Companies use huge amounts of our planet’s resources and in turn have a huge impact. It is crucial that sustainability is at the core of their sourcing, production and distribution activities to ensure that the world we live in continues to be habitable for all, not just the few.

Purchasing trends show that people prioritise environmental impact when they buy. This trend towards companies that share our interest in preserving the planet comes at a time when choice is becoming increasingly urgent.

Not only are some companies responding to consumer preferences, but, excitingly, many are leading the way in terms of environmental stewardship and distinguishing themselves from those that simply jump on the ‘green marketing’ bandwagon.

However, before sharing examples of sustainable business in practice, we will discuss what it actually means for a company to be environmentally friendly.

What makes a company sustainable?

To be sustainable, a company’s business must be able to ‘maintain itself at a certain pace or level’.

It must operate with a real intention to improve the world, communities, people and stakeholders it encounters through its existence. Conventionally, companies have valued profit and the bottom line above all else. Sustainable companies consider their impact on the community and the environment as a critical parameter of their success. They adopt a triple bottom line where people, planet and profit are considered.

When a company declares that its operations are sustainable, it needs to know what to look for:

• Transparent and ethical sourcing of materials
• Environmentally conscious production practices
• Waste-conscious packaging (recyclable, with as little material as possible)
• Carbon-neutral shipping options
• Diversion of waste to landfill at the end of their products’ life cycle
• Evidence of ’eco-friendly’ claims, such as certifications, audits or other forms of accountability (such as certified B Corporations).

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  It is not only about ’eco-friendly’ products: these companies embody a positive social and environmental impact. A negative impact on the environment is out of the question. What is rather important is how substantial their positive contribution is.

Why should companies be sustainable?

Firstly, the reality is that we have one planet and we all share it. All companies have an impact on the planet and this impact affects us all.

Consumers are also increasingly seeking to engage with eco-friendly products and companies. In a 2019 Nielsen report, 81% of consumers said it was ’extremely’ or ‘very’ important that companies ‘implement programmes to improve the environment’ and 30% of consumers said they were ‘willing to pay a premium for products that maintain social responsibility statements’.

Notably, according to another study, 90 per cent of Millennials and Generation Z ‘believe that companies should take action to help social and environmental problems’.

These consumers are a driving force in socially conscious purchasing and their spending power will only increase as time goes on.

Adopting eco-friendly practices is also a great way for these companies to save money:

• Reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency saves on utility costs.
• Recycling or reusing old products to make new ones saves on materials.
• Almost 40 per cent of employees prefer to work in environmentally friendly companies. Higher employee retention results in lower turnover.

Becoming an environmentally friendly company has a number of positive advantages in the immediate future.

How do you know if a company is sustainable?

If you Google ‘green companies’, you will get a long list of so-called ‘green’ companies. But what distinguishes companies that ‘go green’ from those that are actually environmentally friendly?

Transparency

Being radically open and transparent is one of the core principles of the way we at Grow Ensemble think about sustainable and socially responsible companies.

For example, all the websites of the companies on our list contain clear and easy-to-find information about their environmentally sustainable practices.

Exploring their websites does more than just show that they are green companies. It provides enlightening information on every aspect of their efforts and often introduces environmental innovations we didn’t even know were possible!

These companies do not only have the goal of being more sustainable by 2050. They have short- and long-term goals that are there for all to see and that drive them towards sustainable innovation and positive impact.

Certifications

Another way to find truly environmentally friendly companies is through their certifications. It is always important to understand the meaning of certifications so that you know how reliable they are for your values.

For example, as we have said many times, the B Corporation certification is considered the gold standard for the world’s best business practices.

If you “see the B” on a company’s website or product, it means that the company has achieved an impressive minimum score on the B Impact Assessment, an assessment divided into five impact areas: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers.

The environmental area of the assessment is very rigorous and thorough, and B Corp certified companies often provide an impact report detailing their sustainability plan and its implementation.

There are two other important certifications/associations that we are particularly happy to see:

1. All members of 1% for the Planet (including Grow Ensemble!) pledge to donate 1% of their total turnover to highly selected environmental non-profit organisations. Some pursue these partnerships, combining the financial and human capital of partners to create an impressive and widespread environmental impact.
2. Climate Neutral certified companies measure, reduce and offset their carbon emissions to neutralise their footprint. Some companies have become extremely creative, making their entire business carbon neutral or even carbon negative.

These certifications require more than just a declaration of corporate social responsibility or self-labelling as a ‘green company’ (this will be especially clear after seeing what the companies on our list are doing).

How can a company be more sustainable?

Measuring its impact

A company’s carbon footprint, where and how it buys materials, how and if it gives back: measuring every aspect of what it takes for a company to function successfully and how much it costs outside of just dollars illuminates its overall impact.

Mapping the supply chain

The sequence of activities that enables a company to deliver its products or services to the end consumer is the supply chain. Knowing and showing how each part is acquired, processed, implemented and incorporated into the final product is ideal.

Reallocating B2B spending and advertising

It is equally important to understand what a company does (and who it spends its money with) to get its products on the shelves.

Truly eco-friendly and sustainable companies choose to partner with other like-minded companies for everything from software design, recruitment activities and advertising platforms in line with a positive social and environmental impact.

Paying workers a living wage

A company’s workforce is as important as the materials used for its products. How can we expect employees to care about the environment and sustainable living if they cannot afford it?

15 sustainable companies for 2022

1. Patagonia

Outdoor clothing company Patagonia always tops the lists of eco-friendly companies, and for good reason. The Ventura-based company has spent its forty-seven years in business at the forefront of environmentally friendly business practices.

And it continues to evolve and innovate.

Patagonia proudly declares that it is ‘in business to save our planet’.

It is easy to see that this motto is not limited to aesthetics: being in business for the planet is deeply rooted in Patagonia’s identity as a company.

For the past 35 years, the company has devoted one per cent of its sales to preserving the natural environment. This practice led Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, to co-found 1% for the Planet, so that other companies could make the same contribution to environmental protection. B Corp has awarded over $89 million to national and international grassroots environmental groups. In 2017, they even sued the President to preserve national monuments!

Many of their raw materials are recycled or organically grown to reduce their environmental footprint. They aim to be completely carbon neutral by 2025.

In addition, their initiative, Patagonia Action Works, helps connect consumers with local activist groups in their community. All this makes sense if you get to know Yvon Chouinard better.

2. Seventh Generation The paper, personal care and cleaning products company, Seventh Generation, has focused on eco-friendliness since its foundation in 1988. Seventh Generation’s mission is ’to turn the world into a healthy, sustainable and fair place for the next seven generations’.

Packaging used for selling and shipping products is a huge source of waste and negative environmental impact.

Therefore, in addition to plant-based products made with ethically and sustainably sourced ingredients, Seventh Generation ensures that their packaging is equally environmentally friendly. To reduce waste, the company uses recycled materials for its packaging and designs the packaging itself so that it can be recycled.

The goal is to use 100 per cent biobased or recycled post-consumer materials for products and packaging by 2020 and, like Patagonia, Seventh Generation aims to become a zero-waste company by 2025. Seventh Generation also focuses on environmental advocacy and community action. From supporting the Sierra Club’s Ready For 100 campaign to offering grants to non-profit organisations through its foundation, the Seventh Generation Foundation, Seventh Generation fights to ensure that its impact doesn’t simply end after its sustainable products arrive at your doorstep.

3. A Good Company

If environmental sustainability isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you see an e-commerce company, it’s because it generally isn’t. But A Good Company is on a mission to change e-commerce for this very reason.

A Good Company exists to create sustainable everyday products. As you may have noticed with the other companies on this list, ‘sustainability’ means more than just not polluting the planet.

How does A Good Company convince its customers that it is at the forefront of sustainability? With radical openness!

Every decision about the materials used, every product idea and every step in its creation is shared with customers.

A Good Company believes that full transparency gives customers the opportunity to understand what sustainability means for an environmentally friendly company, and pushes them to be innovative in remaining as environmentally responsible as possible. The company encourages customers to be conscious consumers, furthering its mission to end mindless consumption.

From the luxury pen made from illegally melted firearms from El Salvador, to the eco-friendly phone case, to the world’s first climate-positive notebook made from stone paper, A Good Company leaves no stone unturned in its commitment to sustainability. It even guarantees climate-positive packaging.

4. New Belgium Brewing Company

The New Belgium Brewing Company is the fourth largest craft brewery in the United States and has been committed to being eco-friendly since its founding in 1991.

During the founding, the owners took a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park and established their core values, which included ‘promoting social, environmental and cultural change as a business model; environmental stewardship: honouring nature at every stage of the business’.

The brewery, based in Fort Collins and B Corporation certified, only uses sustainable suppliers and is also a Platinum Zero Waste certified company. In addition, 99.9% of their waste does not end up in landfills.

Energy consumption is one of New Belgium’s main environmental concerns. The green company aims to reduce the level of emissions through energy conservation, on-site energy production and the implementation of a voluntary internal energy tax.

5. Pela

Pela was born in 2010 when its founder, Jeremy Lang, saw first-hand the damage of plastic pollution on our oceans during a holiday. Lang and Pela took a step forward to make sustainable, plastic-free products the new normal with a product we hold in our hands every day.

The company is now proud to have created the ‘world’s first 100 per cent compostable phone case’ and strive to avoid the production of one billion kilos of plastic by 2028. With the sales of its effective and durable cases, the company has already eliminated over 313,000 pounds of plastic.

Pela, a B Corp and Climate Neutral certified company, is also intent on using environmentally friendly materials and reducing its footprint. In addition to being compostable, their cases use renewable resources. With their 2020 reduction plan, they have set out plans to streamline transport routes, reduce end-of-life waste and help manufacturing plants switch to renewable energy sources.

Pela has not stopped at the fight against plastic waste and green phone cases. Recently, this 1% for the Planet member developed Lomi, a revolutionary home composting tool that allows waste - including an old Pela case - to be turned into compost with just one button and a device the size of a kitchen counter.

6. Dr. Bronner

Dr. Bronner’s All-One organic soaps and personal care products are among the best-selling eco-friendly products, and for good reason.

The sustainable company is based on six ‘Cosmic Principles’ that guide their product creation and use of the power of their business as a force for good, including ’treating the earth like a home’ and ‘being fair to suppliers’.

Like other companies on this list, Dr. Bronner’s truly cares about doing good for the environment. Dr. Bronner’s organic and fairtrade ingredients are all certified by some of the most environmentally and socially sustainable organisations.

Not to mention that all plastic bottles are 100% recycled after consumption, which conserves resources and reduces landfill waste.

The Californian company also builds fair supply chains through its fair trade practices. Dr Bronner’s fair trade principles include fair and stable prices for farmers, environmental stability and no forced or child labour.

The company estimates that 10,000 people worldwide have benefited directly and another 10,000 indirectly from its fair trade projects.

7. Preserve

Preserve started with an environmentally friendly toothbrush. And not just any toothbrush.

Preserve’s founder collaborated with dentists, scientists and engineers to design the ‘Preserve toothbrush’, made from recycled plastic, back in 1996.

Today, Preserve has a collection of many sustainable products made from recycled plastic, including razors, measuring cups and colanders. The company also produces plant-based products such as straws, cups and compostable plates.

One of their most recent initiatives, Preserve Ocean Plastic Initiative (POPi), uses plastic from coastlines and oceans to produce toothbrushes and razors, reducing plastic waste in the oceans. All Preserve products are recyclable or compostable.

Preserve has gone a step further to reduce waste and started the Gimme 5 recycling programme in 2007. Consumers can recycle #5 polypropylene plastic in Whole Foods’ Gimme 5 bins, which are then processed into new Preserve products. The company also has a toothbrush take-back programme, which accepts used Preserve toothbrushes, which are also recycled and turned into new environmentally friendly products.

8. Numi Organic Tea

Numi Organic Tea, an Oakland-based organic tea company, is a rare quadruple bottom line that includes people, planet, profit and purpose in its business model.

Numi’s teas are made with ethically sourced organic teas, herbs and fruits, flowers and spices that are 100 per cent real.

The founding B Corp has products certified for fair trade or fair labour. The company also uses sustainable packaging for its teas. The tea boxes are made from 90% post-consumer recycled content and the tea wrappers are now compostable.

Numi Organic Tea’s mission includes maximising social and environmental impact, which is achieved through the Numi Foundation. The Numi Foundation supports three programmes that help people both locally, in Oakland, and globally.

Recently, Numi Organic Tea celebrated Earth Day by committing to becoming carbon neutral by 2023. The three-step plan includes reducing emissions throughout the supply chain, using 100 per cent renewable energy for the headquarters, and offsetting emissions.

9. Allbirds

Allbirds is already a 100% carbon neutral company. How is this possible?

This footwear and clothing company knows that it is too late to settle for neutrality. Instead of simply investing in carbon offset projects to compensate for the pollution the company puts into the world, Allbirds has committed to bringing its carbon footprint to zero.

Allbirds, what is your footprint? It is easy to trust them. The transparency with which Allbirds carries out its sustainability initiatives is evident simply by studying its website.

You can read all about their journey and approach to net zero in the sustainability tab in the top navigation of their site, as well as a number of other social and environmental innovations that Allbirds is proud of.

In addition, the Certified B Corp makes it easy to be a conscious consumer. A nutrition-like label is placed on all products, indicating the associated emissions.

In April 2021, Allbirds made its carbon footprint tool public so that other companies and consumers could take advantage of it.

10. tentree

You may have already guessed it, but tentree plants 10 trees for every purchase of its sustainable and comfortable products.

To date, the company has planted over 70 million trees!

With the help of selectively chosen and visited charitable organisations, these trees have removed millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, uplifted impoverished communities and reforested more than 12,000 football pitches.

In addition, the company aims to plant 1 billion trees by 2030.

In my interview with CEO Derrick Emsley in our social entrepreneurship and innovation podcast on the importance of trees, he explained that “tentree is a company that plants trees and sells clothing…”.

And their impact doesn’t stop there.

This B Corp Best for the World holds itself to the highest standards in the production of its products, employing both the most sustainable materials and ethical factories.

The more I learn about tentree, the more I understand the genuineness of its Earth-First mentality, where ’the planet and its people come first, always’.

11. Aspiration

Aspiration, a B Corp and member of 1% for the Planet, empowers individuals to make a difference and fight climate change, one purchase at a time.

From 2016 to 2020, the 60 largest banks lent more than $3.8 trillion of their customers’ money to fossil fuels. And America’s four largest banks are responsible for more than $240 billion of this money each year!

In direct opposition, for every $1,000 transferred by customers to Aspiration, there is an annual climate impact equal to 6,000 fewer miles driven by an average car.

How? With Aspiration credit and debit cards, you get up to 10% cash back on purchases made from socially responsible companies, your car’s gas and carbon footprint are automatically offset, and you can rest easy knowing that Aspiration will actively use your money for the good of our planet and its inhabitants.

Aspiration’s AIM (Impact Measurement) function generates a personal sustainability score based on your purchases. It is the perfect tool to help you understand your footprint and know where to spend your money.

12. Avocado Green Mattress

Avocado Green Mattress is not only the most sustainable mattress in the world, but also one of the most sustainable companies in the world.

Like many other companies on this list, Avocado works hard to produce an incredibly eco-friendly product and uses its business platform to make an even bigger impact.

Let’s start with the product. With Avocado’s green mattress, customers get a mattress with no toxic chemicals and the highest standards of sustainable materials. For example, Avocado raises its own sheep to ensure that organic standards for wool are met.

When you invest in an Avocado mattress, you are also investing in a transparent B Corp, a member of 1% for the Planet and Climate Neutral certified, which works diligently to achieve zero waste and reduce emissions.

The company also uses its resources to be politically active, having supported 36 bills and participated in 26 pro-sustainability events in 2021 alone.

13. Tablas Creek

Tablas Creek has been using organic methods in the winemaking process since the 1960s (before it became fashionable) to protect workers from toxins and promote a healthier vineyard.

Today Tablas is the first Regenerative Organic™ certified vineyard in the United States. This means that in producing its wine, Tablas Creek diligently considers soil health, animal health, and social welfare.

Valuing all three of these pillars in the winemaking process - and working with nature rather than using it - not only produces delicious, high-quality wines, but helps revitalise the land, nourish ecosystems and promote the well-being of workers and consumers.

To cut a long story short, Tablas Creek is one of the few sustainable wineries on this list that can boast of truly reversing climate change.

14. MUD Jeans

MUD Jeans may be a small company, but it is a powerful example for the world of sustainable denim and fashion.

This Netherlands-based B Corporation is the world’s first circular denim brand.

In 2013, MUD introduced the Lease A Jeans programme, a model that frees consumers from the environmental anxiety of buying a new pair of jeans. Instead, they borrow material from MUD Jeans in the form of jeans and return them once they have finished using them.

Thanks to this programme, MUD Jeans avoid landfill and encourage a less wasteful lifestyle.

The brand focuses in particular on water use, carbon emissions, land use and recycling. With these initiatives, MUD has had an incredible impact.

15. Grove Collaborative

Grove Collaborative is a marketplace that strives to make sustainable and healthy choices easy. In fact, Grove is the world’s first plastic-neutral retailer, which means it takes as much plastic out of the ocean as it produces.

And, like all the eco-friendly companies on our list, this B Corp has an ambitious short-term goal: to be plastic-free by 2025.

Grove is also strongly committed to reforestation initiatives and reducing its overall carbon footprint.