Unadulterated

Sustainability is not new to the American farmer; it’s new to the American consumer.

For decades, we’ve been concerned about products and packaging found to contain chemicals linked to chronic disease, including cancer and endocrine disruption. With efforts to increase the circularity of materials, these hazardous chemicals unintentionally could end up recycled into future products — even finding their way into "greener" options.

The climate crisis and its impact on extreme weather, future carbon regulation, and the threat of this worsening are driving companies to manage risks and ensure a future for their business by setting aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — but is it enough?   

With rising demand for plastic, little recycled content and poor recycling rates, companies need to look carefully at their packaging strategies to ensure improvement of packaging design, recycling systems, and consumer engagement in recycling.

Now is the time for setting goals with impact.  We learned that the incremental goals from the past led to limited progress.  Real transformational change is required to tackle issues such as climate change, water risk, and biodiversity loss, among others.  Companies need to have their next generation of sustainability goals be bigger and bolder. 

There is more demand than ever to advance safer chemicals programs at your company. One proven way to help get on the right course is through benchmarking to create a baseline that lets you compare your performance against other firms’ chemicals management practices.

Best practices companies are taking to get closer to the farm while advancing critical sustainability aims and gaining valuable business benefits.

There is a concerted and growing effort to improve our land’s soil health. The U.S. Department of Agriculture spurred this shift with financial incentives for farmers through the Conservation Stewardship Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program, among others, which require them to reduce soil loss on erosion-prone land and protect wetlands.

This month, Pure Strategies celebrates twenty years of sustainability consulting leadership. The company has helped build transformative strategies, improve products and packaging, and shift supply chains toward greater environmental and social performance for industry-leading companies including Walmart, Seventh Generation, Stonyfield Farms, Ben & Jerry’s, and over 100 other organizations.