Let’s Talk About Some Relevant Topics!
❂ Why Sustainable Products Tend To Cost More
❂ Sustainable Packaging vs Non-Sustainable Packaging
❂ Why You Should Care About How Your Product Is Shipped
❂ Handcrafted vs Industrially Produced Goods
❂ Why It Is So Important To Support Local Businesses
❂ How You Are Part Of The Solution
❂ Other Ways To Be Sustainable If You Are Not In A Position To Spend The $$$
Page Jumps
❂ Why Sustainable Products Tend To Cost More
❂ Sustainable Packaging & Containers vs Non-Sustainable Packaging & Containers
❂ Why You Should Care About How Your Product Is Shipped
❂ Handcrafted vs Industrially Produced Goods
❂ Why It Is So Important To Support Local Businesses
❂ How You Are Part Of The Solution
❂ Other Ways To Be Sustainable If You Are Not In A Position To Spend The $$$
Sustainable Products Tend To Cost More
It is a fact that sustainable and eco-conscious personal care products tend to cost more. But there is a good reason for this. Generally speaking, sustainable businesses avoid plastics (which are super cheap) and low-cost ingredients and instead focus on using more expensive raw materials, sustainable packaging options, and sustainable shipping options. To put it short and sweet, doing right by the planet and the customer costs more!
Being a HANDCRAFTED sustainable business also drives costs up due to the care, effort, and intention that every aspect of the product receives. Your goods are being formulated, crafted, and produced (generally in small batches) with immense attention to detail, from the first ingredient to the final shipping label on your compostable box—all being done by hand by people who genuinely love their art & want only the best for their customers.
Some Key Drivers That Increase Costs for Handcrafted Sustainable Businesses…
Sustainable Packaging & Containers vs. Non-Sustainable options
➯Say “No” to plastic whenever possible.
We have reached a point in time where change needs to happen aggressively.
We know how overwhelming this topic can be, and many have adopted the “Out of sight, out of mind” mentality but unfortunately, this is a big part of the problem.
Plastic is everywhere. The world has become so dependent on plastic that it is almost unimaginable to picture life without it. You can do your absolute best to recycle correctly, but only 7-8% of all United States plastic gets recycled at the end of the day. This minuscule amount shows how desperately we need to change our ways.
Live Naturally Co. recognizes this need for change. We rely on reusable glass and tin containers and try to provide ways you can reuse your packaging once the product is gone. We look at a container and think, ” Can this have another purpose, and is it made of TRULY recyclable materials?”
However, the cost of this sustainable decision is more than many realize. Glass costs much more to manufacture and ship, so the price for these containers is significantly higher than its cheaper competitor, plastic. But, we stand behind our values and refuse to purchase plastic containers for our products and our customers.
Why You Should Care About How Your Products Are Shipped
Many companies use the term “Sustainable” as a marketing tactic to drive up the cost of their product when in reality, their product isn’t a sustainable option at all.
To help keep it simple, use these two questions to determine if you are making a sustainable choice
➤What will be left of this product once I am done with it?
➤Can I reuse this product, and will I reuse it?
This concept goes beyond the individual product itself and includes the packaging and shipping materials if the item was shipped.
If the item is wrapped in plastic or materials that you know won’t be able to break back down into Mother Earth or be recycled entirely or reused, then the product isn’t very sustainable.
When it comes to shipping, you can tell right away whether a product was shipped sustainably or not. If you get a cardboard box filled with brown paper packing materials, you know this company uses compostable and earth-friendly packing supplies. On the flip side, if you get plastic envelopes, plastic packing peanuts, bubble wrap, freezer bags, styrofoam, and plastic tape, well, they aren’t shipping with sustainable packing materials. Those plastics end up in the landfills adding to our already overflowing unmanageable waste crisis.
Handcrafted vs. Industrially Produced
Industrial production gives companies the ability to mass-produce items. This process takes a boatload of energy and resources and tends to emit emissions and excess waste of goods. Many of these companies tend to focus mainly on their bottom line and therefore don’t put as much effort into waste minimalization practices.
Handcrafted goods are forms of true art. The maker puts so much care into ensuring their customers are happy. It is a more intimate connection between buyer and seller than mass-produced goods, and generally, there is a stronger sense of trust and connectedness with these purchases.
Why It Is So Important To Support Local Businesses
The below information is pulled directly from the source Institute for Local Self Reliance-Click here for their website and the article this information belongs to!
1. Local Character and Prosperity
In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.
2. Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.
3. Local Decision-Making
Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.
4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.
5. Job and Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.
6. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.
7. Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.
8. Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which, in turn, are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.
9. Competition
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long term.
10. Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.
How You Can Be A Part Of The Solution
By purchasing truly sustainable items, you create more demand for these products. The higher the demand, the lower the costs for the consumer will eventually be because these businesses will be able to hit the point they need to pass savings onto you, the consumer. At the same time, you reduce your negative impacts to your health and our planet.
When you buy products from companies that don’t care about the planet, the treatment of their workers, the land and crops they harvest from, or your health, you are telling them you approve of their practices, pollution, and negative impacts.
One frame of mind is to think of your money as votes.
➤ Do you want to vote for the industrial corporations who know they are polluting Mother Earth but don’t do anything about it?
➤ Or would you instead vote for the small sustainable businesses that live and breathe their work and have your health and the health of this planet and future generations at the forefront of their business plans?
Other Ways To Be Sustainable If You Are Not In A Position To Spend The $$$
Many people may feel stuck when it comes to living sustainably. They look at all of the eco-conscious products marketed AT THEM, and then they look at the price tags and realize it’s just not affordable.
The good news is…the most sustainable and earth-friendly decisions you can make go far beyond what you buy!
CHECK IT OUT!
➤ Consume less & dispose of less
➤ Reuse and upcycle what you have as much as possible
➤Go second hand and thrifting!
➤Stop using plastic wherever you can and replace it with a non-plastic eco-friendly alternative that can be reused
➤Stop the dependency on single-use items
➤Bring reusable bags when shopping
➤Use products that have a waterless option, such as shampoo bars, as opposed to plastic bottles filled with heavy ingredients that require a lot of energy to manufacture and transport
➤Support sustainable businesses when you can
➤Reduce water and energy usage any way you can
➤Eat less meat ( you don’t have to go vegan, but it is a fact that eating less meat is better for the environment!)
➤Go paperless whenever possible
➤Clean up the earth; whether it be volunteering or simply picking up trash you see when you are out and about
Thank you and we appreciate you!
–Live Naturally Co.
