Sustainability’s ‘holy grail’ is creating product loops – sustainable systems that cover initial development and manufacture, primary usage and ‘second life’ usage. Creating a loops brand positioning creates real cut through, as long as it’s credible, authentic, and verifiable.
Ecovative Design is facing one of those ‘good problems’. They’re winning innovation prizes, accolades and attention for Greensulate – their insulation product. There are many ways they can frame their story; after all, their intent is to commercialize a product that is both better and cheaper than synthetic alternatives, that requires little energy or expense to produce because it’s grown from organic material, and that resists temperature change, stops fires and repels water in accordance with American Society for Testing and Materials International standards.
“Our vision is to provide a sustainable alternative to synthetics, such as plastics and foams, which can be produced locally, around the world.”
Ecovative Design is positioning Greensulate as the ultimate loops product, built from waste, and ultimately biodegradable and reusable. Greensulate takes starches such as buckwheat hulls and cotton burrs and combines them with mushroom mycelium, perlite, damp, and darkness to literally grow a biologically-inert organic composite taking just seven to ten days. Greensulate uses five times less energy to produce, and generates ten times lower CO2 emissions.
Ecovative Design is effectively managing their brand positioning by making sure there’s no distance between what they claim and what they do. Ecovative’s rigorous testing and accreditation process is designed to ensure that Greensulate delivers. A brand positioning is a promise made, the product is the promise kept.
Case Study
Turning the human energy spent while exercising into electrical energy to power the Green Microgym in Portland, Or.
NextPlays blog
We're stoked that Biolite won SB10's Sustainable Innovation award, announced on the last day of the conference. Jonathan Cedar, co-inventor and the nascent company's CEO delivered a great presentation that made clear the significant impact that could be achieved if Biolite (and stoves like it) replace traditional wood-fired stoves in the developing world. The Biolite stove reinvents stoves used for home cooking in Asia, Africa and Latin America by making the burning process more efficient. The greater efficiency the less fuel is used and less smoke is generated. Less smoke, the less harm to the health of the cooks. Biolite has an additional feature; they've developed a process that converts a small part of the thermal energy into electricity. This means that users can recharge electrical devices while cooking, and that's got to be good for developing world users facing regular megacity brown outs, or for those who are off the grid completely.
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