Our favorite Sustainable Companies

Bea Johnson lives waste-free with her family since 2008 and is the author of the bestseller Zero Waste Home (Zéro Déchet en francais) “Since embarking on the Zero Waste lifestyle, our lives have changed for the better: We feel happier and lead more meaningful lives, based on experiences instead of stuff. My goal is to share its incredible health, financial and time saving benefits!”

I never anticipated that actively choosing not to produce waste would turn into my having a higher quality of life. I thought it would just mean not taking out the trash. But what was at first a lifestyle decision became a blog, Trash is for Tossers, which became a catalyst for chatting with interesting, like-minded people, and making friends.
Now it’s blossomed into my quitting my great post-grad job as Sustainability Manager for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection to start my own zero-waste company, The Simply Co., where I hand-make and sell the products that I learned to produce over the past two years.”

Here, as around the world, human activity has reached a scale where it is interfering with such fundamental global phenomena as the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and the hydrologic cycle. Often we have no clear sense of all the consequences of our actions, but we have a mounting awareness that many of these consequences will be dire.
As a result, humankind is searching for political and economic examples that successfully reconcile our obligation to sustain healthy natural systems with our understandable desire for health, convenience, creativity, and prosperity.

We are in the earliest stages of learning how what we do for a living both threatens nature and fails to meet our deepest human needs. The impoverishment of our world and the devaluing of the priceless undermine our physical and economic well-being.

We believe that authenticity requires transparency. so we are transparent about what we’re doing and thinking—from the ingredients in our products to the processes used to make them.

The TWIKE is a combined electric and pedal powered vehicle which you can buy today. The first TWIKEs were rolled out 18 years ago. Today there are over 1.000 TWIKEs on the road, which have together amassed over 60,000,000 km of experience. The TWIKE has been kept up to date and is now fitted with lithium batteries, making it the ideal mode of transport for your daily travels. The TWIKE is efficient, environmentally friendly, attractive and sportive.

Every GoSun sold subsidizes the sale of a GoSun to the people who can benefit the most in the developing world. The GoSun solar cooking technology leapfrogs solid fuels completely, providing a safe, fast and affordable alternative to the status quo. A compliment to all existing cooking technology, the GoSun For All (currently under development) has the potential to save a profound amount of time and money for families around the world.

At IKEA we have loads of money-saving products and solutions to help you save energy and water, and reduce waste. They may seem like small things – but that’s the beauty of small actions: they all add up! Download the 2013 IKEA Sustainability Report PDF http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/sustainability_report/sustainability_report_2013.pdf

We work with leading architects to create lines of homes that feature modern form and functionality and an unprecedented level of healthy/sustainability materials and energy systems.

Sustainability means fairness towards future generations. Everything we do should be made in a way that all of us can face our children with clear conscience.

In 2004, Steve attended a green building conference which dramatically shaped his corporate lifestyle and vision for the company. He learned about the USGBC LEED rating system and encountered thousands of architects, engineers, manufacturers, contractors, and building owners intent on changing the building industry for the purpose of sustainability … and in effect changing the world!

For over 30 years Rocky Mountain Institute has tackled the biggest energy challenges facing our world. Today, more than ever, a clean, prosperous, and secure energy future rests on accelerating the transition to a world powered by distributed, efficient, renewable energy. To achieve this ambitious goal, we are growing our staff, our worldwide partnerships, and our workspace by building the RMI Innovation Center.

THE FUTURE PEOPLE are active explorers – asking “what if” or “why not” questions related to our value systems surrounding housing and transportation. These questions lead to experimental design possibilities. By building, testing, and demonstrating these possibilities THE FUTURE PEOPLE hope to promote alternative design solutions that lead to better ways of living.

One of the world’s first living buildings is taking root on Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden’s historic Oakland campus in Pittsburgh, PA. The Center for Sustainable Landscapes, slated to open in spring 2012, will produce all its own energy, and capture and treat all water on site, literally having as much impact on the environment as a flower. Learn more about this revolutionary project in “The Evolving Green Story of Phipps: A Living Building Takes Shape” and at www.PhippsCSL.org.