As a Sustainable Leader, B Corp Creates Low-Impact Plastic Products with Proceeds Aiding Ocean-Cleanup Nonprofits
Growing up in suburban Western Massachusetts, Eric Hudson always enjoyed the great outdoors. So although his professional life started in the finance and consulting industries, it’s no surprise that his love for the natural world inspired him to take a sharp professional turn toward preserving the environment.
It all started in the early ’90s, when Hudson began to learn and understand the consumer recycling landscape. Right away, he noticed a gaping void. While a lot of people were recycling, most manufacturers were not taking the steps to turn those recyclables into new products. Hudson saw the opportunity: to get people who were committed to recycling excited about buying beautiful products made from their recycling efforts.
So in 1996, Hudson founded Preserve, a company (and Certified B Corporation!) dedicated to transforming the plastic that’s already out in the world into everyday necessities — toothbrushes, tableware, and more. Since the 1990s, Preserve has forayed into compostable kitchenware as well as products for the food services industry — cutting boards, mixing bowls, measuring cups and more.
But Preserve isn’t satisfied to just hang its hat on the consumer and commercial goods success. When we chatted with Hudson, we got to learn about his company’s exciting new project — two years in the making — Preserve Ocean Plastic Initiative (POPi).
POPi is committed to protecting and preserving the oceans by rescuing plastic that is at-risk of entering the ocean from coastlines and waterways. We love witnessing how dedicated Preserve is to living its social-impact purpose. Read on to learn how Preserve is staying the course to combat this enormous problem, managing limited resources, and finding purposeful partners along the way.
Purpose-Driven from Day One
From the very beginning, more than 20 years ago, Hudson had a clear purpose and vision for Preserve. It’s known that plastic is harmful to the environment, birds, wildlife and even people, yet plastic continues to be produced and a major part of our daily lives.
When Hudson founded Preserve in 1996, he knew that stopping plastic use was impractical. But, the company could commit to making sure we reuse the plastic that’s already been produced, thereby cutting back on the need to make brand-new, or “virgin,” plastic. Preserve does this by transforming yogurt cups and take-out containers into well-designed toothbrushes and tableware.
Letting Purpose be the Guide
Preserve’s latest initiative, POPi, started at the beginning of 2018 when five team members began researching the plastic waste ocean crisis. This small team wanted to find out where Preserve might be able to help, and figured it out by asking three questions:
- What is Preserve’s origin?
- Where do we have the most expertise?
- Where should we focus?
The answers led them down a path of prevention (keeping plastics out of the ocean) versus remediation (what to do with plastic once it’s in the ocean). The team was inspired to take action when its research uncovered statistics like 150 million metric tons of plastic is in the ocean, and 8 million more tons are added every year, and 93% of the plastics that find their way to the ocean from rivers come from only 10 major rivers. These facts made the Preserve team hone its focus on preventing plastic from entering the ocean.
Enter: Purposeful Partners
Preserve opted to donate 25% of profits from sale of its POPi razors and toothbrushes to its nonprofit partners. Why “only” 25%? Because Preserve wants to make a substantial impact and be sustainable. At this stage, donating more than 25% could jeopardize Preserve’s ability to invest in its longevity, ensuring that the B Corp will be here to keep making an impact, 20 years and more from now.
After extensive research, the Preserve team decided to financially support two nonprofits that are helping with the ocean crisis, Renew Oceans and 5 Gyres. It also has a U.S.-based material partner called Envision Plastics.
- Renew Oceans is a nonprofit partner based in India. Preserve was inspired to partner with Renew Ocean because of its focus on ocean health and practical application of technology to stop the flow of plastics into the ocean.
- 5 Gyres is a nonprofit partner focused on advocacy to get more of the U.S. population motivated to make a difference when it comes to plastic in the ocean.
- Envision Plastics supplies Preserve with ocean plastic to create POPi products. Preserve made a point to have a U.S.-based supplier because the logistics of shipping plastic recovered from Renew Oceans in India would lead to too many carbon emissions.
The Power of (B Corp) Community
We would be remiss not to mention this critical part of POPi’s success: the support from fellow B Corp Grove Collaborative, the company that distributes Preserve’s products. Grove Collaborative took a leap of faith and helped fund POPi by prepaying on orders and products — before the products existed and before Preserve knew how to make them!
Advance payment like this is super rare, especially in the retail world, which is known to be a cut-throat industry. But with Grove Collaborative’s support, POPi was able to launch without having to pour time, energy, and money into finding a funding partner or going the route of a Kickstarter campaign.
“What was exciting to us about the POPi line was the extension of our plastic reduction goals in not only avoiding and collecting ocean-bound plastic — but turning that plastic into durable new products that would also raise consumer awareness around the issue.” — Danielle Jezienicki, Grove Collaborative
Bringing POPi and its products to market was not smooth sailing. But the Preserve team didn’t let the risk intimidate them, and they aren’t giving up. When they decided to tackle ocean plastic, they could have easily said: “We are a small company and this problem is too big.” Instead, they forged ahead — and this is just the beginning.
A version of this article was originally published by RoundPeg. B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
Products with Purpose: Preserve Recycles Ocean Plastic was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
