The Rise of Innovative Consumption
The Rise of Innovative Consumption
Both companies and consumers need to change their habits.
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Conscious consumption is the new conspicuous consumption
This week, we’re diving into how companies are reducing their environmental footprint and how new products and seemingly small changes to production processes can make a difference. From seaweed water pods to reusable beer bottles, we’ll see some of the consumer goods innovations that are trying to reduce humans’ impact on the environment. For those interested in the related topic of circular economies, check out our previous piece here.
We’ll also explore whether randomness is the solution to algorithmic bias, consider whether the simultaneous rise of IoT and slowing of Moore’s Law could exacerbate climate change, and in light of Disney+ launch this week (read our spotlight on the new streaming service here) consider two Netflix and Hulu veterans’ advice for the scrum of new streaming services.
We hope you’ve been enjoying this newsletter and would love any feedback (erica@nycmedialab.org). Thank you again for reading!
Best,
Erica Matsumoto
NYC Media Lab
In September 2018, the Brookings Institution reported that just over 50% of the world’s population (about 3.8 billion people) lived in households with enough discretionary spending to be considered “middle class” or “rich.” This suggests that humankind has reached a point where more than half of the people on the planet are no longer poor or vulnerable to poverty.
Environmentally, this rise in wealth globally presents a unique challenge. Demand for food, water and energy are expected to grow by 35%, 40% and 50% respectively by 2030.
While we don’t think the solution is to put the genie back in the bottle and require the growing global middle class to reject consumerism, we can try to raise awareness around the impacts of our current consumption-centric economy and slow its impact so that consumerism doesn’t consume the planet whole. Let’s look to a few startups and companies offering lower-footprint products to meet this need.
DRINK UP, IT’S GOOD FOR THE PLANET
Air Co., a buzzy New York City-based technology and lifestyle company, made a splash last week with its carbon-negative vodka. Its spirit is made by capturing CO2 emissions from nearby factories. Michelin-starred restaurants in New York, such as Eleven Madison Park and Gramercy Tavern, will be including it on their menus.
Similarly, many alcohol companies are experimenting with new ways to reduce their environmental impact. In the UK, Heineken has invested £22m in new technology and production facilities to replace single-use plastic rings and shrink wrap from its multipack cans in favor of cardboard. This will reduce the carbon emissions associated with producing multipack cans by 33%.
Source: The Guardian
Heineken isn’t the only alcohol company trying to phase plastics out of its packaging, either:
- Carlsberg is replacing rings with recyclable glue
- Diageo has started phasing plastic packaging out from Guinness, Harp, Rockshore, and Smithwick’s beers and replacing it with cardboard packs
- Budweiser is removing single-use plastic rings from its entire range of UK-produced beer, including Stella Artois, Budweiser, and Bud Light, by the end of 2020
Oregon residents can go a step further. A cooperative refillable program called BottleDrop uses refillable bottles for a broad range of craft beers and ciders in the state. When customers buy beverages in these refillable bottles, they pay the same $0.10 deposit they’d pay for single-use bottles. After they’ve finished the beverages, they can return their empties for the $0.10 refund, just like any other beverage container, and the refillables are sorted, washed, inspected, and delivered back to craft beverage producers to be refilled. In 2018, this program saved 348,617 bottles from being crushed and recycled.
BEAUTY DOESN’T HAVE TO BE WASTEFUL
The beauty industry is notorious for its waste — palettes, deodorant, and other products contain many small plastic parts that aren’t easily recyclable. What’s more, many beauty products also contain products that harm the environment (and/or whose production harms the environment).
However, beauty aficionados needn’t despair. Lush — the company that made its name on bath bombs — has an extensive packageless line that includes shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and more.
There’s also a burgeoning refillables movement in beauty:
- Kjaer Weis’ refillable system for its organic makeup uses ZAMAC (an acronym that stands for zinc, aluminum, magnesium, and copper alloy) to package refills in sleek packaging that maintains its high-end appeal. Because refills are 30% cheaper than buying a new compact, sales have steadily increased to comprise 25–30% of its business.
- By Humankind has three all-natural products: 1) a refillable deodorant that reduces single-use plastic output by 90%, 2) a mouthwash that was dehydrated into effervescent tablets (like Alka-Seltzer), and 3) and a shampoo bar.
- Multiple luxury brands, including Dior, Le Labo and Hermes, now have refillable perfumes. However, this isn’t a new idea in perfume — Thierry Mugler perfumes have been refillable from The Source (basically, like a soda fountain, but for perfume) since 2013.
Buying in bulk is also starting to gain momentum as a way to reduce personal care product packaging. Cleenland, a “low-waste, no shame” household and personal care products store in Cambridge, Massachusetts sells bulk soaps, shampoos, and detergents by the ounce alongside reusable or low-impact versions of typically single-use products like picnic cutlery, floss, and more. Instead of buying products in new packaging, customers simply bring their own containers.
EATING BETTER FOR THE PLANET
Food and non-alcoholic beverage companies are getting in on the reduced waste game too. In October, Coca-Cola unveiled the first-ever bottle made from recycled marine plastics. Its long-term goal is to make all its plastic bottles from 50% recycled plastics by 2030.
Procter & Gamble, Nestle, PepsiCo and Unilever are all starting to sell some of their products in returnable, cleanable, refillable glass, steel, and similar containers. This is all through a project called Loop, and it’s a partnership between these multinationals and TerraCycle. Here are just three of the packaging ideas that it’s yielded so far.
Haagen-Dazs in refillable metal cartons:
Source: Bustle
Tropicana orange juice in glass containers:
Source: Treehugger
And Pampers diapers in refillable containers:
Source: Treehugger
To use Loop, customers use a retail website to order goods. They’d also put up a fully refundable deposit for the reusable packaging (like Oregon’s $0.10 bottle deposit for the BottleDrop program). The items would be delivered to their doorsteps in reusable totes (essentially, a 21st century milkman with a greater selection of products), and once they’re used up, the empty containers would go back into the tote for collection by mail. They wouldn’t need to be cleaned, and customers wouldn’t be penalized for damage, such as dings, to the container — they’d only lose money if they fail to make a return.
More immediate innovations are happening now, too. Take nut milk as an example: Whole Foods has started rolling out in-store almond milk dispensers (basically, soda machines for almond milk) in some stores. By allowing customers to buy from the machine, this concept cuts down on milk packaging.
JOI, a nut base that you add to a blender with water to make almond or cashew milk, takes a different tack. By concentrating nut base down, it delivers up to 27 cups of plant milk per 15 oz tub or up to 60 quarts of plant milk per 8 lb tub.
While randomness is often the enemy in managerial discourse, it might be a powerful antidote to algorithmic bias in machine learning (ML) and AI. When data used to “train” ML models already has selection bias baked in, it raises the risk that the resulting algorithm will suffer from selection bias. Randomness solves this problem, and also produces a form of A-Z testing that can help prevent biases. 7 min read Read More
Will the rise of IoT and slowing of Moore’s Law contribute to climate change?
In recent years, the progress of Moore’s Law (which says chips will get smaller, faster, and cheaper by doubling the number of transistors per chip every couple of years) has slowed down. Simultaneously, the rise of IoT technologies is creating massive amounts of data that needs to be handled in datacenters. To prevent the convergence of these two trends from exacerbating climate change, computing will need to become more efficient. 11 min read Read More
10 lessons for Disney, Apple, and all the new streaming companies trying to take down Netflix
Matthew Ball (formerly head of strategy at Amazon Studios) and Alex Kruglov (formerly an early executive and head of content acquisition at Hulu) offer 10 tips for Disney+ (read our previous issue about it here), Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and the host of other competitors trying to topple Netflix. They urge an audience- and content-focused approach that blends high- and low-brow content, paired with a strong relationship with the creative community. 7 min read Read More
This Week in Business History
November 15, 1867: The stock ticker is introduced
The device, which was invented by Edward A. Calahan, is introduced in New York City. It provides a constant stream of business data, and becomes an icon of market activity. The reams of ticker tape that it produces become a key part of important parades down Broadway (the first ticker-tape parade was 52 years and four days later, on November 19, 1919, for the Prince of Wales).
Most recently, the U.S. women’s soccer team was honored with a ticker-tape parade after they won the World Cup. This was only the second time in history that a ticker-tape parade was held for female athletes — with hopefully many more in the near future!
