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10 Things I’ve Learned About Making Green Relevant to the Mainstream. By Drummond Lawson | Method Products Inc

1. Sustainability must be an element of product quality. For green products to be relevant to the broader population, sustainability should become part of the definition of a high quality product. In other words, green should be a starting point and not an end point.

2. First, focus on making a product better. Then make it green. If your product isn’t better than what is already out there, it doesn’t matter if it’s green. Look at how people use products or services, what defines a positive experience, and find a way to build a greener product that enhances this experience.

3. The paradigm of sacrifice must end. For green products to appeal to more people, performance or other aspects of user experience cannot be sacrificed in the name of sustainability.

4. Transparency is the foundation of all sustainability communication. Without transparency there is no authenticity and without authenticity there is no credibility. Instead of trying to convince your consumers, empower them to make informed decisions.

5. Authenticity wins. As more companies try to enter the green space by mimicking one or two product attributes, authentic green companies can win by emphasizing the sustainability of products across their full lifecycle, how they are made, and the ethics of the company responsible for them.

6. It’s OK to aim ahead of the curve. Even if concepts are beyond the current relevance of most of the market, it’s way better to be ahead of the curve than behind it. For example, Method is a proud Cradle-to-Cradle company and evangelist, even if most mainstream consumers don’t yet know what Cradle-to-Cradle means.

7. Progress, not perfection. In the relatively young world of green products, there are few perfectly sustainable solutions or materials; however, this isn’t a reason against advancing to the many incrementally better options.

8. Sustainability is an amazing vector for product innovation. Beyond the basic level of risk management, the formerly unaddressed social and environmental factors offer nearly unlimited paths for product innovation and format redesign. In the words of Peter Drucker, every single global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise.

9. The precautionary principle is your friend. Stick with materials that you know will never pose a risk to users and you’ve avoided many potential headaches.

10. Have fun. Instead of getting stuck only on the doom-and-gloom scenarios underlying the sustainability movement, company cultures thrive on interesting new challenges -- like building social and environmental benefit into value-creating business models.