products, making visually appealing packaging and ensuring that its products work just as well or better as everything else it sits next to at stores.

Adam Lowry, co-founder of Method, spoke with GreenBiz Radio about the indepth work needed to clean up cleaners, and why all the new green products from mainstream companies don't worry Method.

Lowry is just one of the many innovators working in the world of green design who will be speaking at next week's Greener by Design conference.

Jonathan Bardelline: Method has been making cleaners for about eight years, and could you give me an overview of the history of your ingredients? In those years have you made any major changes to the actual ingredients you've been using?

Adam Lowry: Yeah. We've made a lot of changes to ingredients. We're continually looking to bring in the leading edge of ingredient chemistry and really product packaging materials as well. So we're constantly changing both of those.

Sometimes we're doing that from suppliers that come up with novel new chemistries or packaging innovations, materials innovations. And then sometimes actually we're partnering with packaging suppliers or ingredient suppliers to develop proprietary solutions that are sort of new and unique things that are kind of solving both design problems as well as environmental problems within the product's design.

JB: More on the ingredient side, have you had to swap out ingredients where you find an either safer or more environmentally friendly ingredient?

AL: Well, yes. We're always doing that. So what we use is we actually use a scorecard. Think of it as sort of a green, yellow, red. And we've got it for every single ingredient in every single Method product. And we work with Dr. Michael Braungart and his team at MBDC and EPEA, and we outsource material evaluation to those guys so that it is independent, third party, peer reviewed science.

And if you think about each ingredient as a green, yellow, red, we won't do any product if any one ingredient is a red, okay? But there's a lot of greens and yellows. Not every product is perfectly green in terms of across its entire lifecycle, not as perfect as you want it to be. And so in some cases, those are yellow, which means they're okay to use, but you're constantly looking for better alternatives. We're not going to rest on our products until every single ingredient is green across the board. Does that make sense?

JB: Yeah. And to get to those green ingredients, is it people within Method doing the work, your suppliers finding the alternatives?

AL: Yeah. It's usually all of those because - for example, preservatives, which are in some products, some Method products, and they're required in certain products. Like personal care products, you have to have preservatives to keep them from going rancid. Those are products that are inherently a little bit more difficult to make green because they kill bacteria, of course.

And so those are ones where we're not manufacturing those preservatives, our suppliers are. So we have to work with our suppliers, show them what's important on our scorecard in terms of coming from a natural source, being biodegradable, being nontoxic, non sensitizing - like (not) causing irritation and things like that - educate them on what we're looking for, and then provide for them the carrot of our preservative business to say, “Listen. We need to develop a new and novel solution in this area that solves a need, that makes our products a little bit greener because it's a better preservative than what's been available in the past."

And so we do a lot of that in a very targeted way. We do that in the surfactant world with the detergents and products. We do that on preservatives. We do that on fragrances. We do that on enzymes, all of the different functional ingredients that make up a cleaner.

JB: Has that been something difficult to get suppliers on board with?

AL: Well, I'll tell you one of the things that has been difficult is when we first started that process nine years ago now, a lot of times the suppliers didn't even have the information that we were asking for. So if we were saying, “Okay. Hey, you've got this enzyme material. Where does it come from? How are you making it? Does it have any issues with causing allergic reactions?,” things like that..."

Head on over to Greener Design to read the rest!

the laundry list

method co-founder Eric Ryan is featured in the latest issue of Dwell magazine! The November 2008 issue is still out now, so be sure to head out and pick it up! Inside you'll find a great article on choosing more energy efficient, greener laundry washers and dryers!

But what really got me even more interested in this article is the great pic of Eric, AND what's hanging behind him! Lots of method drawings, many of their current product line! BUT, it also contains "what-if" drawings of what some of the line might have ended up looking like! In the above pic you'll see, to the right, different drawings of their new candle design get showcased!

In this pic, you'll see different soap shapes for their bar soap (I actually lust this round bar/tear shape idea they worked up! Hopefully they'll give this a try, one day!) As well as some sketches of their aroma bead ceramic burner they released with the 2007 holiday line!

I think these are great to look at! I know they have an entire wall in the method offices full of tons of sketches of current (and future!) products; and they can't (currently) give tours of their offices (because they don't want to give any of their secrets away!) So I feel this is a cool sneak peek into some of their inner workings (and I especially love it, being an artist myself!) Be sure to read the entire article, pick the magazine up today!