What’s New at The Body Shop?

As part of its Nature’s Way to Beautiful campaign, the first marketing effort since its purchase by L’Oreal, The Body Shop has launched its Wellbeing line of  beauty products in 100% PCR (post-consumer recyclate) bottles, and will feature in-store displays describing the environmentally friendly nature of their products.  According to a Body Shop spokesperson, the company intends over the next 12 months, to convert all of their PET bottles from 30% PCR to 100%, with significant gains in PCR expected even before the end of 2008.  In an effort to get customers to stop using plastic bags, they have also introduced the Bag of Life, a shopping bag made of organic cotton-canvas, with $2.00 from each purchase being donated to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  In the long term, The Body Shop intends to become carbon neutral by 2010.

The Body Shop

Bag of Life

Superior Dairy Brings Back the Flattop

(Image courtesy of the New York Times)

The common milk jug has been in the marketplace for quite a while, so it’s not surprising that its redesign would cause some reservations among consumers, but Canton, Ohio-based Superior Dairy and its offshoot Design Edge, felt the need to take the task on nonetheless.  Working in the company founded by his ancestors five generations ago, Greg Soehnlen redesigned the jug by extending the flat sides upward, flattening the top, and moving the pour spout to the corner opposite the handle.  These refinements have eliminated the need for plastic crates for storage and transportation, as the new jugs may be stacked on top of one another with shrinkwrapped cardboard bands (all to be recycled afterwards) in between, which has had the added benefits that water is no longer needed for cleaning crates, labor is reduced, and more milk may be delivered by each truck (4.5 gallons/cubic foot instead of 3) in a much shorter time frame.  In fact, Superior claims that they have cut overall water use by up to 70%, and due to the jug’s efficiency, can make less delivery trips to retail locations, and thus reduce fuel consumption.

In spite of some complaints that one has to learn a new way to pour from these jugs due to the different spout, Superior’s jug may be taking hold, having been sold at Sam’s Club in limited quantities for some time already, and poised for wider distribution at Wal-Mart and beyond - who knows, it might even show up at your local supermarket sooner than you think, considering the direct correlation it has with lower fuel consumption.  Examples like this make clear that as resources become more scarce and skyrocket in value, manufacturers and retailers will be forced to develop smarter solutions to packaging, and pass along the sustainable and cost benefits to their well-informed consumers.  As Sustainable Packaging Coalition director, Anne Johnson suggests, “What are the materials we are using? How are we using them? And where do they go ultimately?” will be some common questions that we will get used to asking in the years to come.

Sustainable Packaging Coalition

The Baja BBQ Firepack by mike and maaike

This product has nothing to hide, and what you witness in these photographs is what makes it such a bold work of genius. From San Francisco design duo mike and maaike, comes the Baja BBQ Firepack (patent pending), which offers a dramatically innovative and environmentally sensitive approach to outdoor grilling. Mike Simonian and Maaike Evers designed the Firepack for Design Annex/Lazzari, a San Francisco-based cooking fuel company in business since 1908, with the hopes of making an American pastime, a cleaner and more practical process. By housing 2 lbs of natural lump coal within a burnable structure made from 100% recycled biodegradable paper pulp, the product will burn when lit from the bottom, and virtually transform itself into working coals within 15 to 20 minutes. It obviates the need for starter chimneys or polluting and (and toxic) lighter fluids, to say nothing of the drudgery of cleaning up a messy fire pit or grill at the end of the night.

Just in time for those Dog Days, the Baja BBQ Firepack will surely be a practical addition to a summer party or picnic where grilling takes place. The Firepack is currently available at gourmet supermarkets. For more information on this product and the designers themselves, please visit mike and maaike.

(All photographs courtesy of mike and maaike)