Our Sustainability Journey as of 2023

At Earth, our sustainability journey began with the idea of providing quality products while minimizing the use of packaging. This mission is even inscribed in the full name of our store “Earth Zero Waste”. It’s an aspiration for us personally, for our customers, and for our community.

Our Store: We had to make so many thoughtful decisions to establish our retail space.

• We used existing commercial space – we like to think of it as our first successful reuse of packaging!

• We chose wood as the primary material for our displays

• LED lighting was initially more expensive, but uses so much less electricity, generates less waste heat, and lasts so much longer.

• Our logo sign (the centerpiece of the store) was made from scrap steel.

• Our accent wall was finished with 100% renewable wood and the scrap pieces were rescued to create the service counter.

Our Partners: We choose our suppliers with great care. The ideal partner shares our desire to help to create a better world, and a more resilient environment. They seek to minimize the packaging and transportation of their products. To that end, we are most interested in local suppliers who have undertaken their own sustainability journey. Most of all, we desire that they exhibit an ethical heart, demonstrated decision making that seeks to benefit all stakeholders.

Our Products: We seek out products for the kitchen, bath, and laundry and products for the body. We curate potential products along these general criteria:

• Preferred ingredients. We look for ingredients that can be considered natural, organic, local, vegan, and / or sustainable.

• Highest quality. We only select products that we would (and do) use ourselves.

• Minimal packaging. The ideal product is provided in bulk. If individually packaged, we look for the use of sustainable materials, the opportunity for reuse, and thoughtful design.

Duality Soaps are our most recent product addition. These high-quality soaps are plant-based and hand-made in small batches here in Rockford.

Other: We celebrated Earth Day 2023 with a composting workshop led by Allyson Rosemore at Owl’s Roost Farm. About a dozen customers participated and several are using our store to exchange food scrap containers.

What’s next? Well, to succeed, we need to continue to find new, appropriate products that appeal to our growing customer base, and to serve those customers. We think this is how we can maximize the sustainability of our community.  But we would also like to have an energy audit and we’re exploring switching to a more sustainable source of electricity.