Our Green Philosophy

It starts with 50%.

Combining great design with environmental consciousness is incredibly inspiring and exciting to us. Yet, we know the world is not perfect, so we don’t limit ourselves to perfect green solutions. Thousands of designers and entrepreneurs are making tremendous strides to offer green products that substantively outperform the competition on their environmental merits. We want you to have access to those options and to feel that you are credibly making a better choice for the environment.

Products we feature on Lazy Environmentalist are at least 50% better for the planet than standard products.

In our view, 50% signifies a serious and significant commitment to a cleaner, healthier planet. 50% is challenging. 50% means companies have to change a lot about how they do business – design their products, source the raw materials, manufacture them, etc.

50% constitutes exciting progress toward an economy that operates in balance with nature. We’re all about getting to at least 50%.  Here’s how that breaks down:

Products that surround you (like clothes, furniture, houses and cars):

• Are made of at least 50% environmentally friendly materials (think organic cotton, hemp, recycled materials, sustainably harvested wood, etc.) or
• Deliver at least 50% energy savings compared to standard, more conventional products

Products that go in or on you (like food, drinks, toothpaste and other personal care items):

• Are made of natural ingredients (no synthetics including fragrance) or
• Are certified USDA organic

Some additional thoughts.

On Recyclability

You’ll notice that “recyclability” is not part of our green criteria. Of course, we believe products ought to be designed for easy recycling at the end of their useful life. But honestly when is the last time you recycled your sofa, office chair, or sneakers?

Designing these items for recyclability is fantastic and important, but we believe to be considered a green product, the environmental benefits of the product must be created before we, the consumer, buys them or during their use.

The reason hits at the core of Lazy Environmentalist philosophy. Many of us are lazy. We know deep in our lazy bones that we are probably not going to go out of our way to recycle something at the end of it’s useful life just because we can. Since Lazy Environmentalist is created for lazy environmentalists, we ensure that the items we feature deliver the environmental goods without those buying them having to engage in any kind of change of behavior. Laudable? Not really. Realistic? We think so. And remember, we don’t judge.

On Vegan

We’re happy that those who want vegan products can buy them. However, many vegan products are not green. Vegan leather, for example, is most often made of fossil fuels. Which is to say it’s made from oil. It probably goes without saying that oil is not environmentally friendly, but the fundamental reason why we don’t view it as environmentally friendly is because it’s a non-renewable, finite resource. Again, if you want to tote vegan handbags and rock vegan shoes, we say have it. We just don’t include those products here because they don’t meet our criteria.