Unadulterated

Five U.S. states have passed laws on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging and the first, in Oregon, is reaching critical milestones that companies need to prepare for by early 2025.

Leading scientists are calling for more action to address climate change and nature loss – a planet-forward strategy connects nature and climate for a solution that is set up to drive greater progress.

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.

Companies are increasing the diversity of foods used to not just deliver flavor and a unique sales angle, but to also support more resilient and sustainable production. 

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. 

Pioneering farmers and ranchers are finding that the strategic combination of regenerative farming practices deliver important benefits such as rebuilding soil, replenishing water, restoring biodiversity, revitalizing rural communities, and increasing profitability. 

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.

Tim Greiner, co-founder of Pure Strategies, helps companies like Walmart, The North Face, and Seventh Generation deepen their corporate responsibility efforts. “I’ve been privileged to make a meaningful difference." 

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

The Pure Strategies report - Connecting to the Farm - outlines best practices that companies across industries can leverage to help realize cost savings, reduced risk, and new growth opportunities while building more sustainable agricultural systems with their supply chain partners.

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.

We recently spoke with Pure Strategies’ Co-Founders, Tim Greiner, Managing Director and Bob Kerr, Principal, to reflect on the past two decades of their experience and explore what corporate efforts may be needed to drive toward a more sustainable future.

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.  

Consumer interest in sustainability is steadily climbing, with 78% of U.S. consumers saying that they feel better when they buy products that are sustainably produced. Is there an opportunity to bring sustainability into private brands to differentiate them and give them a needed sales boost?

Challenges to optimize the package’s end-of-life may persist that call for collaboration and new solutions with suppliers, competitors, and waste stream partners. TSC may be able to play a role in enabling these approaches and this was explored during the workshop.

Several billion dollars were earned in 2015 from the sustainability efforts of 153 survey respondents. Signaling a new way of defining the source of business value, these notable gains were uncovered in a new Pure Strategies’ study.