10 Green Innovations Inspiring ITG This Earth Day
Earth Day lands on April 22nd this year, and we at ITG thought a great way to celebrate was by sharing some of our team’s favorite and innovative companies that incorporate sustainability and creativity into their products. We asked ITG employees to give us their favorite products that they use, and that play a small part in mitigating our impact on the Earth. Check out these ten products and services that inspire us, ranging from bee-keeping kits to luxury clothing rental.
1. Misfits Market
Saving the planet means more than just using less water and electricity. Food waste is a major burden on our environment, but Misfits Market has a solution! Commemorated by ITG Facilitator, Greg Cobb, he says, “They sell produce that other grocery stores would reject. It’s a great way to combat food waste and help people think about the true value of their food.”
Nearly one third of all the food grown in the U.S. never reaches consumers because it doesn’t meet traditional superficial grocery retailer standards. With Misfits Market, shoppers can fight the food waste epidemic all while saving money buying what grocery stores won’t. To read more on their full story, visit their About Us page.
2. Too Good To Go
Too Good To Go is the newest food app for cheap food that would have otherwise ended up in the garbage! With Too Good To Go you can search stores, bakeries, and restaurants near you to source meals and ingredients all while fighting food waste! They work with local companies to sell excess foods at discount prices near the end of their opening hours.
Simply find a store near you, schedule a pick up time, and collect your goodies knowing you’re supporting local businesses and the planet! Not only are you helping save food from being wasted, but all listings are sold at a reduced price to help you save money.
3. Compost Wizard Dueling Tumbler
ITG Facilitator, Monica Grant, showing off her Compost Wizard
Another innovation we love is the Compost Wizard Dueling Tumbler; perfect for cooking and gardening lovers! This Tumbler takes compostable scraps and quickly grinds them into a nutrient rich mixture that you can reuse in your garden.
The Compost Wizard stands out because, as its name implies, it has dual ports to tumble two batches at once to allow for larger loads at one time. It even has a reservoir at the bottom of the device to catch any liquids that are unusable in the soil mixture for a healthy cocktail you can sprinkle over your plants.
4. Blueland Cleaning Products
Highly recommended by ITG President, Dina Pancoast, are Blueland Cleaning Products. They offer a wide range of household cleaning products like hand soaps, home cleaners, dish soaps, and laundry products.
Blueland works to cut back on single use plastics and have created their line to be completely reusable and refillable. Once you buy one bottle (or use your own) you only purchase tablets to drop into water solutions to create your own sustainable cleaning concoction. Dina’s favorites are the laundry products like the booster, detergent, wool dryer balls, as well as their foaming hand soap.
Facilitator Dina showing off her Blueland faves.
5. Tangie Laundry Concentrate
Tangie Laundry Concentrate is another sustainable cleaning product we love. Tangie uses all paper packaging to create dissolvable laundry detergent concentrate bars that smell great and leave your clothes smelling clean and feeling soft. One single bar can be mixed to make a gallon of detergent to wash up to 256 loads of laundry!
Tangie is a great choice to swap your traditional laundry detergents with as it is a cheaper solution and 100% vegan, phosphate free, biodegradable, and septic safe!
6. Seventh Generation Cleaning Products
Seventh Generation is another company that does sustainability right! They are a B-Corp that boasts their sustainability proudly with all recycled packaging and all plant-based cleaning products. Their name and branding comes from their mission to create products that think seven generations ahead. All of their products are very accessible and can be found in many major retailers like Target, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Amazon.
Seventh Generation has high standards for corporate responsibility and is taking part in many initiatives this Earth Day including their partnership with Build Back Fossil Free and Sunrise Movement. For more information on what they’re doing to help our planet and what you can do to contribute, check out their Earth Month Actions Page.
7. The Original Makeup Eraser
Calling all makeup lovers; you need The Original Makeup Eraser! This little piece of magic is a reusable cloth specifically designed to take all your makeup off with some water and a few swipes. ITG Principal + Facilitator, Beth Storz, specifically recommended this product saying,
“I love it because it prevents waste from throwing away cotton make-up removing pads, cotton swabs, or tissues. And, you don't need a make-up removal solution which often comes in plastic bottles.”
It can be machine washed, is fabric softener and dryer sheet safe and can be found on Amazon. It has two sides, each having a different function. The shorter fibered side is specifically for erasing makeup, and the long fibered side is for exfoliating your skin. Plus, they are planting one tree for every product sold during Earth Month!
8. SuperZero Shampoo + Conditioner Bars
Another set of beauty products that made the list are the SuperZero Bars. They sell conveniently sized shampoo and conditioner bars in plastic free packaging, and now offer a hand soap bar! Vegan, ZeroIn clean, and certifiably microplastic free; they are actively committed to reducing the carbon footprint in the beauty industry and are partnered with the 1% for the Planet organization.
Frequent traveler and ITG’s Accounting Manager, Catherine Delmonico, recommended these products and said they’re perfect for flights as they’re liquid free! SuperZero also offers a ton of different scents and specializations for different hair types. They even have a hair quiz to find out which of their products would be ideal for your hair needs.
9. Rent the Runway
Sustainability isn’t limited to household products! Rent the Runway’s borrowing service allows you to be fashionable and sustainable. Their service also keeps up with the times; sizes, budgets, and trends all change -- by renting you’re able to keep up with it all. And, perhaps the biggest bonus, is no price tags (unless of course you fall in love and want to buy the piece)!
RTR prioritizes keeping clothing out of landfills and changing the pollution of the fashion industry. They’ve offset all of their carbon emissions at the beginning of this year and plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. For more information of what actions they’re taking to keep our planet healthy, check out their Impact Page.
10. GloryBee Backyard Beehive Kits
Taking care of our planet also means taking care of all the creatures we share our space with. With the GloryBee Backyard Beehive Starter Kits you can build a mini bee sanctuary to neighbor your own home. This is one of our Project Manager, Rob Gonzalez’s, favorite sustainable innovations. As he says, “Bees serve a critical function in our biosphere so providing them a safe place to thrive free of rent is an easy trade-off. Plus: free honey!”
GloryBee’s kit offers an affordable way to help the planet all while providing a fun new activity to you and your family. With the kit, you’ll get all the materials you need to build your new colony along with an info guide on your buzzing friends and what they need to stay happy and healthy.
GloryBee also prides itself in their SAVE the BEE initiative, a partnership of businesses, beekeepers, researches, and consumers dedicated to protecting the bees. For more information on how you can contribute, check out their SAVE the BEE page.
Our planet’s health is an issue that grows more and more each year. Hopefully with some of these green innovations—and future innovations to come—every small action adds up to benefit the Earth.