A Passion for Sustainability

On May 15th I went on a little adventure to Earth Friendly Products (ECOS) with mi madre (who is the coolest! And such a big supporter of my goals♡) 

Earth Friendly Products is a cleaning product company that is making great progress towards sustainability. They not only manufacture their products using zero waste guidelines, but also have achieved diverting 95% of their waste from landfill. 

I had the amazing opportunity of interviewing Nederah, who plays a key role in the company reaching their sustainable goals. In addition, she also helps to build the reputation of her company. For example, ECOS has been recognized as the US EPA’s 2019 Safer Choice partner of the year partly in due to her quality checks and continuous improvements towards more sustainable production. 

She shared how in 2009 the company started at disposing 20 trash bins per week per division. In just 4 years they brought this number down to just 1 trash bin per week. By 2017, they successfully downsized to just 2 cubic yards a week! 

How were they able to become so successful? She shared how most of it was 1 item at a time; which included lots of research and connecting with new people. Because of all the costs involved, she had to invest a great amount of time into calculating everything. She had to prove they could not only recycle each item, but that it would ultimately save the company money as well. An example of this is the trash baler she showed me in their production area. Because of the difference in monthly cost vs their alternative method, they were able to achieve a return on investment on the baler in just 11 months. 

Down in the production area Nederah also showed us how they are able to recycle the gloves they use. It took a lot of negotiation and research, but she was able to locate a recycling center that accepted gloves. However, they only accepted one brand, which she noted was expensive. Despite this, she was able to successfully negotiate a reduction in price with the brand, and now the company is saving $9,000 a year. 

Not only does she negotiate prices like this, but she also works with manufacturers to make certain products fully recyclable. For example, she worked with producers to make their hair nets completely recyclable. However, even though recycling is a way better option than landfill, Nederah shared how it’s still not the best option. Reducing and reusing are some of the most efficient ways to really reduce your waste output (especially on an individual level!). One creative project she shared is how they recreate their used pallets into the base for a community garden. The workers will water and grow plants there, and be able to take the fresh produce to use too! 

Outside of the production facility, she still makes an effort to continue sustainable practices with her coworkers. For instance, in the kitchen they make sure to have reusable cutlery, plates, and cups available. New employees actually have to go through sustainability training, too. In this training, they learn they cannot bring styrofoam, plastic water bottles, straws, or nonrecyclable containers into the facility. While it may appear a little extreme to some, guidelines like these encourage workers to create conversations outside of work. For example, she joked about how local restaurants are able to know right away if they work at ECOS if they ask for a recyclable container to go. Not only is it a good story, but it has also encouraged the nearby restaurants to increase the availability of recyclable containers.

In the future she talked about possibly having a refill station for their products. They tried it in the past and it was unsuccessful, but now she says they’re open to trying it again, especially with the recent awareness about environmental issues. It was really cool to see such an impressive company like ECOS still looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact.

Of course, while it’s easy to see all the improvements in the present, Nederah opened up about how getting to this point took a lot of contact, negotiation, and push back. There were a lot of people who doubted her along the way, but she stayed true to her values despite everything and kept pushing forward. When she first began having workers take on sustainable practices, she would actually make waste assessments of their trash cans. This was first meant to see exactly what waste needed to be reduced, and then it became a way to keep people accountable. “You have to be very strong, emotionally, and keep believing in what you’re doing,” she shared. My mom and I commented about how strong she was for staying true to her vision and she replied that “strong women feel the pain, but we feel it in a different way”. Her confidence and passion in knowing what she was doing was important is what kept her going. 

She opened up about going home crying sometimes because of the disrespect and complete disregard for her mission. At times people would intentionally do the opposite of what she said, while others would gossip about her, or try and convince her that what she was doing wasn't necessary. Overall, we all agreed that a possible reason some of us become so opposed is because we see it as threatening to be told what we’re doing is wrong. It’s human nature; most of us don’t want to own it, and it’s easy to ignore the issues in our consumerist culture. Especially in America, we constantly want the next big thing: the next new IPhone, new clothes from fast fashion brands vs. utilizing what we already own and investing in things that will last. Instead of ‘using’ we should be shifting our thought process to ‘nourishing’. 

Nederah shared how she grew up with this way of thinking because of her Zoroastrian culture, which is heavily intertwined with respecting nature. They avoid polluting the air, water, and soil and try and reuse as much as possible. In the United States, we rarely see people taking the time to think about this. Everything is so fast paced and overwhelming in our society that it’s easy to disconnect from this compassion towards nature. In addition, many believe they are ‘superior’ to other species and the natural world, so what’s the point in caring about them? The truth is, we need our natural world to survive. Water to drink, air to breathe, and animals that are key to keeping ecosystems in balance, too. We should have more respect for our Earth; our home. 

Overall, the visit to ECOS was really eye-opening, and it was really inspiring to meet Nederah. Her leadership and determination enormously helped their company reach their goals, and in turn create new ones to aspire to. I hope other companies will learn to follow in the footsteps of those like ECOS in the future. 

A big part of becoming more sustainable is just changing your behavior: going out of your comfort zone, creating conversations, reminding, and sometimes just starting from scratch. However, a simple passion for change can make the biggest difference in not only keeping you going, but inspiring those around you, too. 

Passion and Progress y’all. Not perfection.