The urge to simplify things seems to be inherent to human nature even though the world is full of complexities. This might explain why we usually think of about product, processes and actions as sustainable or unsustainable. Rarely do we take the time to analyze them more deeply to see their positive and negative aspects.
Rather than trying to figure out if something is 100% good or 100% bad, we should look more closely at the tradeoffs behind the decisions we make. This thought process is crucial to properly evaluating the “greenness” or sustainability of products, technologies, and processes. Human industry will always impact people and the environment, but it is the consumer’s job to make educated decisions about the products they buy and the companies they interact with.
Good companies generally strive to minimize negative impacts while enhancing positive impacts. However, this is rarely achieved across the board and tradeoffs are unavoidable in most instances. This is where we have to make sure that “perfect” is not the enemy of “good.”
Mr. José Jorge proudly showing the high quality the sisal fiber from his small farm in Brazil
For example, Merida made the decision more than 30 years to focus on natural fiber textiles. Our products are mostly made of sisal, jute, abaca, wool, and coir fibers. These are all rapidly renewable materials, and do not contribute to CO2 emission like many petroleum based materials. In fact, the plants actually help capture CO2 as they grow. Most of these plants, however, are cultivated in tropical regions of the world such as Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Transporting these products to the US contributes to CO2 emissions. Increasing the demand for vegetable fiber improves the economic and social condition of local communities in poor countries where they are grown. Our trade-off: avoid CO2 emission from long-distance shipping versus helping local community in poor countries becoming more sustainable? Knowing that we cannot achieve both at the same time, we made our choice…
Another tradeoff we’ve been wrestling with concerns our backing material. We’d love to have a product that can be fully returned to the earth as a biodegradable nutrient. Our natural latex backing has not yet reached this stage. We need some non-toxic chemicals to guarantee the good performance. They amount to about 5-8% of the composition of the backing and there are no substitute for those components. Should we sacrifice performance for a completely biodegradable backing, or sacrifice our “cradle to cradle” goal for a higher-quality product? Lower quality product means lower sales, less demand for vegetable fibers, less local development from producing communities…
These types of tradeoffs are difficult to measure but must be considered for an informed understanding of sustainability. We believe the positive benefits of our products outweigh some of the potentially negative impacts, but we are continually striving to do better and better.
I wrote in my last post about tools like GoodGuide that help consumers making decisions and consider trade-offs. Another resource I have found helpful is the Environmental Working Group, where you great tools for assessing the impact on your health and on the environment of foods, products, energy alternatives and chemicals.
I would like to learn about what kinds of tradeoffs do you make in your daily life? What is the most important driver for you when making sustainable decisions?
Tags: eco friendly, sustainable design
This is a fantastic post. You are absolutely right that every decision involves a tradeoff but you can create a path so that the tradeoffs become easier and easier to make.
Great Zairo! I hope the search engines find this!
i agree about the trade offs,it also seems like manufacturers will be pushed by green/LEED certifications to find a quality backing that is latex free and sustainable.
This reminds me of the “new car” dilemna you taught me about Zairo….is it better to keep driving the gas guzzler (in my case Tahoe) or buy a brand new Prius? While many might assume get a hybrid, the least impactful decision is to drive the car you have. As long as we continue to educate ourselves about the decisions we come to – the more confident and comfortable we can be about the tradeoffs we make.
This is such a great reminder that we do have to make choices regarding our environment. There is not always one right way to do things.I was very attracted to Merida because of the company’s choice to source rapidly renewable fibers from small global economies. Knowing that we are supporting the environment as well as humanity is important to me and is a large part of why I wanted to work for the company.
As far as the personal choices we make in our own home, we filter water through our refrigerator rather than buy bottled water. We have started growing our own vegetables in a community garden plot in the summer. We also grow some tomatoes and peppers in our “city” garden at home. This removes some of the decision making invovled in whether to buy local, conventionally grown produce, or organic, transported from the west coast. We try to support local farmers and meat producers and have enjoyed doing research into their businesses and what they have to offer. We patronize the local farmer’s market in the winter and the summer. When I couldn’t find a car that met my criteria last year, I bought a Honda partly because of their known environmental leadership. I am hopeful that the next time I need a new car, my ideal automobile will exist!